Wedding Bells are Ringing!

Ben and Eboni's cute invitation.

 In the morning, before the ceremony, everyone that didn't have to work, or could take work off, attended an endowment session at the temple. It was so much fun to have all of the Aird family attend. All of my siblings as well as my parents! that is amazing in and of itself. Amber, Randy, Eboni (of course) were the in-laws who were able to come. I also had a couple of Aunts and uncles come as well. It is so much fun to have everyone together in the temple. I can't describe what a blessing it is. 

Here is my immediate family afterwords

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ALL the sisters and in-laws (which are totally like sisters) and my mom.

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I didn't get any pictures, but my favorite memory from the wedding day, aside from the temple, was going to crown burger with all the siblings. Michelle, Dan and Amber, Amberly,Randy and me, Ali and Ben all ate and laughed and had a great time together. It was a blast!

After lunch we all took a break to get ready for the festivities. The kids took naps, we finished our last minute preparations and got ready ourselves. The wedding ceremony took place at my stake center's pavilion. It is really nice and was a good place to have a wedding. I struggled a bit with the wedding not being in the temple, but that's another story. It was the right choice for them and I know that they will be sealed in a year. That is their plan  and I'm confident they will follow through.

Here are some pictures of the ceremony

 My parents walking Ben down the isle.

Eboni with her dad walking down the isle.

 

Some of the grand kids waiting for the ceremony to start.

 

It was  a bit shorter than I anticipated, but I've not been to many weddings outside the temple. It was really sweet and to the point.

The two cuties excited to be man and wife

 

After the ceremony we went back to my parents house where they were having a reception. We took pictures which took a long time since we have so many people in the family now!

Here are two of our family pictures.

 

 Alyssa had pretty much at enough by the time pictures were being taken. she wasn't in many of them as she ran off crying. But that's how a two year old rolls I guess.

 

The Aird side of the family. Everyone all together, everyone married.

  

My immediate family.

  

 

My parents worked so very hard on their yard to get it just right for the wedding reception. My dad always keeps a nicely kept yard, but he went above and beyond for the wedding. I have never seen it look so nice.

 

Ben and Eboni decided they wanted an ice-cream bar.

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 Of course President Eyring made an appearance before it got too crowded. Eboni's family was very impressed. President Eyring has been in my parents ward ever since I can remember. His wife Kathy was my young women's leader and I grew up with their youngest daughter.

 

Cutting the cakes

I love the little girls gathered around the beautiful bride.

Savannah, Clara, Will and Tyler eating ice cream. Tyler says he consumed 12 bowls of ice cream. He said it hurt to laugh and kept showing me his enlarged belly. What a silly boy..

 I love the girls laughing and dancing in their matching dresses.

 There was a lot of dancing.

 They also had a photo booth for people to take their pictures. The kids loved it.

Ben and Eboni enjoyed it as well.

 They actually got to eat some of the soft serve ice cream

 Throwing the bouquet off the deck.

 Randy playing with all the little girls

Of course Randy danced with his daughters. They sure love dancing with their daddy. Who wouldn't? He is amazing.

 

The evening ended and we were all exhausted from a long wonderful day. I can't wait to go to their sealing exactly one year from today. Welcome to the family Eboni! We are all crazy, so watch out!

Wedding Preparations

 My awesome 'little' brother decided to marry a super cute, amazing, gorgeous, wonderful woman. They are perfect for each other. They set the date for August 14th (before Ben left the country to play basketball). Here is my favorite engagement photo of them.

Ben and Eboni

 

This is us girls having a fun dinner on Ali's birthday at Cafe Rio (Ali's and Eboni's favorite).

  From left to right: Amberly, Amber, Michelle, Mommy Jane, Ali, Me, Eboni and her mom Jill

With a wedding coming up, there was no shortage of work to do. I was so excited when Eboni asked me to surprise Ben by making the grooms cake. She told me she wanted it basketball themed, have his number on it and have the quote "I'd do anything with you anywhere." from their song. Other than that, I was in charge of the design. It was way too much fun!

The hardest part, which took me nearly four practice cakes, was making a spherical shape for the basketball. Here is the 3rd attempt (I think). It was probably the best of the bunch and I should have saved it "just in case" oh well.

