the party

It is Kelly's Korner day again :) This week is show us your wedding party, flowers, and ceremony:

So first of all, a shout out to the people who made it all possible: our parents
We got married in good ol' Provo, Utah. We had a choice between getting married in Texas (where Luis is from), Hawaii (where my parents live), or in Utah (where we were both living while going to school). We chose to stay in Utah because that was the only way we would be able to have the vast majority of our family/friends in attendance and it was more important for us to be surrounded by the people we love than it was for us to take pictures at the beach. We thought it would be special to get married at the Provo temple because Luis' parents got married there. Luis has always really liked this temple, and he didn't want to get married in one of the other "overcrowded" Utah temples. We knew we would be the only ones there that day, and it was absolutely wonderful. And although, as a child, I always thought the Provo temple was really ugly, I've grown to really love it.
We loved that we were able to include most of our very best friends in our wedding party. My bridesmaids included my little sister, one of my best friends from college, 2 great friends from law school, and the three roommates I was living with at the time. With everyone being in different stages of their lives (some in college, others recently graduated, and some unemployed), we didn't want our wedding to be a financial burden on anyone. So we opted to not get expensive dresses or tuxes so that they could all participate. And it was wonderful being able to have them all there with us :)

I only specified that I wanted the bridesmaids to wear black, short sleeved, tea-length dresses. The rest was up to them. I love that they looked like a cohesive unit and yet each dress matched the girls' personalities. No one was made to feel stupid wearing their dress, and at least it was something they would be able to wear over and over again.
As for the boys, Luis got a tux (he insisted on getting one with a vest) and we had the rest of the guys just wear their dark church suits that they already owned. We then gave each of them a sage green tie to wear.
Here is one of my favorite pictures that I posted last week of my bouquet and my ring:
When Luis and I decided to get married, both my parents and his parents wanted to do everything they could to help us. Unfortunately, neither of them live anywhere near us. So I was basically handed the money for the wedding and told to do whatever I wanted with it. In the past when I had thought about my wedding, I had always told myself that I would either go all out or not bother to do anything at all. So when it was time to actually plan my wedding, I tried to get the best of both worlds. I tried to be as economical as I could while still having all of the things I had ever wanted for my wedding.

One of my roommates at the time, Robin (third from the left in the bridesmaids pictures), had worked with flowers before and she offered to do all of my flowers for me. Since I didn't want anything too crazy or over-the-top, I took her up on the offer. Gerbera daisies are my favorite flowers and I was able to find them really inexpensively through Sam's Club. So the day before my wedding, our house turned into a mini florist shop. There were flowers everywhere, and all of the roommates (along with a few friends), pitched in to help. I absolutely loved the way they turned out. I loved the contrast of the flower's colors with the bridesmaid's black dresses.

I was completely uninterested in keeping my bouquet. I know a lot of people keep them and preserve them, but I had no desire to do that. So I didn't even bother to have a second bouquet made for throwing purposes. So when all of the single girls got together for me to throw the bouquet, I threw my actual bouquet. And I have never regretted it. Plus it was cute because my little sister ended up catching it :)