Utah Reception

After returning from our long drive, we were excited to have our first night in our apartment! The only problem was that the next morning we woke up to a phone call at 7 am! Luke's cousin was moving to a new apartment that day and needed help. Luke got up and went to help move the monstrosity his cousin claims as a TV down three flights of stairs, and ended up pulling out his back! This also happened to be the day of our open house for his family and friends here in Utah. Needless to say, he was uncomfortable the whole night.

My whole family came up from Las Vegas to celebrate with us once again. Melissa even made us a cupcake tower with cute toppings in our colors. 

My niece Asher, and Luke's niece Desiree are now best friends--they danced and played together most of the night. Asher also loves her papa so when she was not with Desiree she was with papa. At one point I went over to talk to dad, and dance with them and she pushed me away and said "No! My papa! You go dance over there with your flowers!" and pointed to the corner of the room! She is such a funny girl.

Desiree

Asher

When You're the best of friends...

Asher & Papa

Lauren & Garn 

Mom & Dad

(Is that a smile on his face??)

Melissa, Curry, Asher & Jaman

Freitag Girls

Love this one of Melissa & Jaman

Proud Grandma & papa

I met lots of new family and friends, as we stayed in our reception line most of the night. We decided not to do the garter toss, and boquet toss and cake eating again since we had already done that in Vegas. We made this decision about half way through the reception though, so Dallas and Kate had snuck away to buy me a garter and it was cutting off the circulation in my leg the whole time! I was glad when we decided not to do all those things so I could take it off, and I really wanted to keep this bouquet as it was my favorite of the three I had!

Luke's grandpa passed away about two years ago, but when his sister showed up at the reception--the last of grandpa Doyle's family-- Luke and I had a tender moment as he missed grandpa.

Since nobody decorated our car at the first reception, Dallas, Kate and Lauren got us this time. Luke was actually really disappointed that nobody got us the first time, and was glad to see the car decked out the second time around. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of that, but we had fun driving away with two big hearts drawn on over where our faces were in the window!

I had so much fun the weeks leading up to and the week after our wedding, and thanks to all who could come and make our day even more special. I am really excited to have my new family so close since mine is so far away!

Rasmussen Girls

My new sister-in-law Stacy and Nephew Jayson

Mother-in-law and I share a special moment

Stacy LOVED dancing with the kids

Both sets of parents

I see a trend.. moms with big smiles, and dads sick of having pictures taken!

Mom and her sisters, Marilyn & Karen all wearing my colors!

And a few more of the Happy couple!!

Honeymoon

We spent our first few days together in Las Vegas at the Monte Carlo. It was kinda funny for me to stay in a hotel in my home town even when I am not living there any more! Sunday morning we ordered room service for Easter brunch, then we went out on the town so I could show Luke around. We went to Paris, and Planet Hollywood and enjoyed being tourists before going to dinner at California Pizza Kitchen. Not your traditional Easter dinner, but this was not a normal day!

What happens in Vegas...

Luke really wanted a shot glass from Vegas as a souvenir 

Paris holds the key to her heart... (Anastasia)

I have a list of 101 things to do before I die, and Luke was so cute our whole honeymoon as he wanted to accomplish as much as we could off the list. One of the things on my list was to go on a gondola ride, and the Venetian has one that goes through the shops. A Gondolier paddles you through telling stories and singing in Italian. The couple that rode with us had just gotten engaged, and we were just married so the gondolier gave special attention to "The Lovers" as he called us. He recited a poem for us he had written for his wife, and sang us an Italian love song. It is good luck for romantic couples to kiss as they pass under bridges and the last one we went under our gondolier, Alfredo, held on to the top of the bridge to stop the boat so we could have a special good luck kiss! The ride was worth the wait as it was very romantic, and crossed another thing off my list.

