Season's Greetings!

We went to St. George for Thanksgiving to spend some time with Brandon's family who lives there. The temple looked beautiful all lit up for the season!


Naughty or Nice? With Brandon's face, I think silly is more like it! We took these at the Tuachan outdoor theater. Santa had already left, so we got to take these pictures.

We would like to wish you a Merry Christmas from Anne and Brandon!

Updates!

Since Brandon and I have gotten back from our honeymoon, we've been pretty busy trying to settle back into our lives. So we apologize for the lack of entries during the past month! Now with Christmas quickly approaching, things haven't really slowed down for us. We've actually been a little bit sidelined with some sicknesses. Brandon and I both came down with colds last week, mine just stayed a cold, while his turned ugly and became a horrible flu and body racking cough. The coughing, as you can imagine, hasn't helped much with getting a good night's sleep, for either of us! We even visited his Doctor and he prescribed a couple of cough medicines, which haven't really helped a lot. So hopefully he will be on the mend soon and we can both get a decent night's sleep!
So anyway, here are some pictures for you to enjoy!
Here's Brandon and I dressed in our Halloween Costumes! We were both Romans if you couldn't tell! We were inspired by the toy breast plate that we found at Savers, then the rest of the costumes fell into place!
We went on our honeymoon to Lake Tahoe! This is Emerald Bay! It is such a beautiful area! That day was pretty sunny, but it was still quite a bit chilly and for most of our stay in Tahoe it was a little rainy and overcast. They were getting ready for ski season, so most of the normal touristy type stuff was closed! Like the romantic dinner cruise around the lake. But we still had fun gong to the hot tubs and pool! Driving around, going to yummy restaurants, playing tourist, and me getting a relaxing massage!
The view of the pool and hot tubs from our huge corner room with fully loaded kitchen, dining room, fireplace, flat screen T.V., and jetted tub! They upgraded us when they found out it was our honeymoon. Very nice! The pool was heated, and there were 3 hot tubs.
There are tons of tall pine trees there. This is the road that heads around the lake. Just dense pine trees.
We flew out of Reno, so we had a chance to grab some breakfast with Brandon's friends, Jared and Natalie, who live there! It was nice getting to spend a little time with them!

Overall our honeymoon was just fantastic! It was nice just getting away and spending time with each other without having to be in a rush or planning a wedding!

November 8th! Wedding Day!

Well Brandon and I just got back from our Honeymoon and wanted to say "Thank You," to all of you that were able to share our wedding day with us. We know there were many of you that were unable to attend and we appreciate your thinking of us and sending us your best wishes.

5 Days!

We got our pictures back from the photo shoot we did a couple weeks ago. We decided, by the recommendation from our photographer, to do some pictures in advance, in case of weather and time constraints on our actual wedding day. So this is a little sneak peek at what's to come this Saturday! In this shot, Brandon hadn't seen me in my dress yet, and they wanted to capture his reaction. So they made him turn around and then I came out and stood behind him.

Then the photographer counted to three and he turned around and saw me. Doesn't he look handsome?

He then came over and gave me a hug and a kiss! We both got a little teary. It was a very special and memorable moment!



We walked across the street from the Temple and posed in this field. We had to tromp down the thorny weeds, but it was worth it for some great shots with temple in the background.



Why do I love this guy? For his funny faces of course! How can I not laugh when he's pulling faces like this!

I love this shot of us! It's one of my favorites. After we left the temple grounds, we headed down the street to the American Fork Amphitheater to do my Bridal shots, and Brandon was able to jump into several of the pictures.



The sun was going down when we took this shot. I like the soft glow that the sun makes at this time of day. It was a fun time getting to do these pictures early, and I totally recommend it. It's been rainy and even snowy today, and I'm really glad that we got these pictures done in advance. I'm sure on our real day, we'll be so happy that we won't even notice if it's raining! But I'm hoping for sunshine!
Well we can't wait to see you guys this Saturday!

10 Days!

The Countdown Begins!

12 days to go until our special day! We're nearly done with the wedding plans and are really looking forward to having an evening where we don't have to do any wedding stuff! Hurray! We're also looking forward to getting to see our family and friends at the reception! Today we are taking care of the last bits of stuff we have to do for our wedding video. We had a hard time sorting through all these awesome love songs but hopefully we got it down to the ones that will be perfect for us (sorry Billy Idol's "White Wedding" did not make the cut).
Brandon and I did get to have a little sneak preview of each other in our wedding attire as last week we took some pictures with each other at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple and the American Fork Amphitheater. Our photographer suggested it, just because the day of the wedding is a one shot deal, and what with it snowing a few weeks ago, who knows what the weather could be like, so we decided it would be wise to do some in advance.
They say that it's bad luck for the groom to see the bride before the wedding, but who believes in that stuff anyway? We had our videographer and photographer there to capture our reactions and it was a very special experience. Because normally you don't get those pictures, so it was pretty cool. They had Brandon turn his back to me and then I came out and stood behind him, just outside the Temple. Then with the cameras going, he turned around and we saw each other. Brandon looked great in his tuxedo and I guess I looked good in my dress because Brandon got a little teary. Awww! Isn't he sweet? I just love him! We will get some of those pictures on here as soon as I get them from the photographer!

Wedding Invitation

Anne and I spent the better part of the evening working on our wedding invitation. Anne has a wonderful ability to see color, spacing and art! I wish I could say the same for my PhotoShop skills! We hope you like it.

From Brandon & Anne

From Brandon & Anne

Engagement Pictures!

