the temple ceremony

Our wedding ceremony took place in the morning on November 22, 2011 at the Houston Latter-day Saint temple. 

 

Fun fact: When the Houston temple was built back in 2000, Matt went with his family to the open house to tour the temple and his sister Kristin remembers him telling her, "I'm going to get married here someday!"  Since the San Antonio temple is closer to Austin, that's the one we had planned on getting married in, but the scheduling just didn't work out so we ended up going to Houston instead!  So Matt's 13-year-old prediction came true.
  
Because of our religious faith, we believe that families are eternal.  As members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, we believe that a man and woman can be married not only for this life but for eternity.  This sacred and special ceremony can only take place in a temple.  To us, temples are literally houses of the Lord where individuals make sacred promises with God.  Our ceremony was very small and so beautiful!  I was so grateful for everyone who came; when Matt and I walked into the room where we would be married and saw everyone waiting, I became so overwhelmed at the love I felt there.
As weddings go, not everything was perfect.  As we walked into the temple, it started raining and I worried we wouldn't get any good pictures.  However, when we came out of the temple the rain had stopped, and instead the sky was just overcast, which was perfect for the pictures!  We left my bouquet in the hotel refrigerator, I left my makeup in Austin, and I lost Matt's wedding band.  My sweet sisters shared every piece of makeup they brought, and my clutch brother jetted back to the hotel while we started taking pictures to get my bouquet out of our already-checked-out-of hotel room, and searched under the seats in the car (all while driving) to find Matt's wedding band that I must have dropped as I got out of the car!  All's well that ends well.
Our wedding photographer was Jessica Shumway, and she was one of my favorite things about the day. 

some pictures of our cute nephews and nieces

friends

our family

It was a beautiful day that I will always remember. 

If you have any questions about temple marriage or why we decided to get married in the temple, please feel free to ask me!  I know it is something that isn't very well understood, so don't be shy!  If you'd like to do your own research and then ask me, feel free to check out this website or this website and get back to me. :)