A Kentucky Wedding

We would like to begin by apologizing to our faithful readers for the long periods of time between posts. Here is a reader's digest version of our lives since the last time we wrote:
*we got married and had 2 receptions (one in Draper and one in Omaha a week later)
*we are less than a week away from graduating college/ moving to NYC for the summer
*we got a Wii (Richard thinks this is most exciting thing on the list thus far.... Emily disagrees)
*we went to Lexington, KY so Emily could present her Honors Thesis at the Kentucky Conference on Health Communication
*Emily learns that her sister Carma is a celebrity in the Health Communication world
*The Office came back on the air
*we got addicted to "Arrested Development"
*Richard sent in his seat deposit to George Mason University Law
Whoo... that's a lot. Continue reading at your own risk....


Well, first and foremost, we got married on March 22. During that week, all of Emily's immediate family and some friends came in, and we had a great time playing games, eating, attempting to watch BYU games and taking lots and lots of pictures. We can't believe how old our nieces and nephew are getting!

(apparently Nico and Spencer weren't as happy to be there as everyone else)

The night before the wedding, we had a great groom's dinner at Thanksgiving Point in Lehi. The food was great (we hear... we ate very little), and it was only a little awkward to be constantly stared at for hours (something we would get more used to in the next 24 hours). It was also that night that Aaron presented Richard with "The In-Laws' Guide to the Bylund Family," a compilation of weird and funny things about the Bylund family to make his transition easier. Emily thinks that Richard needs to read the book more carefully, as he often questions her on things that are IN THE BOOK. Examples: "Why did Carma tell you to only take a dollar?" "What is the address Jenny and Aaron's blog?" "What are family team numbers?" Luckily, Emily can refer him back to this manual instead of attempting to explain.





After the dinner, Emily's friend Bethany threw a FANTASTIC bachelorette party complete with drinks, a unique game of Twister and Emmigories. Thanks Beef!!



The wedding day went by with only a few hitches. On the way to temple, Emily was driving with her parents slightly freaking out that something would go wrong. Suddenly, the car started shaking (one exit away from the temple!) and Emily's dad informed the riders that the car had a flat tire, and one of the riders began hyperventilating (we won't name names). Luckily, Emily's brother Kevin et al. came to rescue by driving in from Draper and dropping them off at the temple with seconds to spare.

The ceremony was beautiful and the weather was surprising good (albeit a little cold in the shade), and we continued to take pictures throughout the next 4 or 5 hours. Richard commented later that night that he knows what expression his smile was, because he could feel the muscles in his face hurt when he tried to smile that way again. But we sure had a lot to smile about!! We had a fun reception catching up with family and friends. There was great food (we hear) and the venue was gorgeous.



























Whew. A week later, we had another great reception in Omaha at Emily's parents' house. It was also amazing (however, I'm sick of putting pictures up)

This weekend, we traveled to Lexington, KY so Emily could present her Honors Thesis at KCHC. It, too, was great. Emily met a lot of people who tried to convince her to attend various graduate schools. She had a good lunch with the chair of the health comm masters program at GMU. We also went to the horse races and lost $4. Sad day. We spent an afternoon walking around downtown Lexington (it didn't take very long), watched a few episodes of Arrested Development, and tried not to think too much about the week of finals ahead of us :)

Well, here we are. We are about to spend our last week in Utah and then a week from today we are moving to New York City (where the streets are paved with gold!)!!! What exciting lives we have!

P.S. Do people still read this? Or have you all given up on us?

11 days and counting...

So I was just complaining to Richard that people should blog more often, to which he responded, "when was the last time that you blogged?" Errr....

Here we are a week and half away from W-Day. The last month has gone by so quickly and SO slowly all rolled into one. I'm keeping busy with school, a job, my internship and finishing my honors thesis. Richard is also working two jobs, has a calling with the young men in his ward, going to school and doing law school things. I think it's good that we are so busy right now, otherwise we might go crazy with anticipation.

I got back my bridal pictures last weekend. I would post them up here but apparently the thought of Richard seeing them makes people freak out, so I will have to wait :D We are almost ready to go-- I think the only things we have left are my shoes and bow-ties for the nephews. My parents, sister and nephew are going to be driving in on Friday, so that's when the festivities really begin.

It is very likely that the next time we blog, we will be married. Recently, at any given moment recently one of us will randomly say "we will be married in xx days!" to which the other person squeals in delight (Editor's Note: well, the squealing is mostly just Emily. Richard is too manly.) The Petersons' Adventures officially begins March 22 at 11:00. Until then...

REAL engagement picture!

Well, after an extra week to let the weather calm down, we took our real engagement pictures on Saturday. Richard's cousin Ryann took them for us, and it was a lot of fun! Poor Richard had to live with our constant nagging: "Strong shoulders, Richard!", "Don't slouch, Richard!", "Don't fake smile Richard!", "Chin down, Richard!", etc. But he was a good sport. We took pictures for about an hour in our bright colors outfit and then changed into black and whites. Ryann got a couple of them done that night, but we are still anxiously awaiting the rest of them-- hopefully they will come somtime this week. For now, here is the one that we like the most so far:

Fake Engagement Pictures

Emily was excited last night that we would be "officially engaged" after taking our engagement pictures this morning. However, due to inclement weather (a foot of snow and 30 mph wind), there has been a slight schedule change for our engagement pictures. Therefore, we will not be officially engaged until next Saturday around 9 a.m. But we were already in the mood to take them, so we will provide you with temporary photos to abate your appetites. These masterpieces were taken by Laura (Richard's sister) after 2 hours of shoveling and snowblowing. We are considering just using these instead, so be looking for them in the mail :D

Painted Faces on Parade

Last Friday, we went to a Masquerade Ball charity event hosted by the non-profit that Emily worked for during the Fall 07 semester, Community Action Services & Food Bank. We had a lot of fun learning 19th-century style dancing (except that we had to change partners so much!!) and admiring every else's dresses (that was mostly Emily). We only stayed for a couple of hours due Richard's stomachache, but it was fun to get dressed up and go out for a night on the town. Richard gets the "best deal" award for his 3-piece suit that cost a total of $2.50 at D.I.!