11.11.11

 I can't believe my daughter is a married woman! It feels like it was a dream! It was a beautiful day. Everything went so smooth! John and I felt so happy sitting in the temple watching our little Christmas girl get sealed for time and all eternity to the love of her life. People kept asking us if we were freaking out... we could honestly say that this is the day we raised her for. It was the next step she had to take in order to return to live with her Heavenly Father again. You can learn more about temple marriages here. We would be freaking out if she was making choices that would take her away from this day. Scotty and Ashley are very much in love and we are so happy to have Scotty part of our family! It has taken me a week to go through a thousand pictures and pick the ones I wanted to post. We haven't gotten the photographers back. As soon as I do, I will post more! Here is there very cute announcement! We knew we wanted to tie in the whole 11.11.11 theme to it. John hired a graphic designer (Tracy at BlueBirdDesignStudios.com) to design it for us. Ashley wrote the story and the designer went with it. She was suppose to give us 3 to pick from and she ended up making like 11 different ones. (it made it really hard to decide!) She is so talented! We picked a few favorite things out of each of them and then she put it all together. SO cute!!!

Here are a few of my favorite ones of Ashley & Scotty coming out of the temple. 

So many hugs!

The fab 5! (Ashley's best friends in high school!)

The Marx and Barnes Families

The Barnes side

My handsome boys with the happy couple!

I love my kids!

Grandma Barnes

Grandma and Grandpa Westra

Our little girl all grown up!

So happy!

Silly dad!

I love this angle!

Love her!

The Westra kids (David, Todd, Cindy, Mom, Dad, Julie, Allison, Mark, Scott. Missing Greg and John Although I think they were there with us in the temple!)

We love our mom and dad!

Silly Fab 5!

All the girl friends!

The Barnes family (Edie, Debbie, Cathi, John, Barbara, Annette and Mom)

John and all of the Barnes girls!

The Westra nieces and nephews

 After pictures at the temple we went to a beautiful luncheon at a church building nearby. Kim did a great job! It was so fun! She had a really cute mashed potato bar! Then she had the best prime rib and salad and veggies.

YUM!

Ashley didn't spill!

Todd and Sharolyn and Justin & Grandpa

Grandma Barnes and The Moons

Edie, Luke and John

The Fab 5!

Emily, Dallin, Grandma, Brendon and Charity

The teenage table having lots of fun with the sparkling cider bottles!

Kade, Cathi, Kris, Keaton, Barb, Katherine and Annette

The roommates

Mauri, Angela, Mark, Gary, Julie, Steve, Cindy, Kelsie and Christopher

Dave, Rebekah, Scott, Jack and Jenn

Afton fell asleep so the boys put their sparkling cider bottles around her!

The Reception

Wasn't it beautiful!

 The smartest decision we made was to hire a decorator for the wedding reception. Pam was the best! She went above and beyond our expectations! She is so creative!!!! She understood Ashley's vision and she created it. We made with the centerpieces and we ordered the photo's and she did everything else. I showed up at 6pm and everything was amazing!!! All week, everyone kept telling me I was so calm and I would reply that I had Pam! It was wonderful. We were able to enjoy our company and spend time with them without stressing over decorating.

2 weeks before the wedding I found the cutest milk and cookie bar on Pinterest. (click here to see it. If you aren't on Pinterest, you really should check it out!) I talked Ashley into changing our dessert plans to this. It was so such a hit! Everyone loved the cookies and milk! (and I am sure the pink straws were a favorite too!)

Pam displayed all the cookies on milk glass collection!

The cake, the bouquet toss and the garter toss.

The goodbye!

We will always remember 11.11.11 as a very special day in the Barnes Family! We love you Ashley and Scotty!