Reception/Dance Party

While we stayed at the luncheon, my mom took the boys home for lunch and then they went down to my Aunt's house to have a playdate with my cousin's boys.  They had a blast and Taylor and I and Isla got some much needed naps before the reception.  Of course Barbara couldn't do anything traditional for her reception and vetoed using the Country Club even before anyone suggested it.  They ended up renting out the University of Utah's football stadium.  There's a big common area beside all the box suites that has amazing views overlooking downtown Salt Lake.  It was absolutely gorgeous.

And the best part turned out to be the dancing.  I'll admit it- I was getting a little crabby after 2 full days of activities and still being soar from labor but watching my boys macking on all the bridesmaids and other girls there was truly hilarious.  And they were happy so we stayed.
Ethan and Miles dancing with Grams and Grandpa.

Ethan on his own with Grams while Isaac and Miles monopolize Sophia.

Of course then Ethan needed a turn with her.  She is the favorite cousin after all!

This dance was probably the most hilarious of the night.  Isaac went and asked this cute girl to dance and then kept dragging her back for the entire song.  She's several years older than him and was a good sport to put up with his bossing.

Just one of the bridesmaids Isaac dragged onto the floor.

I know it's small but here's a panoramic shot of the whole place.

And I insisted there be a shot of my cute kids.  Hopefully the real photographer got a better version.  For now this is their first picture all 4 together.

The cake had to be non-traditional too so they had edible pictures of themselves added to the sides!

See?  Both Ethan and Isaac can't stay away from the cute bridesmaids!

This one is at least one of Taylor's cousin.

I let Taylor drag me out for just one song since it was our own wedding song.

Ethan enjoyed the bubble party favors.

Miles enjoyed the cake- Lots of it!

And I made Taylor take Isla out for their first daddy-daughter dance.  He was mortified!  I know it's a little cheesy but 20+ years from now they'll be so cute to have at her wedding- just 10 days old.

Of course the band had to play the West Virginia song.  You can see downtown in the background.

After more than an hour of dancing and lots of eating and fun we were all tuckered out and headed home.  Just a few last minute shots of Isla in her dress since I forgot to take any earlier.  A neighbor actually gave me this dress randomly at a baby shower they did.  Perfect for the wedding!

The boys were great all weekend and it really was fun to be a part of it all.  Thankfully it was all close by.  I'm not sure I could have handled traveling that soon.  Here's Sunday after church.  The boys sat down to watch a movie before dinner and Miles passed out.  He NEVER does this!  I guess we wore him out.

Barbara and Clint's Wedding

We love Taylor's sister Barbara.  She was the closest sibling to us when we lived in DC and she was in West Virginia and that made it so we could visit often.  Now that she and Clint are back living and working in Salt Lake we get to see even more of them each Sunday night for dinner at his parents and then whenever we beg them to borrow their truck or to babysit our boys.  We love them!  Our boys love them!  And we think she and Clint are perfect for each other.  They're definitely not opposites attract.  They are the same.  100% the same.  They love the outdoors and rugby and rafting and dogs.  They're just good, fun, happy people and we couldn't be happier for them.  

Barbara is quite the tom-boy though and I often tell people she's more of a boy than her 3 older brothers are.  She played professional rugby, was a white water rafting guide, drives a huge pickup truck, and HATES wearing dresses or anything girly.  So for the past year while she's been planning her wedding it has been quite interesting to watch from the sidelines.  And in the end their wedding was truly them.  The dresses, the shoes, the flowers, the setting, the reception, the music- it was all THEM.  And it was beautiful!

The wedding was at Red Butte Gardens which is the local botanical gardens in Salt Lake.  Gorgeous with all the warm weather we've been having and the mountains in the background.  

All the bridesmaids walking down.

Unfortunately the past 2 months have literally been sunny and in the 70's and Saturday morning was supposed to be 50's and rain ALL DAY.  But by some miracle, we woke up that morning and it was just overcast and they got to hold the wedding outdoors.  

Pastor Taylor and all the groomsmen waiting for everything to start.  

See the boat shoes that both the bridesmaids and groomsmen are wearing.  Very Barbara and Clint!  And the blue and orange was beautiful with all the green.

Here's Barb waiting for her turn to come down.

And then the ring bearers.  Ethan was a ring bearer at Arty's wedding in Dubai 2 years ago and it was sort of a disaster.  We had to wake him up from a nap and he was literally half a world off his schedule and had been sick for 24 hours and he honestly cried the whole way down the aisle.  Funny... now.
He was much better this time around and actually very cute in his little suit and bowtie.  Barbara and Clint tied their rings to beanie babies and had the boys carry those.  Ethan had the bride.

And Isaac had the groom bear.  Thankfully mom my noticed 2 seconds before sending him to walk down the aisle that he had untied the ring and was twirling it around his finger.  That could have been a disaster!

They wanted Miles to walk down too even though they didn't have a ring or beanie baby for him to carry.  And that certainly wasn't going to fly with this particular 2 1/2 year old.  Barbara had actually been trying to find a way to include her Golden Retriever in the wedding but couldn't think of a good way since he's not the most obedient of dogs.  Understatement!  So we had the brilliant idea to get a dog beanie for Miles to carry.  And it worked.  He was so happy with his dog that he forgot to act up in any way and walked perfectly right behind Isaac.

Here comes the bride!

