Our cute, adorable Indiana reception.

We had our Hoosier wedding celebration in a pavilion (which was actually an old barn) that Fort Wayne Parks and Recreation owns. It was around $120 for the whole day which was AWESOME.
Set-up was facilitated by much help from my parents and siblings and mom's boyfriend. It helped that we had all day to do it! My sister-in-law Shannon did my hair and make-up (in Nauvoo, too), and a guy from my church in Indiana took the pictures for us in exchange for me doing a family session for him.

For food my mom and dad and a couple of my aunts rounded up mini pulled pork sandwiches, veggies and dip, snack mix, chips con salsa, and cupcakes. We drank lemon water and limeade. I didn't eat a lot of it because I was busy talking to peeps, but Jeff said it was delish. My dad made the awesome cupcake tower and my mom made the cute big top cupcake for the top. My beautiful friend Sammi (currently Sister Pleshek) had made the mini Nauvoo temple for me when we were both freshman in high school.

Our decorations were pretty cheap. I found the paper for the pinwheels at Wal-Mart and used brass fasteners and shishkabob skewers to make them (my sister Kristen helped a ton). The vases and spray painted frames were from thrift stores. My mom spray painted them for me. The crayons were on sale for back to school. My mom ordered the daisies and I bought some mason jars. The tablecloths were butcher paper with crepe paper streamers down the center. We didn't have any dancing so I figured people could amuse themselves by doodling on the paper. Our guest book was scrapbooking paper hung up clothesline style. My boutonnieres were made from vintage buttons, wire, and safety pins. My corsages were fabric flowers with a vintage button in the middle. The only thing I had to buy for all of them were the safety pins. We had the rest around my mom's house. I don't have a good picture of them, but they were cuuuuute. Jeff's sister Camille and her boyfriend Dallin made us an awesome slideshow with baby pictures and growing up pictures and dating pictures and engaged pictures.
Is it weird that I made a scrapbook inspiration journal for reception ideas? Maybe, but I got a lot of help from Once Wed and Green Wedding Shoes. Also, I thought it was dumb how out of the millions of wedding websites there was no blog for Mormon weddings. But I found The LDS Bride after our wedding festivities were over.

Our first dance as a married couple was to "You Make Me Feel Brand New" by The Stylistics. We weren't really planning on dancing to it, but my brother Tyler made the magic happen. The song ended up being REALLY long and we ended up feeling kind of awkward, so we made Tyler and Shannon dance with us. It was the only dancing the whole reception. Jeff and I had just heard this song on the radio one day and thought it was funny, but I don't know if people knew it was a joke song or not when we were dancing. It was beautiful.

We felt so much love and support. Our family and friends helped out a ton and it wouldn't have been fun without them.

I guess the only advice I would give for current wedding planners is don't stress. Easier said than done, obvs. 

But I really just wish I would have taken more time to just enjoy the whole wedding process. We had a few issues that I couldn't control and I wish I would have realized that there was nothing I could do about them and focused my attention on things I could control. Would I have liked to have had a ton more decorations and cutsie details? Yeah, but I was so stressed out about other peoples' attitudes and actions that I focused all my energy on that. 

Your family members and other people you love may not support you as much as you'd want, but you're the one getting married. Maybe not all the decorations you wanted to do turned out, but you just married the love of your life. The red chairs at the reception hall may not match your color scheme, but people are there to support you because they love you and not to critique your interior design skills. Be happy! 

Being engaged, getting hitched, and celebrating your wedding are one of the best times of your life and it only happens once. Enjoy it. Things didn't go perfectly (because they never do), but my wedding still turned out to be a dream come true. Because I married JSP. My BFF, eternal companion, sweetheart, love of my life, life of my heart, etc.