Wedding Celebrations

August 15 was the hottest day of the year 2015 in Mesa, Arizona. Undeterred by 117 F temperatures, our families all came out to be with us on our big day and even stand in the baking sun for some obligatory photos. 

We chose to be sealed in the Mesa Temple, being the closest geographically and the one we are both most familiar with. The ceremony was administered by Dale Despain, who served as one of Rob's bishops when he attended a singles ward, and has remained in touch through subsequent church activity. His advice was that a marriage is like an internship for life, and during the course of it we will learn more about ourselves from each other than we ever could on our own. After the temple ceremony, we met outside in the afternoon sun for family photos and greetings, which were brief. Rob had family coming down from the Salt Lake City area, and Becky had family coming up from Tucson and Sierra Vista, AZ. Afterwards, we went to Jack In Box for a quick lunch with some of Becky's family (because who needs pricey wedding luncheons? Not us!), before we got ready for the reception.

Our wedding reception was mostly a DIY affair. All told, we maybe spent a couple thousand dollars, as we were all about frugal celebrations. Thus, we had family and friends help us out with photos as well as much of the set up and decorations, which we planned for and bought. We also held the reception at a historic chapel building not far from the temple that came at no charge. For the decorations, we had lights strung from posts cemented in buckets that Becky fashioned, and tables decorated with black and ivory tablecloths with Bananagrams tiles for fun, and lanterns with flowers that Becky and her mom came up with. We had discussed doing cold smoothies as a refreshment, but ended up going with a yogurt parfait bar instead for practical reasons (blenders are loud). A week or so before the reception, Rob had the clever idea to order some mini LED lights online and tie them to helium balloons. After some initial testing at home to iron out the wrinkles (the balloons required sticky tape on top to keep them anchored to the ceiling due to ventilation), that seemed to work out well. It was a bit stressful getting everything set up and ready to go before people arrived (we were still getting the final touches ready when the first guests came in) and there were some issues with the strings of lights, but at the end of the night, it all went pretty well. Of course, what really mattered were the people there. Worlds collided in spectacular fashion as we had family from near and far, and friends new and old from school, church and the various social circles that we knew. We felt overwhelmed with all the people who came to show their love and support -- some of them were people who came out of the woodwork that we hadn't seen in a long time. During the reception, we mostly just mingled rather than doing a line. We didn't really do anything traditional except cutting the cake, and even that we didn't do properly (see video below). After people had come and gone, Rob's brother-in-law Erik drove us to the airport as family kindly stayed behind to do cleanup.

A few weeks later, after the honeymoon, we also had an open house in Utah where we could spend more time with family and some of Rob's friends. Rob's sister Victoria and her family were kind enough to lend their backyard to the occasion, and we had snacks and mingling around the patio. We also had a ping-pong table out and some other things to keep the young and old entertained. Becky had some relatives come out that she hadn't seen in a very long time, and Rob got to see friends from the ward he grew up in, and some of his childhood friends that he was close with and hasn't seen in a long time.

You can see more photos of our wedding celebrations here.