new beginnings

Warning: You are about to read about my favorite day, EVER

I felt like I should write about our wedding day, since it was after all the best day i've had in the past ninteen and a half years :)

I'll start at about 5:00pm on March 10th, the night before our wedding. Lance and I had been packing for our honeymoon that day and scrambling to get last minute details for the wedding done. I remember how butterfly-ey I had felt the whole day, knowing I was being sealed in the temple to my best friend in the morning. This is what I had wanted my W H O L E life...and it was all happening in just a few hours. Lance and I got ready for our wedding dinner, which his parents put on. It was beautiful, our whole wedding party came (family, bridesmaids, groomsmen). We had Goodwood catering for dinner and delicious cheesecake for dessert. After dinner came the toasts. My father started, he talked about how much he loved me and shared some silly stories about me as a kid. My mother spoke next, she talked about how much she loved me as well and how excited she was for me to be married. Lance's mom spoke next, her toast was written in a story, and expressed how much she loved lance. Lance's father spoke about his excitement for the wedding, and then our friends followed. It turned out to be a really lovely evening, not that either of us could focus much.
     Lance drove me home, we talked on my porch for awhile, thinking about how this will be the l a s t night he drops me off at my house. It was the strangest feeling....standing there, hugging him that chilly March night, knowing tomorrow he'd be my husband and we'd be driving off together for the night, and for the rest of our lives. I remember getting ready for bed, brushing my teeth, my hair, washing my face and putting on my ugliest pajamas (the comfiest ones too of course, I figured I would never let Lance see these jamies), and just thinking over and over "this is it. This is the last time i'll do this by myself".  I then got in bed and just starred at my room. This was the l a s t night I'd sleep here. I remember taking in the purple walls...the pictures of heath ledger, paul mccartney and michael phelps. I remember wondering "should I be enjoying this bed I'm in by myself? Is Lance a bed hog? Does he snore? Am I ready to do this? I'm just a kid. I still like nintendo and eating grilled cheese sandwiches". But even with the whirlwind of thoughts going through my head, I had to remember: I was r e a d y. I knew Lance was the boy I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. Afterall, he likes grilled cheese and nintendo too :)


March 11, 2011
5:00 AM
This. Is. It.
I'm waking up on my wedding day. No big deal.
Showered (for a long time, I don't know what it is but I think I must shower for a longer period of time on big special days...my wedding day was no exception).
With no make up on I headed down to the Sage Creek Salon to get my hair done for my wedding. I was in the best mood, I made a promise to myself that nothing would ruin this day. I remember my hair dresser Wendy telling me that I was one of the few brides she has seen so calm. "You seem so chill. Like super happy" and I was. I was absolutely happy :)


7:30 am
Anything Goes.
I am now quite literally throwing on make up. My sister and mom decided that sharing the same bathroom to get ready would be fun. Super stressed, my fiance' was on his way to pick me up for the temple in a half hour and I looked like a shmuck. After putting makeup, eye lashes, and a dress on- I realized I had no high heels at my house. So, I wore my new UGGS to the temple on my way to get married, I am full of class.


8:00 am
Someday my prince will come, and he did. So I suppose this is the "someday" you speak about.
Wow. There my Lance was in his tux, at my door. It should have probably been a more magical moment, but I was busy running around the house grabbing extra bobby pins and my cell phone. We then got into our carriage (95' Honda civic) and drove to the temple. "Umm what kinda of music do you play when you are heading off to get married?" this was perplexing, we settled for John Mayer. Lance was all smiles. I remember we just kept saying "This is it! We're gonna be married!". I felt like telling everyone who drove by that Lance and I we're getting married, I felt extra important that day. Butterflies is probably the only word I can think of to describe this car ride.


9:10 am
We. Are. Here.
Found a parking spot in the super romantic (dun dun chhh) parking garage across from the SLC temple. I remember just feeling like I was in a dream. Was this HAPPENING!? We were walking to the temple to be married. I was going to be a wife in an hour and 10 minutes. Lance and I held hands and walked across the street, and into the lobby of the Salt Lake Temple. Everything was quiet. This felt surreal. We met up with his parents, and mine were on their way with my dress. After checking in Lance and I were taken to a room to sign our marriage certificate. We were then escorted to different rooms to change, Lance gave me a hug and whispered "I'll see you in the celestial room". A rush of emotion went through me as I was walking with my mother to change into my temple clothes in the most beautiful room i've ever, ever been in. It was so calm, so peaceful, and so white.


10:20
-Eternity-
I met with my sweetheart in the celestial room. Beautiful. Awestruck. Amazing. We held each other and waited for our sealer for 30 or so minutes. This was my favorite part. We met our sealer, and then were escorted to the sealing room and we're sealed in front of our family members for time and all eternity. I will never forget looking across the alter into the sweet blue familiar eyes of my Lance, and feeling overwhelmed with joy. I'll never forget the feelings from those 10 or so minutes, they will be with me forever. If I thought I loved Lance then, I loved more then I e v e r had that moment.


