July 16th, 2011

In all seriousness, this day was the most amazing day of my life.  Nothing I write can quite describe the way I felt.  The most I can do is try and bring the magic of this day into writing in just the series of events.  So let's start with the morning...

1:00 a.m. Although, I had a BLAST at my bachelorette party, those girls kept me out until 1:00a.m. (I probably wouldn't have slept anyway).  When I got home, I mostly packed my suitcase for the honeymoon and just double checked all of my checklists and schedules for the day because that would be the last time I look at them.

3:00 a.m. I layed down to rest my eyes... and fell asleep.

4:50 a.m. My mother comes to wake me up and asks if there is somewhere I needed to be.. yes.  My hair and makeup appointment was at 5:00 a.m.  Bad start.

5:20 a.m Hair and make up appointment

7:30 a.m. I get home to put a skirt on and grab my temple bag and wedding dress.  Don't worry, I had to be at the temple in 15 minutes!

8:00 a.m. Driving in the car with my mom, I was hyperventilating, crying, and trying to eat breakfast.  It was starting to hit me.  Today was my wedding day.  It was 80 degrees.  For those who don't know for Las Vegas in July, this is unheard of.  It made me cry.

8:15 a.m.  We arrived at the temple.  All of the nerves stopped once I saw my husband to be in his suit sitting and waiting for me. 

9:00 a.m.  The sealing was to start.  However.. you can't start without the groom's parents...........

9:15 a.m.  I became Mrs. Smith forever.

Many things went off this morning.. I woke up late, forgot to bring my hair net to the temple and my dad had to bring it, and we arrived late to the temple.  None of it mattered from this point forth.

10:00 a.m.  Family pictures

11:00 a.m. Bride and Groom pictures

12:00 p.m. Home with my husband

5:45 p.m. Arrived at Angel Park- Touch-ups and waited for people to arrive

6:45 p.m. Ring Ceremony.  I have the cutest ring-bearer ever!

7:00 p.m. Grand Enterance

7:15 p.m. Food.  Family. Friends. What more do you need at a wedding.

Cake
Toasts
First Dance
Father/Daughter and Son/Mother dances
Moneydance
Ladies Dance
Man Dance
Bouquet Toss
Garter Toss
More Dancing
Grand Exit

And the lived happily ever after...

Pre-Wedding

 Whenever I talked to other women about their wedding, I get similar responses.  Many say "it flew by" or "it happened so fast I don't even remember it".  I wanted to make sure I soaked up every minute of my wedding day and everything leading up to it.  SoOo we did just about every wedding tradition there is.

The Engagement Party
At my parents.  It got me SOO excited for the rest to come!

The Engagement Pictures
Sunrise and sunset pictures.  We had a great photographer for doing this!

Wedding Dress Shopping

My bridesmaids loved this more than I did.

Invitation stuffing
Cake Testing
Flower Picking
Venue Shopping
DJ Interviews
Dance Lessons (Yes, it was choreographed.  Ha!)

The Bridal Shower

I have Litany Rosequist and Michelle Crouse for throwing this lovely "sweets" party and for other family friends and my bridesmaids for helping to put it together.

They loved to embarrass me.

Karsten and I were both asked the same questions to see how well we knew eachother.. I must say, we are pretty dang good.

The Rehearsal Dinner

Karsten's mom put this together for family and the bridal party after I went to the temple on Thursday for the first time for endowments.  I loved getting to spend this day with people I love!

The Bachelorette Party
For the sake of my own embarrassment, details of this last night of being single will remain secretive and many pictures will not be posted on any form of internet.
For a quick over-view:

We went to Dick's Last Resort for dinner

Learned how to pole dance

Went Shopping..... :)

And had dessert at serendipity

Special thanks to all of my married and single girls that participated in this night with me!  You girls rock!

Next is the day we've all been waiting for... or at least, I'VE been waiting for!!

SEVEN

One week.  ONE WEEK!  I can't believe it is here. Karsten and I are moving into a house in the next few days and we are doing a deep cleaning before we start the move.  I can't help but think the entire time that Karsten and I are going to live there together.  We won't have to leave each other at night and go home because WE ALREADY WILL BE!

Everything else is super smooth sailing as far as wedding prep goes.  Invitations are out.  Dresses and tuxes are picked, altered, and ready to go.  Catering, venue, DJ, flowers, cake, accessories, temple interviews, marriage license... ALL DONE!

Karsten

Everyone I talk to about the wedding asks the same question without fail: "Are you excited!?"...... Um.. YEAH!  Why wouldn't I be excited??  It would be pretty sad if you asked that to someone and they said no.  So just so everyone is aware, the following are the top ten reasons why I am excited to be married to Karsten.

