Our Memories in Marriage

How did the time fly so quickly? John's year long deployment ended when he came home July 31st. His parents and I were there to welcome him home and that evening John got to step into our new home for the first time. We moved into a duplex near base and have been enjoying getting to live together for the first time. The adjusting is going well and we are looking forward to his block leave!

For our wedding gift, John's aunt Laurie let us use her timeshare and we spent our honeymoon in Reno! We left from the Seattle area on July 3rd and traveled to Medford, Oregon.


The weather was nice and the roads weren't too congested. We stayed the night in Medford and left early the next morning.


I brought our cake topper with us on the trip to take pictures of. This was at a rest stop just after we got into California.


The timeshare was at The Plaza Resort Club, and this was our beautiful room!


John took this photo of the view from our window.


We walked around Reno and enjoyed visiting shops and seeing the different places in town.


On July 06th, we went to the National Automobile Museum.


On the 07th we went to Virginia City! This was our favorite part of the trip.


We saw a show put on by three guys, it was really funny!


We also went to a museum that was about Mark Twain and the newspaper he worked at when he lived in Virginia City. That is his writing desk he used.


The next day we visited Tahoe, is was a long drive but beautiful!


John got a tattoo while we were in Reno, it's a pair of Airborne wings.


The last night we were in Reno we went to a fantastic Thai restaurant. The food was delicious!


On July 11th, we checked out of the hotel and traveled back to Idaho. It was supposed to take twelve hours of driving time, but even with plenty of stops for food and to stretch our legs, we still made it in twelve hours...John was speeding a lot!

The wedding reception followed immediately after the ceremony a few yards away under a 40'x40' tent. The catering was all done by the UofI, including our beautiful cake. Unless otherwise mentioned, all the photos were taken by the professional photographer.


My mother and I spent a whole year visiting antique stores looking for tea-related items for the centerpieces (such as teapots, teacups, cream and sugar bowls, and serving trays). In the weeks leading up to the wedding, I created arrangements with all the items and my friends put everything together on the day of.


Photo taken by my aunt Sue. The wedding cake was three tiers, the bottom and top layers were white cake with strawberry filling and the middle layer was yellow with chocolate truffle mousse. The baker went a little bit overboard with the decorations to go with my gnome cake topper, but it turned out wonderfully!


My brother gave John a toast in place of John's best man. It was such a sweet gesture and I am so grateful he agreed to toast! John's dad, my mother, and John also gave toasts, it was our favorite part of the reception!


Our first dance was to "Fly" by Sara Groves. You can see John's bullet cufflinks in this photo!


My father and me. We had a parent-child dance to "You Raise Me Up" sung by Celtic Woman.


John and his mother.


John's parents' friends were willing to let us use their 1969 corvette as our "getaway car". We only drove to my house where we swapped out for a different one to drive to Spokane.


All in all, it was the best day of my life thus far and each time I look at these photos and think of all the memories I get so excited for our future together.

The wedding was June 13th on the University of Idaho's Administration Lawn in the Presidential Grove (named so for the presidents, such as Teddy Roosevelt, who planted trees there). Today I thought I would share some of the highlights of the wedding ceremony. Unless otherwise mentioned, the photos were taken by the professional photographer.


The ceremony began at 2:00 when the bells chimed. My maids held parasols instead of bouquets and used them to "conceal" my entrance..


John's hometown pastor traveled all the way to perform the wedding ceremony for us.


My brother (also the groomsman) sang "Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World" in the style of Israel Kamakawiwo'ole. It was beautiful.


Photo taken by my aunt Sue. My bridesmaids were John's younger sister Hannah, my cousin Becky, and my sister Kimberly.


My sister's husband Caleb played the guitar for the ceremony. Only a few days before the wedding he cut part of his thumb off!


Instead of a unity candle or sand ceremony, we used honey to represent our commitment.
"Honey is a symbol of the sweetness in life. And so, with this jar of honey, we proclaim this day as a day of great joy and celebration. A sweet day to remember.
As together you now share this honey, so may you now share perfect love and devotion to each other, share your lives together, and thereby may you find life's joys doubly gladdened, its bitterness sweetened, and all things hallowed by time, companionship and love."


"You may kiss"!


Photo taken by my cousin Amy. Unfortunately, John's best man wasn't able to make it to the wedding. He is also in the army and circumstances arose and he couldn't come. We missed him!