I do ♥

WARNING: This blog post contains tons of photos and videos. You have been warned. 

It was the best summer of my life! Everything was finished being planned. All we had to do before I could marry my best friend was take a few pictures with our photographer and do an open house at the in-laws for friends and family. We weren't entirely traditional in that we took our photos and had the open house the day before the wedding. What that means is that, yes, Bryce saw the dress before the actual wedding. Good thing neither of us are particularly superstitious. I would actually recommend this, to those of you who are wondering. It's so much nicer to have a reception and photos done on another day so that your wedding day isn't super stressful and you can just relax and enjoy the best day of your life. Here's a little snippet of when Bryce actually saw me in my dress and I saw him in his tux for the first time!

Sorry about the lighting. Because our photo session was planned just before our open house, the unveiling took place in my in law's basement. It was a very special moment (did you see how much of a stud my husband is?!), although a bit of a rushed one. The photo session was coming up on us fast! Soon after this video was taken, Bryce and I hurried to our photo session at the Mount Timpanogos LDS Temple, where the wedding would take place the next day. It was a beautiful, sunny day with a light breeze. I couldn't have asked for a better day! Our photographer's name was Amy and she was amazing! I mean, just check out some of her handy work!

This is one of my favorites! See what I meant about Amy being amazing? She sure can catch a moment!

                                                                                                     

It was so pleasant working with Amy. She was a sweetheart and had a lot of good ideas. We didn't know her very well, but she had the sweetest spirit. I'm sad to say that a few short months later, Amy passed away on the table during surgery. We are grateful that she was able to be a part of such an important day in our lives and we send our love to her family.

Directly after our photo session, we had the open house back home at the Allred's. It was such a beautiful occasion. The front yard was decorated in our colors of black, white, and lime green, not to mention all the lights in the trees! We had our wedding video slideshow playing on a loop in the background, showing the evolution of our lives and our relationship. We had ice cream, cookies, and Italian sodas for treats! The big miracle of the day? Well, it was an outdoor celebration and the weather man insisted on rain. Yet there was no rain! Many guests told us that they prayed the rain would stay away as they walked through the line shaking our hands and hugging us. We are grateful for those prayers and for all the hard work that was put into that open house.

Here is a snap shot of our Italian Soda boys! Left to Right: Mike, Papa Allred, Spencer, and Brian.
Don't mind Brian, he was actually having a good time and being silly for the picture. 

As the sun set on the beautiful day, anxiety and excitement rose for the day to come! I woke up early to meet with my hair dresser. Then my mama helped me with my dress and my make up. The drive to the Timpanogos temple was crazy! There was an 18 wheeler that broke down somewhere on the highway, and I thought I was going to be late to my own wedding! Luckily we all made it in time. The ceremony was beautiful and life changing. I could finally say that I was married to the man of my dreams! After the ceremony we took some photos in front of the temple with the friends and family members that came to support us that day.

Here is a sweet little clip of us coming out of the temple right after the ceremony! Newly married!

And of course, some pictures!

Check out the heights of my family! Haha

Directly after all the photos, we made our way to our wedding luncheon. It was at this nice little Italian place called La Dolce Vita. The lunch was delicious and I recommend the place to anyone who is looking for a lovely Italian meal! People's glasses were clinked many times and so Bryce and I did a lot of smooching (not that either of us minded). 

It was the perfect day! The only hard thing about it was taking the elastics and bobby pins out of my hair later that evening! Haha. A week or so later, there was a reception for us in San Antonio. ROAD TRIP! My mom and aunt worked so hard to make the reception nice. And boy, was it beautiful! The room was filled with lights and flowers and delicious foods. And of course, everything was black, white, and lime green! It was a pretty traditional reception in that there was dinner provided, music playing, the first dance, the garter throw, the bouquet toss, and all that fun stuff. What a fun night it was! Celebrating this big, new step in our relationship with friends and family was so special. Bryce and I were lucky because we were able to do that in both of our "hometowns." Thanks to everyone who came out and made the evening so great! My uncle took pictures that night. Here are a few for your viewing pleasure. 

Props to Charly Allred for the amazing cakes! We love the traditional cake and the grooms-cake soo much! 

Well, that was almost two whole years ago! What a summer to remember! Thank you to everyone who made these memories so precious, and a big thank you to my husband for asking me to marry him! Life is grand, everyone. 

Will You Marry Me?

I remember the day we got engaged as if it were just yesterday. It was the first nice day after a much-too-long winter, which was a blessing in and of itself because Bryce was taking me on a picnic! It was March 31st (yeah, the first nice day was at the end of March! What a dreadfully long winter that was!) and I wore a dress to school to celebrate the splendid weather.

Bryce picked me up from school that day. He had food waiting in the back of the car, which drove me crazy on the drive that seemed to go on forever! I had never before experienced Panda Express, but it was one of  Bryce's favorites so that, in addition to some sparkling cider, filled our picnic basket. From the BYU campus we drove to Mt. Timpanogos Park which was beautiful and green and sparsely populated with picnic tables. We found a spot that we liked then we began to eat our meal. After washing it down with some carbonated goodness I reached for my fortune cookie (my absolute FAVORITE part about eating Asian). My fortune cookie said,

"A tempting proposal will soon present itself to you."

