Let’s be honest. Just like the rest of us, I have one particular Pinterest board that is something like 1,200 pins deep into pure wedded bliss and has been since, let’s just say a few years or so before my wedding day. So when the time came that Sean proposed and I was finally able to plan the real deal, I had it locked, loaded, and planned, right? Actually, I did not. The entire plan-a-wedding process was a whole lot of decision making and un-decision making, and let’s be honest, my Pinterest board(s) overwhelmed me even more. I mean, you get ONE wedding. Well… you know what I mean. You get one first wedding, and you want it to be a good one, right? I wanted it to be perfect. A real genuine reflection of who Sean and I are as a couple. We had SO many ideas. Headaches of ideas. But when it really came down to planning a wedding that reflected US, we realized, duh! Our wedding meant throwing a wild party in an awesome place with of our closest people. So we decided that’s what we’d do.
We chose the backdrop of Zion National Park, one of our very favorite places, for our wedding location. I know, could’ve been worse, right? One of the best things about having a destination wedding in Zion National Park is… well… Zion National Park. And it was so awesome to get to show off that part of Utah to friends and family who weren’t yet familiar with the area. I mean, this place is practically in our backyard! I feel crazy lucky to live in a state that houses some of the most beautiful places in the world.
I was floating on a cloud from the moment our processional started and for days thereafter. Before the processional, however, was a serious case of “O.M.G.” but we don’t even have to talk about that because you and I both know it’s every bride’s right to have at least one of those on her wedding day. I mean, the pressure! The setting for our ceremony was breathtaking, to say the very least. You just can’t explain a scene of that magnitude. Our entire bridal party looked incredible. You may not believe me but I’m telling you, it’s purely coincidental that we have such good looking friends and family. My sweet Mama walked me down the aisle - symbolic of how the woman has and will probably always walk me through life. I’m a lucky daughter. I’m also a lucky sister. Mom and I were met at the end of my aisle by my brother and my two sisters. A moment frozen in my heart’s memory. It made sense to have my whole family give me away. The Fantastic Five. The people responsible for making, breaking, and making me again the way only a family can do. They’ve pushed me to every limit - as well as just about every one of my buttons - but they have always been there when I’ve fallen, and when I’ve risen, and when I’m just simply at a standstill and have nothing spectacular to contribute. My people.
At the close of the beautiful ceremony performed by my dear Uncle Mark, my cousin, led my family in song and my brother did me proud while he honorably led our family in a Maori haka. It was a moment I will always cherish and remember so fondly, Sean however was supposed to be a little scared.
I tease Sean, and perhaps I’m not really teasing, but I tell him that I married him for his family. He tells me he married me for mine too and I don’t actually know if he’s joking so I guess that makes two of us. We both have GREAT families. The kind of families that make you wish you were a part of them, and the kind of families that make you actually feeeeeel like you’re a part of them, and seriously, how did we get so lucky?!
If I could sum our day up into one word it was just that… LUCKY. I felt so lucky. I still feel so lucky. I look at these pictures and honestly, was this really MY wedding?! That’s how I feel. Like it was too good to be true. But it was true and we ARE so lucky. I never want to forget the feeling of being surrounded by the most beloved people in my life in perhaps the most beautiful place I’ve ever been in my life. There is something divine about so much love being shared in a place as majestic as Zion I’ll never forget how the energy was so strong, and so loving, and it felt so great… and geeze, have I mentioned that I am really just so lucky?!
I understand completely why your wedding day is the fastest moving day of your entire life, and it’s because you build and build and plan and plan for this one day. These few moments. And you expect the clouds to open, and the sun to shine, and the birds to sing, and you listen for the soundtrack of your wedding day to play in the background at all the right moments like it does in the movies, because this is the day, the one day you have cried, and sweat, and bled over… well, maybe there was no blood… but this is it. This is that, let me say it one more time, that ONE DAY you have been building and designing for months. You have primed it and planned it for nothing but complete and total perfection. And it’s here. And it’s happening, and you try but you can’t slow it down. And in my very blessed and lucky case, the clouds DID open, and the sun DID shine, and the birds DID sing, and my carefully curated wedding soundtrack WAS playing in the background at all the right moments, and the entire day was just completely and totally perfect. Every detail, every word shared, every person there… it was the kind of perfection that probably deserves it’s very OWN Pinterest board, you know what I mean?
We set out to throw a party with the people we love, to celebrate the way that Sean and I love each other - which is mostly wild, and fun, and passionate, and true - and a party we did throw! At one point on the dance floor, after what already seemed like HOURS of dancing to our heart’s content and loving it, I turned to one of my bridesmaids as we both realized, “It’s ONLY nine o’clock!!” which was the greatest thing ever because it meant we had at least one more hour with the DJ and one more hour was just.what.we.needed. Plus, to our pleasant surprise, our guest list was full of “dancers”. All kinds of dancers. Ballerinas. Ballroom Dancers. Salsa Dancers. Funkytown Dancers. Hip Hop Dancers. And then there was my mom. For those of you in attendance who wondered, the answer is no, my mother does not drink. She is just really That.Much.Fun. I’m pretty sure every single person got their boogie on at some point in the night, and that’s just what we wanted. Let’s just say our dance party took the phrase “cuttin’ a rug” to a whole new level. A level in which I think we actually broke part of the dance floor. And to that I say… YOLO. *fist pump*
The best day of my life doesn’t even begin to capture how I feel about our wedding day. That feels too cliché. Of course it was the best day of my life, but it was also so much more. That ONE day. It was the hardest day I’ve ever worked for, actually. But that one day was worth every racing moment even if I couldn’t keep up with all of it. It was worth the tears, the sweat, and even the possibility of blood. I didn’t realize that the real gift at the end of it would be having all of those people, in that place, enjoying that day, together. I’ve said it before and I’ll keep saying it… that was honestly the most incredible part of it all – being with everyone I truly and genuinely love to celebrate the true and genuine love that Sean and I have worked so hard to build together over the last few years. And what a great way to start off our marriage. Literally wrapped in the arms of everyone we treasure. Together…
…wild, in love, in Zion.
PHOTOS BY: Gideon Photography
FLORALS BY: Lilac Floral
