Wedding Reception!

Warning: this blog post will probably extremely boring to you unless you are oddly passionate about wedding receptions. I'm not, and I probably wouldn't look through this post if it weren't my own wedding!

But I think my photographer Jakelle did a really great job of capturing my reception, which I didn't really get to see because the receiving line was so long and I didn't get to wander around. 

So here we go...

 Part One: Wedding decor

 Part Two: Food!

And finally...

THE CAKE! I was so in love with it.

Part Three: The Guests

Flower Girl Callie! This is her practicing for her big role.

Daniel trying to steal me away.

My adorable (second?) cousin Addy.

Ademir, the MC!

Cade, the videographer

The Gouldings! Plus Dick and baby Giuseppe in the background.

(cousins) Violet, Ane, Rachel, Samantha, & Charlie

Oliver!

Violet!

Adren & Grayson

Rachel & Samantha

Ethan & his girl Mariah. + Daniel

Chad, Candace, Mariah, Ethan & Daniel

Hannah, Dick & Grandpa Les!

Dick & Hannah

Benji, Casey, Cameron & Adrian

G & I facetiming Giuseppe's dad via Rob's iPhone.

A snippet of The Line

Savannah & Abby!

G & I talking to Julia, the sweet lady that did the centerpiece. It must have been a passionate conversation.

Rob, Angela, Sky & Willow

This picture is one of my favorites, Mailm & my dad going in for a hug, G giving Landon a stiff hug. Ha!

Giuseppe greets a friend.

Hank holding Baby Matteo! Look at that face.

The Hess' again!

Michelle Barratt, capturing a picture to send to Liz, my BFF in Portugal :( 

Apartment 307! These girls have my heart.

Provo YSA 136th! (Plus Corey)

Sky & Autumn

Wise words from Grandpa Les

Addilyn, the show stealer!

Jake & Addy. This picture is adorable!

The Taylor's! Look at that cute preggo Ashley.

Violet & Ivy! Cuties.

Precious.

FOOD at last!

Savannah! She's practically Giuseppe and I's daughter. She stood in the line with us and everything!

The GOULDINGS minus Romney :(

Giuseppe + The Bocanegra men.

A strange lover Giuseppe is unable to identify.

Ava & cute little Henry.

Someone get this pregnant girl a chair!

Modelicious Angela & Willow.

My little Cal!

Jakelle seems to be a fan of Dick and Hannah. So are we!

Part Four: The Family!

Graham & Grayson

Mallerie & Callie

The Bocanegra's

Mom & I

The Parents

Dad & I

The sisters

Flower Girl & Bride

My husband & mother-in-law

Matt & Abby

Hess', Simco's, and a Bowers.

Part Five: Cake Cutting

Callie's hard work paid off, she did a great paving the path with flowers!

A LOT harder than it looks.

Things going awry^

Almost done embarrassing ourselves.

Seconds away from eating our divine cake.

This is a huge moment guys.

Post-cake kiss. Why do I look pregnant? Yikes.

Put that cake down, smile for the camera

Part Six: Speeches

Listening to my dad's speech

Go dad! Yeah!

Mom telling a story

Post-speech hug.

Sentiments from Dick! 

Thank you!!!

Part Seven: Dancing!

Father/Daughter, Mother/Son

Look at that cute boy!

My baby & I

One of my favorites right there. ^

Ma & Pa

Baby's gettin' down.

Aww yeah

Jon & Eli!

Ready to leave.

Nope, another picture.

Was this song really played at my wedding reception?

Part: Eight Bouquet Toss!

Look at the mass of unmarried females!! Looks like I've got some work to do.

Mailm & Carly fought to the death.

CARLY SUCCEEDS!

Carly Holmes, one of the greatest people you will ever meet. Together we explored New York City, won first place in our hilarious duo in high school, and dissected every Taylor Swift song in the world. She's up next! 

Part Nine: Random Shots of Giuseppe & I

Putting the rest of the flowers on the cake.

Part Ten: Goodbye!

Giuseppe almost killed me. He was running SO FAST and I couldn't keep up in my heels and long dress. He wouldn't let go of me, and he couldn't hear me screaming at him to slow down because of all the cheering. It is a miracle I didn't fall on my face or break my ankle.

Lost Sheep

Luke 15:2-7

"...I say unto you that likewise joy shall be in heaven over one sinner that repenteth more than over ninety and nine persons which need no repentance."

I am so grateful for Christ's ministry on the Earth, and for all of his teachings. 

He teaches that no matter how the gravity of the sin, we can be forgiven if we choose to repent. 

For those that are struggling with their testimonies, don't you want Christ's teachings to be true? 

We can be forgiven, and we can learn to forgive because of Him! 

