Our Love Story Part VIII: The Last First Kiss

This is the final installment. IF you want the whole story start at the beginning:
Part I: First Meetings
Part II: Let's Just be Friends
Part III: First Date
Part IV: Let's Just Be Friends (Again)
Part V: Since You Went Away
Part VI: The Second First Date
Part VII: The Engagement


I wake up at 4am and just lie in bed. It is Friday December 15th, 2006 and I am getting married tomorrow. I am anxious, excited, giddy, nervous, and not sure what else to think. I also know it will be a whirlwind two days so I take a minute to breath. Half an hour later, my parents and brother wake up and we drive from Thatcher to Mesa so I can go take out my endowments at the temple.

"Happy Birthday Mom."

"This is the best birthday present, to escort you to the temple. "

We arrive at temple and it is so peaceful. I have arrived earlier then everyone else so I get to spend a few minutes with just my mom in the quiet peace of the temple in the early morning.  A little later, we walk into the endowment room and I see ArJay across the aisle and can't help my big goofy grin checking out the stud I will be sealed to forever tomorrow in his white suit. Some people say they are confused, overwhelmed, and lost the first time they go to the temple. I am not. It all makes soo much sense to me and there is such a sense of peace. In fact, I'm a little let down that I am NOT overwhelmed or receive some giant epiphany( if that makes any sense).

But then, I walk into the Celestial Room and catch a glimpse of heaven. All of my family is already there waiting for me. Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, parents, ArJay's family. They are all hugging me and I can't see for the tears when ArJay comes up and wraps me in his arms. This is heaven.

As soon as we all walk out of the temple, we break in 20 different directions. ArJay and his family immediately head back to Tucson to get his house ready for our open house that night. I go to lunch with my parents and some of my family who came. It is loud and rambunctious and fun and I'm soo excited to share this weekend with so many family and friends. Then we head down for the open house.

The open house is CRAZY!! I didn't realize how many friends the Gamble's have until the open house. We sit in the front room of their house and literally hundreds of people come to meet us ( or really me since they all know ArJay). Even though we are standing next to each other, we don't talk to each other for nearly 3 hours as there is a line out the door to meet us. It is overwhelming and amazing that so many people are here to support us. But honestly, after a while I want them all to go so I can spend time with ArJay. Finally at about 10pm, my friend Amber sneaks us some food and we are able to sit and talk for a minute. But it is already time to go since my hotel is back in Mesa. He walks me to the car and I get one last sweet kiss.

" Goodnight Ms. Weir. See you tomorrow Mrs. Gamble"

I fall asleep in the car smiling at that sweet sentiment and the amazing today that seems like it was a year long.

Oh man there was SOO much food. this is teh end of the night, after it was picked over

That's Cade ( the guy who had his homecoming when ArJay had is farewell talk) and his cute Wife Summer and their baby Sky

I wake up at 6 am. Today is my wedding day, I can't keep in the squeal of excitement. My dad hears me and we decide to go get breakfast. I hear you never get to eat on your wedding day, and after last night's open house, I am on a mission to eat as much as I can while I can so I go hunt out breakfast before my hair girl gets here.  I see some of my cousins in the pool and they invite us to join.

" I can't, didn't you hear? I'm getting married today."

My hair and makeup girl shows up and I spend the next couple of hours being transformed into a princess as my best friends Amber, Sarah, and Desiree all show up and we girl talk and giggle. I am just about finished and my phone rings. The caller Id says ArJay.

"Isn't this bad luck or something to talk to me right now?"

"Um...I might be late"

"What? How can you be late, haven't you left yet?"

"Well yeah, but we had to stop at the mall."

".Ok,... why exactly?"

" See I was holding Trevor( his 1 year old down syndrome nephew) and he kind of had a blow out all over my suit pants so we had to stop and get more"

I can't hear what else he says because I am laughing too hard

"You're not mad? I'm trying to get there as fast as I can!"

" No I'm not mad, that's hilarious. If you don't get here in time we'll just do the pictures after."
(We were planning to take our pictures before the wedding so everybody wouldn't have to sit around and wait for 2 hours after the wedding while we take pictures)

I get off the phone and explain what happened.

" So I guess I have a little time to kill. Let's go eat" ( Remember I was very concerned about getting enough food. Priorities people)

So Amber, Sarah, Desiree, and I go and have a very classy lunch at Subway. Well, I am very classy in my full makeup and updo complete with tiara ( Don't judge! When else can a grown woman wear a tiara in life?) and beautiful veil that ArJay's sister Lacey made for me.

