James' Wedding

My little brother, James, got married this past weekend. He married a beautiful girl named RaTray. We spent most of the weekend in the car since the wedding was in Colorado Springs, but what time we did spend with family in Colorado was lovely. We mistakenly thought it was only a 12 hour drive to Colorado Springs, but it is 18 each way. We found out about 10 days before, but we didn't have enough time to change our plans (such as buy a plane ticket or take more time off work or school), so we were stuck with our fate. That is what we get for not planning more carefully.

We left Friday around 10:30am, drove 12+ hours arriving at a hotel around midnight. We slept til 6am (which was 5am Colorado time), showered, ate breakfast and were back on the road bright and early, arriving in Colorado Springs a little after 11am their time. My parents paid for a wonderful lunch for everyone at Golden Corral. We spent a couple of hours balling melons and cutting fruit for the reception as well as and socializing. Then we headed back to James' house to get dressed for the wedding. The wedding started at 5:30pm.

Below, we are getting everyone's corsages on before the wedding:

James and my mom

What a cute little ring bearer!

The rings

Eric and I

The room before the wedding started

The backdrop

This beautiful backdrop was built by my dad and some of his hired help for my wedding.  He told me that I could design any backdrop that I wanted and he would build it.  One day early in the summer before my wedding, my mom and I were at the Logan Temple and looked at the windows.  They were beautifully shaped and I decided that was how I wanted my backdrop to look.  I drew it on a piece of paper and showed my dad.  He liked it but had no idea how to make an arched backdrop like that.  As it turned out, he had to use many thin pieces of mahogany, bend them into a curve and glue them all together to make the arches.  It was quite the project, but it turned out beautiful!  He had built a backdrop for my older sister, and I think he was planning to make a backdrop for each of my siblings, but after seeing mine, they all just wanted to use that one for their weddings.  Since James is the last to marry, my dad said it was mine and wanted me to take it home with me.  I, of course, didn't have any way to haul or store it at the moment, but I am going to give it some thought because I would love to have it for my kids weddings.

This is the Logan Temple: See the closest window on the bottom and look at the pattern.

Their colors were purple and silver

Guest book

For the guestbook, people just signed and wrote notes in a book that they had made of pictures of them.  It was a neat book and much more personal than an official guest book.

Our girls with cousin, Kadie

My parents just before the wedding

The next two pictures are Tessa and Kadie.  They are the same age and have become such good friends.  Unfortunately they are blurry because I just couldn't get the light right.  Flash was too bright, no flash was too blurry.

James and the man who married them waiting for the rest of the wedding party

Jarem was the first down the aisle

Next was best man: Joel, my brother

Bride and groom

It was kind of funny when the stake president who married them asked them to take each other by the right hand, and neither one could figure out which was their right hand. :)

Ceremony

Jarem providing the rings

Eric talking to my dad after the wedding about the ceremony

More of the bride and groom:

All of my family that was present: we were missing two of my sisters who went to the Burley open house

Bride and groom with my siblings and I

Brothers

Nieces and nephews

This is (L to R) Jaycee, Brenda, and Matt

Brenda Larson used to be our regular babysitter when we were little.  She babysat all the time.  We called her "Larson" since my sister's name is also Brenda.  We loved her.  She was so much fun and pretty much became part of our family.  These are two or her kids with her.  She actually lives in Colorado Springs and was there for the wedding.  We haven't seen her in years, so that was a lot of fun.

Before the reception was even over, we changed and headed out for a long drive home.  We again were able to stay in a hotel but didn't arrive until 2:30am and slept til around 8:30am.  We didn't arrive home until 11pm Sunday night!  What a trip!  That said though, it was well worth it to spend quality time with my family and be there for this momentous occasion for James.