Best Cousins: Bride and Matron of Honor

My cousin, Jamie Eisenstat, got married on July 5th, and I decided to write about it because she is my best friend and her wedding has been my favorite to be apart of since my own.  :)

Jamie married Christian Loveridge in the Draper, Utah LDS Temple on July 5, 2016. This was definitely the wedding of the decade! Words cannot describe how happy I am for Jamie and Christian. I knew I was going to be Jamie's Matron of Honor long before she met Christian, so when she told me they were getting married I was ready to go!

The first thing was to plan and host her bridal shower. It was a lunch shower so we had pizza, green salad, cookies and brownies. We played two games. The first was "Would They Rather?" I had a list of 10 different pairs of options that Jamie and Christian answered ahead of time (ie. live in the city or country). Some of the questions they answered the same, some they answered differently, so there was a total of 20 possible points. The three highest scores got prizes. The second was Wedding A to Z. Jamie, along with the guests, filled out a wedding word for each letter of the alphabet. Jamie's answers were the "correct" answers, so the top three papers that matched hers the best got prizes. Then Jamie opened her gifts and we had some honeymoon themed fun with that. ;)

The next thing I helped Jamie with was her bridal pictures. Our aunt Rochelle took the photos (she is a professional photographer), and Jamie's mom Selma and I held her shoes, lifted her skirt when she walked and helped with other things. They were so beautiful! (To see Rochelle's work, visit this page: http://pointedigital.com/)

Jamie decided that her bride's maids would each be in a different dress, our only instructions: pink. I already had a pink dress from a different occasion that Jamie loved so she told me to wear it, and Luna had a dress that matched mine (a baby shower gift) so Jamie wanted to Luna to wear that. We looked great! Jamie's other bride's maids were Jamie Prior, Jaelynn Hoffman, and Sydney Eppley. So it was practically a high school reunion.

The wedding ceremony was beautiful. I did fine until it was my turn to hug Jamie, and then I started bawling. We took lots of fun pictures outside of the temple and then had a couple hours to get ready for the luncheon.

The luncheon and reception were at Wheeler Historic Farm in Salt Lake City. The luncheon was mainly family with friends who were part of the wedding party like Jamie's bride's maids and Christian's best man. They served chicken cordon bleu that was so amazing it makes mine look like a 12 year old made it, but that's why I'm not a professional chef. ;) Christian's brother and I were each assigned to give a toast and then from there was an "open mic" for whoever else wanted to say something. I have to admit I was a little intimidated to go after Christian's brother because he has been married for 17 years and had wonderful advice to give; he even quoted President Uchtdorf! But my toast still went alright. :)

After the luncheon the bridal party took pictures. Jamie's and Christian's colors were pink and green (for those of you thinking "Pink goes good with green!" from Wicked, that's exactly where Jamie got her colors from). The bride's maids wore pink and the Christian and his groom's men wore green vests and ties.

Jamie and Christian had a receiving line with just them and this beautiful tribute to angel family members. Meanwhile the other bride's maids and I, with the help of Jamie's brother and his girlfriend decorated the car!

Christian danced with his mom to Phil Collin's "You'll Be In My Heart". Jamie danced with her dad to "Butterfly Kisses" (*happy sigh* I did too!).

And then the happy couple danced to Brian Adam's "(Everything I Do) I Do It For You".

After that all of the married couples danced and the DJ (our Uncle Mark) called married couples off according to how long they had been married. The couple who had been married the longest got to offer advice to Jamie and Christian. Our Uncle Carl and his wife Diane got to be that couple. Then it was time to cut the cake, toss the bouquet, and the garter.

Their exit was spectacular. The guests split the walkway and waved streamers at them as they ran through the crowd. Then they drove off to live Happily Ever After! Congratulations Jamie and Christian!