These are just stock photos I found, The one of us is on Luke's phone

Monday morning we got up and drove down to San Diego. We stopped at state line to ride the Desperado--one of the worlds largest, fastest roller coasters! Luke loved it as he is as much into adventure as I am. The ride got the adrenaline going for the rest of our drive! We got in late and had dinner at the restaurant in our hotel. They were short staffed and very slow, but at least we had a good view! Our hotel overlooked a marina and there was a gorgeous sunset that day! When we finished we went out the front of our hotel and walked along the beach and the pier. We were admiring the view we had of the city when out of nowhere a Pelican blasted off into the sky and scared me so bad that I grabbed onto Luke and almost threw us both in the water! All we could do was laugh for the rest of our walk! 

State Line adventure

The next day we went to Sea World as I have never been, and it was another thing on the list! We dropped our digital camera on our first day in Vegas so all of our pictures at Sea World were taken on Luke's Blackberry. The first thing we did was ride a roller coaster called Journey to Atlantis--it takes you up this track and then plunges you into a fountain! The only problem with this was it was a bit of a cold day--we were glad we rode this ride first! After the fountain the ride goes back to a coaster track and then dumps you into a 3-d elevator with dolphins swimming all around you, and then back to a regular roller coaster making it like a 3-in-1 ride! We enjoyed it--if it hadn't been so cold we would have ridden it a few times! We then watched the dolphin show, and saw the penguins, and of course saw Shamu! We were careful all day NOT to sit in the splash zones because it was so cold and windy. We left the park to have lunch and had to search for our car--we were so excited to get into the park that morning we had forgotten where we parked! HA HA luckily we were not the only ones walking up and down every aisle! 

The next day we drove back to Vegas. We had tickets to see the Blue Man Group-- I am such a bargain shopper I found tickets for 1/4 of the price and we were in the 5th row! We had an excellent view, and Luke really enjoyed the show. We decided we would hate to be on the cleaning crew for that show as they make since such a mess. After the show we were up for some more adventure so we went and rode the roller coaster at New York New York. This was also one I had been on before, but forgotten how fun it is. Luke had a hard time deciding which one he liked best! After that we had a nice dinner to celebrate our honeymoon coming to an end at PF Chang's. It was APril 15th--tax day-- so they gave us 15% off our bill! 

The next day we were supposed to drive home, but we woke up and were just not ready to come back. We called down to the front desk to ask how much it would cost for another night at our hotel, and they tripled the price we had just paid! We thought it may be best to just go home.... but we had to take care of some things in town--closing my bank account, mailing Luke's taxes (another story!), and then decided we really wanted to stay as it was late in the day! We went to see Fast & Furious since Luke has been talking about it for months and then pulled out our computer and booked a room for the night at Tuscany. We had dinner at my parents house since we wanted a home cooked meal after eating out all week, and then ran off again. This was dessert night! We went to the Bellagio to get gellato and watch a fountain show, and then I took Luke to downtown Las Vegas--old downtown like Freemont Street. We watched the laser light show and went to Mermaid's to get deep fried Twinkie's, but they were out so we had to settle for deep fried Oreo's. We were so sad to see our trip coming to an end, but knew we had to get back to real life.

In young women's when I was 16 we had a project where we made wedding cans. We had family and friends write us letters and sealed them in a food storage can to open our wedding night. Well, in the hustle and bustle of everything I had forgotten all about it so when we had dinner with my parents mom had given to me. As we drove home to Utah I opened the can and read the letters aloud. I had included a letter to my future husband which I read to Luke and it was amazing how well it fit him. I wrote it when I was 16, I had no idea the kind man I would marry, but everything I wrote was as if I was speaking to him today. Amazing how that worked. We were both teary eyed by the time all the letters in the can had been opened. It was a very special experience to share with each other and I hope someday when I am called to be in young women's that it is a project they will be interested in doing as well since mine meant so much to me!

Go Green!

