The Rehearsal Dinner Blog: Dec 21st

The Martins hosted a beautiful dinner the night before for friends and family. We are blessed to have such a large group of family and friends – the final count was 120. We invited 120 and I’m pretty sure the Martins expected about 80%. Every chair was filled. How cool is that? I think I’ll bullet list my thoughts and observations.

I had a very difficult time writing my speech for the dinner. There were so many approaches to take. Lelu told me to be funny. Aub told me not to talk about my Lord & Savior. I think it was TT who said not to talk about philosophy. I pretty much chose to add it all. I didn’t start writing until about 4 hours before the dinner and finished it at the dinner.
B and I were equally impressed by all of our kids and their ability to speak publicly and figured out to hilariously roast Lelu with love and zero meanness. I mean they were truly entertaining!
B and Master D put together a video in one afternoon that I felt like made up for our inability to find and convert our videos of Lelu growing up to add to the video Lelu really wanted. (Lelu had a small – ish breakdown before the dinner about the video and I think she released all of her stress on Jake and then was able to enjoy her day)
I believe everyone enjoyed themselves – and if I’m wrong – please don’t tell me unless I can do something about it. I like living in blissful ignorance sometimes.
I sadly don’t have photos of everyone. Hindsight is a distressing teacher. I texted everyone I thought might have some photos and I got a few. Jake’s family all spoke too.

Guest Blogger: Lelu

December 22, 2018 was the best day of my life. No, really, THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE. If I think about it long enough, I will legitimately start crying! I feel so lucky. I have hands down, the VERY BEST people in my life, which I’ve always known, but on my wedding day, it was like punch to my face! I AM SO BLESSED.

For December, In UTAH, December 22nd was beautiful. Not a single cloud in the sky, NO INVERSION, and about 40 degrees. I honestly couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather in December. Not to mention, it was Winter Solstice AND a Full Moon, which won’t happen for another 80 years. I had no idea this would be the case! Everything was just perfect.

December 21

The day prior to the wedding, December 21st, I felt so overwhelmed. I had a million things to do and about 24 hours to do it. Long story short, I dropped a few choice words and had a bit of a meltdown. But cut me some slack! It is STRESSFUL to plan a wedding! You put in SO much thought, work, and effort into this one day, you can’t help but think everything has to be perfect! After my brief meltdown, I was able to calm down and get ready for our rehearsal dinner that night, which happened to be one of my favorite parts of our wedding. I remember, after everyone had arrived, I looked around and felt alllllll the emotions. I LOVE MY PEOPLE. All of them were there supporting Jake & I. It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world to be surrounded by all those you love and have them there for YOU. I felt so loved and so blessed. It’s difficult to even express in words.

We held our rehearsal dinner at The Mill Plaza in Gardner Village. It was just magical! Glass ceilings, twinkling lights, farmhouse tables, pine garlands, red roses, it was all so beautiful! For dinner, we chose the “Holiday Buffet,” which included mashed potatoes, roasted vegetables, rolls, ham, and chicken cordon bleu. It was DELISH! After dinner, we had each of our siblings and our parents give speeches and lemme tell ya! I cried! Each of them did such a beautiful job. I love them. There was lots of laughter and lots of tears shed. Towards the end, we showed our first look video and it all just hit me! WE MADE IT. We’re doing it! We are getting married! Jake & I stood up to thank everyone for coming, and I couldn’t help but cry. Even Jake broke down! I felt so much love for the man standing next to me. I felt so much love for the people sitting in front of me! I don’t even remember what I said but I felt so blessed! It was the best rehearsal dinner I could have even imagined. HUGE thank you to Bruce and Debi for putting it all together.