jae + jesse

this past saturday i had the amazing opportunity to take some photos for a friend on her wedding day. i was their temple photographer and it was such an honour. they are a beautiful couple and i loved being able to capture the beginning of their "happily ever after"

congratulations jae and jesse! ♥

theron and emily's sealing ♥

"for the temple is a holy place, where we are sealed together...

as a child of god, i've learned this truth,

a family is forever."

today we had the joy of being there as theron and emily were sealed for time and all eternity. one of the most wonderful parts of being a member of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints is having the knowledge that once we are married in the temple we are able to be with our spouse and children for not only this life, but whatever comes after. it was a truly perfect day, not a cloud in the sky and there was so much love in the room as they promised to love each other forever surrounded by family and friends.

each time i have attended a temple wedding or a temple sealing (meaning we are "sealed" together) it has given me an opportunity to think back on my own, almost twelve years ago, still the greatest blessing of my life. i know there are difficult days, but the promise of eternity makes it worth the effort.

it was beautiful to be able to take the children with us today too (big thanks to those who chased them around the gardens). i love knowing that they are growing up with the temple in their sights. they know that family and friends have been and will be married there, and they know it's somewhere they want to be. i can't wait until they can come inside with us.

d e m k e w e d d i n g

it's finally happened. after the last thirty-five days of crazy planning, we pulled it off and bryan and dominique got married today! who knew it was possible? but... to be honest, all it's done is make me realise what i am capable of if i have more than a month haha

dominique looked so beautiful in her dress and as you can see, was blissfully happy, so it made all the hard work worth it ♥

it is such a blessing to know that our marriages as members of the church of jesus christ of latter-day saints are for not only this life, but for the life to come and will last throughout the eternities. that being said, i'm glad that niques has made a good choice in marrying bryan. he is great fun and has fitted into our family perfectly, as though he has always been here, we kind of like him a lot.

the complete kendall family!

the best man and i, showing up to grace the wedding as the maid of honour. i love love love the suits and ties the boys ended up choosing (from roger david) and my dress was ordered from asos... i was so thrilled with it, took a chance on the size and it arrived during the peak christmas period from london, in just four days! hooray for asos!

my favourite father in law and husband

dominique and i. how lucky i felt to be beside her on the biggest day of her life. i love you girl!

niques and her mum. i love this photo, it made me crazy happy.

the pinkall crew outside the temple after the sealing. i love this shot too. there are some people that become family, and this right here, is family. ♥

it was the most perfect day for it, it had been so hot over the last few weeks, and then all of a sudden it died down today and after a disgusting start to the week, we had a beautiful 26 degrees!

my beautiful friend jamie-lee took over my camera and snapped these gorgeous pictures for me while i played bridesmaid, it was a nice change to being behind the camera for once.

our little family. how i love them!

and my little flowergirl, in a dress lovingly made for madeline by her insanely clever nanna. who also spent hours adding sleeves to dominiques dress. we are so lucky to have her.

such a beautiful girl, so glad her day was perfect!

we are waiting on professional pics, but will try to wait calmly while they are done... i will certainly report back once we have them, with pics of the decor and reception venue etc. but these will have to do for now. but it's done! she's married...

congratulations mr & mrs demke 

♥

final touches

wedding is tomorrow... and we are all sorted! we have just delivered this awesome seating chart to the venue, which i spent a few hours stamping names onto yesterday. it's a blackboard that hangs on our wall, which until last week still had the menu from my friends wedding printed onto it from the last time i loaned it out. with some chalkboard pegs attached with a little blu-tack and some pieces of scrap booking paper cut in half, we were ready to go. easy as!

a close up... simple yet effective!

and our "wishing well" or in this case, a bird cage to put cards for the love birds. as you'll see eventually, there are a lot of bird cages going to be used at the reception, so it fitted in perfectly with the theme.

i am so excited to see it all set up and ready to go... one more sleep and it is wedding time!

