The big day

I woke up the day of our wedding, looked at my beautiful engagement ring and thought only of Ben. How luckily I was to be marrying the sweetest, funniest, most loving, and sexy man in the world! I went upstairs, had a bowl of cereal and then got to work!

I tried to stay very simple and elegant in my hair and makeup, adding modern twists where I could. I used brown eye shadows and light blush with an orange tinted lipstick for my makeup, pulled my hair back in a low, french twist bun and added antique-looking earnings for a little sparkle. I put on a dress and before I knew it, Ben was at my parents home ready to take me to the Salt Lake Temple.

We drove in excitement to the Salt Lake City temple where we met our family members and close friends we invited to be at our sealing. There was a little drama though. My mom and Candace, my older sister, forgot their temple recommends! Luckily they were able to get a quick interview and that was the end of drama...for a while. We got our paper work taken care of and then Ben and I changed into our temple clothes before meeting again to go to the veil together. We sat in the celestial room, hand in hand, not nervous, but ready to be married. It was so peaceful as we sat talking about our future, our love for one another and then finally, we were invited into the sealing room.

Our sealer didn't talk too much, just told us we seemed so in love and that we were about to make the best decision ever. We were glad he didn't take up too much time, not only because we were ready to be married, but because earlier that week we'd met with my stake president and my bishop who already gave us great advice. And then, we were married! We kissed across the alter and exchanged wedding bands and we smiled, and smiled, and smiled. We gave everyone hugs as they left the sealing room. Some very important people were able to come to our sealing and I was so grateful to see them there. My grandparents, immediate family, Ben's family, a few of our close friends, my bishop and stake president, and Brother and Sister Hanson and Brother and Sister BLANK from our mission were all there and we hugged them. I cried when I hugged my dad and my good friend, Brother BLANK. It was a beautiful feeling, being surrounded by those we loved.

After our sealing, Ben and I went to change. Now, here is where a little drama came into play. As I was getting ready, I bent over to tie my shoes and heard a pop. Yes, my zipper ripped. I started laughing and thought, this would happen :). Luckily, my dress also had lots of little buttons up the back, so, my mom and the temple seamstress went to work on doing my dress up and it looked great. It did take a while though! But I was ready. I walked to the exit of the temple and saw Ben, handsome and smiling. It was the first time he saw my dress. He told me how beautiful I was and I told him about the ripped zipper and we laughed and kissed and hugged before walking up the steps to exit the temple as husband and wife.

We were so happy!! I've never smiled so much in my life! We took a lot of pictures to remember the happiness and joy we felt that day. It was so cold outside, but I didn't notice. I was too excited!

 

 We had our luncheon at The Olive Garden and it was delicious. We were starving! We ate and talked with our friends and family and it was a lot of fun. After lunch, Ben and I headed back to my parents house. We relaxed for a little while before getting ready to go to our reception.

When we got to the reception hall there were already family members there setting up our tables and getting our cake ready. It looked great! My dad had a lot of photos set up and the simple, elegant decorations were exactly what I wanted. All I had to do was get ready!

My sisters and my best friend, Marissa Petralia, helped me with my makeup, hair and dress. We laughed and giggled as I got ready and then we took more photos.








So many people came to our reception! We were there for so long, standing in line and never getting a chance to sit. It was nice to see so many people who cared about us and we got a ton of wonderful presents, but we were ready to go! But. before we left, we had a few wedding traditions we wanted to do. The first was cut our cake.

I danced with my dad to the country song, "I loved her first" then Ben and I had our first dance. We danced to "Lucky" by Jason Mraz.

 

Ben and I did the garter toss and the bouquet toss, which was fun and we got some great photos of it! The bouquet toss was really funny though, as I chucked it, it fell on the floor and my little sister jumped over my best friend to pick it up. Good times.

At 10:00pm, we were so tired and thrilled that we could leave. We hurried and changed, got 2 boxes of cheesecake, which we would eat later that night, hugged our friends and family goodbye, and headed outside where we were sprayed with silly spray. Ben's friends did quiet a number on the car we drove. The inside was covered in feet of newspaper! So funny, but also sad, as it was Ben's moms car!








Our wedding was wonderful! It was beautiful and perfect. We love each other so much and can't wait to spend forever together.

