The Bakersfield Reception

Life definitely has its ups and downs. Sometimes its hard to shift gears. Yesterday we celebrated the life of my sister Shannon and mourned her passing. Tonight we celebrated my marriage to Suzanne with many of the same people. As ironic as it sounds the timing for Shannon's passing was perfect and we were honored to share our weekend with her. She always liked stealing the spotlight from me anyways right Shan? :)

These were the pictures we had displayed behind us. Everyone LOVED the pictures!

The guestbook table

Our reception in Bakersfield was perfect. Well...it was perfect for us. After a slight hair mishap and finding something to keep Suzanne warm everything went pretty smoothly. Who would have thought we would have to worry about the temp being too cold in Bakersfield of all places. We held the reception outside in a friend's backyard. Mom and my sisters did a beautiful job of setting it up. Suzanne expressed often that it looked just like a fairy tale. Pictures can't really capture the beauty of the evening since it was dark. It was a bit chilly but we had outdoor heaters as well as some impromptu hot chocolate to serve the guests. It worked out beautifully.

The spread, the ambience and the line.

Bakersfield was a bit more intimate than our Utah reception which was nice because after standing in line we were able to just sit and chat with friends and family.

The evening was lovely and all too soon came to a close. A big thanks to our friends for hosting us at their home and also to my family and close friends of my family who helped make our reception a success. A lot of people helped our family this week between the funeral and our reception. We wouldn't have been able to do any of it without all of their support and love!

After such a nice night we just went home and all was well....WRONG! We went out to the car and were greeted by THIS!!!

Yes, my family had decorated our car. Isn't it lovely? I guess I kind of deserved it. Supposedly I helped do several of their cars over the years though I don't remember that. They got us good from seran wrapping the doors, zingers in the handles and in the gas cap(yes...we found this one the next morning when we filled up), balloons filling the inside and all sorts of clever sweet nothings all over the windows. I would be remiss if I didn't say job wel done. But as many amatuers do, they made a big mistake. They were so proud of their work that they took pictures and I'm posting those pics here so you can all see who did this to us. Don't worry, Suzanne has already taken down all your names and is planning sweet revenge.

Thanks everyone for a great evening. I love you Suzanne! I'm so excited for forever!