My Bridal Shower was so much fun!  It was planned by Elaine and Whitney with extra help from Kster and Sheena.  They all did such an amazing job!  From the invitations, to the decorations, down to the drinks, not one thing was overlooked or  unplanned.  Here is the cute invite Whitney put together from scratch!  She is awesome at invitations, birth announcements, and holiday cards.  So cute!

It was so much fun to get together with family and friends to celebrate the upcoming big day.  The gifts I received were beyond my wildest dreams!  Everyone was so generous and I am proud to say we didn’t take a single thing back!  A big thank you to Elaine for all of her hard work, it was the ultimate party and I walked away feeling like the luckiest girl ever!   In fact, I’m pretty sure I heard several people refer to it as a “small reception” it was that amazing.  But lets be honest, are you surprised!?  Elaine is the Queen of making things happen.

Elaine and Whitney, I love these ladies!

Whitney was one of my best friends growing up, and she has always been nice enough to share her mom with me.  They moved next door when I was 8 years old.  I remember the first day that they moved in I marched over and  knocked on the door to see if Whitney could play.  She was babysitting and said no, however that didn’t stop me.  I knocked on the door every hour all day long until Whitney was finally able to play; now almost 21 years later and we’re still playing.  The only difference between then and now is, now I don’t have to knock.   🙂

Stephanie, Laura, and Annalise Felt

Wow, I could go on forever about these lovely ladies.  I met the Felts when I was about 8 years old when they moved into our ward. I remember I was really big into babysitting and Stephanie had the two cutest boys named Malcolm and Wyatt.  I really wanted to babysit them and got my big chance when Stephanie got called as the  activities day leader in our ward.  Later came Bria, Annalise, and Jensen and ever since then we’ve been hanging out doing the best activities ever!

Right to Left: Amber, Whitney, Kster, Sheena, Jill and Tammy.

Amber, Whitney, Sheena, Tammy and I all grew up in the same ward.  We all are pretty much within a year or so of each other.  We spent all our time together going to Sunday classes, youth activities, girls camp, and school.  It’s rare that you find of group of girls like this that grow up together and still remain friends.  Kster and Jill have become my very close friends through Jr. High, High School, and College.  I am so glad to know each of these ladies and call them friends!

Grandma Waters

Is she not just the sweetest Grandma Ever?!  Both of Jason’s Grandma’s are just the sweetest ladies in the whole world.  It meant so much to me that they both came.   (somehow Grandma Evans got away without getting a picture.)

Lana

This is Jason’s Aunt who made me the cutest “flirty apron” you ever saw!  She is also the best baker in town!  Holy cow she can make anything taste good… Even Gluten Free stuff!

Sisters

I love her.  It was so much fun to have so many of my sister in-laws here too!  They all helped so much in helping to get me ready for the big day!

The Food – Everything tasted amazing!

The Flowers – Yes they are Tiffany blue!

Even the drinks were the right colors!  Go Sheena!

This cute table display was put together by my best friend Kster.  She gathered tons of pictures of Jas and I and put them on a table with little cards for people to write down their favorite memory with me, as well as give us advise on being married.  The cards turned out so cute!

Also, I have to point out the center display.  Elaine hand made that from tissue paper.  Is that not the cutest thing ever!? Her skills for decorating go unmatched.

Right after the reception, since so many of my friends and family were all in the same place, we decided to jump into the car an go dress shopping.   This was really the first Saturday that I had time to think about a dress, and having everyone around to help put in their 2 cents was perfect! We ended up trying on dresses all afternoon.  I loved it!  I really didn’t think that I would, however there is something magical about being in love, putting on a white dress, and standing on a petal stool, that just makes you feel like a princess.   This whole day was more then I could have ever dreamed.  It really was perfect.

Our engagement was crazy-short but so fun!  Honestly, the whole time I was laughing to myself saying…. “Who does this!”

After getting engaged, the very first questions everyone asks are;

–How did he propose?  You can read that story below, it’s kind of amazing.

–When are you getting married?  We had always talked about having a long courtship and a short engagement, which we held true to!  Six weeks is long enough to plan a wedding, right?

–Where are you getting married?  We knew we wanted to get married in the Salt Lake, Timpanogos, or Redlands Temple in California, however deciding on which one (with them all being so beautiful) was so hard.  We finally decided that we would get married in Timpanogos…. or so I thought.

Less then 24 hours after getting engaged I boarded a plane to Mississippi where I spent a week away on a business trip.  Who does that!  (not that I really had a choice and I would not recommend it.)

Immediately after I returned home from my work trip you would think that I would jump right into the wedding planning, but I didn’t.  Instead, Jas and I packed up the car and headed up to Bear Lake for his family reunion.  Every year his family goes up to Bear Lake in August where we stay for a week making memories and having fun!  Yes, you heard me right, 1 week!  Who is this girl!  Who leaves to go out of town with only 5 weeks remaining to plan a wedding?!  That would be me!  Just the thought of having to think about all that “girl stuff” for the wedding was enough to make me head straight out of town!

