Typically I’ll rewrite the bride and grooms story in my own words along with my observations from the day. Both Marnie and Shad sent me e-mails telling me of how they met and what they thought was special about each other. I felt I should simply post their words!
Enjoy:
Written by Marnie:
“Shad and I met online in late Aug or early Sep 2011. I lived in Las Vegas, NV and he lived in Ashburn, VA. We enjoyed a lot of fun messaging, emailing and texting before Shad found the courage to call me. During that time we found that we have a lot in common. We both have fathers who had careers in law enforcement. When we were young during the early years of their work both of our families were required to move a lot. We learned to form friendships with our siblings and to collect friends wherever we lived. We spent a lot of our childhood in the Northwest. We both come from big families (Shad is the oldest son and the second of five children. I am the oldest of nine children). We both love to spend time outdoors, particularly river rafting. We both served LDS missions. Shad in Boliva and I in Spain and Portugal. We both share a love of traveling, of seeing new places and trying new food. I found out that Shad is an amazing man. He has been a single parent while working full-time and holding assignments at church. He is beloved by his children and his entire family. He is the most thoughtful, tender man I’ve ever met and always tries to do the right thing. And he’s hunky and handsome!
We fell in love talking on the phone. After the first couple phone calls (except for a trip to China) we didn’t go a day without speaking at least once a day. We were able to spend several days together each month as we started courting in person. We knew the moment we saw each other that it was true love. We enjoyed each others company above all else. We continued our long distance romance for about five months before Shad popped the question on a trip to WA on my birthday. What a wonderful birthday present! We spent the next few months continuing to get to know each other, meet family and plan the wedding. It seemed like an eternity, but the actual wedding arrived suddenly!
Our wedding day was amazing. We were sealed in the LDS temple in St. George UT in the morning and held a Lovelocks ceremony and reception in the evening. Shad has four children and we wanted to include them and our parents in a symbolic ceremony to unite our families. It was beautiful. We were able to make our wedding part of the the McPheters family reunion and were able to have Shad’s entire family at the wedding and good portion of my family and my dearest friends were able to make it as well. It was an amazing event that we’ll never forget. Thanks, Amy and Natasha, for helping make so great.”
Written by Shad:
“I think we should highlight more of Marnie’s virtuous qualities. First of all…it was love at first sight:). She’s so beautiful!! She’s an amazing listener and so thoughtful in her responses. This won my heart since it really was a long distance love relationship made easy because she was so easy to talk to. Her kind heart and considerate personality are quite a draw!! Additionally, we quickly found many commonalities in our courtship including similar families, common beliefs, similar goals and similar life trials. I have a sister named Marni and her name is Marnie…not a very common name. We both have a love for kids as well (she was an instant hit with mine).”
Enjoy some of our favorite photographs from their day!
We keep seeing more and more iPads these days for picture taking. Maybe we need to trade in our gear and get a couple of these instead. They look like fun and the screen is WAY bigger than the LCD on our cameras!
This was too funny, I don’t think anyone knows how to tie a bow anymore! I sure wouldn’t tie a very good one. I can do boutonnieres, but these… not so sure. We even had several people looking online at tutorials, but it didn’t help, it kept going crooked.
Still trying to figure out the tie…
Finally grandma set the tie straight, and in like 5 seconds too. It was like, “Let me do this, doesn’t anyone know what they are doing!?” Love the look on Chandler’s face in this!
The differences between the lenses Amy and I were using… Mine is the one on the left using the 24 mm (a wide angle), and Amy’s on the right (70-200 mm lens) at 70 mm. See how mine emphasizes the people in the front and makes the ones in the back look very small? That’s because of this lens. The one on the right compresses the background, making everyone more similar in size. For me, the one on the right is a better option for this particular photo, but both are great lenses for different situations.
Such a cute new family!
The reception was held at the Tai Pan reception center which closed it’s doors for the final time yesterday. We’re going to miss having that venue, it was always so beautiful!
They held a little Love Locks ceremony. They each had their own Love Lock with their name on it, which the locked to a pretty metal stand.
Debbie, with
Vintage a la carte Event Rentals had the cutest decorations, including these frames for taking fun pictures and the mantle, along with a ton of other beautiful decor.
Loved their reaction to the video they played of the two of them.
For more photographs, please check out their website and slideshow!
Vendors:
Ceremony: St. George Utah LDS Temple
Reception: Tai Pan Reception Center
DJ: Festival Sounds
Event Planning/Design: Debbie Geyser
Decor: Tai Pan Trading & Vintage a la carte Event Rentals
Dress: Allure
Suit: Stafford Essentials, JC Penney
no comments