Wedding Planning Gratitude Post

I was so grateful when my sister just younger than me got married in January that I didn't have to do a thing. For years I worried about how I would be able to step up and fill in during both my sister's weddings with our mom gone. But thanks to her incredible now mother-in-law, a.ka. the fairy godmother, all I had to do was buy the bridesmaid dress and show up. It was wonderful!

Now with my youngest sister getting married, in about a week and a half actually, I'm grateful for the talents I've been prepared with to help make this one happen just as beautiful. Side note, if you're reading this and your mom helped make your wedding dreams come true… the woman deserves a medal, or at least a long really sweet hug.

So anyway, my youngest sister wanted to do this whole wedding planning thing on her own and I was totally okay with that, but I knew she was going to get to a point where she would need and ask for help. She, and her LDS wedding planning app, got all the way to the ordering of the announcements before I got called in. I was super impressed and very proud of her. She had the temple booked, the reception center scheduled, the decorations all planned and reserved, and the whole concept (or feel she was going) for in mind, but at the announcements she was stuck.

My youngest sister wanted a Beauty and the Beast feel to her wedding. She didn't want it exactly like it or to come off cheesy, but she did want it to feel inspired by Disney's Beauty and the Beast. Now is where my task began. She wanted a wedding announcement that captured that feeling by utilizing the enchanted rose. Not to mention, she wanted her colors blue and silver to be a part of it too. I have never designed a wedding announcement in my life. But I wasn't going to let her down if I could help it.

When I showed her the finished product, to the left, she actually started crying and I knew it was what she had wanted. Not only did we make her deadline on her LDS wedding planning app, but with the help of BYU Print Services we were able to print the announcements, insert cards, and envelopes with the to and return addresses printed on each one for under $300.

After her future in laws saw it, her soon to be father-in-law gave me the task to color edit their engagement photos he took as well. And then I used that same photo as the cover of the guest book they will have at the reception. It continues with the Beauty and the Beast idea by incorporating the rose into their own kind of logo I also designed and then each page has a line to the first verse of "Tale As Old As Time"as part of it. It's all come together so perfectly.

But even I can't do everything and I am even more grateful for my sister just younger than me, several aunts and cousins, and friends who have rallied to help where their gifts and talents excel… and mine do not. Like the bridal showers. I don't do bridal showers. I don't even like to attend them honestly. So I was beyond thrilled when two of our cousins and aunt volunteered to host and plan it. Not to mention all the amazing food they and my sister just younger than me made for both the showers. It was like they were heaven sent.

For my youngest sister's bridals I did her makeup, nails and even her hair in a Belle-esque fashion, but it was my friend Courtney Ball whose magic photography skills captured her vision during her bridals. As Courtney snapped photo after photo I just looked at my sister in awe really. Was this really the little girl who followed me around school, copying my every move… all grown up now?! It is, but I still kinda can't believe it.

I'm so excited for both my sisters, starting these new chapters in life with honest, hardworking, faithful, diligent men to journey with, hand in hand.  

And there's one more major surprise in store for my youngest sister during her wedding celebration, again with the help of many family and friends, It's so perfect, and ties everything in, not to mention is totally something our mom would have done for her if she could be here. I'm so excited for her to see it I can hardly hold it in. But that will have to wait for a later post.

Never give up on your dreams. And do everything you can to help those you love achieve theirs.
  

A Day I’ll Remember Never To Forget

I’ve been preparing to take the GMAT so it’s taken a couple days to find the time to sit down and write, but I want to remember how incredibly wonderful it was to see the first of my sisters get married to a wonderful man and companion in the temple this past weekend.

We’re super close, my sisters and I. As kids we used to say we were the three musketeers. We even later added to our group our own “d'Artagnan,” our younger (and only female) cousin on my dad’s side. We were always close, but became even closer after losing our mom as teenagers.

The last ten years we banded together, looking after each other, supporting each other, through everything. And I mean, everything. My sister just younger than me was my rock of support when I thought I would break, my youngest sister was my home base where I could run to for safety to regroup, and I was their guardian and protector jumping in to save the day when anything went wrong. We each filled for the others the place, the gaps, where our mom once stood in our individual lives. We were each other’s teachers, examples, best friends and even at times, each other’s perceived worst enemies. But that’s what it truly means to be sisters, right?

My role as I said was to guard and protect. I got used to defending and preserving their freedom and opportunities. Making sure our circumstances or challenges in no way hindered our potential to reach goals we had always had: to get an education, to do something we love, to be financially independent, secure and happy. And one day, as Latter-day Saint women, to marry in the temple and have a family too, if that was the Lord’s plan. This was a role and responsibility I took very seriously.  

Then this last year, after we’ve all graduated, gotten jobs, etc. my sisters have gradually and quietly come into their own. It wasn’t until a bridal shower as I sat back watching my sister interact for the first time in this new world and adventure she was embarking on that I suddenly thought, “Wow, who is this incredibly strong, capable and confident woman sitting next to me?” It wasn’t the girl I shielded in my shadow anymore. Without even realizing it, she had grown up right before my eyes. And into the kind of woman my mom had hoped we would each be.

When her wedding day came I couldn’t help but tear up sitting there in this absolutely heaven like room we call the sealing room, a room found in LDS temples, watching her hand in hand with her now husband making promises of real love and commitment for time and all eternity. She was absolutely radiant. The joy in her eyes struck me as I watched her step through and close this difficult chapter of loss, despair and discouragement; having never given up, having held on to us as we held onto her to make it, and now she was moving on. I realized watching her that suddenly now, we did it. We’ve made it. And now she is my example of hope, strength and courage the way I have always tried to be hers.

To Leave A Legacy

There are few men I can say have made a difference in my life and only one I owe my life to, Dean LeRoy Sollis; the greatest man I have ever known.

As the second to last of eight children of a widow in the depression, my grandfather learned value and prudence. He also learned to like lima beans while detesting rice and chicken, food in abundance at the time. I remember sitting next to the fireplace listening to the stories of he and his brothers working as children to make ends meet. My grandfather lived frugally all his life and eventually provided for the mother who raised him, the family he created, and the grandchildren he saw his future in.

Family was the greatest treasure to my grandfather and protecting his family was a life-long pursuit. When the Second World War reached its frigid fingers across the Atlantic into America's way of life, my grandfather joined the Army. He served our country with each of his brothers and learned courage, sacrifice and diligence. I listened to stories of him as an Army medic and still shudder to think of leaving my family and home let alone facing the possibility of never coming home at all. What my grandfather shared with me I will never forget. He emphasized faith and hope in the greatest of adversities. With faith and hope, anything is achievable.

I didn't always know these stories, but I always knew of my value in the eyes of my grandfather. He made me feel like I could conquer the world! He also told me many times how I deserve the world. During the summer a friend brought me home. When he left my grandfather told me, after making me laugh with his inquiry as to this boy's intentions, to make sure I was always treated as the lady I am. Small moments like this with my grandfather throughout my life taught me to appreciate my own intellect, talent, beauty and potential. He taught me never to settle. I hope that every girl has someone like my grandfather in her life, to show her how to reach her full potential, to remind her of her infinite and eternal worth.

My grandfather died September 13, 2009 after a long struggle with Parkinson's Disease. I watched the greatest man in my life wither away to its debilitating effects. Yet, he will live on as the pillar of strength I have built my life against. Grandpa, I love and greatly miss you.