Now, by this time I had been teasing Bryce for a while about when he would pop the question, so when I read my fortune I laughed aloud and told Bryce what it said as I poked and winked at him. I playfully suggested, "Eh Bryce, come on!" Then I asked him what his fortune cookie said. He slipped me his little piece of paper and I read...

"Will you marry me?"

He then knelt down next to the bench and popped out the ring. I smiled so big, hid my blushing face, and then exclaimed "OF COURSE!" And then we smooched... a lot. 

So, apparently fortune cookies become pliable if you microwave them. He certainly did pick out the perfect fortunes! Later, when we returned to the car he gave me the actual fortune cookie that came with my meal. I opened that one and it said...

"You will soon witness a miracle"

Hahahahahhahahhahahaaaa! And a miracle it was. It was the most perfect day. Unfortunately I didn't have my camera there at the park, but here are a few of  our engagement pictures for your viewing pleasure. 

I took this picture when I got home that day. 

Oh, and did I mention that this beautiful day happened the day before April Fools? So yeah, when I announced my engagement on Facebook no one believed me, at least not for a few days, haha! 

And It's All Thanks To A Slumber Party

The Day We Met

The summer of 2010 was a busy, enchanted, and life changing summer. Among things like high school graduation, my brother Brian returning from a two-year mission in Virginia, a long-awaited trip to Spain, and a road trip around the US, that was the summer that I met my honey buns. ♥

It was on that crazy road trip actually. Family friends from Spain visited with us that summer and we all decided to take a LDS church history road trip (and stop by a few fun places on the way to visit family friends). Our stops were as followed: Nauvoo IL, Estes Park CO, Los Angeles CA, Las Vegas NV, and of course St. George and Salt Lake City UT.

Here is a map of our travels so you can imagine indeed how crazy of a trip this was. Oh! And did I mention that this was in fact a ROAD trip. There were 10 (sometimes 11) of us in an eleven passenger van. It could get stuffy at times with those long hours on the road with ten other people in an enclosed space. Needless to say, it was an adventure.

Well, there were many adventures to speak of on that trip, but this my dear friends, is about the day I met the love of my life. As I mentioned earlier my brother Brian served a 2 year  LDS mission in Virginia. While he was there he had multiple mission companions, many of whom (you guessed it!) lived in Utah. ;) Brian met up with many of his mission companions on that trip, Bryce Allred being one of them (who am I kidding, he wasn't just one of them, he was THE one!)

That fated day my family was visiting the MTC in Provo, UT. Brian had previously arranged to meet with Bryce there and then leave to what he called a "slumber party with Allred." We were standing at the legendary Missionary Training Center plaque when I had my first real-life-slow-motion-moment. The street light turned red and the walk sign came on as the stud-muffin of my future husband walked along the cross walk towards me -- well, towards Brian, but we were standing right next to each other.

Left to Right: Brian, Brandon, Bryce, Stephanie, Mama, Me

How flattering, right? I will always look back on this photo as the first picture my husband and I took together and my hand is in front of my face. :P 

Well, after we all met one another and hugged, as we Spaniards often do when meeting strangers, Brian and Bryce went off and had their slumber party that night. The next day was my day. Bryce tagged along with my family as we walked around temple square. That was the day that Bryce and I talked for hours, getting to know one another and sure, a  little flirting. We basically became best friends that day. 

After that trip I had to go back home to Texas, but Bryce and I kept contact via text messaging, phone calls, and of course facebook. Months passed and we kept contact this way. In the month of October, on the day of Halloween, Bryce made it official by asking me to be his girlfriend. And  thus began our long distance relationship. Luckily it wasn't long distance for all that long. Sometime that fall I was accepted into Brigham Young University and the following January I moved to Provo, Utah, where Bryce and I continued to date, fall in love, and eventually get married. But that story, my dear friends, is cause for an entirely new blog post. 

Until then...

Introduction To Our Family

Well as great as 120 characters in the "About Me" section are, I thought you guys might want a more in-depth introduction to our little Allred clan.
My name is Janine Allred. I have no middle name because I was born in Barcelona, Spain where a child receives the first last name of each parent. My maiden name was Janine Loppe Navarro, but when I got married I just stuck with the one last name. When I was young my mother remarried and we moved to the USA, Texas, more specifically. I have 5 brothers and sisters and I am the second oldest. I am a student at Brigham Young University and I am majoring in Human Development in the School of Family Life. As much as I love being a student, I am currently putting my studies on hold because I am expecting a little bundle of joy this summer. I'll write plenty about her in upcoming posts so keep a lookout.

I am married to my right hand man. His name is Bryce Allred and he ROCKS! He was born in Brigham City, Utah and soon after moved to Mapleton, Utah where he was raised by his amazing parents! He is the oldest of four children. He is currently attending Utah Valley University and he is majoring in Computer Science. He is also working with UPS and in about 11 1/2 months we are gonna get some awesome benefits from his job! Woot woot! :) He is also very excited to become a daddy! 

And Olivia? Well, we'll introduce her later. All you need to know for now is that she's as cute as a button and as comfy as a rollie pollie under a damp rock.