Eli and Julie's Wedding

My youngest brother, Eli got married last Friday. He found himself a wonderful girl and they make such a great couple. We haven't had a wedding in our immediate family for a long time now so it was really fun to do all the great wedding stuff again – sharing memories and “roasting” the soon-to-be-married sibling at a big family dinner the night before, sharing gentler and often tearful fond memories at the wedding breakfast, watching the fresh hopeful beautiful faces smile at each other across the altar in the temple, waiting with a crowd of people for the newlyweds to emerge with joy from the temple, doing pictures and trying to get tons of little kids to look in the right general direction and keep their shirts tucked in and dresses down, dancing and eating and chatting with family and friends at the reception.

I love the mixture of the expected stuff that always happens at our family weddings and the wonderful individualized flair that each couple brings to the standard events. I loved seeing how Eli and Julie brought so much of their unique and beautiful styles into the whole thing. The invitations were really different and cool. Julie's lovely dress and Eli's cool brown tuxedo were so perfect for them. Eli mad e mix of awesome classy music for the dancing at the reception and it was perfect. The food had and Asian flair (with a nod to Eli's mission in Japan and the Eastern flair of my parents' new house where the reception was held). The flowers that our wonderful cousins put together were abundant and truly gorgeous in all the vibrant colors Julie picked – deep pinks, oranges and yellows. We all obediently did our best to find these colors in clothing and it wasn't all that easy. In the end, the photographer had a flat tire and we only had a couple minutes for pictures in all our carefully sought-after wedding outfits as all the guests were already arriving – so I hope they ended up with some decent family pictures after all that. They did get some amazing couple pictures, I know, because I saw the photographer's blog and the photos are really really good so that's what matters most. At the farewell dinner and wedding breakfast, I loved learning so many new things about Julie and remembering so many fun things about little Ig Pig WigWam Eli with his fastidious dressing habits, big old 80's glasses, long-lasting gap-toothed grin, temper tantrums on the tennis and basketball courts, and fierce loyalty to all that is true and just and right.

The reception was up at my parents new house in Summit Park. It was great to see that house in full swing after all the work Mom and Dad have done and all the crazy setbacks that have been involved (and all the consultations I gave mom on fixing the floor plan and picking paint colors and tile, etc.). Many of mom and dad's friends were able to see the house for the first time and it was fun to hear them pointing out great features to each other and remarking on what a great and unique house it is. The music mix Eli put together for dancing at the reception was totally fun and classy and we all had a wonderful time dancing. Isaac hardly left the dance floor all night and looked like he'd had dancing lessons or something as he swung delighted little girls around (especially his cousin Gracie who was his preferred partner of the night). He was especially excited when he got a chance to dance with the bride. I loved dancing with my sweetheart – we haven't had a chance to dance together for way too long. The twins spun round and round until they were so dizzy that they'd go careening into different people like the balls in a pinball machine – they nearly took out a couple older people so they had to be removed before long. They loved watching the string quartet upstairs (my very talented cousins) at the beginning of the night and thought they were in heaven when they discovered that there were huge containers of candy free for the taking in the room where Eli and Julie's wedding video was playing.

It was great to see Jared's parents at the reception!

After driving up to SLC in a serious blizzard on Wednesday night and then watching the snow come down all day on Thursday, we were all a bit concerned about the weather on Friday – especially worried about all the mud and the condition of the dirt road that goes to my parents new house. But Friday was a beautiful sunny day – still a bit cold, but really nice. Check out how beautiful the tulips were!

Everything worked out great with limos shuttling guests from a nearby parking lot to my parents' house and my kids thought it was about the coolest thing ever to ride in a big old stretch limo and insisted on clinking the champagne glasses in the limo together and acting like high-rollers – not sure where they got that from.

What a day! What a couple! We're so happy for Eli and Julie.