Today was a crazy day, typical of wedding days. Mom had pulled another all nighter sewing all night long. She was still sewing when we woke up this morning. All of Wendy’s bridal party, and Tiffany & Christian, and Wendy’s photographer were over bright and early this morning. I guess Tiffany was doing all the hair of the bridal party. Or at least, she did Wendy’s hair. Dad got donuts for breakfast, and Kyle and I focused on getting our kids ready for the day.
I was really annoyed at having all the extra people in the house. We are a large family as it is, and then all these extra people trying to use three bathrooms to get ready in a timely fashion was just insane. Also I didn’t like that to use their curling iron they unplugged my phone and moved it. But everyone I asked, had no idea what I was talking about. I had to look for it for a while before finding it.
Kyle and I had our kids ready before some of the adults were ready, but then we had to wait for Debby to be ready with Rexton. We loaded up all the kids in the van while we were waiting for her and when she was ready we left and made a quick stop to buy some shoes for Dinah and Chloe. Somehow we didn’t have church shoes for them to wear to the wedding (or to church tomorrow). I was not happy with the selection at the store, but we didn’t have time to go check anywhere else. I was really kicking myself for not realizing this dilemma yesterday so that Kyle and I could have gone searching for some shoes when we went out to buy the creme de menthe syrup, but too late for that now. We just got some white shoes, even though I really wanted black ones, because that was all they had and we got on the road to head to the Newport Beach temple.
We followed Kyle’s GPS to get to the temple, and ended up almost there. It was right there off the freeway, I could see it! But we ended up on a freeway that required a toll to get off! And of course we were behind a line of cars that wanted to get off and nobody knew how to use the stupid toll booth. Eventually we made it through and got to the temple. We left Debby with the keys to the van, and the movies in case she wanted them to keep the kids entertained and we went inside. Kyle and I were the last of the family that they were waiting for. Thankfully they waited for us, but I’m sure mom and dad were on the edge of their seats wondering what in the world was taking us so long. The man that was our stake president when my family was baptized, performed the sealing after saying a few words to Wendy and John about the eternal nature of families and such.
Most of us went back outside to await the grand exit of the married couple. Dinah and Chloe ruined their brand new white shoes by running around in the wet grass on the temple grounds. Grandpa Tom found me and asked for his tie, (Kyle and I picked up matching ties for all the guys in the family) so I gave it to him. But when Jenny’s Tom asked me for their ties, I realized those were in a separate bag and they were still sitting on dad’s desk at the house! I felt so horrible about forgetting them. There was also a fiasco about Annaleah’s dress. Wendy didn’t like any of the dresses that I had found for the little girls to wear so she had mom make some dresses for them (hence mom staying up all night sewing). Mom had given my girls their dresses before she left the house so we could get them dressed, and Peyton was at the house and was given her dress too. Jenny didn’t come to the house with her kids before going to the temple, so Annaleah’s dress ended up being the one that was still in pieces (a bodice piece and a skirt piece). I guess mom was thinking that she could just pin it on her for pictures and finish putting it together later. When Jenny asked for the dress, and we gave her the bag with the unassembled dress she was furious and refused to try to put it on Annaleah at all.
Mom finally came out of the temple, which meant that Wendy and John would be coming out soon, so we got ready to greet them. When they finally did emerge it was time for pictures. Here is one of, I think all the family that was there (I’m not very familiar with Johns family so I assume all the people I don’t know are his family):
All of us siblings:
This picture is kind of funny. It’s Wendy and John with all of their nieces and nephews, and Peyton (Wendy was her nanny for a few years). John doesn’t look too sure of himself:
I was kind of disappointed that there was no really good spot to take group photos at the Newport Beach temple. Where Wendy and John came out of the temple, it was just a small door in the side of the temple, with shrubbery on both sides, and a sidewalk. These group pictures were taken at the front of the temple, by the entrance, so you have all kinds of random people that were at the temple this morning in the background of the pictures. :/
I thought this pose was funny:
The new Mr and Mrs Hatch:
When we were no longer wanted for pictures at the temple, everyone headed back to the house to start preparing to move all the food over to the church for the reception. Due to southern California traffic it felt like it took us FOREVER to get back to the house. I guess we had just taken the wrong route back, but it couldn’t be avoided. As if we didn’t have enough to do already, Dinah tore the lace on her dress right down the front! Mom was more calm about it than I was. She said that she would just take it with and stitch it up while the others were setting up the tables and food. I was flipping out, just because I had told the kids not to play outside. I wanted them to keep their dresses clean enough to wear to church tomorrow!
Setting up for the reception:
Before the reception was to start, Wendy and John were going to have a ring ceremony in the chapel. Wendy came to me before this and asked if Ethan could be responsible enough to present the rings when they were asked for. I guess they picked Ethan because he was the oldest nephew of all the nephews on both sides. We pulled Ethan aside and explained the responsibility to him and just exactly what he would need to do. When the bishop asked him to bring the rings, he did, and he didn’t even pretend to have lost them. 😉
That being done, it was time to go mingle in the cultural hall for the reception.
I spent most of the evening going back and forth from the punch table to the kitchen. I being the maker of the mint julep got to be the one to mix it with water and make sure it was mixed just right. I also added ice to make it cold, and I spent time in the kitchen putting cookies on the next set of pudding cups so they could be brought out to the buffet table. I was doing things like that. I felt silly for wearing my tennis shoes with my formal dress, but my feet thanked me. 😛
After all dancing had been done, and the cake had been cut, and the bouquet and garter had been tossed we were told to line up outside because the bride and groom were getting ready to take off. We actually stood out there for awhile waiting. Maybe that was because it took Wendy longer than expected to change out of her wedding dress….I’m not sure. But when they emerged they RAN for the car!
Once they were gone it was time for the real party to begin!
Actually the kids had a party while us adults started cleaning stuff up. It was a very long day. I still feel bad for forgetting the ties, and being late to the temple, but everything else went well even if it was hectic and insane.
