Mike and Lauren, Together at Last!

How easily Mike and Lauren came together makes me laugh. Once they started dating, it became pretty clear within a several months that these two were going to get married. At his younger sister’s wedding I joked with his dad that Mike makes getting married look so easy – so Mike has shown me that all it really takes is getting up to BYU, pick out the first girl that you think is cute, go out with her, kiss her about a week or two later, become bf/gf right away, and then get engaged. Why didn’t I ever think about that?

What’s really cool is seeing the ways in which Lauren has helped make to stretch himself and become more than he would otherwise be on his own. They got married this last weekend up here in Salt Lake City, and had their wedding reception that same night at American Fork Amphitheater. The really nice part about all of this was how perfectly it worked out for me. I went on Amy’s family vacation a little bit earlier in the week, was able to still take care of some of my responsibilities midweek, and then all of the Reids came out this way to celebrate Mike and Lauren’s nuptials.I was really excited to have everyone that I really love and care about all in the same place for this weekend, but I was a little disappointed that Greg wouldn’t be able to come out and celebrate with us. I had called him on my way back to Provo from Zion and he gave me his story about how he wished he could make it, but between finals and another trip he has planned next week, it just wasn’t going to work out blah blah blah. Come to find that at the rehearsal dinner the night before the big day Greg walks in with his flowing locks and surprises us all. I should have known that was coming because Greg does love surprises. Freshman year when he went back home during winter semester to save money, he made a trip back to Provo to hang out, and he came a day early and it surprised the heck out of me. I still remember him walking into our prison cell dorm room and my jaw dropping, not being able to say anything from the shock of seeing him there. Anyway…

This wedding was more in line with traditional weddings that we don’t normally see in the church. Far from being the kind that holds a reception in the cultural hall of the local church and saving on every expense possible, Lauren’s family was the kind that could afford the sky’s the limit sticker price for her wedding, and she was the kind of bride that was going to maximize on that opportunity. Unfortunately for her, she had to wake up to cloudy skies and rainy weather for the one day in her life when she was dreaming of crystal blue skies and warm temperatures.

The sealing was at the Salt Lake Temple. I swear, I always get so much out of the brief talk that every sealer gives before performing the actual ceremony. This temple sealer also happened to be the mission president that preceded Mike’s mission president in Texas when he was a missionary, so he had a loose tie to the couple. My favorite part about the sealing was sitting on Mike’s side, facing Lauren across the altar, and seeing her lips quiver throughout the entire ceremony because she was trying to smile, but trying to hold back her tears. It was so endearing to see and made me feel a little choked up as well.

There were only a few pictures outside of the temple with the photographer, which worked out just fine because it also happened to be the wettest part of the day. As always, events took a little bit longer than expected, so everyone was cutting it close getting back to American Fork in their attire to do photos and be ready for the dinner that was before the general reception. The dinner itself was really nice, but my favorite part of the food provided was the dessert bar and the ice cream going around with the servers.


The nice part about the day’s events was that sun finally peeked from behind the clouds for the reception and when everyone had to be outside. A tent was setup that was lavishly decorated, with dozens and dozens of different kinds of flowers.

My favorite part of the day? By far it was the dancing. They had a dance floor on one side of the tent, and they had a DJ playing for a portion of the evening, but even better was the band that they had hired to play for the wedding. I couldn’t believe how good they were, and they had a male and female singer so that they could do a variety of different songs, not to mention that no song was outside of their range. My favorite was probably when the guy did a Bee Gees medley that I thought was amazing. You want to know another thing? I love dancing. I was a little bummed that all my buddies that I like dancing with only stayed out there for a few songs, but luckily for me Amy also loves to dance so we were on the dance floor for most of the evening. That’s the one thing that I want to make sure of at my wedding – that there is good music. I feel like so many receptions just become about visiting with people and just putting your time in, and getting in and out as quickly as possible that it becomes much less about the fun and celebrating that should be had. This was by far my favorite reception that I’ve ever been to. In fact, all of my favorite receptions had some element of dance involved. Lauren’s brother and sister-in-law and some other friends put together a choreographed dance number to top off the night for the happy couple. But you know who loves dancing even more than I do? Ryan and Tyler. Those kids had endless energy and moves on the dance floor. I thought it was so funny that they didn’t even care who they were around. They were just out there to let their little hearts scream out in their hopping and break dance moves. It was so funny.

In the last few months, there have definitely been times when I’ve felt a little put out by how much time Mike (and obviously Lauren) had to put towards wedding preparation, but in the end everything really paid off. Everything looked so beautiful, I think there were elements for everyone to enjoy that attended, and the importance of the sealing was not lost amidst all of the effort that went into preparing for the wedding day. Amy made a good point when we were talking about some of the events surrounding the wedding, that it’s important to remember that the day is more about a marriage than it is a wedding, and I’m so glad that it looks like both of those things will work out just fine for those two kids.