Before our wedding

The night before our wedding was a hard one for me, until Ben came over that is. As soon as I saw him I got even more excited about our wedding. It was all I'd been thinking about for weeks and I couldn't believe the day was finally here! Ben always makes me feel better about the hard things in life. I wouldn't want to go through the challenges and joys with anybody else.
ADD PHOTO FROM PARENT'S HOUSE
We sat together in my parents basement and I painted my nails while we talked about our future, how excited and grateful we were to be worthy to be married in the temple and how much we loved each other. Ben gave me a letter that night that marked some of his favorite memories while we were dating, drawings included, and we cuddled on the couch for a while before my dad came down and told Ben it was time for him to go, for the last time!

Engaged people

Although we were only engaged, it felt like we were already married! Any time we weren't at work or school we were together, despite living in different cities. Ben would drive down to Provo almost everyday to see me and I'd drive up north on weekends to see him. Those were funny and awkward weekends. Whenever we went to my parents, we had a curfew...yes, two 22-year-olds. My dad would come down stairs and, depending on the day, would send Ben home between 10:00 PM and 12:00 AM. It was always really funny to hear him say, "Alright Benjamin, it's time for you to head home." We'd say goodbye for about and hour and then he'd leave. (My dad was smart. I think he caught on that it took us forever to say goodbye, so he started telling Ben to leave earlier and earlier. :))
ADD PHOTO FROM PARENTS
People constantly asked me how the wedding plans were going, but I didn't really understand what they meant. We had everything planned in about two days...We picked our wedding colors, had a friend of Ben's do the flowers, my dad and mom found the most beautiful reception hall, my uncle's friend, Craig, made the beautiful cake, Ben designed our announcements with his cousin, Joe, and my old bishop printed them for us. My last job was finding photographers. I had SOMEONE, who I found online looking at blogs, take my bridals and I asked my old high school friend, Tiffani Herpel, to be our photographer.

 I actually found my dress while shopping with my dad. We went to The Bridal Shop in Bountiful, Utah and my dad was the one who suggested I try the dress on. It wasn't something I thought I would like because of the chiffon and all of the embroidery, but to make my dad feel a part of the shopping experience, I tried it on. And then I fell in love! It was beautiful! The only problem was the size. I, being a slim 0, made the size 6 dress look tentish. BUT, after lots of tailoring, it fit like a glove. I also got my veil at the The Bridal Shop, a simple lace cut, scalloped at the ends. Completing my look of elegant-modernism, came my white Chucks.

My mom made my garter using a cute purple silk and white lace. Ben and I picked out his suit and tie at Nordstrom Rack suit and my mom found ties for the other guys in the wedding at Costco, believe it or not. Finding dresses for all the ladies in the wedding proved more difficult than I wanted. After I picked 2 dresses out, each with complaints from a few of the girls, my mom said I should just have everyone wear something with my colors in them. It didn't turn out the way I had dreamed, but it ended up being nice and everyone wore cute clothes.

A few weeks before the wedding, my mom threw me an awesome bridal shower. It was a recipe shower, so everyone brought their favorite recipes, the ingredients and the cooking wear used to cook the food. We got so much stuff! They also made us a quilt and it was awesome! My mother-in-law also threw me a wedding shower, also a recipe shower. We got lots of food there. It was so fun! That's where I learned Ben had wanted to marry me since the mission. :)
Before the big day, we found our apartment and moved everything in. My parents got us a bed for our wedding gift, so that was basically all of our furniture at the time. We spent time with our families and with each other, kissing, talking, laughing, and looking forward to the big day. And it came quickly. Engaged November 26th, married January 14th.

The history of us, part IV

Ben asked my dad for his blessing and permission to marry me a few weeks before he actually asked me, which I thought was cute. He kept his cool, although I knew that's why he'd come over to talk with my dad, and we played outside that Sunday evening, making our first snowman together. We used cranberries for buttons and eyes. :)
ADD SNOWMAN PHOTO
Three days after Thanksgiving, Ben and I went to temple square in Salt Lake City to see all the Christmas lights. It was a very romantic evening and I thought, "If Ben is going to propose to me, he'll do it here, now." We'd talked about getting married and even had a date picked out, so I thought, well, now he just has to ask me! But..I was wrong! He didn't ask me and as we passed all of the romantic spots, I concluded tonight wasn't the night. On our drive back to Bountiful, Ben reminded me of the scrapbook he'd been working on. Now, Ben is not a scrapbooker, but I love scrapbooking and being the sweet guy he is, he decided he would make me one about our dates. I couldn't wait to see it. We got to my parents house and I got out of the car, but Ben hadn't moved. He was taking forever. I stood at the bottom of the stairs that lead to my parent's house, wondering what was taking him so long. And then he came out with a little notebook.
It was the scrapbook he'd been working on! I was so excited to look at it, I couldn't wait till we got inside. Sitting down on the cold steps, I opened the first page to find our very first photo together. On the opposite side was a beautiful letter from Ben, telling me why he loved me. It was wonderful. And then I turned the page.
ADD RING PHOTO
I saw the ring and looked at Ben, my eyes and heart lighting up. He was on one knee in front of me and said, "Julie, will you marry me?" It was the best feeling in the world kneeling down by him and hugging him that evening. He placed the ring on my finger and it was official. We were getting married!

