Happy Easter

Easter brought an equal sense of normality and strangeness this year. No in-person church services and special Sacrament Meeting programs this year. Lamb of God that brought such meaning last year during the Easter season cancelled just days before we were to start our first of 10 performances last month. But gathering together as a family for a traditional meal, coloring easter eggs, filling a basket for Lilian, hunting for eggs in the backyard, listening to Lamb of God on CD...all of these were blessedly familiar and a bit of balm for the soul. 

Brandon was invited to spend Easter weekend with Abbie's family at their cabin in Brian Head. In our recreation of the traditional Easter egg pic, we texted and asked Brandon to take a picture of himself and send it to us. I took a picture of the rest of the kids, making sure we had a spot for Brandon, and then Tanner added him to the picture. Ah, the wizardry of modern technology. 

2017

2019

2020

We hadn't originally thought to do an Easter egg hunt, but Lilian was kind of hankering for one all the same. We tracked down some colored plastic eggs in the basement and assigned one color to each hunter. Tanner decided rather than hunt, he'd prefer to hide the eggs. There wasn't anything in the eggs, the thrill was less about candy and more about the finding. 

But unbeknownst to Jordan, there was a rather significant something in one of his blue eggs...

A big blue egg was hiding in this pine tree. Julianne's face...she was obviously in on whatever was hidden inside.

Remember when Julianne said she planned to propose again when she got Jordan's ring? Jordan opened the big blue egg to find a ring box inside. Julianne dropped to one knee and asked him to marry him all over again. How many proposals does this make now? I'm guessing these two probably aren't done and they will continue to propose marriage to each other the rest of their lives.

Engagement photo shoot

Julianne and Jordan hired Brandon to take their engagement photos. It's been a little tricky to find a weekend when Brandon could come up, which has panicked me just the slightest bit as I've been going through the time table in my mind and making a check list: 

taking the photos

giving Brandon time to edit them

picking an announcement design 

ordering and then getting said announcements back from the printer

making a list and collecting addresses of family, friends and neighbors

stuffing and addressing the envelopes

dropping them at the post office in a timely manner 

With the wedding date moved up, time is short. One thing in our favor however, is that we are not inviting anyone to anything since we can't hold a reception, we are just announcing the marriage. Which means that having the announcement in the recipients hands a few weeks in advance so they can save the date is not an issue. If we get them into mailboxes even just a day or two ahead we'll be fine. I'm breathing a bit easier.

We first headed up to Mueller Park Canyon for some shots, and then to the Utah Capitol Building where the cherry blossoms were in bloom.  Brandon had brought Abbie up with him for the weekend to be his assistant and help with poses. Lilian and I tagged along just for fun. It was such a pretty day and there were a lot of people taking advantage of the nice weather to get out of their houses a bit, even as we all tried to social distance.

The Utah State Capitol Building is incredibly beautiful...especially in the spring.

We had a startling realization that not only are Abbie and Julianne are the same height (5' tall) but Lilian almost meets them. In addition to height, apparently Abbie and Julianne also have similar personalities. Brandon told us later that on the drive home from the photo shoot Abbie said, "So...did you ever realize you are basically dating your sister?" ha.  

This is one of my favorite candids from the day. Brandon is getting a great shot of Jordan hugging Julianne, but what neither of them saw was the silly face Julianne was giving me behind their backs. 

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Outtakes

Julianne decided she wanted to see if maybe she could give Jordan a piggyback ride. It didn't go quite as well... 

Not sure entirely what was going on here...some sort of silly discussion which ended in an enormous Julianne sneeze. Brandon kept snapping, getting a photo series of all their funny facial expressions. 

Wedding plan changes

I tell you what, it's super difficult to plan a wedding during a worldwide pandemic when you have no idea how long it will last or how bad it will get, and every day is another announcement of new closures and restrictions. We'd been putting off talking about it for awhile, hoping time would illuminate the situation. And I suppose it's done exactly that. We had to start talking about a Plan B. Which then turned into Plan C and beyond as we've been working our way through the alphabet. We're likely at Plan G by now, and may end up at Plan Q by the time we get them married. We had to cancel the reception center and all plans for a large celebration after the wedding. The ceremony itself now will be a civil one officiated by Jordan's father (who by profession is a judge), with a sealing down the road when temples open back up again. The original date of June 12th was so settled upon partly because Jordan's sister was set to be out of the country on a humanitarian trip the entire month of May. But as with so much else these days, that trip has been cancelled. Was there any reason to still be waiting till June? The two lovebirds have decided to move their date up to May 8th. We are considering any and all outdoor locations to hold the ceremony but they have been leaning towards the Salt Flats on the Utah/Nevada border which should be beautiful. There is sadness at not being able to invite anyone other than immediate family...no grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles or friends, because of the no gatherings over 10 rule (we are fudging it a bit seeing as between the two immediate families we are already at 14, but in the middle of the Salt Flats, we're figuring it's likely okay). But suddenly Julianne has been rejuvenated in regards to wedding planning. The huge party and other traditional wedding events had seemed to overwhelm her a bit. A small, personable affair became more about her and Jordan and much less about the guests. 

Luckily Fantasy Bridal, the wedding dress boutique where we had bought Julianne's dress, was still operating (by appointment only). Julianne had been having second thoughts about her dress when we went in for a fitting for alterations. And especially now that the wedding was going to have a completely different vibe from the original, she asked if there was any way they'd let her look a bit more and potentially exchange if she found a dress she felt would feel more right. Somewhat surprisingly, they said yes. She tried on a few, also realizing that she did indeed like her original dress more than she had remembered...but when she came out in this last dress, our jaws just dropped. It was like birds were singing...she knew, we knew. This was THE DRESS. Bless Fantasy Bridal for working so hard to make sure these pandemic brides still had the best wedding experience they could, even amongst so much uncertainty and change. 

The first dress, bought back in December during a very different time and mindset....so very beautiful, yes?

But would you look at this? Absolutely and completely stunning! 

She is going to be the most gorgeous bride. 

Amazing how much things have changed in the course of just a few months.