♥

wedding favours

warning, wedding sneak peek! if you are lucky enough to have been invited to the wedding of the year (haha) and don't want to know what the wedding favours are going to be, then look away now!

i wanted to make the place cards and the favours one thing, so had settled on these gorgeous natural card boxes available here, which were conveniently located locally, so we were able to collect them (a necessity with our short time frame!) and as we received each rsvp, i hand stamped them with my alphabet stamp set (available here) and tied them off with navy ribbon from spotlight. easy done!

only thing is, with just days to go until the wedding, my plan of making brownies and cutting a large piece for each box fell by the wayside, when i sat watching our household devour a box of coles ultimate white chocolate chip cookies, to which i suggested having those in the boxes might be a better idea? it was met with such enthusiasm that i called the local coles, who were only too happy to make us a bulk order, which we collected the next day and boxed up ready for the wedding. coles for the win!! seriously, our local is amazing!

so there you have it, favours complete, and the countdown is on! 

p.s. if you live in australia and haven't tried these cookies yet, do yourself a favour and get into coles asap and try them, you will not be disappointed!

wedding invitations ♥

now seems as good a time as ever to show off these amazing wedding invitations i managed to get for bryan and dominiques wedding, which is inching closer by the day! obviously we were on a pretty tight schedule time wise, so i needed to find something that was ready to go, could be personalised quickly and that we could print ourselves. dominique and i had a look on etsy in the hopes we ccould find something we were happy with and came across something that was absolutely perfect, right here. 

a few tweaks to make it exactly what we wanted and we had this by the following lunchtime, ready to print and send off! we were so thrilled with how quickly the girl was able to have them done for us.

as they were from an american etsy seller, they were set up to be printed front and back, with the invite and the striped page, but as things here don't work like that, i had an idea do them a little differently and print the striped page on sheer paper so that it was a top sheet... and it looked exactly how i hoped it would!

and as an awesome added bonus, we were able to have the rsvp cards changed to an invite to attend the temple . winner!

they are so perfect and we are so thrilled with them. long live etsy and officeworks with their print while you wait option! 

the grahams got sealed!

this morning it rained and rained and was cold, but my heart was warm, as i attended the temple with two people i love very much, as they received their endowments and then were sealed together as husband and wife for time and all eternity. best of all, when we went outside afterwards, the sun came out, for just long enough to make sure that we could get some pictures to remember the day forever.

it's been a long road to the temple for the graham family since they joined the church many years ago, but seeing them reach their goal today was such a wonderful experience to be a part of.

pat & penae are such wonderful people and i know that their entire family will be blessed from their efforts and their amazing example ♥

love is what it's all about and what brought them here today, love for each other, love for their family and love for their father in heaven... and what could ever be better than that?

aeronny and natia tie the knot

tonight i had the privilege of being a guest as my friend aeronny and her love natia were sealed for time and all eternity, as husband and wife, in the perth australia temple. aeronny have been friends for more than fifteen years and it made me so happy to see her so blissfully happy.

♥

there is nothing more beautiful than seeing the temple in the background of a wedding photo and i know there is no greater feeling in the world than knowing that the person you love above all else, will be yours for time and all eternity. 

congratulations to the bride and groom, may your joy continue as you embark on your happily ever after 

♥

5 whole years!!!

it amazes me that it has been five whole years since doug and i got married for time and all eternity in the perth australia temple. this post is actually a week late coming, as things have been nutty - and quite simply i just forgot to write it down. i certainly didn't forget my anniversary - just forgot that all of you needed to know as well.

on may 21st 2005 doug and i were walking in the gardens out the front of the temple, he picked me a yellow rose (from the temple garden - ooh mah) and handed it to me, before we continue our walk. i stopped to look upwards, as you do when there's a beautiful gold statue to look at, then then when i turned around,
there he was, kneeling in the grass.

i asked him what he was doing... to which he replied,

"jade, i have loved you since the first time i saw you,
i still love you, and i will always love you...
and i would really love it if you would be my wife."

then those three magic words that every girl dreams of:

"will you marry me?"

the rest of course is history,
married 23rd feb 2006
in the perth temple with our reception at the
olive garden restaurant in west perth,
a perfect day.

and here's to at least another 5 years.

i love you douglas stephen kendall
and i will love you

forever

temple tins

our young women are spoiled rotten...

imagine their delight when they showed up last night and we had a room full of pretty wedding stuff, complete with things to cut up - and cake and "champers" to boot

temple tins were the on the nights agenda :)

all the glory to dannii... when she was in yws in mandurah, they made a temple tin each - an oversize coffee tin (which mum scored from the ages care kitchen she works in) filled with fabric samples, dress pictures, flowers pictures, generally every possible idea you can come up with for your wedding - plus a slip of paper with a letter to your future husband, and even possible kids names. freaking love it!!! i am just annoyed i never got to make one when i was in youth!!

but it was so much fun - the girls got really into it and got to work

i just can't wait to see if any of their predictions actually come to pass when they are opened when it's time for...

their temple marriage :)