Surley Temple

This weekend was very busy but very exciting. At the end of last month Tyler and I took a temple class to get ready for a possible visit to the temple. Tyler was not sure when we would officially go but I thought right away seemed like a great idea. Anyway, I wanted this even to be special so I booked a room at a golf course near my house and sent out invitations. Then I bought Ian a white tux, Tyler a white suit and a temple dress for me. As I got into the plans they got more and more elaborate as I decided hey, we are getting sealed in the temple, this is like a wedding right? So I bought a wedding dress which was elegant and simple got a photographer and put together a menu for the guests which included chocolate dipped strawberries, croissant sandwiches, fruit ka-bobs veggie tray punch and a beautiful cake. Alicia, my sister was a great help in this endeavor in that she flew into Minneapolis in a huge snow storm and stayed up each night with me working on details of projects that I started. The night after the endowment, She stayed up with me until 2 am getting together the fruit and then I stayed up that night making the veggie trays and fresh flower vases for the tables.

Everything seemed ready to go in the morning when I woke up. Alicia did my hair, my dress fit perfect. We got to the temple in plenty of time. Alicia and I prepped in the Brides room and relaxed when I was all dressed and ready to go. Our Sealing started at 11am and I was told that the ceremony takes about 20 minutes on average and 30 minutes at the most. My photographer was waiting in the waiting room and would be ready at 20 after 11 to take pictures. It was 11:07 when I started to get nervous, at 11:15 they got me from the Brides room and sat me down next to Tyler. Finally at 20 after the ceremony began. The person presiding was talking all over the place like a unprepared freshman on the first day of speech class. He had some nice things to say don't get me wrong but we took the long way to get there. At 11:45 the room was getting uncomfortable. People began laughing silently, smirking and generally shifting around in their chairs wondering when this was going to end. When they brought Ian in it was cute to see him in his tux for the first time. That moment lasted about 30 seconds which was the moment that he recognized me from all the people in the room. He started to frown and then cry and finally he screamed to be in my arms. Everyone was aching to put this all to an end and I think Ian cued the presider that he better wrap this up or it was going to get ugly in a hurry. At about 12pm, we finally got out of there. I booked it to the brides room to collect my stuff and ran to the waiting room to meet the photographer. We had time for like 10 minutes of pics and then we had to dash off to meet Tyler's family who Tyler called to gather everything that we prepared the night before to the reception site. Believe me, with all the details, it was no small feat. Anyway, we get to the sight and I am freaking out cuz I did not get to use decoration that I spent hrs prepping. The stress was building and building I then I took a breath and decided to accept things as they were and enjoy myself. I needed to remember that though things were not quite as I envisioned them, things were still beautiful. I had made my life goal to got to the temple and I was sealed to my wonderful husband and beautiful son Ian.

Alicia said as we were driving to the reception site, "After all the work you did to put this together, I think I want to elope."