at last

Just one more day until the wedding.
One last day of single life and tomorrow I'll be married.
Tomorrow I become a Mrs. and a wife.
I'm so excited to marry my best friend.
Tomorrow is the day I've been dreaming about for as long as I can remember ... obviously :)

I'm so excited to be together for the rest of eternity.

I'm so excited to spend my life with this guy.

birthdays

We are right in the middle of birthday season at the Siddoway house. First was Mom, then Kate, and now Dad.

I love them all so much, they are so good to me!
My family is always there with encouraging words and solutions to all my problems, they really are the best a girl could ask for.

Happy Birthday Mom/Kate/Dad!! 

golden

Shout out to this birthday boy on his golden birthday!

Turning 24 on the 24th. It's a big deal. What a stud.

Happy Birthday Conner! I love you so much and I can't wait to be your wife in just 8 more days. I'm so excited to spend forever with you because you're the kindest, most genuine, and most charitable person I know. Plus you're pretty funny to boot and we always have something to laugh about!

Thanks for being born :)

engagements

So I think a few people { eh-hem Marissa } were a tad bit disappointed by my sneak peak yesterday since the only thing that you really got to see was my bouquet... So here are some - a very small sampling - of our engagements (from the windiest day known to man) to make up for it!! I love all of our pictures so much and can't wait for the wonderful and talented Alta to post the rest!

 

probably one of my absolute favorites

conner's favorite

the good ol' invitation picture

p.s. we have made it to the single digits! nine more days people!

ten + sneak peak

TEN MORE DAYS.

It's been a pretty great day, this 10th-to-last day of single life. 

This morning started off with a breakfast event at the Hilton in Salt Lake sponsored by Grandeur Peak Funds (the place of employment for the father and the fiancé). The event highlighted the non-profit CHOICE Humanitarian that works to end poverty in Guatemala, Mexico, Nepal, Kenya, and Bolivia. They've got a pretty great system going and it made me want to go on another humanitarian trip. I loved the trip I did to Mexico and Guatemala with my brother and cousins a few years ago.

But I've also had a pretty great last few days too. The highlights: 

My mom and I decided back in January that we would make my wedding cake because, why not? We are both great bakers { if I do so say myself } and thought it would be fun. However, in order to have enough cake for all our guests, and have dessert to serve before we cut our wedding cake, we went to Granite Bakery last week to order some sheet cakes. Long story short the baker/owner was there, we chatted, he found out I previously worked at a bakery and the conversation went a little something like this...

Him: Well, if you're ever looking for a job I know where you can get one!

Me: Actually... I'm looking for a summer job.

So I start tomorrow. Yay for jobs and earning money!

BUT.

What I've been really excited to post about is our bridal session we did with Alta yesterday!! We took first look pictures in my aunt's beautiful new backyard and then headed to the temple to get some shots of the two of us so we wouldn't have to worry about time or forgetting any particular shots we wanted on the day of. It was so. much. fun. I have always dreamed of being the pretty bride getting her pictures taken and it was just as great as I've always imagined. 

Without giving away anything, here are a few shots I got during our session:

Alta shooting us at the temple

The plan was to use a bouquet of peonies from our garden for bridals but it's been such weird/cold weather that they haven't bloomed yet. So a couple hours before our pictures I went over to Whole Foods and bought a few bunches of flowers. I threw together a bouquet and wrapped it in burlap. I think it turned out really pretty - here are some close-ups of the gorgeous flowers.

peony, daisy

tulip, peony, football mum

alstromeria, football mum

a bachelorette

It's been a while. Again. I know. It's bad. I'm hopefully going to be better at blogging now that I'm almost done with all the wedding planning. It's been such a blast tending to all the little details and counting down to our big day. My angel of a mother has been such a big help and I can't wait for everyone to see what we've spent so many hours planning!

Well, on Saturday night my cute friends threw me the best bachelorette party slash bridal shower ever. I really have never been to a better shower. And not just cause I was the one getting the gifts.. cause that was pretty great.. but they served delicious food, we played the best games, and we all had stomach aches from laughing by the time the night was over.

Nat decorated the apartments with cute flag banners, pantie banners, and homemade paper pompoms. Everything was so cute!

She also made yummy crepes for everyone!

Of course I am the worst at documenting things so I only have a few pictures but this was one of my favorites - all my Tingey girls from freshman year and my sweet cousin Amy!

We definitely missed all the cousins and friends that were out of state & country and couldn't make it!

And thank you to all my lovely friends that made my shower a night to remember!!

life lately

Well it's been a while. It almost feels weird writing a post after what, a month? It's been so incredibly busy and we've been doing a ton. So here's a post from my iPhone to sum it all up...

~ Finals week. I'm just glad it's over! Welcome summer, you'll be the best of my life.

~ California. First we flew down to San Diego so I could go through the temple and then we drove to Laguna to be at my cousin Jessie's wedding in the Newport Temple. It was such a beautiful wedding and she was a gorgeous bride! We also ate delicious food and took a walk on the beach. The whole celebratory weekend was a total blast.

~ After the wedding Conner and I dropped my parents off at the airport and drove up to the Bay Area to spend some time at Conner's parents house and meet with the jeweler making my wedding band. We took Conner's family out to try Korean food for the first time (Conner served an LDS mission in Seoul).  We also spent a day walking around San Francisco, we went to the SFMOMA and Chinatown. Conner and I also went to the Oakland Temple { so that was three temples in about five days }. 

It was so fun, we even met up with the family and Grandma Whipple for some Fenton's afterwards.

~ We got home from CA just in time to be there for my brother Noah's LDS mission call opening. He is going to San Bernardino, CA! We are all so excited for him. He leaves to the MTC on July 24.

~ Then we all locked ourselves in the office and tied, stuffed, stamped, and posted wedding invitations. My angel mother used her beautiful calligraphy to hand address every. single. one. of those babies.

~ Oh! And we took some amazing engagement pictures before finals week with Alta that I'm excited to do a post about soon! Alta put up a sneak peek on her blog, so check it out :)