I think every bride needs some of her personality reflected on her day. Mine was going green. Not in the worldly sense of everything being organic or eco-friendly, but through my shoes. Yes, I LOVED my dress, my hair, my flowers, cake and the decorations at my reception, but my personality was reflected in my shoes! As soon as we got out of the temple I had to lift my dress to show them off and all night people were asking to see them due to one of my bridal portraits. The best part is, not only do they match my bridesmaid dresses in color, but they have a big R on the side and my new last name is Rasmussen. As soon as I found them after hours of searching, I knew I HAD to have them!

Best Day of My Life

As Luke and I drove down to Vegas for our wedding we heard the same song on the radio a few times, and the same song was stuck in my head as we went to the temple for our big day. I don't remember who it is by, but it is an old country song and the chorus goes "Dad, this could be the best day of my life..." That was going through my head as we entered the Vegas temple! Our day couldn't have been any better. We had almost my mom's whole side of the family there in the temple with as as well as all of Luke's brothers and his parents. The only thing I would have changed is to have had Leslie in there with us as well! As we looked at each other over the altar I couldn't help tearing up over the love I was feeling--it was like there wasn't anyone in the room but us! I can't imagine having been married anywhere else.

our first moments outside the temple

isn't our photographer amazing? this looks like a fairy tale ending to me!

Our reception was SO fun as we were joined by friends and family, and of course by my dad's band! Live music made everything more fun!

We danced and sang and had a cake fight! I swore I wasn't going to do that and we were so nice... until someone shouted "Kelly Freitag, I expected you to be meaner than that!" so... always ready for a challenge, I shoved cake a little harder at my unexpecting husband and smeared frosting all across his face! We struggled a little and then he got me back.

Our first dance as a married couple was to "You had me from Hello" by Kenny Chesney. The first time we heard this song together we knew it was for us. Part of the song says "Inside I built a wall, so high around my heart thought I'd never fall, One touch, you brought it down, the bricks of my defenses scattered all around, I swore to me I would never love again, the last time was the last time I let someone in, but you had me from hello" We have both had bad relationships in the past and had both said we would never fall in love and then we found each other, and things just fell into place.

 

Next I danced with my dad to "Daddy's Little Girl" The song made dad cry the first time he heard it and that's what I was going for again, but dad kept talking over it so he wouldn't until the very end, then it got to him! I love my daddy, and I truly am daddy's little girl.

Dad talking over the music so emotions wouldn't get in the way...

But it didn't work... tender moment with my dad. I loved every minute!

Daddy's little girl

I was also excited to have many of my single lady friends there from my old ward to have a little match at who could catch my bouquet... if you watch our video it's pretty funny-- it was a close call between Emily, and Heidi, but Heidi had the height going for her and caught it by a finger!

The sought after bouquet... Congrats Heidi! When is the big day??

Then Luke got the part he had been waiting for all day--grabbing the garter off my leg with his teeth! He lined up his single brothers and a few others from the crowd and tossed it off to be caught by my little cousin Joseph.

As the night continued we danced and sang with special people, and took about a thousand pictures..... 

Me & Stacy my new sister-in-law dancing to "Wipe Out"

Joseph is my little buddy--his birthday is the day after mine and he loves me! He was disappointed this year when I didn't come visit him as we had planned for the big days, but when he was told he would get to come see my wedding later in the year the thought of missing his birthday was gone! He asked me to dance with him early in the evening before my dance card was full!

My Uncle Wes and Aunt Donna came all the way from Ohio for the wedding! They are a fun couple and we were so excited to have them share in our big day with us! Uncle Wes needed a slot on my dance card as well

Luke danced with his new mother in law as I was dancing with my daddy

But, before we could escape... I had to eat Something!!

...and then ran off like in a fairy tale into Happily Ever After-- this time with the horses being under the hood of Luke's Trans Am...

...and rode off into the sunset....

As we drove away the same song came back to me--Dad, this could be the best day of my life, I've been dreamin' day and night 'bout bein' like you... Now it's me and her (him) watchin' you and Mom I've learned I'm the luckiest (wo)man alive... This is the best day of my life...

I present to you the happy couple, Mr & Mrs Rasmussen!!