I know these things to be true.  

Wedding Formals!

Thank you to the talented Ashley McFarlane!

Enjoy!

First Look

I'm sure you're familiar with the trend of "first look photos", where a photographer captures the groom's face when he first lays eyes on his bride in her dress with her hair and makeup all done. Here are a couple of examples I've pulled from Pinterest:

As you can tell, it's supposed to be a very emotional moment. Crying, gasping, hands over the mouth, etc.

We decided not to do "first look photos" simply because I knew I would feel extremely awkward and pressured!

Because there are no photographs of my moment, I will describe to you what it was like...

It was hilarious! I am almost peeing my pants right now thinking about it. 

Here's how it went down....

Date: Monday, December 28th.

Time: Around 2:15 PM

Location: Fifth East Hall Bed & Breakfast, hallway by the maintenance closet.

Alone in the dressing room, I looked at myself in the mirror; wearing my dress and veil. And I got completely freaked out. 

*What the heck am I doing?* 

*I'm getting married?!* 

*Whoa... whoa... Is this actually going to happen?*

*Giuseppe's out there waiting...*

*Okay, whatever Katrina, let's just go.*

So I opened the french doors, and standing right in front of me was my fiancé.

The look on his face was PRICELESS!

I have never seen so much fear packed into one facial expression. 

He looked terrified. 

Absolutely horror-stricken.

He'll deny it, but I'm pretty sure he was thinking something along the lines of,

*What the heck am I doing?*

*I'm getting married?!*

*Whoa... Whoa.... This is actually happening.*

*Katrina's just standing there*

*Okay, whatever Giuseppe, let's do this!*

Then he smiled, and we both relaxed, and all was well. :) 

Honeymoon

After the wedding, Dick and Hannah surprised us with a stay at the Grand America!! They gave us the honeymoon package, which included complimentary robes, slippers, chocolates, and a $100 credit. We used the credit to get room service day and night, and to buy delicious macarons from La Bonne Vie.

That morning we were standing by the window looking out our view of Salt Lake from the 23rd floor. Giuseppe noticed that the building in front (and below) us was the Infinity Center, where we had our first date! We were laughing imagining us telling our February 2014 selves that in less than a year we would be celebrating our wedding night in the building next to us. 

We LOVE the Grand America!

(We dressed up nice because we planned on going to church. Siri AND google maps took us to seven different faulty locations. Annoyinggggg!)

Next stop: Pagosa Springs, Colorado. AKA a little piece of heaven!

Giuseppe's dad let us stay at his time share. We got a little condo to ourself for a week with a furnished kitchen and jacuzzi!

We frequented a little video rental store, went to mom and pop restaurants, made friends with the locals, and experienced the outdoors! 

A breakdown of our week:

• We rented a sled from the activities center and took it to the golf course because apparently it's a GOLDEN spot for sledding. I don't know what the workers were talking about, because the hills were steep enough to get us out of breath while walking up, but not steep enough for us to actually slide down. After giving up, we tried to leave but the snow wouldn't let us!

https://www.facebook.com/giuseppe.hess/videos/10207094033981881/?pnref=story

Thanks to this babe's hard work, we were able to finally leave!

(There was only one shovel.)

Location #2 was more successful: It wasn't very steep, but it was beautiful and the snow wasn't as high!

• Visiting the SPRINGS was heavenly! 18 little natural pools, some with waterfalls. It was snowing outside and we ordered frosty drinks and soaked. So much fun! No pics were taken, sorry.
• We found a tubing hill that was SO FUN! We chatted with the owner for a while and found out that he was inspired to start this business after he drove past the sledding hill in Parley's canyon driving to and from Park City every day when he lived in Salt Lake. 

• Ice skating! This wasn't a very good bonding experience because I don't trust Giuseppe's stability on ice and I wouldn't let him near me. I'm kind of a baby when it comes to ice skating. But it really was fun! Giuseppe was able to do some cool tricks and not hurt himself, so I would consider the event a success. We asked two girls to take a picture of us on our phone, and right as she was about to take the picture, the phone died from the cold! She then gave us her phone so that we could take a picture of the two of them, but right as we were about to take it, her phone died! So no pics once again.
• On our last full day, we drove up to Wolf Creek, a ski resort. We had pretty much used up all of our funds at that point, so we just watched. 
• 
• We loved eating out! We went to a delicious sushi restaurant and ordered some of our favorites: maki, tempura, mochi, and edamame. We had a delicious breakfast at a hipster place called "Two Chicks And A Hippie". We went to one of the many breweries and ordered their "famous" homemade root beer. It wasn't good at all, and brave Giuseppe asked to switch it out.  

Three cheers for Pagosa Springs! We'll be visiting again one day.