Utah Wedding Photography - Vanessa + Michael

Vanessa + Michael
August 5, 2009
Mount Timpanogos Temple
Alta Lodge

BEFORE THE WEDDING

Occupations: Mike: Full time masters student in English Literature and teaching assistant at the U; Vanessa: Athletic Trainer at University of North Carolina in Wilmington.

How the couple me*: Mike's lived in Utah his whole life. Vanessa's family moved from MA to Utah when she was in elementary school and they met in the seventh grade. She moved to VA in ninth grade and that was it for a while. Then, in 2004, Vanessa moved back for a sixth month visit. Mike and Vanessa re-met, as it were, and both had unspoken crushes on each other the whole time she lived there again, and after she moved back to MA (where she was attending school at Northeastern), they remained good friends and in regular contact. After five years of sporadic visits back and forth, Mike finally got up the nerve to fly out to North Carolina (where Vanessa had ended up as an athletic trainer after finishing her graduate degree at JMU) where he fell madly in love with her (even though he didn't tell her about it until a week after he left). Long story short: He convinced her to move to Utah with a ring.

How he proposed: Mike likes to draw. He drew a series of pictures that illustrated their sordid affair and had them bound in hardcover as children's book. The last page was him, on one knee, proposing. He gave it to her ostensibly as an Easter present at Red Butte Garden. And she said, "Yes."

Bridal shower/Bachelorette party: I had two showers, and no bachelorette party. Mike's sister Ann threw one for me and invited the women from their family since I still hadn't meet everyone, and Bonnie, my "Utah mom" had one for me at her house with people from my old neighborhood.

Bachelor party: Started at the Pie and ended with early, early morning Denny's, with Top Gun (we miss you Goose) and various sundry activities in between.


WEDDING

Ceremony Place: Mt. Timpangos LDS Temple

Date: August 5th, 2009

The bride wore: A dress, made from a super old dress that my mom bought at a thrift store and reconstructed into the dress she had designed. Raw silk. Pink Rocket Dog flats, also raw silk, with a knot on the toe.

The groom wore: A taupe suit from Nordstrom, a white shirt, a gold bow-tie (that he tied himself), and some sweet shoes from Aldo.


RECEPTION

[PRE-WEDDING WEDDING JAM occurred on the 18th of July at the home of Suzie Winchester in Acton, MA. Food by Brian Miller and family. Those who would not be able to attend the events in the West hosted Mike and Vanessa in the East with a full-blown reception-like party, replete with cake and mandatory cake-cutting festivities.]

Reception Place: The Alta Lodge

Wedding music: Bitchin' Wedding Party Mix 2009, by Mike on iPod.

Wedding song: NA

Menu: Cheeses, Fruits, and Veggies.

Cake: Vanessa thought it would be cool to ditch a cake and go straight for what everyone always wishes they were eating at a wedding instead: cookies. And she was right. It was pretty damn cool. Friends and family contributed different kinds of cookies to the "cookie bar" so that, in the end, guests could choose from six different gourmet cookies, presented in giant jars with love. Mike's contribution was the innovative introduction of "the milk bar," which consisted of carafes of soy, skim, 1%, 2%, whole, and chocolate milks.

Colors: Bridesmaids' dresses were blue, but there were no official colors to speak of. Bouquets were greens and blues.

Theme: NA

Flowers: Though Hillside Floral contributed some flowers for the ambience of the Alta Lodge, Vanessa prefferred buttons. Seriously. Six button-bouquets and five "button-nieres" later (with the generous help of a posse of friends and family over the course of several days), the flowers were buttons were flowers.


MOST MEMORABLE MOMENT

Bride's answer*, *Groom's answer*: Sitting alone together in the Celestial room of the temple before the madness of the rest of the day began.


HONEYMOON

Place: St. Maarten at the Atrium Resort.

A memorable moment of the honeymoon: A delicious dinner, courtesy of Vanessa's grandparents, at La Chanticlaire.


WEDDING ADVICE: Elope. Seriously. (Or at least keep it simple.)


























VENDORS

Rings: Jonathan's Jewelry in Cottonwood Heights.

Invitations: (Our good friend) Stacy Butcher, who is a wizard.

Rehearsal dinner: Market Street Grill

Guest book: Derived from Stacy's invitations and her husband's ingenuity.

Photography: Opie-tastic.

Bridal gown: Maryann Trono

Bridesmaids' dresses: Calvin Klein

Groom’s Tux/Suit: Nordstrom

Flowers: Hillside Floral and Vanessa & Co.

Decorations and rentals: Diamond Rental for sound system.

Catering: Alta Lodge

Cake: Cookies by friends and family.

Venue: Mount Timpanogos Temple and Alta Lodge

Entertainment/Music: Mike's iPod.

Wedding favors: Everyone that stayed long enough left with two-dozen cookies and a gallon of milk.