My (Sister's) Big Fat LDS Wedding

Okay, so the parallels between My Big Fat Greek Wedding and this experience pretty much end with a big, loud, family that likes to eat food but the title sounded catchy.

One day in October as I left volleyball practice I saw that I had missed a call from my sister. I called her back and she was with her then-boyfriend and they said, "Guess what? We're engaged!" I screamed and got super excited and started cheering in the car. Let me explain: I was happy for them, I promise! But when she said we're engaged, the words I heard were you get to plan my wedding. Which, if I'm going to be honest was probably about on par with my excitement about the actual marriage.

As they were deciding a venue, they went back and forth between absurdly expensive reception centers or doing in--please hide disgusted faces--a church cultural hall. I have to admit, I urged for the church. I know, church gyms are not exactly known for creating a romantic reception atmosphere, but just trust me on this one. 

Anyone who knows me and has watched me in my "project mode" knows that I'm not exactly forthcoming with details. I see things a certain way in my head but I don't want to tell anyone else what's going on in there in case whatever I do doesn't resemble it. Half the time I end up changing it as I go anyway and it ends up different than even I envisioned. It drives my mom nuts when she asks "well, what are you going to do?" and I just say "you'll just have to see it when it's done." 

Anyway, one thing that absolutely could not be that way was my idea to drape the ceiling of the cultural hall. That was one project I was not going to be able to figure out on my own. So I told my dad and he knew what I had in mind so our first significant purchase was buying 400 feet of tobacco cloth which is made to cover plants and comes in 12 foot wide rolls. 

Other things came along nicely and there were more than a few times that I texted my dad to go pick up random things around Salt Lake from people on KSL Classifieds, including (but not limited to): an Amish fireplace, a 25 foot fake greenery garland, and 15 old windows.

If I do say so myself, it turned out quite spectacular and looked truly magical. Now come...PICTURES!! (I know that's why you're reading this anyway.)

BEFORE:

AFTER:

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CEILING BEFORE:

 CEILING AFTER, LIGHTS ON

AFTER:

AFTER, TABLE CANDLES

AFTER, STAGE:

psst...see my frosted old windows???

Here are some pictures of different elements that I also took on for the wedding:

THE CAKE

Confession: the top two layers are Styrofoam, the bottom is chocolate cake.

Some old outdoor porch lights turned into lanterns: 

The bridal bouquet. My dad drilled tiny little holes into the bottom of the pine cones so that I could stick them on a wire to make them work in the bouquet. The berries are fake but everything else is real, we picked the pine cones up off the ground and the roses and greenery came from Costco.

I tend to take over a space when working on a project...

Bouquet seen in action here with Krista and her three best friends.

PC: Cheryl Johnson

Table centerpieces which were--gratefully--set up by my wonderful Aunt Karen, Uncle Earle, and cousin Brittany.

Is it tacky to reuse wedding decorations? Because if it is I committed a double offense. The wood on the tables was used before and I made this back drop over the summer for when my brother Chad and sister-in-law Jennie got married. 

For this, I switched out the little brown dots with pine cones to fit the theme better and added some clear ornaments that had little candles in them.

My other sister Kara set up the entry which I didn't get a great picture of but it looked really great. These big pictures were printed by my parent's neighbor who has a large printer and she printed them and put them on some core board and got them all trimmed and looking nice just as a favor so that was super nice of her.

I think it's a wonderful thing for people to be able to write a little note so and to know who came but I think guest books are a tad bit silly. I really don't think many people sit down and go back through those very often. I suggested to Krista the idea of doing a "guest quilt" so I ended up making quilt blocks that people wrote on with fabric markers. 

As far as food goes, my mom made something like 400 dozen mini cookies and cupcakes. Krista and Trevor have a lot of friends, but not that many. Needless to say, we had plenty...

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I absolutely never could have pulled it off without my favorites putting in some serious overtime. My dad put in some serious hours figuring out how to make everything work and my brothers did some sorcery with that airplane cable to drape the ceilings. 

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But really...they're the best.

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And just one more time because it was so beautiful...

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One thing I do have to mention is that if I knew every bride was going to be like Krista, I'd quit school and start working as a wedding designer. She was probably the least picky person in the whole world about all of this which made things really fabulous for me.

After all was said and done, it was an absolute blast doing a large-scale creative project like this. It was so fun for me to be able to see things in my head that turned out so beautifully in real life. But in the end, it was all pretty and glowing for a grand total of maybe three hours. As soon as it was over family and friends pulled it all down in less time than it took to set up the tables. 

But it doesn't make a difference because no matter how beautiful the reception or how sparkly the lights, nothing can possible surpass the beauty of a couple making covenants in the temple that will last forever. 

PC: Cheryl Johnson

PC: Cheryl Johnson

Congratulations Krista & Trevor!!

PC: Cheryl Johnson