Since Day 1

Confession: I've had a thing for Johnny since day 1.
How could I not? He's cute and clever and so very funny, and that was just my first impression of him. If he would have asked me out that first night I met him over at his apartment, I would not have hesitated a moment before responding in the affirmative to a complete stranger. As most of you know, the situation did not even come close to playing out that way, but it all worked out in the end.
When we were still in the friend zone - and by "friend zone" I mean hanging out every single day for about two months - I wished so much that he would just ask me out so we could at least give things a proper try.
After we had gone on a few dates (and endured countless long talks about our potential future, or at times, our lack of potential future) I was absolutely sure he was what I wanted. Eventually, he became sure of it, too, just in time for me to go home to Arkansas for the summer.
So we did the whole long-distance
dating thing for 2 months. It was a long two months but such a good way to start a relationship. When I got back to Utah in the fall, after talking to him on the phone every night for an hour or two, I knew he was serious about dating me. And like I said, I'd been serious since day 1.
Dreams of marrying that boy after school got out the following April quickly entered into my mind, where they were happily entertained until he made them a reality with a surprise visit to Arkansas on New Year's Eve 2010.
The rest is history, and here we are today.















On Saturday, April 23, 2011, Johnny made all my wildest dreams come true. We were sealed for time and all eternity in the LDS Bountiful Temple, surrounded by 70 loved ones. Here's where I tell you a little about our absolutely perfect in every single way day.

I woke up bright and early that morning to get my make-up done by my lovely big sister Emily. After that we rushed over to a salon so that my mom and I could get our hair done. I was basically excited beyond belief at this point, but also worried that some little detail would go wrong on our big day. Once our hair was done, Mom and I went to Johnny's parents' house to pick him up and go to the temple. He was already wearing his light gray suit and looking so dang good.

We had a sealing room reserved for 50 people, but apparently we're just really really popular because when we got to the room, there were 70 people crammed in there! It was so wonderful to see everyone there to support us. My grandma even came! The little trickster had a health setback and wasn't going to be able to fly out for the wedding. I was crushed when I found out. - I lived across the street from Grams for most of my life and I could not imagine getting married without her. I couldn't believe she made it!


We had a beautiful sealing ceremony and then got ready to make our exit from the temple. There were even more people lined up outside the doors to greet us. I'm not real big on being the center of attention, but it was so fun to walk outside and see dozens of people who traveled from all over just to see us get hitched. We felt so loved!

Then, we took lots of pictures outside the temple. Here's a few (ten):

This post has suddenly become forever long, so we'll leave off here for now. I'll update about the rest of the day soon!