Wedding Week

The week before Simon and Taylor’s wedding was a blur of preparations and people. We had the shower, bachelorette party, rehearsal dinner and the actual wedding to plan, prepare and execute. We also had family coming into town and friends to see. Grandmother Long arrived first, then Dirk, Jake, Kristin and Simon. Grandma and Grandpa Lowe arrived a few days before. Aunt Kathy, Uncle Todd, Max and Olivia drove from Kansas. Uncle Drew, Aunt Shawnae, Jenner, Sarah Jane and Hayden drove from California. Of course Aunt Kristi, Uncle Brad, Aaron, Kyle and Cam were there and Aunt Ladonna, Uncle Mike, Clark and Gavin (the ring bearers). Lisa Sessions was the wedding planner and her sister did the flowers...They were both so great! And it meant that Emma was around helping out during the whole thing! The wedding party was just one big group of friends, which was so fun! It was Zoey and Dirk, Me and Jake, Kandra and Aaron, Kecia and Eric, Allison and Marc. It was so good to see family and friends!

During the beginning of the week, mom and I made the favors for the wedding shower. Little magnets with Simon and Taylor’s faces on them in cute little bags. The shower was a huge success (Great job Zoey!!). Everyone had a great time, everything looked great and thanks to Mrs. Dolhanyk everything tasted fantastic!! Anna Stager lead the group in a devotional and talked to Taylor about her new life. Zoey and I had some games planned and Taylor opened all her gifts. I can’t wait to go visit them and play with all their new kitchen toys!! Mom, Mrs. DeJong, Zoey, Allison, Kandra and Kecia made Taylor a scrapbook cookbook that would have words of wisdom, a recipe and a picture of each person who was at her shower and some who couldn’t make it. It is such a great idea! I gave her a waffle iron and my recipe was a really good waffle recipe :)



After the shower I hung out with Kaile for a bit and Kandra, Kecia and Allison for a bit until I had to go to the airport to get Dirk. It was so good to see him! We rented a car as the rental placed closed and headed for home. We talked all the way home and pretty much solved all the worlds problems :) I had missed my brothers so much while I was in NZ!

I packed the seeds into the little bags for the wedding favors when I was at home one day. It was quite overwhelming to have all this fun wedding stuff to do, people to see and talk to, culture shock to deal with and a huge project looming over my head that was due back in NZ. So pretty much I just tried to forget about reality and jump in to this wedding week. As a result, when I think back on this time, it feel more like a dream than real life. A beautiful, fun, busy, incredible dream.

The next event was the Bachelorette Party! This was a very fun girls night that I will spare you the details of. We all had a great time, ended up with pretty nails, random shopping, full tummies, weird waiter, lots of pictures, presents for Taylor, great view of Portland, a toxic jump into the Columbia River and a cute movie. At about 3am when the boys were done with their shenanigans they picked up a very sleepy Jena and we headed home. This was the first time I had seen Jake in a long time and Simon had just flown in that day too. It felt so right driving home late with my brothers to the mountain....like the good old days! When I got to my room Kristin was asleep in my bed!! What a welcome surprise!

The next morning our entire family and Grandmother were home from a great brunch Mom fixed. Then we all packed up our best clothes and shoes for the next few days and headed to town to the Hilton. The out of town wedding guests stayed at the Hilton as well. It is only few minutes away from the Marshall House where the wedding will be. We all got ready for the rehearsal and the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal went well despite the rain. The dinner was in the Grant House just next door and it was a perfect location for the event. Everyone looked so beautiful and dashing! I sat at a table with Kandra, Emma and Lisa and we had a delightful dinner. It was such a happy time with friends and family!

The morning of Simon and Taylor’s wedding day all the girls in the wedding party got ready in a room in the Hilton. We had our hair done, put on our make-up and dresses just in time to go to the Marshall House for pictures. Taylor looked so incredibly gorgeous and happy in her dress that morning!!! Simon was so happy and so handsome!! Pictures were fun and they turned out really well.

After pictures is was time for all the girls to hide in the bridal room and time for all the guests to arrive. :) Everything went beautifully and smoothly. I cried when Mr. DeJong walked Taylor down the aisle and one big tear ran down his cheek as he stopped to give her away to my brother. Mr. Jackson prayed for them and Steve married them. God was so honored on that day and I’m sure he was so delighted in his children. I couldn’t stop smiling the whole time. Right after Steve blessed Simon and Taylor before he announced them husband and wife the sun shined...like God had smiled from heaven. It was perfect. They were radiant. I was so proud and so happy. The reception was a success too. There was great food, dancing, sunshine, toast that dared to make you cry, cupcakes, flowers, pictures, friends and family. Simon and Taylor left in a cute, little, old sports car and the party was over. They were hitched, God was glorified, the wedding was beautiful and we all had a great time. Perfect.



The next day I left to go back to New Zealand and reality. I got to go to church with my family, hang out and eat Mexican food with Dirk and our friends, tim tam slam with Grandmother, grab a few warm articles of clothing and head to the airport.

Wow what a week.