The history of us, part III, dating

Ben and I saw each other almost every day after our first date.These are some of my favorite memories from when we dated.
 We went on short hike for one of our dates. It was so much fun hiking with Ben. When we got to the top, Ben asked another hiker to take our photo, who agreed and kept saying, "Kiss her, kiss her!" But being our second or third date, Ben decided against it, although he highly considered it ;).

On our next date, we went to his sister's winter solstice party in the canyon. It was chilly and Ben had just finished playing the guitar. As we sat around a picnic table with a few other people, I leaned into Ben and he seemed to sigh. It was after that night that I think Ben really knew I liked him.
I still remember the pizza place Ben took me to in Salt Lake City. He had ordered "lemonade," saying it was the best drink he'd ever had. So of course, I had to try it. I took a big swig and then...all of my taste buds contracted. Yes, it was BITTER lemonade. Oh my unprepared mouth stung with sourness. We laughed and laughed about that.
After a few dates, Ben invited me to his parents house for a Sunday night full of games. It was there that I said some silly things that have forever stuck including, crazy cold milk (CCM). The next few months of family activities would produce more dumb things I would say. One of my favorite stories was after we saw Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. We sat around the kitchen table talking and Ben's dad offered me some cookies. I took a package with two cookies and throughout the conversation forgot about eating them. I looked down and was shocked. "I just ate both those cookies!" I said surprised at myself. "No, I ate one of those cookies," Ben said, confused. "Oh you ate one of those cookies!" I shouted, comforted by the revolution. And laughter erupted.
In August, Ben took me to an Iron and Wine concert. It was so crowded and people were smoking pot...we had so much fun! As soon as the music started playing, we walked closer to the stage. Ben placed his arms around me and I relaxed, happy and comfortable.We kept waiting and waiting for Iron and Wine to come out; I'd never seen him before, but Ben said he had. That's why it was so funny when about 10 minutes before the convert ended, Ben had a revolution. "Oh...I think that's him. That's Iron and Wine!" We laughed and laughed, but that wasn't the best part of the evening. Ben drove me to my parents house after the concert that warm August evening. When we got there, we lingered for a few minutes just below the steps to the door, talking, holding hands. And then it happened. He lent down and kissed me, placing his hand softly under my jaw. It was the best kiss any one has ever had, sweet and passionate. It was perfect and I'll always remember it.
In October, I invited Ben to come celebrate Halloween with me and my family. Now, Ben wasn't a huge fan of Halloween before he met me, but dressed ready for the corn field and pumpkin patch his outlook seemed to change. We had so much fun on a hayride and picked out super cute pumpkins that we would later carve together.
ADD HAYRIDE PHOTOS
After the pumpkin patch, we all went to get pizza. I accidentally let it slip that Ben didn't know what the Halloween colors were. When my family found out they asked him, "What do you think they are?" He sweetly replied, "Purple and green?" And we all laughed. "No, Ben! Black and orange are Halloween colors!!" "But they are spooky too!" he said. It was so cute seeing Ben talk with my family. After this date, I feel in love with Ben.
We continued dating, seeing movies, visiting our families, going to church together, and getting closer to one another, which is why the end of November was so hard for us. We decided we would spend Thanksgiving apart with our families. Bad decision. It was the worst day ever! All we wanted to do was be with one another. We decided from that point on we would never spend another holiday apart.

The history of us, part II

Although Ben was in a different country, we now had more contact then when we lived only a few cities away. He wrote me a letter when he got home and we wrote back and forth every few weeks. While I was living in Moenchengladbach, Ben sent me the cutest package complete with coloring book and two super cute and fun squirt guns shaped like a shark and a killer whale. My companion, Rachel Doty, and I had a lot of fun with the awesome things he sent and that package got me thinking even more about Ben. Would we be friends when I got home? Would we date?
I got back from my mission July 2010. On July 4th, I was catching up on my email and facebook when I got a message from Ben
"Hey, wait a sec," he typed, not knowing I was back yet. I smartly wrote, "One" back to him, smiling at my silly remark. We chatted for a little bit, and after a few minutes he got my number. He called me later that day and asked me if I wanted to join him at a rock climbing competition. Little did we know it would be the best first date ever and would quickly turn us into best friends.

