Finally… I am getting around to Kristy’s wedding blog! I know most of you could probably care less at this point. You probably assume that Kristy and Trevor have 3 kids by now. Well, I know it seems like it’s been 3 years, but it has only been 3 months so the blog statute of limitations has not run out! Let me just start out by saying what some of you probably already know - having a wedding around Christmas is no picnic! That is a lot of details to attend to and I have to say that Christmas got the short end of the stick. (Sorry kids!!)
Kristy married Trevor Lacey on December 30th. They had a beautiful destination wedding just like the celebrities do!!! Except instead of a warm, tropical, exotic locale… they were married in cold, snowy Salt Lake City. And instead of a week’s worth of scuba diving, golfing, deep sea fishing, and spa treatments for all of the wedding guests… we took a train ride through Heber. And instead of wild and crazy bachelor and bachelorette parties… we went to the temple. And instead of having Napoleon and Tabitha choreograph our “Rock the Reception” dance… we had Courtney do it. Other than that, it was exactly the same!
We arrived in Salt Lake on Sunday, Dec. 27th. We stayed downtown. Our family was split between the Marriott and the Kimball. We were utilizing Kristy’s sweet Marriott employee discount and other friends and family had given us the use of two rooms at the Kimball – many thanks. Even though we were split, we were all quite comfortable! We took a walk on temple square. It is so beautiful during the Christmas season because all of the trees are covered in lights. It is just spectacular… cold but spectacular!
Monday was spent picking up tuxedos and a bouquet and other last minute errands. We also took a walk around the temple grounds. On Tuesday, we did a temple session in the Salt Lake Temple with all of our kids who are eligible – Kacey, Jon, Kristy and Brad. It truly is the best feeling in the world to be in the temple with your kids! I loved every minute of it. Trevor was not able to go with us which did not score him too many points with his new family but, luckily, he had extra credit in that category so it was okay! Funny side note: Brad did not have church clothes with him to wear to the temple and he didn’t want to run back to Provo just to get them and the stores were closed and we were going first thing in the morning. It looked like he was going to have to wear jeans and we would just have to beg for them to let him in. Then I remembered that he had his tux! So he wore his tux pants with his shirt with the tuxedo collar and his tux shoes. He looked like a best man who had partied all night and was still wearing his tux the next morning. It was pretty funny and embarrassing but they let him in!
Later on Tuesday, we all went for a ride on the Heber Creeper! It’s now called The Heber Valley Railroad but Utahns and BYU students know it better as the Heber Creeper. Maybe it’s always been called that and the Heber Creeper is just a nickname? What do I know? Trevor’s Dad, Craig Lacey, is the manager of the train and he had arranged for us to take a ride in a private car through the wintry landscape. It was beautiful and we had a great time. In December, the train runs a Polar Express ride that is very popular with the kids. Craig knows a lot about trains and he gave us a great tour. What a fun time! We wish more of our family could have enjoyed that with us because it was a lot of fun.
[Note: Jeff and Becky’s daughter, Kelsey, married Jon Edwards on Dec. 22nd in the Columbia River Temple (WA) so between the two weddings in two different states and other family holiday obligations, the relatives had to sort of choose between which events they could make it to. It was unfortunate to have to divide the relatives up because… ain’t no party like an Earl party! We really missed the ones that couldn’t be there but truly appreciated the ones who did. Thank you!]
Before we get to the big day, let's back up a little...
The Dress!
Courtney is the one who gets credit for picking the dress out! I saw it on the rack and thought the dress was gorgeous but it just didn’t seem like Kristy’s style and Kristy agreed. Courtney is the one who insisted that she at least try it on. She put it on and it was just beautiful, and I think we all realized that this dress was made for Kristy. You have to have just the right build for this dress and Kristy had it. It was more than Kristy finding the right dress, it was like the dress found the right owner! It only needed a little altering in the shoulder seams around the neckline and that was it. It was a little scary to have such a fitted dress because there was definitely no room to gain weight! Kristy is lucky enough to be naturally thin (go ahead - feel free to hate her) so it was all good.
[Wedding tip #1: For those in the market for a dress - We got Kristy’s dress at Abella Bridal in Provo (River Bottoms). They have beautiful dresses and they have one of the better selections with sleeves. They have a sister store in Sandy called Bridal Expressions which is even bigger than their Provo store. The dresses aren’t cheap but they aren’t too expensive either. I think most were between $600-$1200. For the quality of the dresses, the pricing seemed fair compared to what we had seen in other stores (obviously, it’s all relative!) There are other good bridal stores in the Salt Lake/Provo area but I would definitely recommend checking these out. ]
Note: Ashley (Earl) Boice’s husband, Cortney, did Kristy’s engagement, bridal and wedding photography. He has a real gift for photography and my hunch is that he has only begun to scratch the surface. He has an amazing eye. He doesn’t do it for a living but I bet he could. He is really good. Wedding photography is not really his thing but he was nice enough to do it for us and we really appreciated it. I am hoping that it becomes his thing! Shhh… don’t tell him.
Kristy just happens to be very photogenic. She has one of those faces that the camera just loves. We went out with Cortney to do a little bridal shoot of Kristy in her dress in early November. The weather had been warm and beautiful, but the day we were taking those pictures the temperature had dropped suddenly from about 68 degrees to 48 degrees. We learned two things that day. Number one – Kristy is not so photogenic when she’s cold! Number two – We were going to need warm accessories to go with her dress!
Here is Kristy, right before we are headed outside to take pictures...
Here is Kristy after about 3 mins. in the cold. She has lost the ability to smile and her hand is purple.
She tried to be a good sport but her smile just isn't the same when she's freezing!
I am really so grateful that the temperature dropped that day because when you’re warm and you think about cold weather, it’s easy to rationalize that you will be “fine” and that you can stand anything for a short amount of time. This photo shoot reminded all of us that being cold = being miserable. So we started looking for wedding boots and wedding gloves and wedding long johns and some sort of cape or jacket. Not that it’s a contest… but Kristy was definitely the best dressed and most prepared bride that day! (It’s not just my opinion - lots of people stopped us to tell us that it was their favorite dress of the day. Isn’t that funny? One middle aged man stopped me to tell me how impressed he was with all of our bridal party fashion choices. It was really nice but very odd, especially if you could have seen this guy. He did not look like anyone that would care about fashion.)
I love this picture. For some reason it reminds me of Vermeer's painting, "Girl with a Pearl Earring" except she's not wearing any earrings.
Stay tuned for part 2...
