The Wedding Day!!

Where do I even begin?! Matt and I were sealed in the Bountiful Temple for time and for all eternity on Friday June 17, 2011. It was an absolutely perfect day. I could not have asked for a more wonderful wedding day or for a more wonderful husband. We’re married now! It is so crazy to think about. This is the one thing that I have wanted more than anything else for my entire life, and it has come true. What a truly blessed life I have. The sealing ceremony was incredible. We were able to have President Walt Gasser (Matt’s mission president in Hungary) seal us. We had a sealing room (#2) that fit 50 of our closest family members and friends. It was completely full! I was on the verge of tears the entire time. Oh, another thing I forgot to mention, we were able to sit in the celestial room together for about 15 minutes before we met with Pres. Gasser. It was spectacular. I am so happy that we got married in the Bountiful temple. The celestial room was so beautiful. I was so happy to be in there with Matt and to think about what was coming for us. Every time I looked as Matt I just felt this overwhelming sensation of love and happiness. He looked so handsome and so confident. I love him and cherish him dearly. I am excited to go do sealing’s for the dead so that I can more fully comprehend the sealing covenant we entered into. By the way, I was tearing or crying through most of this. Matt was beaming and smiling. I promise my tears were ones of joy! Afterward we kissed, exchanged rings and then everyone came up to give us their love and hugs. My biggest tears came from hugging my parents. All of Matt’s family said that they loved me and welcomed me to the family, and my family told Matt the same. It was beautiful and wonderful. I could not have imagined a more spiritual or loving marriage. So, after the ceremony, Matt and I got to take a minute to look into the mirrors on either side of the room. So amazing! I’m going to be with Matt forever! Then we went back to change into our wedding clothes. This is where the ultimate mishap of my life happened! My mom was helping me change into my dress and I had it on and the zipper broke as she was pulling it up! I was so scared for a while. Everything had gone so perfectly up until now that I knew something had to go wrong, but this?! Everyone was out waiting by the doors for us to come out! After standing there staring while my mom and two temple ladies tried to figure something out, they took my dress down to the menders in the basement of the temple while I saw there in a robe thinking about not being able to wear my dress on my wedding day. I had decided that I was going to be okay wearing temple dress out, even though I really, really didn’t want to. I knew that somehow it would be okay. They came back up 10 minutes later with a seamstress and they tried sewing the dress on to me, but it didn’t work because I couldn’t get it up all of the way. So they had me put it on and then three ladies with pins put their heads underneath the back of my dress so that they could get to the start of the zipper and pin it. One lady said “Don’t worry, just wait until you’re pregnant – there’s no sense of modesty anymore then!” That made me smile. But it worked! They were able to safety pin my dress onto me! Fortunately, the pins were slightly masked in the back by my veil. I hurried and fixed my makeup and cleaned up my tears and then hurried out to find Matt. He was waiting patiently looking very handsome in his suit for me in the lobby. He looked floored when he saw me in my dress for the first time. He kept telling me how beautiful I looked and he said it couldn’t have been more perfect. I got my bouquet, we pinned on Matt’s boutonniere and we headed for the doors. Jessica (our photographer) told us to wait until the doors closed behind her before we came out. I could see everyone waiting to cheer for us. Jessica went out, we waited, and then we went out to all of the cheers, and tears, and hugs from our family and friends. I think that moment was one of the happiest of my whole life. Matt gave me a big kiss and then we went around giving everyone hugs. First siblings, then friends. My roommates were all so excited! After that settles, we all went to the front of the temple to take pictures. Jessica did an amazing job arranging us all. I think we will have some really amazing pictures. I can’t believe I’ve written this much and I’m only at 11:30am!

After pictures we headed over to Eldredge Manor, a very beautiful reception hall, where we had our luncheon. It was amazing! We had lemon chicken with steamed vegetables, bread, salad, potatoes, and sparkling lemonade, and raspberry swirl cheesecake for dessert. Matt and I were at the head of the room, with my parents on my left and Matt’s parents on his right. Everyone else was scattered at tables across the room. One table for my siblings and Kim, one for my roommates and friends, one for President Gasser and his family, one for my grandparents and aunts and uncles, one for Matt’s siblings and cousins, and so on. We passed the mic around the room and had each person introduce themselves and say how they were connected with us. Some of the funnier introductions were from Chase (“I’m Chase and I’m Andrea’s coolest sister…brother”), Grandpa Erickson (“I’m the uninvited guest”), and Ashlyn (“We just want you all to know that Amie, Parker, and I are taking full responsibility for this marriage…just so you know). Cutest one was from Sophie (“I’m Sophia and I’m Andrea’s sister” in her cute 4-year old voice). After that we watched a slideshow of pictures that Ashlyn had compiled for us of our years growing up. It was close to 15 minutes long and was to the songs “Rhythm of Love” by Plain White T’s, “I Do” by Colbie Callait, “Hey Soul Sister” by Train, “100 Years” by Five for Fighting, and “Rather Be With You” by Joshua Radin. It was so good! Ashlyn did a great job with it. We didn’t get to see it until the luncheon because she was in Europe the weeks before the reception and she only finished it the day before. I absolutely loved it. After that my parents each had a turn to say some words, followed by Matt’s parents, and finally by Matt and me. I was crying during my parents’ little speeches. My dad said a lot of nice things about me. He talked about how I was his little girl and about how he had cried watching me go through each step of life into the world. He talked about how he cried when he dropped me off for kindergarten, when he dropped me off for high school, and when he dropped me off for college. He also told a story that I hadn’t heard before. When he and my mom had four daughters a man from the scouts in their ward came to him asking for him to donate some money to the scouts program. He asked why he should donate when he had four daughters, to which the man replied, ‘Don’t you want your daughters to marry an eagle scout when they get older?’ My dad said that he did donate and he was glad that he did. He was very pleased with who Matt is as a person, and with the fact that he is an Eagle Scout. He also said that we make a very nice couple together and that it was fairly obvious that our relationship was going somewhere when they first saw us together. My mom talked about how strong and self-motivated I have been and what a great daughter I have been. She said that I have been a wonderful example to my siblings and that I have always wanted to do what was right. Stephanie talked very highly of Matt. She said that he would always come back and apologize when they had gotten into an argument. He has a very loving and humble heart. She talked about what a good man he is and what a good boy he was. Paul told an interesting story. He told of Matt’s senior lacrosse game where he took a hard ball to his cup, and even though he was deeply in pain, he was determined to finish the game against Olympus High. We were both a bit confused about this story, but it was a good one to illustrate Matt’s determination nonetheless. I went next and thanked everyone for being there, thanked my parents for raising me the way that they did, thanked the Erickson’s for raising Matt the way that they did, and thanked Matt for marrying me. I expressed my deep love to him. Matt finished by doing the same. I felt so much love for him. It is amazing how it seems to get stronger and stronger every day.

