Yep, FINALLY a post... meh, better late than never. And I don't think I need to warn you that there are MANY pictures. Its a wedding post, thats to be expected ;).
The highlight of my summer was my little sister, baby of the family, Marissa, getting married June 12th to Carson Stam. Welcome to the fam Carson! Boz and I got to do her photography. Hence the reason I didn't post right away. We were editing... but now I have no excuse 'cept laziness.
More pictures
here and
here
one of my personal favorites!
The whole crew (Stam and Smith) at the Temple. It quickly became apparent that the 80 chairs we had set up for the reception the night before was only going to cover "us".
I think Jack enjoyed being pretty much parent-less at the temple (since mom and dad were busy snapping photos)... hey Boz, where's that pic of Dude lying in between the automatic doors?
Even better than being parent-less was having "Ria" (his cousin Zacharia) to play with. They are best buddies! Jack still "talks" about Ria.
And guess who was pretty much ALWAYS right next to the bride :)?
She was a good little flower girl.
The lovely Bridesmaids.
Daddy and his baby.
My family! sniff, sniff... Miss you guys!
Front(left to right): Elisa, Rachel, Stephanie, Mom, Marissa, Amy, Jacob, Jennie
Back (because we are the only tall ones :)): Dad, Matthew, Me
The Grandkids... haha. Classic. Poor little Julia and is that Jackie we're loosing there in bottom left?
At Las Margaritas, Missy's fave, for the Luncheon. Don't you love her dress too? She made it of course :).
I think our massive numbers overwhelmed them a bit so it was a LONG wait for half of us (we lived off chips and salsa for a while), but it was soooo worth it. The food was SO good!
-Oh and please ignore the fact that I look like crap! I did the whole day. I was a pretty busy. Didn't have time to dry my hair even, but hey the Bride looked great and I'll take some credit :). Which I'd like to mention, I got to be her hairdresser so they let me go with her and my mom to the bride's room after the sealing. That was soooo neat for me. The last time I got to be in that room, I was the bride. Didn't know I'd get that privilege again!
So can I just say the Smith's can throw a party (mom deserving ALL credit of course)!!!
Great Food!
Heck, who wouldn't want to go to wedding where the centerpieces are baskets of bread served with garlic butter and cravats of oil and vinegar?
We had a pasta bar, mmmmm. Too bad I was way to full from the Luncheon to dig in. I think Boz rather enjoyed himself though!
I did, however, non-stop nibbled on these tasty appetizers. Oh and mom, I really want that Mediterranean salsa recipe!
Italian Soda Bar-the closest to alcohol you get at a Mormon wedding :).
Classic Steph and Scott.
Dancing!
Love this one. (to mention dresses again, I LOVED my mom's dress!)
Save this one: Boz dancing. Only for Elyette :). This is probably only 1 of 2 pics of Boz at the wedding... that's what happens when you're the one behind the camera.
We mostly enjoyed watching the kids dance (I think the boys were all in the movie room :)).
Cake!
Hmmm, I think they were too nice.
But my standard may be different.
We all we're pretty pooped.
It seriously was awesome! Can my frugal self just brag too on how little these HUGE shindigs come about from (k, I have some tact, so I won't give the actual $, but I bet you'd NEVER guess).
It all comes from having so much talented family!
-Of course the first to honor would be MOM! Who did it all! How many dresses did you sew mom? Not to mention the Bride's! This wedding had a LOT of sewing. Marissa did her fair share of it though. Marissa, Elisa and I spent up to the end sewing table runners :). In fact I think I was even tacking down my mom's dress for her in the car on the way to the Luncheon!
-My sisters, mom, brothers-in-law (maybe my brothers too :)) were on mad food prep duty.
-We all set up
-
Melissa made the cake!!! (honorable mention here!)
-Aunt Diana arranged bouquets.
-Bruce DJed.
-Jacob MCed.
- and the list goes on...
Oh and I can't leave out my uncles' (namely Sparkie!) contributions to Smith weddings either:
The Car. Sorry, its a rite of passage. (I guess they needed to give Carson the license plate to make sure they destroyed the right car?)
People are still shocked (aka: appalled) when they hear what happened to our car. I, quiet frankly don't get what everyone is so worked up about (a car has never been harmed). I wouldn't feel loved if they hadn't. Don't know how Marissa feels :).
I think she got off fairly easy.
Just some Chocolate syrup smeared all over the windshield that was washed off before we even got to see it!
Love you guys! Hope its been marital bliss since!
PS: The car legacy (The good ones of my memory)
Elisa and Wes: Rewired horn to brake (I was impressed with what swiftness Wes set it right)
Jacob and Melissa: Took the tires off, wheeled them in during the reception and put them on the gift table with a bow. (Calm down, we put them back on before they were even leaving)
Boz and Maegan: Filled the entire car to the ceiling with packaging popcorn (from sun roof). It was good!
