The Dowdles: Shannon and Jeff's Wedding!

The day before their wedding was Valentine's Day. We spent the day preparing, which included me cutting up a lot of pictures and putting them on scrapbook paper and Mom and Andrea making the cake. It was so fun! The cake turned out completely amazing and it was significantly easier than some of the cakes in the past. So basically I know what I'm going to do for my cake now. Phew! Glad that is settled.

Seriously it's so pretty!

My cute Dad never forgets me on Valentine's Day. He got both my mom and me roses. I just love him so much!

Derrick came into town, but he already had a date for the night. I told Amy and Spencer I'd watch their kids so they could have their date night. We started out at my parents' for dinner and a little playing then went up to their houses for baths and bed. They had a big day ahead of them, afterall!

I had to iron a few outfits when I got home, so I didn't get to bed as early as I probably should have. But still, I was the first one up the next day. Except for Dad (but no one ever beats Dad). I went down to Shannon's room and made her do a happy dance with me before she went upstairs to start getting ready. Peter, Alicia, and Will came over so Alicia could do Shan's hair. We all watched the U.S. vs. Russia Men's Hockey game that morning (which was totally insane!). Once we were all ready, we headed up to the Brigham City Temple.

Jared and Baylee were nice enough to volunteer their house for me and Taylor to watch the children at so we didn't have to keep them quiet inside the temple. It went pretty quick, actually. The parents came back and we all headed over to the temple.

Taylor and I

When they came out, the girls were so cute and went up and hugged them. Dax came running from across the grounds yelling, "I love you! You're married!" Cutest thing ever. The girls got to carry Shannon's train. Of course, Dax wanted to help but they wouldn't let him because that was their job. So he went up behind Jeff and started "carrying" the back of his suit coat. Man that kid is a cheeser.

The cute couple!

Dax and Shan

Nate and Mandi's Family

The little girls look like movie stars, huh?

Pictures went pretty quickly and Derrick, Brit, and I went to Zupa's for lunch. (Derrick had specific restaurants on his Utah bucket list.) A little later Alicia and I headed over to Beckstrands to practice the songs we were singing at the dinner with Haley who was nice enough to play the piano for us. Then we all headed down to the reception center.

Obviously it was slightly crazy, because that's how weddings go, but by the time everyone started showing up everything looked beautiful and was totally put together. We ate some delicious food, chatted with friends, and then Dad had Alicia and I come up to sing.

Shannon had asked us to sing "I Will Never Leave You" because it is kind of our sister song. Alicia had the idea we should also surprise her with a funny rendition of a different song too. So I changed the words to "I Can Hear the Bells" so that it fit with Jeff and Shannon and their love story. It was pretty clever, if I do say so myself! And then we made everyone cry singing our sister song. Then the kids stood up and sang "I Love to See the Temple". It was adorable. Dax grabbed the mic about halfway through.

We sent off the happy couple with sparklers, packed up everything and headed home. It was a long day and we were totally exhausted by the time we got home at 9 that night. But it was perfect and beautiful day!