Hallelujah

Last week was a little bit nutty. I went from the World Shoe and Accessories trade show in LasVegas where I met with magazine editors and footwear accounts for three long days, to a whirlwind weekend of weddings in Salt Lake. I hadn't been home to Utah in almost a year which means I hadn't seen that my sister Elizabeth is pretty much all grown up. She looks and talks like a high school kid. I guess I wasn't quite ready for that and I had to pretend it was my cold and not the lump in my throat making my voice sound funny when she said hello. I was 15 when she was born and she just turned 15. Weird. We drove out to Kaysville to see my mom and Greg's new house, which was lovely as well and then came back to the SLC to hook up with Emily at her cute new apartment.
After we met up with Em and Callie, we headed over to Cafe Rio for some dinner and some friends. I didn't say this at the time but I'm afraid maybe the 4th South Cafe Rio is not quite as good as our old Fort Union haunt. Maybe it was an off night.
At least the company was good. (hey danny, if you don't want photos like this on the internet for all to see...don't steal my camera!)
We ended up shutting down Cafe Rio and talking in the parking lot for another few hours. Here is what the album cover will look like when Elizabeth, Callie and Kersten finally start their band.
And then the elusive Chuck came to Emily's! Elusive only because I haven't been to Utah in so long and Chuck has become a virtual member of the family in that time. He and Emily are really cute and have a hard time being more than five inches away from each other.

The next day I went up to Oakley for my friend Jennifer's wedding. Jen is from the group of 10 rowdy 14th ward kids I grew up with. We don't really see the boys anymore but the girlies have stayed close and I was so glad that my work schedule didn't interfere with me getting to go to her wedding. She and her mother have fantastic taste so I knew this would be a beautiful affair. I was not disappointed. I rode up to the wedding with one of my oldest and dearest friends Ashley and her husband Rob. They are cute enough but this baby Mason of theirs is really much more fun to photograph.
The wedding was in a place called Rendezvous ranch and quite frankly-I can't imagine anything more romantic than getting hitched in a place this beautiful. Jen and Aaron were so adorable. They have been dating off and on for eight years but you would have thought they were two giggly teenagers all day.
There was some Irish Dancing.
And Andrea's tiny, adorable, sleeping Ben. Holding babies this small might be the best possible thing that can be done with your arms.
There was laughing. (rob and ashley, parents of mason) (told you they were cute)
and plenty of old friends. This is Allison, Chelsea, me, the lovely bride Jennifer, Ashley, Andrea and Wendy.
After the cake was cut and toasts were made, Aaron sat down with a guitar and played Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah" which is Jennifer's favorite song. It's not really a great wedding song per se, but it really is so beautiful. He played the Jeff Buckley arrangement which I think is the best of all the covers I've heard.
Note to self: this is what happy wedding days look like.

I rode home with Andrea and Adam and Adam kept up giggling pretty much the whole time. I love it when my friends marry entertaining boys. If Adam ever stops using surprise swears or making sarcastic sex jokes, he will be totally useless. They dropped me off at the Salt Lake Hardware Building where I found my mom and Emily were busily putting together centerpieces for wedding #2 the next day. A talent I did not inherit is the ability Emily and my mother have to take a bunch of kinda random stuff and make it look cool.
I also found Chuck doing this. (Which is nothing. Which is all I can do when it comes to decorating for a wedding too.)

Wedding number 2 coming right up...