My crowning glory! And Elyette loves having the Polly Pockets, or "princess packages" as she calls them, to keep...I wonder how many little shoes I've vacuumed up though.
The much coveted skates.
She was quite good at it!
Dude loves them too.
Happy Birthday Slimmy Monkey. We love you!
Since first seeing this film in April when we borrowed from the library, Elyette has wanted to be the Corpse Bride for Halloween. I kid you not, she has not deterred from this, despite all other suggestions. So from thus was born one of the most "interesting" (for lack of a better word) and in many ways most challenging items I have created yet. Mostly due to the fact that I had a 3 year old peering over my shoulder making commentary like "mom, that's not how it goes" pretty much the entire time I was making it. Not to mention I've never had to 2 tone fabric or make exposed ribs on a dress before.
Elyette of course studied every aspect of this character and if you know Elyette you can imagine the HIGH expectation I was under. I do have to share one crisis moment too. When the dress was near done, Elyette looked in the mirror, looked at the movie cover, then back in the mirror and proclaimed "MOM, the ribs are on the WRONG side!". Oh no they are not, I studied this thing too! I ran over and quickly showed her the movie cover in the mirror so she'd understand it was her reflection, NOT ME, that was making it look wrong :). I even ended up making legging with one blue leg and one skeleton leg- I knew those anatomy classes would serve me well someday.
I drew the line, however, at being painted blue with a skeleton arm.
All in all, a very fun project.
HAHA, Kidding!!! (Disclaimer: Daddy was the one that assisted with this, Elyette and I were not even home). I did make something slightly more manly, but what can I say, he likes dresses :)...
Guess who?
We got fancy with our FHE treat this week. Poached Pears. Mmmm. Seriously good, easy, and looks impressive (that is if you are better at drizzling the chocolate than I was :)). Even Boz, who doesn't like pears, really enjoy this one.
Granted she's looking a bit less like a jellybean and more like a real baby now. This was taken at 9 weeks. I'm about 14 weeks now (due March 24th). And yes I called it a "she". That would be Elyette's doing. She's convinced its a girl (mostly out of weariness for little brothers, I think) and always refers to the baby as "she", so until we know for sure we call it she :).
Its geared toward Elyette, but Jack is doing awesome (his attention span amazed me today, he's a smart kid). And we're having a blast. Went for 2 hours today non stop and Elyette asked if we could keep going all day :). 
The best part... the food of course. We made our initials out of pretzels (and some cheese sauce for dipping, mmm). Elyette did a great job on her "E". We made you "B" too daddy!
Jack Gregory Millar
one of my personal favorites!
The whole crew (Stam and Smith) at the Temple. It quickly became apparent that the 80 chairs we had set up for the reception the night before was only going to cover "us".
I think Jack enjoyed being pretty much parent-less at the temple (since mom and dad were busy snapping photos)... hey Boz, where's that pic of Dude lying in between the automatic doors?
Even better than being parent-less was having "Ria" (his cousin Zacharia) to play with. They are best buddies! Jack still "talks" about Ria.
And guess who was pretty much ALWAYS right next to the bride :)?
She was a good little flower girl.
The lovely Bridesmaids.
Daddy and his baby.
My family! sniff, sniff... Miss you guys!
The Grandkids... haha. Classic. Poor little Julia and is that Jackie we're loosing there in bottom left?
At Las Margaritas, Missy's fave, for the Luncheon. Don't you love her dress too? She made it of course :).
I think our massive numbers overwhelmed them a bit so it was a LONG wait for half of us (we lived off chips and salsa for a while), but it was soooo worth it. The food was SO good!
Great Food!
We had a pasta bar, mmmmm. Too bad I was way to full from the Luncheon to dig in. I think Boz rather enjoyed himself though!
I did, however, non-stop nibbled on these tasty appetizers. Oh and mom, I really want that Mediterranean salsa recipe!
Italian Soda Bar-the closest to alcohol you get at a Mormon wedding :).
Classic Steph and Scott.
Dancing!
Love this one. (to mention dresses again, I LOVED my mom's dress!)
Save this one: Boz dancing. Only for Elyette :). This is probably only 1 of 2 pics of Boz at the wedding... that's what happens when you're the one behind the camera.
We mostly enjoyed watching the kids dance (I think the boys were all in the movie room :)).
Cake!
Hmmm, I think they were too nice.
But my standard may be different.
We all we're pretty pooped.
The Car. Sorry, its a rite of passage. (I guess they needed to give Carson the license plate to make sure they destroyed the right car?)
Just some Chocolate syrup smeared all over the windshield that was washed off before we even got to see it!
Love you guys! Hope its been marital bliss since!
