Alex and Sarah::The Wedding::July 6

The back-story:

Maren has been one of my bff's for over 20 years. We met at church when we were both young newlyweds, and fate pushed us together since the rest of the ladies were older with children.

When we were first married, we used to get together on Sunday afternoons for dinner and a movie or games at each other's houses. Sometimes our husbands would get together and do stuff without us, and sometimes we'd get together without our husbands. We were glad for each other.

Then, my first husband, Paul, and I moved, and Maren and her husband, Blair, moved out of state, and we didn't talk to each other for a couple of years.

Out of the blue, one day she called and said that Blair had a job interview in the same town I lived in, and she asked if she could spend the day with me. I was going through the ugly, last stages of a bad marriage and had chronic fatigue syndrome to boot, so I was terrible company that day, but Blair's interview went well, and she and Blair moved back to Utah and to my same town, even.

Paul and I divorced, and I went to work. My babysitter quit, so I needed a babysitter ASAP. I knew Maren had worked at a daycare back in our newlywed days, so I called and asked if she would be willing to watch my kids in her home. I was so relieved when she said yes, and our friendship just bloomed from there. Even after I met and married Steve a year and a few months later and quit my job, Maren and I talked on the phone often. When I moved to Kentucky, we continued to visit over the phone and still to this day, we talk on the phone and keep up on each other's lives. She is one of my few confidants; she is my person.

Her son, Alex, and her daughter, Melinda, grew up in those babysitting days with my kids, Josh, Amber, and Jared. Many stories could be told about sandboxes, Nestle Quik, and borrowed bicycles. And guess what? Her son, Alex, has grown up and got married a week ago.

Maren asked me to be the photographer at the wedding, but I backed out of that, since I'd never photographed a wedding, and I didn't want my bff's son to be my guinea pig. I told her that I would be the photographer's assistant though, so on Friday morning one week ago, I went to film the post-wedding pictures at the Draper Temple. I was also wanting to take candids at the luncheon and more photography at the reception, but Emily got appendicitis, so I was in the hospital for the rest of the day instead.

Here are the pics of the bride and groom and their families, the bride and groom by themselves, and some of the rings, shoes, veil, bouquet, fancy finernails, beading on the wedding dress, and all of the minutiae that makes up a wedding :)

Also, to Alex and Sarah: Congratulations!! May you both have many, many happy years together! Bless you both as you start out on this forever event called marriage.

And to Maren and Blair: Congratulations! One down, several to go! :) Thanks for being such great friends!

And to Maren: Congratulations, Sweetie! You raised him well! Onto the next frontier: grandbabies! though I'll give you a few years to just get used to a wedded son and daughter-in-law first :) I love you so much and am so thankful for you and for our friendship! ♥

And now, the pictures:

♥