our wedding: featured!!

dudes... our wedding was featured on

utah bride blog

yesterday!!!

holy, how cool is that??!

check it out here.

invitations.

once upon a time 8 months ago, we got married.

and i wanted to write a review on all the vendors we used, but it was possibly as hard as planning the wedding to execute that.

i've had tons of emails from brides asking my opinion on the vendors we used and i have written a few on here.

i didn't get to write all that i wanted about vendors, but i did want to show you our invitations because I LOVE THEM!

still feel free to email me and ask questions about vendors we used.

our invitations were designed and printed with Square One Printing in Logan, Utah.

my friend, kristin, used them as well and had said so many great things about them.

i found a design online somewhere when i was searching for invitation ideas.

 i used a similar idea.

i worked with one of the designers at Square One who was so patient with all of our changes and really made our product great!

i wish i could remember the kind of paper we used, but i can't.  it was a thicker card stock with some texture.

 

return address printed on back flap.

BIG NEWS!!!! (flashing lights and glitter!)

guess.

what.

i have some totally rad news!

BIG news!

like, for real.

i.

am.

FINISHED WITH MY THANK YOU CARDS!

you guys (girls), this feels amazing.

remember how i got married, oh about 5 months ago?

and how i hand wrote thank you cards to everyone that bought us gifts?

and i thought it might be the death of me?

well, i didn't die!

and i am done done done!

k, word of advice:

always do a postcard thank you.

i didn't do this and it was a huge mistake.

with postcards you:

save on postage

don't have to insert, fold, and lick anything!

see this stack:

(and that's midge's head... she likes to be the center of things... she also chased my pen while i addressed many of these resulting in lots of scribbling.)

see the stack?  now times that by about    6    and that's how many i wrote.  yowza.

also, i've talked to like five girls who wrote all of their thank you notes, but never sent them?

crazy, yes?

sending them is the easiest part!

................................................................

you guys, i'm just so happy right now.

the wedding. the dress & suit.

I had a really hard time with dress shopping. 

I went to a bunch of dress shops here in Utah and I felt like they were all the same.  I didn't want to look like every bride and wanted something unique. 

In Utah you almost always have to get the dresses altered if you're looking for modesty. And that is pricey and the dress never looks that great in my honest opinion. You can tell it's a strapless dress with sleeves sewn in.  The other option is getting a jacket, which looks like a strapless dress with a jacket.  Didn't want that.  

Anyway, nothing worked for me in Bridal shops.  They never had my size and the dresses weren't flattering AT ALL.  Luckily my dad has a cousin who makes custom wedding dresses and has for many years.  We remembered her telling us this information a few years ago at a funeral, so we called her up!  I had an initial consultation with her to show her what I was thinking and then we picked out the fabric.  After that, I only had to drive down for about 4 fittings and it was done!  We designed my dress from about four different dresses.  I liked one neck line, but another bodice, etc.  And I got exactly what I wanted.  By the time we were all done, it cost us just as much as it would have to buy a dress and pay for an alteration.  This way I got exactly what I wanted!

Her name is Barbara Gant and here is her website.  She was absolutely wonderful and SUPER fast!  She is located in the Provo/Orem area and has her contact info on her blog.  You can see a picture of me on her blog here.  You may also recognize this wedding she just finished here.  

(She does brides maid and mother dresses too!)

I decided to get an ivory satin fabric with a lace overlay.  The lace is french and is called "Happy Rose" and is SO beautiful!  

I wanted buttons all the way up the back.  Guess what?  There are 50 of them and my cute mom buttoned them and unbottoned them for me many times.  It took us about 10-15 minutes to do them up.

The high neck in the back is called a "Queen Ann" and in the front I decided I wanted a subtle sweetheart neck.

I added ribbon for some flair.

 I wanted the skirt to be fitted tightly through the hips and upper thighs and then flair out.

I'm not a huge poofy dress girl.

So it had a slight mermaid feel.

We added some more "Happy Rose" lace in a scalop for trim around the bottom.

And these are not my wedding shoes... 

haha.

Just my dad's size 12 rain boots I wore to our bridals so I wouldn't ruin my wedding shoes.

And now:

Lincoln's attire.

We bought Lincoln's three-piece suit from J. Crew.

(I keep seeing the same suit popping up ALL over the inter-web on grooms.)

America suits/tuxs are baggy and yucky.  Lincoln and I both wanted something that looked fitted and like a well made European suit.

I would've preferred something that looked more like a light gray instead of tan, but it was the only thing we could find that was remotely close.

And get this?  J. Crew gave us a discount on it for being students!  Wahoo!

So totally remember that when you shop there.

The only thing is that it wrinkles easily.

I don't think I have a picture of his shoes, but we got them at Nordstrom.

You can see what they look like in our wedding video.

The best part is that he wears the suit and shoes all the time!  He mixes the jacket with jeans or wears the whole thing to church.

