Elise and Ethan Reception Details

 Such a perfect day!  We were so lucky to have all the details from Morgans Wedding in May as a template.  We used her catering vendor, Caley's Catering and also the DJ.  They were incredible!  Caleys was taking care of every detail and you can see that they just want to make the day run as smoothly as possible.  They provided all the rentals like tables, chairs, linens, the LOVE sign, lanterns, yard games, sparklers for the send off, etc.  We did Pizza, Italian Sodas, Milkshakes and Crumbl cookies.

The luncheon was at Pizzeria 712 in Orem and was so good!  We are all still feeling like we need to go back.  I don't know if the watermelon salad is seasonal or not, but I really need to have that again.  Ethan's mom arranged everything and reserved the restaurant.  Jenna, his sister made the slideshow.  And it was a fun get together with all of our close family and a few friends too.  

After the luncheon we had a little time before photos at the reception in Holladay.

The DJ was awesome.  Elise and Ethan loved the dancing and wanted a party and they got it.  I loved how he brought the confetti cannons and firework machines (don't know what they are called.)

Flowers by Mille Fleur Design were so beautiful!  When we arrived at the venue on the wedding day my sisters told me to go see the arch.  I was so blown away.  I love flowers and we spent a pretty good portion of our budget on them.  And I worried a little about that.  But I could not have been happier!  I knew when I saw the bouquet for the bridals that they were going to be amazing.  They were better than we even hoped for.

We borrowed floating candles from my friend.  We ordered the welcome sign from ModLode on Etsy.  The copper frame was courtesy of Morgan and Chases Wedding.  We brought a few frames and easels from home and ordered a couple things from Anthropologie.  Couth Photo Booth did the Photo Booth.  They used a template from Etsy that was customized from BenandKatya.  The neon sign over the cake also from Etsy.  Guestbook from mPix.  It arrived one day after I ordered it!  We put a few large white balloons in the pool.  And the flowers on the diving board were supposed to be attached to the neon sign with wire grids,  but we were able to hang the neon sign with fishing line and didn't use the grids afterall.  So the diving board got decorated!  haha.

Jen Anderson Photos did the engagement photos, which were gorgeous!  We always love Jen and she has a knack for capturing details and knows how to make you look good.  We used Ashlyn Stott for the wedding day.  Elise liked the light and bright style of her photos.

Candids from the whole day

 Phone pictures really fill in the story best!  Pro tip, have the hair and makeup people come to your house.  It would have been a lot easier.

Curls at Pro Do in Lehi

Clash of Clans while waiting their turn for makeup :)

Isn't she beautiful?

It was so fun to have Marge here!  She watched from inside the house once it got more crowded!

Ethan's beautiful mom!  She looks so young!

I snapped this before the take down!  Still so pretty even at the end of the night.

Simone's fake baby

I thought her caption was cute!  I like hearing how my kids tell their story.

 In junior high, maybe even high school, some kids took a child development class and had to carry around a bag of flour for a weekend.

We giggled about it a lot.  And now that same assignment has gone high tech.  They have baby dolls that have all kinds of technical settings that cry, have to have their diapers changed, need a bottle, etc.  The baby comes with a bracelet that Simone had to wear that would detect if she wasn't in the same room with it.  I think the intended outcome of this assignment is to reduce overpopulation.  Haha.

We had the funniest weekend when it was Simone's turn to have her baby.  I know for a fact she would have chosen an alternate assignment if she'd known what a pain it would be.  But it was pretty funny despite the annoyance.

First off, she sprained her ankle.  So carrying the baby around was hard!  One day we walked into the kitchen and Simone's guy friend was giving the baby a bottle and she was getting something out of the pantry.  Jared had to really restrain himself on that perfect setup!  So many great one liners.  Haha didn't want to embarrass Simone or her friend but it was hard to resist.

Simone went on a climbing day trip and had to use a backpack to transport the baby due to crutches.  She was embarrassed when the other climbers see her with this doll.  Haha.  We all took lots of turns holding it so she could sleep.  It was waking her up all night crying.  And I got to be a fake grandma.  I played it up really well I think.  

I reassured her this assignment was nothing like having a real baby.  Although I like that the assignment does help kids understand the responsibility of being a parent isn't easy.  

Monets Graduation

 I did the last post which got me thinking that I haven't kept up on my blog very well and I never posted about Monet's graduation.

I thought it was really sweet to see how much thought went into making the 2020 graduates a little more special to make up for the loss of their prom, sports seasons, senior trip, senior awards nights, dinner dance, etc.  It was a drive through graduation which everyone really liked!  Those administrators and teachers were all in cheering for each kid as they drove through and walked up to get their diploma.  You could see how hard they were trying to give these kids some love!  It was hot and sunny out there. 

The neighbors did a little drive through senior celebration and that was also super nice where the kids drove around in a trailer and people brought them little gifts.  We planned a very small senior night for the lacrosse girls.  Kinda like a banquet but micro.  

I loved all the different ways people thought of to make it special!  Instead of a senior trip we went surfing up at Deer Creek.  Not quite the same!  But I think she made up for it when she spent a semester in Hawaii doing online classes and living with her friends.  I'm so happy they put that together.  Now nearly all are on missions.

Anyway, I love this girl.  When all of this uncertainty was happening, I felt a lot of mama bear feelings.  No 18th birthday celebration, no prom, no track or lacrosse season (both started out SO well) it was a total bummer.  But its nice to see the hindsight that things work out!  It's all okay.  She even got to do a little skydiving trip to Moab with her friends in May because no school!  We get through the disappointments.  And it all works out in the end.

Monet was offered full scholarships to all the schools she applied to, except for BYU.  She got a half tuition at BYU and that is where she chose to go!  Super proud of her hard work.

They really wanted a picture in front of the "World Class" they think its really funny for some reason.

Yearbook Predictions

Simone came home and told me that she got voted "Most likely to win Hunger Games" and "Most likely to be an Olympian" for the yearbook.  So they told her to choose one and she picked the Olympian so she could match Monet's senior yearbook prediction.  Elise got "Most Athletic girl" in 9th grade. 

The Hunger Games thing really cracks me up though.  I could see it.  We joke sometimes that we can't tell if Simone is going to be a Cabela's type of outdoor enthusiast, with hunting, fishing, guns and lives on a ranch somewhere or an REI type of outdoor enthusiast who lives in a van and hangs out at the crag with her other van life friends.  I think she's a little bit of both.  At any rate, she loves physical activity.  She was very happy yesterday because her weights class is helping her in climbing, despite the ankle sprain that kept her off the hard climbs for a month.