My sister is married!

Which means I now have a brother in law.

I flew into LA on Wednesday evening, which was great timing because after picking me up at the airport, Kelsey dropped Garth off down at Disneyland so he could spend his last couple days of singlehood with his family. Garth’s a great guy, but I’ll have plenty of time to get to know him; this week I was looking forward to spending some quality time with my little sister and only my little sister.

The couple days we had before the wedding were pretty full. We picked up flowers, went to hair appointments, ran over the to-do list for the big day, had a nail-painting party. On Friday night, we had some of our extended family over to our house for pizza, root beer floats, and cookies, and then everyone left before it got terribly late so that Kelsey and her immediate family could relax and get to bed at a reasonable time. Unbeknownst to them, our relaxation technique took the form of a wild dance party in the living room. This all started with my dad and Kelsey, who were of course required to dance in front of everyone and wanted to practice. Accomplished dancer that I am, I felt the need to introduce some spin into their routine, and my mom played dj while the three of us cut loose with dance moves most of which, alas, never quite made it to the dance floor the next evening.


The wedding itself was very nice. Getting Kelsey’s hair done in the morning didn’t take nearly as long as we expected, and so my mom, Kelsey, and I arrived at the temple grounds about an hour early. This gave us some time to walk around and discover all the ways our shoes rubbed in the wrong places (which in turn made me grateful for band-aids and emergency flip-flops). And when Kelsey saw Garth wandering around the grounds with his own family, she decided to pretend she hadn’t seen him, embarrassed that he might discover just how early she’d arrived. I found this funny because of all people, Garth ought to know how chronically early Kelsey is (not to mention the fact that he was clearly there almost as early as Kelsey).



Kelsey and I are both wise enough to know that what goes around comes around. Kelsey did a fabulous job picking out bridesmaids’ dresses and I had complements galore both before and during. So I promise to be merciful to her if and when it becomes my turn, especially after seeing the lovely orange wrap-arounds that the poor bridesmaids in the other bridal party at the temple grounds that day had been forced to wear.



For my part, I took it upon myself to arrange the decorating of the car, with the hopes of keeping it tame and tasteful for my sisters’ sake and (someday) my own—a bunch of balloons in the front seat, a few white streamers. But when we tied the streamers on they looked kind of limp and straggly, and Sean took it upon himself to make a last-minute run to Rite-Aid to complete the project. For the record, Kelsey, I washed my hands of the whole matter at that point…although now that I can remove myself from responsibility, I have to give my complements to Sean for his handiwork.

Here are a few more pictures from the wedding.











And so now my baby sister is happily married. What is strangest about it all is how not strange it is. Maybe it’s because we’ve been anticipating this for months now, and maybe it’s because as big a change as this is for Kelsey, nothing has changed significantly for me over the weekend. I had fun helping Kelsey out wherever I could. I got some good pictures. I enjoyed catching up with grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, and seeing some of my mini-cousins (I don’t see my married cousins’ children very often, especially living in Michigan). It was also kind of fun to meet Garth’s family. As the youngest child, Kelsey has longed for nieces and nephews for over a decade now, and it’s entirely appropriate that she just married into a whole slew of them. And I didn’t even mind standing in the line so much, at least for about the first 45 minutes before my feet and legs and back began to protest. It was kind of nice to see some of the people who played a role in my childhood, as primary teachers or Young Women leaders or parents of kids I babysat who are now in college, getting married, going on missions.

So there it is. Months of preparation and suddenly it is all over. Kelsey and Garth, you make such a wonderful couple, and I am so happy and excited for both of you. I don’t know if Garth ever reads this, but I hope he knows how impressed I am (and really, we all are) with the relationship he has cultivated with my little sister and best friend. I don’t even mind sharing the position of best friend (married women still need a best girlfriend after all). We all already know that Garth has done well marrying Kelsey, but the more I see them together the more convinced I am (and honestly I was never in doubt) that she’s done well too, as well as she possibly could. Congratulations to both of them, and best wishes for many, many years to come!