The history of us, part I

Ben and I met October 2009 in Frankfurt, Germany, or so he says. We were both serving missions for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and I had just gotten off a really long flight from Texas. I was not only unaware of my surroundings, but was walking around Frankfurt asleep with my eyes open. He reminds me that night we spoke about music, our love for the guitar and the piano.
We didn't see each other again until he and his companion, Daniel Lange, brought me and Jasmyne Dietz, my companion, a bright red rug. We talked for about an hour about music and how amazing and wonderful it is. A month passed and we saw each other again until around New Years after Ben and Daniel visited a nearby Ikea. Ben brought me a guitar from his mission stash and all I could think of was how sweet he was. We swapped music on our ipods and talked for so long Sister Dietz and I were almost late for our dinner appointment! Luckily, Ben and Daniel had a car.
Speeding like a mad man, Daniel drove so fast Sister Dietz and I scram and clung to our seats. He was weaving in and out of cars. All I can say is German drivers are way different than American drivers. Any way, we got to our appointment and said our goodbyes. I walked away thinking about how awesome Ben was, making me laugh all afternoon and inciting my love for music with every note he strummed on the guitar.
The last time I saw Ben while in Germany was on the day of transfers. He was going home and I was going to a new city. All the missionaries met at the Frankfurt train station to say their farewells and catch their trains. Ben and I saw each other and began talking, but were interrupted by Elders, constantly trying to pull me away from him and him away from me. Finally, Ben and I had a few seconds before another Elder would interrupt us so he bent down and unzipped his suitcase. Pulling out a CD by Priscilla Ahn, he looked at me and said, "I really think you'll like this." I was shocked. I couldn't believe he was giving me something.
And Ben was right. Not only was that CD beautiful, it was a way for me to remember him for the next 6 or so months of my mission.

Julie loves to be scared, and I'll prove it

So it is Halloween day and Julie decided she wanted to start taking down all of the spider webs she put up for the holiday. Our house was pretty spooky with all kinds of scary decorations. We had skulls and spiders, and pumpkins, and scary lights!
Anyway, back to the story.  I was sitting on the couch as Julie started to take down the webs and I noticed one of the large black rubber spiders sitting next to me on the couch...I hesitated, wondering to myself if the idea that came to my mind was really a smart decision, but I didn't think about it too hard, because I did it anyway! I reached over, SCREAMED really loud and threw the spider in Julie's direction. Julie had already started screaming before she knew what was going on and when the spider landed on her arm it pushed her fear to the limit!  She jumped and screamed and swung her arm around, trying to get it off.  As soon as she realized it was only a fake spider her eyes immediately changed from fear into rage and B-lined it straight towards me!  Whatever fear that she had just felt transferred right straight into me! I thought my life would soon be over. She looked right at me, smacked me on the arm and started laughing! We laughed together for a few minutes and went on with our day, bringing it up occasionally and laughing together.
Later that night, I had just gotten into bed and was lying next to Julie when the yawn of all yawns came to me.  I had my eyes closed for quite some time until I was finished and when I opened them, Julie was inches from my face staring at me!  I SCREAMED for my dear life! When I finally realized what was going on, Julie was laughing and rolling around on the other side of the bed...It took me a good hour before my heart returned to a normal heart rate. The moral of this story is to not ever scare your wife, because if you do she will get you back!

Halloween!

We celebrated Halloween yesterday, dressing up like greasers. I had the biggest hair ever and Ben used almost all his hair grease slicking his hair back. We got lunch at In-N-Out, keeping our role as greasers, went couch shopping and headed off to Heehaw Farms.

Don't let the photo's confuse you. WE had fun, but Heehaw Farms was pretty lame, dirty and stinky. The upside: it wasn't crowded at all AND we beat the corn maze without cheating...turning right at every turn :). There was also a pretty fun slide we slid down and Ben raced a 6 year old to the end...he wants to mention that he won that race.

Later on we watched the Shrek Halloween and Aliens vs Monsters Halloween specials on TV, ordered some delicious pizza and watched a ghost hunters thing on the national geographic channel. We also got our first trick-or-treaters! They were like, 14, but still! :) After we turned the TV off, things started getting creepy. I saw something as I was getting ready for bed move past the bathroom door. I later asked Ben if it was him and he said, "No. I've been in here the whole time." Creepy!!! But it was a nice, quiet Halloween.