11:40 ish
Hello Friends, We're the Earnshaw's

After my mother helped me get into my wedding dress in the bridal room of the temple, my new HUSBAND and I were joined together and we walked out of the temple to our family and friends cheering. I love the pictures from this moment, they show how happy we are. It was so sunny outside, we we're surrounded by family and friends outside of the temple, and we're just married for time and all eternity- does life get better!? We then took a bajillion pictures, poor Lance was starving the whole time and kept saying "Can we just go to crown burger?!" Nonetheless, our photographer Crystal Smith took some beautiful pictures, and we got a great video to go along with. We we're King and Queen for the day, no one was taking this from us. I once again felt the urge to tell everyone we we're just married. We we're on top of the world. Best feeling I've ever had (yes, this feeling last about a week).

1:00
Starving, no more pictures please.
Husband and wife leave, and go to Wendy's.
If you know us, this is so cliche'. But we were s t a r v i n g...and we had to get home fast to pack and get ready for the reception and nap.
PS, if it weren't for Lance I'd probably have told the drive thru operartor and Wendy's we had just got married, I seriously felt like he should know!


5:00
Celebration.


After a short nap Lance and I headed over the the Springville Museum of Art for our reception. I started to get a little big grumpy at this point, trying to fix my hair and put my eye lashes back on and get back into my dress- all the nit picky stuff. But when I saw how s t u n n i n g the museum looked, and all for Lance and I, the attitude melted away. It was so lovely, the museum was alive with purple and charcoal colored satin, pictures of Lance and I, beautiful food and GORGEOUS purple and blue hydrangeas. I am still so in love with my flowers, they were so beautiful. We only got to look around for a minute or two before we were rushed outside to take more pictures. Our reception started at 6:30, and at 6:32 Lance and I were being rushed back into the museum because there was a line that was heading out the door. We were shocked how many people were there to see us! We had a receiving line at the reception for the first hour. Lance and I really wanted to be able to take in our reception, and not stand in line the whole time. It was great to see our family and our friends all there in support of us, what an overwhelming feeling. We truly felt like the luckiest 
couple alive.


7:30
Cake, Garter, Bouquet


Well, this wasn't awkward at all. And that goes for all three categories. First we cut the cake. Here we are, around a 3 tier cake, holding a dull knife, being photographed and filmed around our family and friends- and both knowing nothing about cake cutting. I remember feeling like maybe we should be more exciting? I mean all we were doing was holding a knife to a giant pastry. Lance and I had talked pretty much the weekend we got engaged about how shoving cake in each others faces was NOT on the agenda at our reception. I even had a mean (but rather funny) threat that if Lance did put cake in my face I'd bring a timer to the hotel. Nonetheless, Lance raised his hand with cake in it and we had a little arm wrestle. I would have been so mad! Lance knew what was good for him though ;)
After the cake business someone got a chair for me to sit down in, all Lance's friends stood around, and soon enough Lance was face first up my skirt pulling off my garter with his teeth. A w k w a r d! I was blushing so bad, Lance was smiling |------------------|this big. It was so embarrassing but I had to take one for the team, there was no way Lance was letting me get out of that one!
After the garter came the bouquet toss. Sigh, now I've never been good at any kind of sports, bouquet tossing was no exception. I tossed my bouquet a good 10 feet away from my bridesmaids. Hey, at least I didn't hurt anyone :)

8:00
Photo booth
Our favorite thing at our reception was our photo booth. Our guests had so much fun taking silly pictures and pasting them in our album. It was so cute to see everyone getting excited and really joining in on the fun. Lance suggested we had a photo booth at our reception since he proposed to me in a photo booth last October. We definitely had our share of pictures in the booth and it was worth every penny. 

9:00
...and they lived happily ever after
Lance and I had so much fun at our reception talking to guests, taking pictures, and partying that we didn't even realized it was time to go. Our reception was just the way we wanted it to be, a celebration. We opened the double doors of the museum to go to our car and our family and friends were lined up blowing bubbles and cheering. It was an amazing moment, the perfect ending (almost ending) to our incredible day. We drove off feeling like a million bucks. The car was covered in paint, Oreo's, and chocolate sauce (thanks pals) so we had to go to a car wash before heading up to Salt Lake to our hotel room at The Little America. We didn't mind too much though, we were just happy to be together finally, as husband and wife <3

So there you have it, the beginning of our forever. I'm so glad we we're worthy to be married in the temple, it was everything we'd hoped it would be. Our lives have been blessed so much since that day, and it just keeps getting better. 
Love, T.

Lance and Taylor Earnshaw 

Married in the Salt Lake City Temple

March 11, 2011