Sweet sixteen and always been kissed

Sixteen years married today. Sweet sixteen and always been kissed.

Time to share some of the beautiful photos from the most beautiful day. I am so lucky to have what I have. Douglas, I might hate on you a lot of time, but I love you more than I could ever explain. Here's to the next sixteen years! ❤

 

50 years of neil and barbara

 

fifty years ago today my parents said i do. 

fifty years!

when my mother was 11, she told her mum she was going to marry neil goodlet. her mother was of course a little disbelieving and gave her the standard "that's nice dear response" but little did she know what was ahead. mum wasn't kidding. 7 years later, they were married at the melville church of jesus christ of latter-day saints - and fifty years later, here we are.

4 children and 12 grandchildren later - a true legacy of love. i have never seen a couple more in love and more devoted to each other. i was so blessed to be born into a home full of love.

as an anniversary gift, i had this painting done for them from @love.staxx on instagram. i have purchased other items from her in the past and her work is beautiful and she is absolutely lovely. i approached her with a black and white picture, as it's a long time joke in our family about the fact that mum and dad's wedding photographer forgot to bring colour film on the day so they actually don't have any colour photos!

until now, when i made this on the "my heritage" website for them during lockdown last year when they made unlimited colourisations to help those at home wanting to keep busy. legends. stacey from love staxx then painted them a colour portrait and mum loved it.

in celebration of their 50 years of marriage, here's a couple of photos of them over the years...

young and in love at dads 16th birthday party in the backyard at my grandparents elvira street home (which my parents still own coincidentally)

posing at the wishing well in kings park, young and freshly enagaged after attending a friends wedding (who absolutely did not make it to the 50 year mark!)

another one at kings park when we had family photos back when emma kate was a baby. i actually snapped this shot on my phone between the photographers efforts and i love it so much, even all these years later. i love how in love they are, it shows so much. dad is always telling us what a babe she is and it's adorable.

this snap is at my best friend jennifers wedding 2010, i am pretty sure it's the first time that they worked out how to take a selfie by the looks of it.

i just love how much they love each other. it's the greatest thing in my life. i looove to tell people how long they have been together. it's truly the most wonderful love story.

***

as a gift for them, my brothers and i paid for them to visit rottnest together today. the last time they went was newly married, while mum was pregnant with my oldest brother. they (mum especially!) were so stoked, and as soon as dad found out it included multiple tours (including the rottnest train run, and the guns/ war memorial/ tunnels tour) he was keen as beans. they said it was the best day and we are so happy that they loved it. we are so so lucky to have them as our parents. they are simply the best.

15 years down, eternity to go

fifteen years. gone in the blink of an eye. sometimes i don't even understand how it is possible, yet here we are. there are so many wonderful quotes about the beauty of marriage, but i want to be real. sometimes it's downright ugly. your spouse is your safe place. it's not all sunshine and roses. it's not always going to be amazing. some days you'll want to kill each other. but for me, it's always come down to whether or not you want to stay married. 

so many people walk away when it gets hard. they think it's easier to just let go rather than work at something. and maybe it is. maybe there have been times when it would have been easier to walk away. but we chose not too. we stuck it out. through the happy times. the sad times. the hard and dark and difficult times. and we are still married, because we want to be. above all else, we want to be with each other. i wonder how many people would fight harder for their marriages if they thought more about it being a choice. not something that you can just throw in when there are bumps in the road. because it's not an option for us. we chose each other - and we are in for the long haul.

fifteen years ago, we knelt across the altar from each other and promised to love each other for eternity. that's not up yet. so here we are. just doing the best we can. we are not perfect, but we are trying.

there is an old saying "choose your love, then love your choice." i'm doing just that. there is still no one else i would rather be with, even in the hardest and worst times.

we booked a table at the rose and crown in guildford where our friend works as the chef and oh were we looked after. beautiful mains, amazing service and a gorgeous little private table in a gazebo in the courtyard. we were so stoked. even our own fancy personalised dessert that hasn't made it to the menu yet. such a good night. 

here's to at least another 15 my love! ❤

20 years later

twenty years ago today i waited excitedly outside of the sydney temple with my brother isaac while my oldest brother jared and his wife donna were married for time and all eternity and i gained my first sister. what a wonderful day it was for us all. i honeslty can't believe it was that long ago, i was only 12 years old! but here we are twenty years later hauling out the photos...

here we have mum and i at the reception a few weeks later in wa (they honeymooned in nsw after their temple wedding) it was my first time as a bridesmaid and i was so excited to be a part of it. to this day i don't think donna has any idea just how special she made me feel by asking me to be her bridesmaid. i really felt like i had a sister that day... and have every day since. 

congratulations on such a huge milestone jared & donna. i love you both ♥

10 years later...

ten years ago today, doug and i knelt together in the temple and promised to love each other, not just for this life, but for what comes next... and during those ten years, there has been good times, some really bad times... but it remains the best decision i have made to this day. 

i decided to revisit my wedding photos and pop some up for our anniversary and so many wonderful memories came flooding back.