10.  Karsten loves country music.  This was one of the first things that attracted me to this boy.  Girls love country boys :)

9.  Karsten is very frugal.   I have two shopping weaknesses: Michael's and Office Max.  Thankfully, I found someone who is very good at determining things we could probably wait to buy.  I need this influence..

8.  Karsten has a plan.  Karsten doesn't do things by the seat of his pants.  He's had a career plan ever since high school.  He is very motivated and focused and applies this to every aspect of his life.

7.  Karsten's family.  He has one older brother, two younger brothers, and one younger sister.  Since I'm the youngest in my family, I never had the opportunity to play with younger siblings.  They are so fun and playful, yet they seem to know when to cool it.  I LOVE them!


6.  Karsten is thoughtful.  I hardly have to ask Karsten to do anything for me.  He just does it.  Just to name a few, he opens my door (EVERY TIME), he'll give me a foot massage, helps do the dinner dishes, takes out the trash for my mom, and brings me lunch while I'm at work.

5.  Karsten is a clean freak.  Anyone who knows me knows this is important.  Karsten hates a mess.  He doesn't leave dishes in the sink, he keeps his car immaculate, and he is always showered and fresh smelling!

4.  Karsten is a romantic.  Karsten went to Spain on his mission, but he never speaks in spanish... except when he whispers sweet-nothings to me.  It's so cute.  The English lines are pretty cute too, though.  Warning: the following message is quite mushy.

3.  Karsten and I have so much in common.  Karsten knows what I am thinking before I even think it.  Karsten gets me because much of the time, he is thinking the same exact thing.

2.  Karsten and I are friends.  Even out of his guy friends, I'm the first person that Karsten wants to give a high-five to, and vice versa... I'm probably the only one he wants to kiss though ;)

1.  I'll get to look at this smile forever!

There is so much more I could write about Karsten.  In fact the first draft of this top ten list was the length of a novel.  The bottom line is, I found the guy of my dreams and we are a perfect fit.  So yes, world, I'm excited to be married!

Engaged

Being engaged has been the most fun time of my life.. so far.  I've been planning my wedding since I was 16 so it hasn't taken me very long at all to decide on everything.  People I've talked to seem to think I should be pulling out my hair with all that is going on, but honestly, it's been a breeze.  I already knew what I wanted and how I wanted it.  I've planned it so I take things one week at a time so to not overwhelm myself with everything we need to do.  As a result, I've been able to enjoy everything!

Shortly after we got engaged, we had a small engagement party with friends in the wedding and Karsten's family and my family so we could all meet and get in the wedding mood.

We had hamburgers and hot dogs!  Good food.  Good people.  Good time.

Then there was engagement pictures.  Alan Ozaki was our fabulous photographer who woke up at 5:00am to take our sunrise pictures at Tivoli Village, the brand new outdoor shopping center.  I was so excited!  I could hardly even sleep the night before!

Karsten was such a good sport with everything.  He surprised me with how well worked the camera.  What a stud!

From then on out, on our minds were invitations, cakes, flowers, dresses, food, venues, etc.  It has been so much fun, though.  There's no one I'd rather be doing this with than my best friend.

Karsten and I registering.  This was his favorite thing.

I've loved being engaged and I honestly can't wait for our marriage to begin!

Soon to come.. Bridal shower!

Something About Marriage

It was no surprise to anyone I spoke with that Karsten and I had been looking at our future together.  At first, we had talked about waiting a year to get married because I was busy with school from January until May of 2012.  Karsten is the type of guy that is almost too easy going.  It is irritating how "go with the flow" he is since I'm the "everything has to go a perfect and certain way" type.  He plans well which is how we get along, but it would amaze me how he would be okay with what I wanted all the time.  When one day I asked him, "Why do you always go with what I suggest?  Don't you have an oppinion?" To which he replied that everything I suggest is what he would suggest.  There are some things Karsten wouldn't care about that he knows I would care about so he just picks his battles.  "When I disagree or don't want it the way you suggest, you'll know it," he'd say. 

So we made the plans to wait a year.  Then one day, a development with my school schedule arose.  I didn't have to go to school in July of this year.  It was very soon, but once Karsten heard this, he said, "I don't want to wait a year anymore.  If you can get married this year, I want to get married this year."  He was so strong and firm about it, I just said, "Maybe you should ask me then."  I knew a proposal was coming.

