Ring Ceremony and Dinner

After taking pictures outside the temple our families and friends left for the Sky Room on BYU campus, where Zach and I held our ring ceremony and dinner the evening of our wedding. Zach and I decided on holding a reception the week after our honeymoon, hoping it would make things much less stressful for everyone involved. I anticipated a breezy wedding day; get married in the late afternoon and then head straight for a dinner and program. Zach’s mother, Julie, was entirely responsible for this event and she did a terrific job. It was beautiful and personal which was exactly what we wanted.

After taking pictures around the temple in a rain storm, Zach and I drove to the Sky Room to meet all our guests for the ring ceremony. My brother-in-law, Dan, officiated the ceremony, which means he poked fun at us the entire time. Most of his content had to do with how our personality differences and strengths support and complement each other. He was fun and sweet and made everyone giggle.  Then, at the request of the audience, Zach took the microphone to give a few words and started out tender but I snatched the mic to clarify when he began to thank various people in the crowd for making sure he never broke up with me. Zach and I are very happy and very in love but we had a few bumps in the road while we were dating. Both of us were initially terrified of marriage and the life change it requires. Our anxieties always seemed to be on opposite schedules; if he was scared and nervous, I felt calm and peaceful about it. But as soon as he began to feel good about moving forward, the fears settled in for me. We had hundreds of good times in between all of this, obviously, we were growing to love each other more every day, but somehow that didn’t make the plunge any easier. In fact, because Zach and I knew we were going to end up together from the very first date, it almost made it harder. We were fighting the inevitable. Choosing one person to belong to for the rest of your life and eternity is a big, sometimes scary deal. We both had to put so much work into making sure it was right. It took us 13 months from start to finish and I’m very glad we took our time. Zach was trying to express gratitude to our friends for helping us work through our fears and anxieties, but it might have sounded a little unromantic if you didn’t know the whole story. He made it up to me in front of all our guests with kisses and nuzzles. Silly Zaglette.

After the ring ceremony we all took our seats for dinner. I had asked for a few of our siblings and friends to say a little something. My sister Danielle was the emcee. You can always count on Danielle to entertain, she’s a natural! We had Zach’s sister, Emma, my sisters Danielle and Allysann, one of my best friends, Jordan Metcalf, and two of his best friends, Ryan Metcalf and Ryan Richey, give toasts. Their words were so sweet and full of love and sincerity. Lots of tears from us all. After the toasts we watched a slide show my sister Sharon made for us. This was one of my favorite parts of the night. Zach sat at our table, I stood behind him with my arm around his shoulder, in my other arm I held my 3 year old niece, Georgia.  We watched the slide show together and by the last song I realized Zach was crying. It melted my heart completely. Our wedding day was the first time I had ever seen him cry and my heart felt like it was going to burst with love for everyone in the room who played a part in our story growing up, but especially for my new husband of… 3 hours. Your wedding day is heavy with emotion, you guys! I don’t even know if there will be another day in my life where I’m so overwhelmed with feelings! I kissed his cute, wet face and then we cut our cake (made by my totally talented brother-in-law, Peter, the Mighty Baker) and served it to everyone.

Our time was running out, we only had the Sky Room until 7:00 PM (which was perfect!) so I ran to the bathroom and my sister, Allysann, helped me change. It was there that I realized for the first time the entire evening that my hair looked like I survived a hurricane. HA! I was shocked! No one told me I looked so ratty and ridiculous! Ah well, these pictures make me laugh now. It’s all part of my wedding day memories! And I have much more pretty and pleasing pictures to come with my next post 😉

All Photos by Heather Nan Parkinson