We got hitched

We got hitched two weeks ago today! It was the most amazing day of my life thus far. :)



It was a whirlwind of events the last few days prior to the sealing- finalizing everything, making sure everyone was okay, graduation, the bridesmaids dresses, temple pictures, etc. It all worked out amazingly! Thanks to all the support of y'all out there that made it easier on us. Randy and I did temple pictures Thursday morning, and he graduated Thursday afternoon from ASU! Go babe!



My sister and I decided to sleep together Friday night. Saturday morning, I woke up pretty early (I usually do every morning anyways) but this was a very early morning. I tried to go back to sleep then I realized, "I'm getting married today.' Yeah...I couldn't go back to sleep. And to those of you who say, "You won't be able to sleep the night before"- bogus. You're usually so tired from setting everything up so needless to say, friday night- once my head hit the pillow, I was out. Anyways, Letitia (I was her visiting teacher) came over and styled my hair, my sister did my makeup, and I got dressed into my sunday clothes. Onward we were to the temple! Randy and I met there. It was so sweet to see him in his suit all dressed up! The spirit had been testifying to me all week that this was the right thing to do but once I saw Randy inside the waiting room in the temple, I was blown away by the good feelings I received. Prior to changing into our wedding clothes, we signed the marriage certificate. I was so nervous during this part. Randy's signature on the certificate looks so refined and nice; mine on the other hand, is all scribbly and a little wobbly- my hands wouldn't stop shaking! The nervousness soon passed but Randy's family jokes that I was nervous because I then realized I was giving myself away. :)

I loved it when Randy took me through the veil- he led me to the other side and it was so great! I truly loved it and had been waiting for that particular moment. We were immediately led into a waiting room near our sealing room where they had been seating everyone who came for us! I wore my wedding dress. Some people wear their temple dress so that's an option but I opted for my wedding one. :) It was nice to be with Randy for a few moments alone and just talk about things and say things like, "we're getting married" and "we'll be husband and wife!" As we walked into the sealing room, I gasped. The room was so beautiful and just seeing everyone there made it all that much sweeter. We went through the whole process and then at the end, our sealer announced us husband and wife and told Randy that he can now kiss the bride. :) After that, he turned to me and said, "Congratulations Sister Winward." Everyone laughed. We then did the ring ceremony and that was so fun. Randy almost did the wrong finger and I tried to subtly move my right hand into place of my left hand but mostly everyone noticed so once again, we all laughed. haha. Afterwards, we hugged everyone that came and then waited for everyone to go outside. It was so fun walking out with Randy and seeing everyone there and doing the traditional kiss and just everything! It soon got so hot afterwards, I was wanting to go back inside and change. We had about 40 people in the sealing room with us and almost twice as much waiting outside for us so it was a crowd. We all met again at the luncheon which was held at Golden Corral. It was hilarious to talk to everyone and for a while, we did toasts. Randy and I first thanked everyone for their support and for coming then we opened the floor for anyone who wanted to say something. A lot of people did, some cried, some laughed- it was bittersweet. Randy's uncle said something I'll never forget. It was a story about Randy when he was young. His uncle said Randy was always doing something crazy, climbing up things, and being risky. One day, he came to Randy's dad's house and found Randy hanging from the chandelier in the dining room and it wasn't the first time. He then told me to be careful on our wedding night. After the luncheon, Randy and I did a little bit of shopping then headed back to our place and we took a nap. At 5pm, we drove to my parents where the reception was held at. It was BEAUTIFUL!! Our cake came and I LOVED IT! Unfortunately, we only got one bite of it and that when we cut it. People soon started coming and before we knew it, we were PACKED!! Chairs outside had red ribbons around the backs of the chairs into bows. Lights were EVERYONE. There was an arch in the front patio in front of our walkway and ribbons lining up the walkway with little candle holders hanging in the posts that were staked around the walkway. Presents were placed in the front patio on top of a prettily decorated bench. Our jacuzzi tub was covered with white fabric and pictures of Randy and I growing up as well as temples pictures were displayed and votive candles surrounded the pictures. A few calla lilies were placed on each table in tall, square vases on top of a square mirror with pearl strands on the table around the vases. We had a kiddie table with coloring books and crayons- that was used very well that night! I saw lots of kids coloring- it was fun to watch. We had a DVD of childhood pictures of Randy and I on a laptop in the living room. Furniture were moved around and taken into bedrooms to make room. The food was absolutely delicious! Because we were so packed with people, talking to everyone, and doing everything else, I didn't have my FIRST bite until 8:30pm. I hadn't eaten since the luncheon but didn't notice anything about my stomach until I started eating- I think I probably had 3 servings while talking to people. My friend, Will, sang a song for us while Rachel Hale played it on the piano- it was a song by Josh Groban and it was BEAUTIFUL! Randy and I did our first dance to "Strangers in the Night" by Frank Sinatra- he dipped me at the end of the song :). The first slow song we ever danced to was "I cross my heart" by George Strait but I thought the Frank Sinatra song best described how we met. Next, I danced with my dad to "My little girl" by Tim McGraw and it was so sweet. Randy danced with his mom to "Mama" By Boyz II Men. I danced with my grandpa afterwards and loved it! After that, it came time to do the bouquet toss and the garter toss! I threw my bouquet and my sister was so mad that her roommate caught it! Katie has never caught a bouquet before and told every single young woman there if they catch the bouquet and not her, they will not be able to walk home that night. haha. Cory was fine and able to walk home. :) Randy was so funny. He got all underneath my dress and pulled out the garter with his teeth! All I could do was laugh!! He shot it and my friend Chris caught it. After that, the dance floor was open for anyone to dance! It was fun dancing with the little kids and watching couples of ALL ages dance. It was quite nice. The reception, on the invitation, went from 6-8pm but we still had lots of people there at 9pm. Randy and I changed and we got all ready to leave for our hotel for the night. We walked outside and there were lots of people lined up waiting for us to leave and threw rose petals as we walked out! We walked to Randy's car- it had been attacked! Writings all over AND thanks to my brother, hundreds of newspapers inside the car, including the glove box. We took some out but decided to just drive away with it. It was fun waving to everyone goodbye! Randy and I showed up at our hotel. We stayed at the Camelback Inn by Marriot, thanks to Nick!! Thanks to Nick, Maddy, and Angela, we had a few surprises there waiting for us. Rose petals lining the walkway to the bathtub and to the bed, 2 wine glasses that we still have, a bottle of sparkling cider, candy and food, and a few othe items! We were sooo tired that after looking around the room, we collapsed on our bed and laid there for an hour watching tv. haha.