Great buy, if you ask me.

so that is our wedding attire.

if you have more questions about these, email me:

jalenetaylor(at)gmail(dot)com

wedding videos

it was kind of strange how we happened to hire nathan pickett to be our wedding videographer.

that's his him right over there... teaching lincoln the art of fluffing a wedding dress... what a champ.

it was one cold day in january and i can't quite remember, but i think i found him through rockstar diaries sponsor side bar on my iPhone as we were driving around town.

because we had to change our wedding day (another store for later), the original videographer we thought about hiring was already booked.

turns out nate is pretty good buddies with the other dude.

so we knew he had good style based on his friendship with the other dude and that he told us he was more of a documentary type videographer, which i absolutely wanted.

i wasn't into all the slow-motion spinning in circles type dealio.

i just wanted to have someone capture our day exactly how it happened with real emotions.

and that is exactly what we got with nate.

we met him at his office that day in january and lincoln and i instantly felt like we wanted to be best friends with nate.

he seriously is way cool, people.

so we were way happy about our choice.

and then we had to wait five long months to actually work with him.

i could say a million great things about nate, but the biggest compliment i can give him was that he was one of the easiest people we worked with during wedding planning.

he was upfront and open about how long it would take, etc. and we totally didn't mind because he is just that awesome.

good thing we booked him when we did.  he told me he had many inquiries for our day.  and also like 12 weddings in june alone.  yikes!

last weekend he sent me the highlight videos of our wedding day and reception.

i will admit i cried watching the temple coverage.

it's perfect.

and now i will share with you.

he said he will have the full disc to us soon, so i will share that when it comes!

but here's the highlights for now.

temple coverage:

6-5-10:All SLC Temple from Nathan Pickett on Vimeo.

reception:

Rice Eccles: Reception from Nathan Pickett on Vimeo.

gold star to anyone that catches a shot of lincoln and i grooving at the temple.

best part!

our bedding.

it is tradition in the taylor family to buy the bride and groom new bedding from The Quilt Shop at Gardner Village in Salt Lake City.

my two sister-in-laws and mother-in-law went shopping one day and picked it out.  it was so fun!  they have beautiful quilts there.

and here is what i chose.

and we pretty much love it a lot.

the wedding. in review. the routine.

right as we began planning our wedding we immediately decided that we didn't want it to end up like the stereotypical mormon wedding.  they usually are more of a funeral procession than they are a celebration.  we wanted it be fun. 
memorable. 
and we wanted people to stay all night long.

even before i met lincoln, i conceived up this idea that i wanted to do some freaking sweet dance with my husband as a surprise for our guests.  this worked out great, because lincoln's family has a tradition of performing a "cousin dance" at every wedding reception.  

here are the photos from the cousin dance.  i love these photos!

and then lincoln's brothers performed the three amigos dance, which was hilarious!

i thought, perfect!  after they do their dance we can stand up and say, "we know it's a tradition to do a cousin dance, but we wanted to show you guys up with our own bride and groom dance!"

being a friends guru, i was watching an episode one day and decided that lincoln and i could perform "the routine" that monica and ross do at the new year's celebration taping. 

we barely pulled it off.  i think we learned it a week before the wedding even though we were planning to do it all along.

nathan pickett, our most awesome videographer, sent me a link on my facebook page today of "the routine" captured.  so i thought i would share it with you.  i'll tell you more about nate later, but we pretty much think he's the coolest guy ever.  so cool that we wish we could hang out with him all the time.  we are facebook friends, so that tells you something!

First Dance from Nathan Pickett on Vimeo.

and here are the photos from our photographer, jessica kettle, of "the routine."

lincoln's facial expressions are priceless.

nate even told lincoln on our wedding day that he has very expressive eyebrows.  hah!

i was so glad we did this even though we look like dorks.  

we had so much fun! 

and we hope the tradition will carry on.

the wedding. in review.

this is going to be the first post of many about the wedding... the day, the vendors we used, etc.

the whole time we planned our wedding i kept thinking i wanted to do a review of all the vendors we used.  my good friend, kristin, wrote a review after her wedding and it helped me during my planning process.  i wanted to give other brides an idea of what we loved... and what could have been better.  planning a wedding is super frustrating at times, so maybe this will help make it a little easier for you.


the first piece of advice i could give brides is when the wedding finally comes don't stress about anything that goes on that day.  i know, i know, EVERYONE tells you to do this.  but i'm serious.  the best thing i did on my wedding day was not care about the details anymore.  i focused on how i FELT during the day.  the whole day was the most spiritual and the most fun day of my life.  we had everyone we loved with us and celebrated the whole day.  i know it's cliche, but it was seriously the best day of my life.  so that's number one:  enjoy the day, no matter what!

next... where we were married.

we decided that we would be married and sealed for all eternity in the salt lake temple.  

i have always loved the salt lake temple mostly because of the special history behind it.  the mormon pioneers started building this temple in 1853 and finished in 1893.  yep, that's right.  40 years!!!  i've always admired the majesty and beauty of the temple, and most of all the tremendous sacrifice the pioneers made to build this beautiful building.  the exterior of the temple also has rich symbolism, which you can read about here.  it is very interesting to me how inspired these pioneers were.  the sealing ceremony was very special and beautiful.  our sealer was 92 years old and lively as ever.  he was very sweet and inspired.  when we were in the temple he kept telling us that we were "sparkling."  and said that we just looked like the happiest couple ever.  (which we were/are.)  lincoln and i both were tearing up during the ceremony.  at one point the sealer handed me a tissue which i promptly gave to lincoln because he needed it more than i did.  haha.

the sealing was definitely the most beautiful part of the day.  it was a very sacred and spiritual moment in our lives.  making the decision to be sealed in the temple was the best thing we did through the whole process.




part two... coming soon!


(all photos by jessica kettle)