These are the only pictures we took at Bear Lake this year…

<<pictures>>

When I arrived home from my trip I got a call from my friend Elaine (Whitney’s mom) saying I needed to come over to meet with her.  I said I would love to come over but what do we need to meet about?  She said, um Shalauna you get married in 4 weeks and I have a checklist of all the things you need to be working on.  There’s lots to do! HA!  Isn’t that just great!  I just love that girl!  I would have been lost without all of her checklist and followup phone calls.  Elaine I love you!

Ahhh, and here is where the craziness begins!

Who knew that waking up at 5:20am on Saturday, July 31st would change everything.

On Friday, Jason dropped me off at my house and said, “sweetie, go straight to bed because I have an adventure planned for us tomorrow, and the only catch is, I need to pick you up at 5:20am!”

Anyone who knows me, knows I only have one 5 o’clock in my day and it’s in the PM. He told me it would be worth it so I agreed; little did I know that soon he’d be making my dreams come true.

At 5:20am we jumped in the car and the adventure began. We got on the freeway and started heading North on I-15 as if we were going to Salt Lake. Keep in mind I have no idea where we are going, what we are doing, or what the plan was for the day. This never happens. Seriously. I always find out surprises and keeping one from me is a pretty tough job.

Instead of staying on I-15 going North bound, he exited the freeway and started heading East towards Parley’s Canyon. At this point Jason looked over at me and said,

“Do you want to know where we are going?”

I said, “Yes.”

He said, “There’s a sale up at the Park City outlets and the first people to arrive get FREE iPhones!”

I said, “Ha, yeah right! Like you’d have any idea if the outlets were having a sale!” 🙂

For someone who already has the new iPhone, I knew that this would never be the reason to get him up at 5:00am on a Saturday.

As we approached Park City we did take the Outlet exit, however, we didn’t go shopping.

Instead, we pulled into a parking lot where there was a truck with a trailer attached. Jason got out of the car and approached the truck and introduced himself. It turns out the guy he was meeting would be a big part of our adventure.

After introductions, we all jumped back into our cars and followed the truck over to a huge open field. As we pulled in, and as the trailer got unloaded, I started to realize that everything I could see looked like the makings of a hot air balloon! The only reason why I knew this was because Jason for the last 2 years has taken me to the balloon show down in Provo on the 4th of July. Just as I am putting all the pieces together he looks over at me and says,

“Do you want to know what we are doing today?” I anxiously said “yes!”

That’s when he said, we’re going on a hot air balloon ride! You can only imagine the freaking out that took place after!

With all the excitement going on, and just when I think it can’t get any better, Will (they guy taking us up in the sky) let us get in on all the action of setting up the balloon.

(Keep in mind I didn’t have time to “mentally prepare” for a balloon ride so I was really excited but a little nervous too. I mentally had to keep saying to myself, “baskets are really safe to stand in, I’m sure it’s weaved together really tight”. ” “I don’t know of anyone that has died in a hot air balloon ride, although I also don’t know of anyone that has ever been in one either!” Oh crap!

As we were getting our balloon set up, about 6 other teams arrived at the field. Summer is the peak season for balloon riding and the site we were at was a popular place for launching off. This turned out to be really cool because we got to have our own little balloon show! So fun.

Just as we were finishing getting ready, I started looking around and noticing that everyone else was going to have 6-12 people in there baskets however, our ride was only scheduled to have Jason, me, and our pilot. I honestly didn’t know if I should think that was awesome or be scared that no one else picked our pilot to take them on a ride!

Once we were were all set-up and the balloon was inflated and ready for lift off, we both climbed into the basket. Our balloon and several others began to peacefully float into the sky. As we began to ascend Jason was so excited. He was hanging over the sides, laughing, and pointing out tons of fun things on the ground.

About 300 or 400 feet off the ground he says to me,

“Sweetie come look at this, it’s amazing!”

As I look over towards the ground where he is pointing I see a huge banner that says,

“WILL YOU MARRY ME?”

I look at Jason and say,

“Cute! I wonder who is getting engaged today?”

That is when he looked back at me and said,

“It takes a little faith to climb into this hot air balloon together. We don’t really know which direction the winds will blow or where we will land. We don’t have a ton of experience and we’re not sure what to expect. But since we’re together, somehow we know it’s going to be just fine. We’re going to have a great ride.

That’s how I see our lives together. Even though I don’t know where our balloon will land, I know that wherever it does, I want you right by my side. You’re the best thing that has ever happened to me!”

Then he said,

“Will you marry me?”

He pulls out the ring and I said,

“YES!”

It was seriously AMAZING! We literally were “on cloud nine!”

Then we hear a shout from one of the other balloons asking,

“What did she say?!”

Our pilot yelled back,

“She said yes!”

Just then, the whole sky erupted with cheering and clapping from everyone that had taken off. To say it was amazing, spectacular, beautiful, or perfect would be a HUGE understatement; but it was.

And so our journey begins.

Surprise, we’re going on a balloon ride!

Jason, getting in on the set-up action.

“I wonder what she’ll say when we get up there?”

Me, right after the proposal.

Pure Joy.

Cheering from the other balloons!

A view from the top looking at Jordanelle Reservoir.

Looking at Brighton Ski Resort.

The happy, happy couple.