When you know the question is coming, it's hard to think of anything else.  When will he do it? How will he do it?  What will it look like?  Will I cry?  I didn't think he could make it a surprise.  I was always expecting it.  One particular evening, I received a text from our good friend, Shelly Black, who had just recently got engaged to our other good friend, Clayton Worthen.  It read:

So casual.  So normal.  It was all too natural.  Nonetheless, my expectations were there.  I had assumed if he were to propose that night, it would be right after the party.  Afterall, Karsten wouldn't steal Shelly and Clayton's thunder like that. 

Then to add to the normalcy of this text, I received the following:



Any girl knows that a conversation like this with a friend before a party is not only normal, but expected.  Not a thought crossed my mind that this party may not have been what it seemed.  Even when my handsome boyfriend showed up at my door in his black button up that I love on him.

We were on our way to Shelly's.  He even had me look up the directions to her place on my phone... that trickster.  We parked on the side of the house and he told me Shelly said to go through the side gate.

When we stepped outside, I realized how beautiful it was.  It was a perfect April night with a clear sky, a cool breeze, and a full moon just lingering over the mountains surrounding my beautiful city.  As I soaked everything up, I didn't even notice until we were at the gate that there was no music playing outside.  I thought, why would we need to go through the gate to the backyard if there was clearly no one there.  I expressed my thoughts to Karsten, but he just shrugged and opened the gate.  The sight before me was not of a friendly engagement party.

The place was covered in candles.  My mind went to Monica and Chandler's proposal on the tv show, Friends, and the field of candles with Meredith and Derek on the tv show, Grey's Anatomy, (both my favorite tv moments) .

Of course I knew instantly that I was fooled.  I couldn't feel my legs.  I just simply looked at him and said his name a few times under my breathe and he just smiled, grabbed my hand, and pulled me towards the rose bushes.  I wish I could tell you exactly what he said.  I wish I could tell you exactly what I said.  Unfortunately, the memory alludes me.  Mostly because I don't think I could focus enough to listen to him.  He got on one knee, pulled out a small square box, and opened it.  I said yes without even knowing a question was asked.  He handed me white, long-stemmed roses and kissed me.  Then the friends that fooled me walked out including Shelly, Holly Best, Garrett Best, Shannon Deforest, and Stewart Gubler.  We were congratulated and now officially, engaged.

Karsten and Karah

As my parents like to point out, I make too many rash decisions.  The most recent of these decisions is one I made this past fall.  Over the summer after my first year of college at BYU, I had a sudden thought that I needed to stay in my hometown, Las Vegas, and attend UNLV.  Within a week of this idea, I made the transfer from BYU to UNLV and a few weeks after that I realized I wasn't exactly sure why I did it.  I had been accepted into the ever-challenging nursing program, had a cute apartment, had a potential job opportunity, and had the best roommates/ friends I could have asked for all to live at home with my parents, have no job, and no guarentee into my program of choice.  So, why did I leave?  Some say it was because of a boy....

Karsten Smith and I met back in August of 2010, the day before school started for me.  I was stressed about the decision I had just made and I still had no idea why I did it.  My close summer friend, Jen Ballard, and I had peaks and valleys of a social life.  Sometimes we were social and sometimes we weren't.  On one particular Sunday night, my cousin, Brian Marx, had invited Jen and I over for a movie night.  We had made the last minute decision to go.  We got there late and didn't even get a good look at everyone there because the movie had started and the lights were out.  So Jen and I took our place on the floor and cuddled until the movie was over.  After the movie, we all played a game together.  There were several people there with us and one boy I had never met.  I remember making the note that he was cute.  The game we all played was called the "state game" where we all took on the name of a state for someone to call out and change seats and all sorts of fun stuff.  My state was Florida.  We had a good time and I still had that cute boy on my mind. 

We had a few weeks in between our first meeting where for a period of time, this boy (who I learned was named Karsten) only knew me as "Florida".  One day, Karsten had asked me for my number and hanging out together started very slowly.  We talked and texted eachother a lot.  We started out as pretty good friends.  It wasn't until he stopped me from out going with another boy and he broke it off with another girl that I thought there could be something there.  Our dating began.

This was the night of our first kiss.  We had been hanging out on the strip with a few friends and they creeped up behind us and took a picture of us looking out at the lights. 

This was the first time we talked about how we needed to take more pictures together!

Just shortly after Karsten and I decided we didn't want to date anyone else.

Christmas

New Years

Rebel Games

Valentine's Day

St. Patrick's Day

Painting Karsten's room

General Conference

I've loved every holiday, date, and trip.  I have loved the boring days, the stressful days, and the romantic days.  Karsten and I have grown a lot together and have become best friends. 

Did I leave BYU for Karsten?  I don't know.  But it has been the best, rash decision I have ever made!