That;'s Desiree. We have been friends since we were 15

Man we are classy

We get back to the hotel and I get zipped into my dress and admire myself in the mirror. It's is a very simple dress of white satin with a square neck and poofy skirt. The only embellishment is a rhinestone belt buckle on a drop waist. It was the first wedding dress I tried on. When the dress assistant showed it to my on the hanger, I thought it was hideous and gaudy. But I didn't know what I wanted except no big long train ( as klutzy as I am, that would be begging for some dramatic dress-tearing or tripping incident) so I thought I'd try it. When I put it on, it just worked. I felt classy and sophisticated and timeless. Adjectives I try, but rarely if ever, succeed to aspire to in my life.

Then I heard a murmur of "he's here" and the butterflies explode in my stomach. I am not nervous just full of giddy excitement that he is FINALLY here and we can go. But they want to get a picture of the first time we see each other so I grumble under my breath waiting for everyone to get set. As I turn the corner and see his face I am glad they captured the moment on camera.

We ditch everyone for the quick drive over to the temple. ArJay keeps apologizing for almost being late to our wedding.

" As long as you weren't trying to sneak out on me, it's ok."

ArJay's mom is at the temple with my bouquet. I have not been a fussy bride. I picked red and black as colors because they said I HAD to pick some colors. We had an open house the night before so we wouldn't have to have a huge reception and bother everyone with a lot of hoopla on the wedding day ( I think this really bugged his mom, because she still ended up having a dinner thing after the wedding at a church right by the temple). I didn't have "bridesmaids" or bridesmaids dresses but told my girlfriends to wear what they wanted in our colors so we could take a picture together. So when asked about my bouquet, I said, " I don't know... just some red roses". So I see this big bouquet of red and white roses and weird pink baby's breath things tied in a black ribbon and liberally sprinkled with GOLD GLITTER( it was the gold glitter that did it) and I lost it.

" That's ALL wrong!" I wail.

ArJay is understandably confused considering how laid back I have been" I thought you didn't care?"

" I don't, but that's not right."

He just shakes his head at me like the silly little girl I am " Do we need a new one?"

" NO, of course not. That is ridiculous, I'm just going to have it for pictures anyways."

We meet our photographer and he starts snapping pictures. ArJay HATES pictures, like the fiery passion of a thousand suns hate. But today, he is looking at me like every girl wants a man to look at her.He pulls me to him and whispers

"I'm sorry about the flowers, but no one could possibly be looking at them when they see today you anyways. "

The offensive gold glitter has been shaken off but you can still see the random pink baby's breath things

 We can't stop kissing and touching and, yes, laughing through the pictures. ArJay hams it up and I could honestly spend the whole day out here goofing off with him taking pictures. I even make a joke that I will just have to photoshop his face from these pictures into all future family photos.

" It's true because I can't imagine ever being as happy as right now."

(Mostly) everyone who was there

I totally wore white tennis shoes, that was a lot of walking! I wanted to be comfy

Arjay's cousin Cami, ArJay, and his sister Candice

ArJay's Sisters Lacey and Candice

My Dad and ArJay

My brother Mitch

This was totally ArJay's idea. He said I was Eve tempting him with the fruit

We are so refined and classy

It is finally time to go in. I get changed out of my fancy dress into a different white dress in the beautiful bridal room with my mom, take three deep breaths and go meet him in the sealing room. It is just ArJay and the sealer and I in the room. He talks to us for a few minutes. I'm honestly not really listening to him as ArJay is rubbing circles in my hand. I keep thinking Cool dude. We get it, we'll take care of each other forever. Let's get this show on the road! Bring in the family.

Finally He escorts us down the hall into the sealing room. The room is packed with our dearest family and friends and I am already crying. The sealer has us sit on a little two person chair and quizzes ArJay on important points about marriage from the Proclamation to the World. Poor ArJay looks dumbfounded and looks to me for the answer. Everyone laughs as the sealer says:

"Smart man, already looking to his wife when he doesn't have a clue."

Now we are kneeling across from each other. ArJay's face is blurring at the edges as the tears spill down my cheeks. There are mirrors behind each of us and I can see our reflections going on forever and can't believe how blessed I am to get to be forever with this perfectly imperfect man who happens to be my best friend. He leans over the altar for one more perfect first kiss.

Married!

This is obviously post the wedding because my eyes are all bloodshot from crying

*swoon*