JSQUARED

Yayyyy reception post! LOTS OF PHOTOS (and a couple of gifs) prepare yourself.

I was in wisconsin during all of our wedding planning and couldn't have done it all without Emmily of Charming Details. Click that for her info, she's wonderful, seriously. If I could have been in 2 places at once on my wedding day I would have, but since thats not possible I had Emmily and it was pretty much the greatest thing ever. We talked for months about decorating the reception hall, the food, the flowers, the DJ- this woman does it all. And she appreciated the wedding binder: obviously someone who was that organized about weddings was a necessity for me.

I decided she was the planner for me when I saw her website (linked above) and saw her favorite flowers listed and that she listened to fleet foxes and beirut. A woman of my own heart: I knew our tastes would be similar.

I walked into our venue and was SO happy. It was hard for me to think of not being there to help decorate myself, but she made it perfect. Its like she saw inside my brain or something.

Chase and I fell in love with the Salt Lake Hardware Building long before, and knew it would match our colors and feel perfectly.

^^ My mom made the schedule for the night and those adorable little cards for the guests to fill out.

She is awesome, because they turned out perfectly. ^^

^^ She also made our guestbook, which is a map with hearts marking where we met, where we got engaged and where we got married. The bomb.

Also, if you're good with details you will notice the ampersand is the one we are making in the picture its leaning against ;) ^^

We started out with a ring ceremony, since many of our loved ones are not able to go into the temple, and it was a time we could exchange rings and vows. Having my dad officiate that was a wonderful touch for us (and P.S. writing vows was a lot harder than I thought it would be..) I think this was actaully the most nervous we were all day

Apparently our food from the brown brothers was delicious, but we wouldn't know because we stuffed ourselves with chick-fil-a right before the reception. Honestly, you're too busy to think about eating anyways.

Its our number one regret though- if we could go back, we would totally eat the food. I even picked out pulled pork sandwiches as one of the options because it's one of chases favorite foods, and cotton candy is one of mine (so we had a cotton candy machine of course) and yet- we didn't eat. Still shaking my head...such a shame.

The huge chalk wall Polaroid Photo Booth was one of my favorite parts. I just wish we had taken more pictures ;) But it doubled as a take home gift for guests, and another copy was left for us: to have pictures of those that came to celebrate with us. I will treasure them always.

^^ I really just adore this picture of Sarah and Shaun ^^

And our Dad's gave toasts, so of course I shed some tears.

But to be fair: both Jaki and my mom cried too. So I had some company.

The following pictures are by far some of my favorite wedding pictures of all. They make me laugh every time, and chase is such a good sport..

Obviously I felt no guilt. Obviously I am already a terrible wife. But it was fun, still no guilt. It's a good thing chase kinda likes me.

Also, delicious cake made by Tess of Le Loup. I am not a wedding cake fan so I was worried, and it was so not typical wedding cake. This cake was freakishly delicious. I wish I had some right now.

^^ Look at those Plano, TX girls front and center! The fact that the girls (who I had young women sleepovers with) were able to make it to our reception was so great.

I will love them forever for it. ^^

Chris caught it...again. He caught the garter at the last wedding we went to together...anddddd he got married August first of this year. It worked I guess! (and we love ashley, wish she could have been there too! Finals destroy fun though.)

Chase and his mom danced to "What a wonderful world" by Louis Armstrong

I used to get dressed up when I was little, and dance around on my Dad's feet to "Butterfly Kisses" by Bob Carlisle. So of course that's the song I picked for our first dance...and I cried. Come on, what do you even expect at this point.

The DJ even called me out and said he would play something more upbeat for me to stop crying...come on man....

Our first dance was "Come away with me" by Norah Jones...and then it got crazy.

Justttt kidding, because chase doesn't like dancing in front of people..so we got a little tiny bit crazy.

Then we had a crazy rushed exit, and it was still wonderful. And Emmily even packed wedding food for us (including the anniversary cake which we may or may not have eaten for breakfast the next morning on our honeymoon. And it may or may not have been an amazing decision. whoops)

It was an amazing day, the reception was the fastest thing ever for us (probably happens to everyone, so prepare yourself) and I am so grateful for the love we shared with our family and friends.

At the end of April, 3, 2014 I was exhausted, emotional and married to my best friend.