i was born in fremantle and my family moved to the bush in clackline when i was just 4 years old. i have a neverending love for fremantle though even to this day and for some reason, every time we go there, it's like coming home. for years i carried a dream in my head of having a photo in the whalers tunnel on my wedding day, and with the help of our amazing photographer, we made it happen. it is by far my favourite photo from the wedding and i never tire of seeing it. 

it was a stinking hot week when we got married. it was 37, 38, 36 degrees celcius, then all of a sudden on our wedding day it was 23. what a miracle. to this day i still cannot believe it, but it was a beautiful day. perfect in every way.

one of the most wonderful parts of my wedding day was having all my brothers there to share the experience with me. they remain one of the most important things in my world and i am so grateful to have grown up as the youngest child, with three wonderful brothers to keep me grounded and remind me who i am.

we were surrounded by the most important people in our lives... and although i see so many people who fall out of touch with their bridal party members, our love for them remains the same. i chose my best friend jennifer, one of my oldest and dearest friends alexandra and dougs sister dominque, with my oldest niece laura as a flower girl. douglas was backed by his three "best men" as he called them, his two best friends from his childhood michael and james, as well as his cousin matthew and another cousins son matthew douglas (named after those two!)

i was super lucky to have my makeup done by michaels wife penny (who hilariously i have known since i was 11, so random that we ended up marrying friends) who is amazing and did an incredible job. i have never felt more beautiful in my entire life. 

i love our photos. i still love to look at them and i am forever grateful for the patience of our photographer, a friend from church who stayed with us for hours so i could get what i wanted. i had so many ideas (and i was obsessed with photos even then) and was thrilled with the results.

this sweet little girl asked her dad the night before the wedding what a flower girl was meant to do. he told her to carry the train of my dress and to carry my flowers if i needed her to. she was incredible and such a sweetheart. she would continually appear and i would feel the end of my dress being lifted into the air and see her sweet smiling face. she is so special to me and i am so grateful to be her aunt.

the boathouse on crawley bay was a quick stop, our limo driver pulled into the bus bay to drop us off and then pulled into a side street while he waited. i love this place. i would pass it so often driving the work cars and i knew i needed to have this shot. 

you'll notice i have a veil on in just this photo and not any of the others. a veil wasn't in my wedding dreams but i always wanted to have one photo of it blowing in the wind. it was my mothers and i love that we got this shot. it was my something borrowed for the day...

one of the most wonderful parts of my day was being able to walk into the reception on my fathers arm. having our ceremony in the temple does not allow for the tradition of a father walking his daughter down the aisle, so it was wonderful to share this brief moment with my dad. he is truly the most wonderful man i could have been blessed with as a dad. 

doug's cousin matthew was in charge of reading the "telegrams" and well wishes from the relatives that couldn't make it to the wedding. he did such a good job and we were really impressed. more so when we found out later on that all of the pieces of paper he was reading from were blank. every single one... and he was just making them up as he went along. he's always been a joker, so really this didn't come as a surprise. 

our speeches were hysterical. there was so so much fun and laughter and it was just so wonderful to be with people we loved. we were all especially amused when dad started his speech telling all our guests about how doug asked his permission to ask me to marry him one afternoon when they were out on the farm shooting. dad apparently retaliated with "you realise i am holding a shot gun don't you." it always makes me laugh to think about it because doug said when it was his turn to talk that it was a case of marry me or die trying. dag. 

of course i stuck with tradition...

something old: my booties that i wore on my blessing day, attached to my bouquet (along with two two fabric horseshoes. mum always wanted to have a horseshoe on hers and when she tried to order one along with her flowers she was told by the florist "oh no darling,you don't order one, someone will give you one" they didn't, she was upset and so i had one for me and one for her

something new: my jewellery

something borrowed: my mothers veil

something blue: a pendant that belonged to my dads mother, it's a simple gold pendant with a blue stone set in it. i had it tied to the strap of my bra with a piece of blue silk ribbon

and this cake. it was so incredible. it was exactly what i asked for and tasted so good. 

it was the most amazing day of my life, bar none and i have nothing but wonderful memories. ten years down and an eternity to go... i can't wait to see what comes next. ♥

5 years of mat and jen

can hardly believe it's been 5 years today since i was the maid of honour at the wedding of these two adorable people. time flies when you're having fun (and building a house and buying a block and having a baby...) i love you two crazy kids and look forward to the next five. xxx

four years down - mat & jen

i can't believe it has already been 4 years since mat & jen got married! feels like it can't have been that long, but the calendar doesn't lie.

happy linen anniversary guys!

i found this amazing cushion from a girl on madeit.com.au , that could be personalised with all your own info. it's so cool, with such a reasonable price (close your eyes jen - $39 shipped within australia) that i wanted to put it on here for everyone to see. it was made really quickly too and i am so stoked with the result! you can order one here!

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

4 years and counting!

this time 4 years ago i had been married for just a few hours!
but 4 years, 48 months, 208 weeks, 1461 days later here i am...
still smitten - he's still just as hot!!

i enjoyed every minute of piking on the couch with
wok-in-a-box & a movie
even if the power decided to go out - and my western-power-employee-father was "conveniently" unreachable, hmmmm.
i got a present too!
a plaque for the wall - that i have been lusting after forever!
soooooo pretty!

here's to at least another four!!

love you!!