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It's not just frosting it either, it's the fondant, the lines and the texture of the basketball. I may have been in a bit over my head on this one. haha

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The other two tiers weren't quite as hard, though I had a lot of difficulty with the hoop/net on the bottom layer. The day before the wedding I was freaking out because it literally kept falling apart. I had to scrap my whole idea and go with something a bit different.  I was really disappointed

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 I was very grateful for two things: my cricut cake cutter, and edible sugar paper. That really made things go smoother as far as the names, numbers and quote. It is a bit tedious for me to place all the letters on the cake, but I thought they worked really well.

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The final cake. I wish I had saved the 3rd try on the basketball, because this one didn't turn out nearly as well. I guess nobody else knew that though.

 

 

I think this is the best picture of the cake. I received many compliments at the reception. They were hard to receive because in my mind, I'm still fixing the problems the cake has. I'll have to work on believing people when they tell me they like my work. Whether it be cakes or anything else. 

 Here it is next to the wedding cake. It looks teeny tiny  because the other cake was on a taller table. Both cakes were roughly the same size.

 The best compliment I received was Eboni telling me that she actually liked the grooms cake better than the wedding cake! She (and Ben) also decided that they wanted to keep the top of my cake for their first year celebration instead of the other one. It doesn't get any better than that!

 People were asking me if Ben was surprised. It's a funny story. The day before the wedding, my Dad had asked anyone who was available to come over to help decorate and get the house and yard ready. I was, of course, working on Ben's cake. My mom was really quite stressed, as you can imagine, and when Ben innocently asked her "Is Heather coming over to help?" My mom said something like "No, she's working on the cake!" like DUH! When Ben said "What cake?" My mom realized her error and was mortified. Ben quickly caught on and said "I don't know anything!" and walked out of the room. At least that is the story my mom told me as she emphatically apologized over the phone a bit later. My poor mom felt so badly about the whole thing. We almost kept it a secret! I was surprisingly not upset about it at all. It was an honest mistake and plus, there was no sense in getting upset about something that I couldn't change.

      Ben didn't know what it looked like or any of the details, so it was fun to see his face when he actually saw the cake. He was sweet, humble, grateful and gracious as always. Randy was a bit upset, however, that I insisted we buy Ben and Eboni a wedding gift. He thought the cake would be the gift. He didn't realize how much I had spent on the real cake, plus all the practice cakes. Let's just say it was well over a hundred dollars. We went in as siblings on a videographer for the wedding and I am so happy we did. My friend Dave did a fantastic job and his wife Catie was the photographer. I am thankful I know them. They are amazing people.

Other preparations for the wedding included buying dresses, suits, and getting my hair done. I decided to get it colored "ombre style" which is lighter at the bottom and darker at the top. It requires less maintenance than just highlighting it.

 Here is my "Before" picture. I straightened it to make it easier for my friend Chelsea to color it.

 goofy pic.

 And here is my "after picture" it is subtle, but I really do love the look.

 While Amber and Dan were in town, (they live in Texas) my mom took Lily and Brooke shopping and to lunch because they both start kindergarten this year! She always does a kindergarten day with the kids. She buys them a first day of school outfit, a backpack and takes the to their restaurant of choice for lunch. More often than not, it is McDonald's and this time was as well. 

 I had been so focused on the cake, that when it came time to do the girls hair for the wedding, I honestly hadn't thought much about it. I looked at a couple of online videos and came up with this for Lily's hair. Her hair is so heavy that the pins kept coming out and I had to tell her not to run and play lest her hair be destroyed. She did as well as a five year old can do. I think it turned out pretty darn cute.

 Here she is in her dress and ready to go. All the granddaughters under 10 wore the same adorable dress. Seeing seven little girls wearing these dresses was one of the best parts of the wedding. they danced and played and had a blast while looking adorable.

 Here's Lily and Alyssa. Neither of them were too keen on getting their picture taken, but I wanted a photo before they got dirty or messed up their hair too mcuh.

 Sweet sisters!

The boys all had matching bow ties for the wedding it's in black and white, but I love this picture of the boys.