We got our announcement pictures taken a little over a week ago and these are some of our favorites! We took most of these at Vivian Park, up Provo Canyon. The leaves are changing and aside from it being a little windy, it was a beautiful day! Then we also went to the Shops at Riverwoods and took some pictures there. We experimented with some traditional shots and more contemporary ones. The contemporary ones were sort of hard to do, because we had to have more serious faces, I didn't include a lot of those here. After an hour and a half of photographing, we did get a little tired of smiling and fake laughing! But we had a good time. Our photographer Kate Jeppson, was really nice to work with.
So now Brandon and I are trying to put together our announcement invitations. So if we haven't gotten your address yet, please get it to us!

Flower Girl Dresses!

Brandon and I found these cute dresses for our nieces to wear for our wedding! The one with the bigger dots will be for our 6 younger nieces ages 4 months to 5 years old and the other one will be for the other 5 girls that are 6 to 11 years old. Brandon had this idea of polka dot dresses and he even found the one for the younger girls on-line at Dillards, and ordered them, but there was a mix-up and a problem with the dresses being out-of-stock at Dillards, so we had to find the dresses on another website. We're still waiting on the second dress to get here, but it should be arriving this week!
I decided that I like on-line shopping. It has really saved us from having to run around more than we already have and things have also been much less expensive on-line than they have been in stores. So that's good too!

HDWeddingEvents.com

Here is just a preview of the videographer that Anne and I chose. We really like his work and hope he will capture some wonderful moments for us to share. Please enjoy this little trailer that he did for another couple.



David & Lara from Denver Riddle on Vimeo.

Wedding Colors!

It took me awhile and a trip to the craft store, but I finally decided on my wedding colors! So here they are, Brown, a sort of Sage or Olive Green, Creme, and a slight Orange accent to pull some fall feel into it! I made these swatches from ribbon and paper and couldn't believe how crafty I could be! I've given these to my family and Brandon's family so they can begin the search for wedding party attire. Hopefully these will help everyone out!

Fun Times Together!

I know we've been neglecting our blog a bit! So maybe this'll catch us up! The first picture is of us in the Visitor's Center at the Bryce Canyon Dam (I can't remember what it is called, but it is right next to Page, Arizona). Then we have my Mom, Dad, myself, and Brandon at the Lake Powell Dam on our way back from visiting my brother Mike and his family in Arizona.
Then a photo of us being silly at Geppetos, a little pizza place that we went to for a friend's birthday. We were right next to the live music for the evening, and we were going crazy trying to talk over the music. The pizza was good!
Then just this past Sunday, Brandon and I took a drive up past Solitude Ski Resort and took a stroll around Silver Lake where we saw beavers, ducks, and a moose! We also snapped a couple of pictures!

Busy Busy!

With only about a month and 3/4 left till wedding day, we've continued with the planning by booking a photographer and videographer. We spent hours looking at so many websites trying to find someone that we liked and who were affordable that it is all big blur!
We did finally find some and we decided to go with Kate Jeppson as our photographer. She was really nice and we got to talk with her in her new studio in Lehi. We think she'll do a great job!
In looking for a videographer we found Denver Riddle with HD Wedding Events and we were really impressed with his more "movie" like feel and hope he'll be able to capture those special moments on our wedding day!

The Planning Begins!

First on our agenda was getting a temple date and then once that was taken care of, we started looking for reception places. Since we decided on Mount Timpanogos Temple, it made sense to find something close by that wouldn't be too far for our Salt Lake County friends/family as well as our Utah County connections. We found that in a pretty place in American Fork called Northampton house (http://www.northamptonhouse.com/). So this will be the location for both the luncheon as well as the reception.

The date is set!

Now that the ring was officially on my finger, it was time to choose a date! After much deliberation, we selected Saturday, November 8, 2008! The marriage will take place in the Mount Timpanogos Temple in American Fork!

The Proposal!

Well it became official on Monday, August 4th 2008. Brandon proposed! Brandon picked me up and told me that our date that night would consist of going to places that we've been before on previous dates. So we first went to dinner at an Italian place downtown, called Al Forno's, then he took me to Mulligan's to hit golf balls on the driving range, which was the site of our very first date that took place over two years ago!
We hit around for awhile, then we got down to the last few balls. Brandon was placing each one on the tee for me and coaching me on my game (he tells me that I'm a natural! Yeah, I try to visualize Tiger Woods in my head, that's my secret!). Then it was the final ball and as he's about to place it on the tee he says something to the effect of, "Ok, this is the last one, so you really gotta focus on it and make it a good one." But instead of putting the ball on the tee, he pulled an old switcheroo (which I totally saw, not too sneaky, but he gets points for trying!) and placed a white, open ring box on the tee with the most stunning ring inside of it. I nearly hit the ring off the tee (ok, not really)! Then Brandon got down on one knee and asked me to marry him! I said, "yes" and here we are today!
It was funny because my best friends Betsy and Melissa had taken Brandon aside the day before and had given him some advice about how to ask me to marry him because as girls we've talked about this stuff before. So they warned him of a few things. I'll call them the rules of engagement! Rule #1: Don't make it embarrassing. No jumbotron propsals or in large public gatherings. Rule #2: Don't put the ring in any kind of food or drink, she may choke on it! Rule #3: Keep it something private and special between the two of you.
I would like to thank Betsy and Melissa for sharing this advice with Brandon! I would also like to thank Brandon for the beautiful ring that he picked out entirely on his own! He did well and I absolutely love it!