THE WEDDING WEEK!!!
CONGRATS TO THESE PRECIOUS PEOPLE
BRAD, TATUM, PRESLEY AND JAGGER!!!
THE REHEARSAL DINNER
Brad's groom's cake for the Rehearsal Dinner! - I Love New York!!!
Such a great cake!!!!!
Friends and family at the Rehearsal Dinner
10:30 AT THE GILBERT TEMPLE!!!
Coming out of the Temple
The new little family
The Littlest Bridesmaid and a handsome attendant
This was only half of us!!!
The table setting for the luncheon
Mother of the Bride!
Mother and Father of the Groom
Sister and Brother In Law of the Groom
Mr. and Mrs. at the Luncheon
The Bridal Party
hehe.
The Beautiful Bride and her Lovely Sister
All the pretty bridesmaids!
The Ring Ceremony - Waiting for the Bride!
Here comes the Bride!
So Pretty
Sealed with a kiss!
Reception Decor
First Dance
Dearest Lauren!
My
job today is to fill you in on ALL of the goings on that happened this
past week! First of all, I have not had the internet in this house for
TWO WEEKS! I will tell you more about that later, but I can say that
your father saved a lot of money because I wasn't able to get into my
Etsy or Amazon accounts and buy stuff for the wedding! It was probably
for the best.
Two
weeks ago. Dad and Brad embarked on their adventure across country to
take all of Brad's and Tatum's possessions to Roosevelt Island, NY and
set up the apartment. They had a great trip without any complications.
They stayed in Amarrillo Texas the first night; at Keith Flynn's mom's
house in Springfield, Missouri the next night; with Uncle Sean and Aunt
Becky the third night in Cincinnati Ohio; and the last night they
stayed in a hotel in New Jersey, which they said was kind of in a
sketchy location. But they got there the next morning and had a 3 hour
window to move in all their furniture. Brad's friend from ASU, who also
got a job at JP Morgan, came over and helped them move stuff in and
they got it all done with 45 minutes to spare. Then they started
setting up furniture and organizing the apartment. Dad's fingers were
all sore because he built 3 dressers, a loft bed, two book cases and I
don't know what else. Brad built a lamp with a table attached to it.
haha! Anyway, they set up everything so they are ready to go for their
first day in their new apartment with food in the cupboards, so they
can probably last a few days without going to the grocery store!
Brad
and I stayed up all night (I went to bed at 5:00 a.m. - he stayed up
all night) and we worked on the birth to wedding video together choosing
pictures. Derek drove all night Wednesday, hit a dear in PANGUITCH,
UTAH (not too much damage to his car and he wasn't hurt) and then he
came in at 7:00 in the morning! Then, he and I went to the airport and
picked up Britt and Alex on Thursday at Noon and Brad picked up Flynn at
2:00. Alex, Britt, Derek and I went to lunch at Potbelly's in Tempe
and then we all got together at the house on Thursday afternoon.
The
first event was all Brad's buds met at V's Barber Shop and Brad got
them beard trims and facials! He had a beard trim and the owner gave
him a facial a few weeks ago and he decided that is what he wanted to
give his bros for their grooms gift. They had a great time and then a
picture was taken of all of them after they had their trims (and some of
them had full beards, like Flynn and Vann Childs!). The next event was the joint
Bachelor/Bachelorette party that Isaiah and Dana (Tatum's sister) put
together. All the bridal party and their husbands and wives were
invited and Brad also invited Derek, which was great. So they went to a place called
"The Culinary Dropout" and they ate tons of h'ordivors and then they
played games there. They had shuffleboard, cornhole, ping pong and
games like that. Brittany said it was just a really fun relaxing place
to hang out. People could talk and catch up or they could play a few
games so she said it was really fun.
The
next day was Friday. Friday morning Brad and his bud's and Dad and
Alex went to play basket ball at church. After that a few of them went
to Lunch and Marcus came over a set up his playstation so they could
play Madden. Alex and Marcus played for a while and then it was time to
go to the Rehearsal and Rehearsal Dinner.
At
the Tarwater's place, there is Granny's house, then Tatum's Mom and
Dad's house, then an aunts house, then a cousin's house all lined up on a
two lane street with corn fields across the street. Behind their
houses are some newer homes and also a few fields and a coral for a
couple of huge long horn cows (cattle?) that Tatum's Dad owns. So the
ring ceremony was set up in the grass in the yard on the East side of
Tatum's house. They had wooden pallets and crates painted white,
stacked on top of each other and the back drop was carnations draping
down from a bar going across the top. They had white chairs. It was
simple and pretty. So they practiced going down the isle.
Then,
there is an arched breezeway leading from the East side of the yard, to
the patio behind the house. So you walk through the breezeway and it
takes you to their patio and a square back yard were all the tables were
set. She had all the tables in long rows and didn't have any round
tables. There was a head table for all the bridal party and they had a
really pretty backdrop for where the bride and groom sat. So it wasn't
set up yet because it was Friday night. They had a lot of work still to
do. Then after we practiced we went to Granny Tarwater's house next
door and had Aloha Kitchen that was brought in. They had all kinds of
dishes that we never eat at Aloha Kitchen! But it was really good.
Jill, Tatum's mom, and I had a grooms cake made, so I have a picture of
that which I will try to send to you. So that was the rehearsal and we
all went home and got ready for the next day!
The
temple was awesome! I didn't get emotional until the very end. The
room was full with about 8 people standing, so about 88 people there.
But,
anyway, what happened next is that we got to the temple in good time.
Brad and Flynn drove together in Brad's car and Brad was drinking a
monster and and one point he passed us and help up his monster in
recognition as they passed by. haha.
It
was super hot after they came out (it took her 45 minutes to get
ready!), but we were all waiting in the air conditioned waiting rooms.
So before they came out we were told to go stand on the east side down
the covered walkway and they came out. Then we got three pictures and
that's it! We got out of the heat in a hurry! haha! We went to Noahs,
the venue for the Wedding luncheon and we had a delicious lunch of
chicken, twice baked potatoes, green beans and stawberry spinach salad.
Brad delayed us a bit because he wanted to show us the birth to wedding
video and they had some technical difficulties, but we played that
during the luncheon as well.
So then we went home for about 3 hours and we were all exhausted! After a pretty short rest, we left for the reception!
I'll have to write you quick note about the reception later!
I
love you Lauren! We are getting excited to see you. We got our letter
telling us when you will be arriving! So exciting, but I know you love
those folks in Oakland and you are still having fun and doing a lot of
good work. You still have a lot of good work to do! But we are super
excited to see you again!
Ok. Talking Brad and Tatum to the airport now. Love you so much!
Love forever!
Mom
BEST TARWATER/JOHNSON WEDDING EVER!!!