Barbara's dress was beautiful!  And completely her!  There were some tears when she bought a dress with a beautiful full train (I'm told) and then insisted on chopping it all off and making it a tea length dress.  But it was her and it was perfect!

Amazingly these boys were quiet and great for the whole 10 minute ceremony.  Miles got to hold the dog since there was no ring attached and that seemed to help.

The real story of the wedding (at least for our family blog) is that Taylor was the pastor or reverend or bishop or whatever you want to call him.  Barbara and Clint aren't really very religious and didn't have anyone they really wanted to do the ceremony so they asked Taylor knowing they could then have more input on what he said.  Taylor asked our bishop if this was appropriate and our bishop was apparently wildly excited about it and said he should absolutely do it.  Of course Taylor has no authority from the LDS church to marry someone but luckily in the state of Utah, you can join any number of random online ministries and they'll give you a license to marry and the state is cool with that.  So Taylor joined the Universal Life Church Monastery online and then he got to marry them.  If you don't believe me just go to the website http://www.themonastery.org/main They even have a segment from Conan O'Brien explaining how easy it was for him to become a minister!  Kind of funny but it's what they wanted and it was legal.
For the actual ceremony they wanted Taylor to just keep it short and come up with it himself.  He even wrote their vows!  So the two moms read a poem together.  Then Taylor talked about how Eve was made from Adam and thus they were made from the same things and were perfect companions for each other.  Barbara and Clint definitely personify this.  They are a perfect match.  Then he read a poem about true love and then there were vows including promising to cheer for all Baltimore and Utah teams and to never cheer for Pittsburg or the Lakers.  Fun to have a very personalized ceremony.  Taylor did a great job- exactly what they wanted and a beautiful ceremony.

And just as the tiny sprinkles of rain began, Taylor was finished and the happy couple literally danced back down the aisle.

And so did the rest of the wedding party- complete with surprise sunglasses they all pulled out of their pockets- yep, even the girls had pockets.  So cute!  and so Barbara and Clint!

Here come the rain clouds.  Taylor started the ceremony right on time because he was watching the doplar on his cell phone and knew it was going to be close.  The whole thing took about 10 minutes which was just what the couple wanted.  It sprinkled during the pictures (Isla didn't appreciate this nor did I with a 10 day old in a tiny dress and a blanket) and then it poured and thundered as soon as we were inside for the lunch.  Truly a miracle!

This is how Isla watched the wedding- asleep and toasty warm in her carseat... until I dragged her out for the pictures.

The Woodbury Family: Mack, Sam, Jeff, Sonia, Barbara, Clint, Taylor, Sarah with Isla, Esther, Arty and Isaac, Ethan and Miles in front.

The cute siblings.

After a few pictures we rode a golf cart up to the luncheon (10 days postpartum I wasn't really up to hiking the 1/2 mile through the Botanical gardens :).  Grandma Tina took the boys home- thank you!  And we stayed with Isla for lunch and toasts and visiting with family.  Taylor got to explain over and over how he became a pastor.  Best toast one-liner:  only in West Virginia do you ask a girl on a date so you can borrow her truck to go buy a grill at the store so you can make her a steak.

Before-wedding stuff

Taylor and I have a running joke about how different our families are on the concept of planning.  Taylor's family believes in winging it most of the time (like 99% of the time) and my family believes in the opposite- all planned, all the time, for everything.  So he made fun of my mom and I for spending Thursday morning at the Dollar Store and Costco buying non-perishable food and grandma box prizes for our family reunion that is still 6 weeks away.  But why not get things done now?  And I in turn made fun of him for not even knowing what time the wedding was at on Saturday- yep the one where he was the pastor and might need to be on time?!?

Somehow they always get it done but I prefer the planning route.  So here's Taylor's mom planting flowers the night before everyone gets in town.  Ethan and Isaac were happy to "help".

And since I never knew the plan for the wedding I just assumed it was all on Saturday.  I forgot with this being Memorial Day weekend that everyone would come in on Thursday and stay through Monday.  Oh well, more hang out time for everyone with a 9 day old baby.  And everyone was nice enough to come over (and use hand sanitizer) so we were happy to let them love on her too.
Here's Esther all the way from London (and Miles who is sure he needs to be part of the attention too).

And Sam all the way from New York.  You'll notice their husbands/fiances aren't holding the baby because they're both pretty scared of them.

And Aunt Linda and the cousins from Dallas.

And the cousins from California- yeah no baby holding, these ones are more interested in my boys and my boys were overjoyed to leave Isla in her bouncy chair and get some attention of their own!

Friday afternoon was the rehearsal.  Miles had to be dragged down the make-believe aisle while Ethan and Isaac ran circles around the garden.  High hopes indeed for the next day!
And Friday night was the rehearsal dinner.  Thankfully my mom took the boys home to get a good nights sleep and we enjoyed the beautiful Utah canyons with Isla and the other adults.

We'll skip the Saturday pictures since there are A TON.  And here's Sunday.  Family dinner at Taylor's parents home with all 26 people still in town.  The cousins brought stuffed animals for the boys so they wouldn't feel left out with people giving lots of presents to Isla.  Miles got a small Elmo and have carried him around non-stop for the past several days.  He's in love!

And we finally got Mack to hold the baby- just get him tired enough and promise him he can sleep undisturbed on the couch if he just holds the sleeping baby.  DEAL!