The next morning, we went to Sedona! That was so much fun! Randy and I treated ourselves to some little luxuries. A massage at a school there and a steak dinner. We took a hummer tour, sight-saw, and went to shops, galleries all over. We also spent quite a bit of time in our hotel room which was nice! It was a resort and was a timeshare. 1,700 square feet, 2 story with a jacuzzi tub which was nice, a fully-stocked kitchen, and the resort had a little video rental which was cool. We decided to surprise my parents by heading up to the cabin in heber a day early and it was so hilarious. I counted to 3 and then we barged in into the door. Dogs were barking and my mom was sitting on the kitchen chair reading a magazine and as soon as we barged in, the magazine went flying in the air with my mom yelling and her hands in fists and shaking! Overall, it was fun being with them. Randy got to see the snowflake temple for the first time. We didn't go in but it was still fun.

It was nice to be back home!! We were so busy the first couple days. I'm now working for Dr. Davis as a dental assistant for the new few weeks before we leave. I am not getting paid much but it will help and is better than nothing. We're preparing for our move and getting things finalized here before we go. I'm now Meghan Winward- my SS has been changed! I'll change my drivers license over there. My car title is already changed. So it's been going well!

Randy and I have been so incredibly blessed. It's truly amazing. We pray and thank Christ every day for the blessings we've recieved and pray we'll always remember them. My car is in the shop right now and it's pretty urgent because the moving company is picking up both our cars this thursday- we'll be borrowing family cars for the next week and a half. Randy felt impressed to take my car in last Saturday instead of today and we're both so grateful we did! there were some other things wrong with it that we didn't know about it and luckily, I found out that I have a warranty on one of the parts, the catalytic converters. So once our mechanic is done working on the gasket, he'll check the converters to see if it's bad too. We've been praying also to take care of it financially. We'll now have time to get it all fixed before thursday! Randy and I got our cars worked on a while ago- new tune ups, new everything, I got some new tires, new brakes, new coolant pump, etc. Randy's car is driving SMOOOOOOOOTH. We're hoping both our cars will stay that way! We don't make any car payments on both our cars. I told Randy, however, that if we had to get a new car, I'd like to pay it all off in full right away or pay with cash. It's so much more simple and easy on us in the long run.

I love Randy! I love being with him everyday. I love him as my best friend. I love that every night before we go to bed, we talk about things that are personal. I love that he left me a note under the covers for me to find that evening. I love that we had random fun. I love that we have morning and evening prayers together. I also love that we're such a normal couple. We get frustrated with each other but hey, we work it out.

Man, I've been typing in this for the last 2 days, saving it as a draft each time because I didn't have time to finish it. Well, now I think I'm done! Pictures will follow this post. Love you all! Now I'm going to go tickle Randy. :)