Our Wedding Day

June 17, 2006

"John's plane flew into Salt Lake at 9:30 Friday morning. Dad and Mom took me to the airport to pick him up, and I was practically bouncing up and down in the back seat waiting for him to call. He got in the car and we went straight to the courthouse to pick up our Utah marriage license. A few forms and $50 later, we were on our way!"

"We went back to Cindy's house and spent some time talking outside. We read a short book by Jeffrey R. Holland called 'Of Souls, Symbols, and Sacraments' and talked about the sanctity of marriage and what we would be committing to on our wedding day. It was a good conversation."

"That night we had an open house/birthday party with Grandma Bowen and all our relatives that had come into town for the wedding. Mallory brought the slideshow over to show us how it turned out, and it was awesome! Casandra came over and she and Mallory wanted to see me in my wedding dress, so we ran upstairs and put it on. Then we had to hurry to the airport to pick up John's mom and take both of them to Steve's house for the night. I said goodbye to John for the LAST time, and we both smiled at each other with anticipation."

"The wedding wasn't until 3:00 p.m., so I tried to sleep for as long as I could, but it's like trying to stay in bed on Christmas morning! My first thought was, "Oh my gosh, I'm getting married TODAY!" Cindy made us a big breakfast, and then I drove myself stir crazy until it was time to get ready. Then we grabbed the dress and all our luggage and gave one last round of hugs before driving to the temple. Dad took a while finding a parking space, and I was nervous about being late for my own wedding, so we were a little flustered by the time we got inside. John arrived with plenty of time to take a picture with his siblings before he met me in the lobby."

"I asked John how he was feeling, and he said he had butterflies in his stomach, but we both smiled because we knew it was going to be one of the happiest days of our lives. As we sat in the Celestial room of the Salt Lake Temple together, waiting for our family to meet us in the sealing room, John offered a prayer on our behalf. It calmed our nerves and brought us closer to the spirit. Then we were escorted to the sealing room, and received some words of counsel from the Sealer. When he was finished, he asked John to bring me to the altar and then kneel across from me on the other side. We held each other's hand and made a covenant with each other and the Lord, and our marriage was sealed for time and all eternity."

"We stood up and exchanged rings, and then received hugs from all of our friends and family who came to congratulate us. On the way back to the dressing room, all the temple matrons were calling me 'Sister Critchfield' and it made me smile. The rest of our family waited outside for us to make our grand appearance as husband and wife."

"John came around the corner of the hallway in his tuxedo and stopped to take a good look at me in my wedding dress. Then we grabbed each other's hand and walked through the temple doors together."

"Our families clapped and cheered!"

"We gave out hugs and then followed our photographer so we could take pictures."

"We had fun getting our entire family to mesh together for the first time."

"I love my new family!"

"When the pictures were finished, John and I stayed behind to take some more photos with just the two of us."

"When we were finished, we headed over to the Joseph Smith Building where our family was having dinner. We had a TV set up with our slideshow of pictures from childhood through dating, and everyone had a good laugh. Then we passed a microphone around the room, and everyone took a turn standing up and sharing a story about the bride or the groom. It was fun to reminisce about all the good times we'd shared with our families. When everyone had taken a turn, John stood up at the microphone and thanked everyone for being there and expressed his feelings about the day's events. Then he turned to me and expressed his love and gratitude for me, and it was a very sweet moment. I made a few remarks and expressed my love for John as well, and then we took that as our cue to say goodbye. After 18 months of being apart we were overjoyed just to know that we could finally be together for eternity. It truly was the best day of our lives!"