We had three hours following the luncheon to get everything in place before the reception. Fortunately, Nicki was taking the reigns on preparations and I had handed out some assignments to people as well, so Matt and I didn’t have to be involved in getting things ready at all. It was such an absolutely perfect day outside! Not a cloud in the sky, yet not too hot, with a very slight breeze, probably 75 degrees or so. Perfect! I am so grateful that Nicki was able to take charge of everything and get it all done. It looked amazing and she did a terrific job. We came out around 4:30 when Jessica the photographer came to take some initial pictures of the group. We were still a bit discombobulated when she arrived getting things into place, so it took us a while to get the pictures taken. We had some family pictures, some friends pictures, and some set-up pictures. It was so beautiful. I’m really excited to see those pictures. Then the guests started arriving! There was a steady stream of people from 5:30 all the way until the end of the reception. So many friends and family members came – it was amazing! We got so many compliments on the way that everything looked and on the food. I could not have been happier. My feet got pretty tired about half way through and I had to take my gold heels off. Both my parents and Matt’s parents had a great time meeting people and joking and laughing with people as they came through the line (which consisted of my parents, Matt and I, and Matt’s parents). I was surprised by how un-involved Matt and I were in the reception besides the line. I guess I had expected to be mingling more and talking with people, which we were, but we didn’t leave the line the whole time because so many people were coming through! The amazing things was that everyone stayed after they had gone through and eaten food. It was such a nice night that everyone just decided to stay and hang out and enjoy the time with us, which we weren’t expecting. Fortunately we still had food to spare at the end. Around 7:20 or so Matt and I cut the cake, fed each other nicely, and then kissed. Then I climbed the steep black stairs in my dress so that I could through the bouquet over them to the crowd of girls below. My sister Kallan caught the bouquet. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her happier. I came down, sat down, and Matt took off my garter. I think he was pretty lost on what he was supposed to do, so he just lifted up my dress until he found it and took it off. He flung it out to the men and his cousin Jake snatched it right in front of Chase’s face. He said he was going to add it to his collection. We got a picture of Kallan and Jake with us holding their prizes. After that, Matt’s sister Tiffany sang “The Call” by Regina Spektor from the balcony as Matt and I had our first dance. It was very sweet to have her sing for us. She did a fantastic job! Matt and I just talked about how quickly the day had gone by and how we just could not believe that this was all happening to us. After that my dad and I had a daddy/daughter dance to the song “My Little Girl.” I was crying almost the whole time. It was so sweet to dance with him like that. He told me how proud he was of me and how right Matt was for me. He told me that I was being such a good example to my siblings and to others too. He told me that Kim had started talking about what her wedding was going to be like, and he attributed that to my example. It was a tender moment for both of us. Following the dances Whitney turned on some dance music and we invited everyone to join us in dancing. We still had people showing up to greet us at this point so we didn’t get to dance much. We kept talking with people. Around 8:15 or so Matt and I finally went in to change so that we could leave. There were still so many people there, I couldn’t believe it! It took us a while to get ready, because we weren’t entirely packed yet. Matt had to help me take off my safety-pinned dress. Then we changed and went out the back door through the procession of probably 100 people waiting for us and blowing bubbles (wedding favors) and cheering for us as we walked to the car. It was so amazing to see so many people there who loved us and cared about us. Whitney, Parker, Amie, Ashlyn, Ashley, Mckenzie, and gang had decorated the car, with our own cake frosting! We got in as quick as we could and we drove off to everyone’s cheers. That’s the end of what I know about the reception. I heard later that they had about 60 people stay for the next hour or so to help clean up. What an effort that must have been.

I have so much love and respect for Matt and I know that he does for me as well. I could not have chosen a better man to marry. I’m so excited for the future and I could not have been blessed with a more perfect day!