rachel's ramblings : the big day

When I woke up that morning around 8, I wasn't nervous......yet. We had celebrated the night before at our pre-ception with friends and family. It was an incredible night (I'll blog about it soon) and I went to bed feeling so grateful for the people I've known in my life and excited for the next phase of life. I actually slept over at my soon to be home (Mr. G's place) on the couch with my soon to be sister-in-law snoring on the floor next to me. I decided to get ready over there, because most of my stuff was already there from moving in, but mostly because there was a bigger bathroom. Anyway, as I was getting ready (I did my own hair and make-up, because I'm a control freak over stuff like that), there was so much talking and commotion happening around me that I was starting to get anxious. I was questioning my decision to get ready around people. So, I shut and locked the bathroom door (it sounds more dramatic than it was) to insure that I could have some alone time to decompress before this major life step that I was gonna take in T-3 hours. After a few minutes Mr. G softly knocked on the door and asked if I was OK. I was. Really, I was. I just explained that I needed to be by myself for a minute. He got it. I had zero nerves until that moment. The day I had been waiting for was finally here and I started to feel the greatness of what we were about to do. Bring on the nervous gas.....

Once I had shaken off the nerves and gas (for the time being) I put on the dress I was traveling to the temple in, grabbed my wedding dress, and we were off. We stopped by to pick up my sister who was my escort in the temple and headed up to GET MARRIED!!!! Since our ceremony was at 1:00 pm, right during lunch time, we knew we needed to get a little something to eat so we didn't collapse on the alter from low blood sugar. Where did we go? McDonald's. Yep, just a few blocks away from the SLC temple, we stopped for some McNuggets, Fries, McDouble and a Coke. We didn't want to be hangry while we were committing ourselves to each other for time and all eternity. Really, no one wants to see a hangry bride. Disaster!

When we arrived to the temple, we had some paparazzi waiting for us (aka his aunt and cousin).

You'll notice Mr. G has a scowl on his face. What you don't know is that there was a crazy anti-Mormon guy to the right of the picture that was yelling something like, "How can you commit to your temple marriage when you don't even follow God's commandments!?!?" Mr. G responded with, "KISS IT!!!" HA! Oh, the little charmer. It was also record-breaking boiling hot that day, so the scowl could be from melting in the 104 degree heat....

When we got inside the temple, we took care of all the business side of getting married (checking our marriage license and such) and then went our separate ways to get ready. We met up after we changed and sat on a little bench to wait for the sealer to give us some info. Our sealer was a funny little man. What we didn't know, is how freaking long he was gonna talk in the sealing room before he actually married us.

Now, I don't remember all that he said, I just know that he took time and all eternity to get to the point of what he was saying. Once he got there, he had some great stuff to say. Mr. G and I almost started laughing a couple of times and were squeezing our hands together, because he was going on and on. I know there about something with the pioneers and the SLC temple and then something about how we'll be able to conquer the trend of divorce. Pretty sure I knew where he was going with his words before he did. I was appreciative of his thoughts....once he got to them.

He finally decided it was time to marry us and had us come to the alter and Mr. G exclaimed, "Let's do this!" You guys, when we were kneeling across from each other at the alter, I had to do some major deep breathing to keep from having a meltdown and ugly crying my fake lashes off (those that were there can vouch for the crazy breathing). Seriously, I couldn't believe that this was actually happening. There we were, about to effing get married!!!! The emotions were so intense: excited, scared outta my mind, elation, relief, disbelief, happiness etc. I knew we were doing the right thing. I also felt those that had passed on before that day, were right there with us. They had been waiting for us to make it there too! We both answered, yes (obviously), when he asked us if we would commit to each other. We had done it. We were married!!! When I put Mr. G's ring on his finger, I told him, "You're mine!" It's true. He was mine and I was his from that moment on.