Julie and Leo's Wedding

My little (and only) sis married the love of her life in June in the Salt Lake Temple. It was a beautiful day.

Leo is a great guy and we're very happy to have him in the family. We like that he has a little bit of a dramatic flair to him. :)

They were married in the Salt Lake Temple with all their friends and family present, including Leo's family who came all the way from Brazil for the big day.

The Lamb Fam...all 18 (and a half) of us.

When did we all grow up?! 4 down, 2 to go!

Julie and Leo were married by Grandpa Lamb who has now married all of us except Peter and Abby (who were instead married by some guy you might have heard of...President Thomas S. Monson!)

Sophie thought Julie was such a beautiful bride...and she was.

Avery saw everyone snapping pictures and didn't want to be left out, so she begged to take a few of her own. The real photographer of the day snagged a picture of her in action.

Sophie and Avery with their favorite Austin and Gabe. These 4 sure love each other and I hope they always will be close!

This is definitely one of my favorite pictures from the day.

Here's my Grandpa Austin with several of his great-grandchildren.

The night before the wedding we had a wedding dinner. Joseph and I sang the customary song we re-write for the couple to tell their story. This time it was Taylor Swift's "Love Story" ("He knelt to the ground and pulled out a ring and said, 'Marry me, Julie!'" Couldn't be more perfect, could it?).

Afterward we got a picture of all the newest grandbabies on my Mom's side, starting with Will at 8 months down to little Natalie Austin who's only a few days old here.

The reception was held at Carmelle Reception Center and they did a fabulous job. The girls were especially enamored with the floor to ceiling mirrors that they could pose in front of in their purple flower girl dresses and twirl to their heart's content.

The boys were also very handsome this evening, and I especially loved Will's little suit. He looked so dapper in it.

I love this shot of the 6 grandkids with the bride and groom. Sophie's face is priceless, and Will kept looking up at Julie because he couldn't figure out why she looked so much like his mama but clearly not enough.

Here they all are together, and smiling too!

Three...

Two...

One.

FIVE!

The dessert at the reception was a delicious crepe with a million toppings to choose from. How they knew that crepes is one of my girls' absolute most favorite creations on the earth I don't know, but I think Sophie and Avery ate 3 or 4 of them a piece.

The real side of this wedding couple. :) Awesome.

Awwww...

The bride with her attendants, showing some attitude. Without planning it we all popped the same leg--pretty funny.

Joseph and I always have a friendly bet about whether the couple will shove the cake or be nice. This time I said they would shove and he said they would be nice. I almost always win, but before they started cutting Joseph coached them to be nice over and over which I think is totally cheating. Julie was up first and she smeared frosting on Leo's nose first, then fed him the cake nicely, and Joseph maintains that he wins the bet. I think any smearing is definitely in the category of shoving, so I think nobody really won.

Funny story about the bouquet toss: Sophie was looking forward to this moment more than any other during the day because she so wanted to catch the bouquet. You can see she is out in front waiting with open arms. Julie tosses it, it flies up in the air and is on target to land right in Sophie's arms when all the big girls from behind jump over her and snatch the bouquet out of the air before she can reach it. She was devastated. She started to cry and I tried to comfort her, and then the others saw and gave the bouquet back to Julie to toss it again, but even though it went right to her it hit her in the face so she just started crying harder. I explained that I didn't want her to catch it anyway because that would mean she'd have to get married next and I'm not ready to let her go, so she was placated and now loves watching the video we have of the toss. It really is hilarious how her face goes from pure glee at almost catching the flowers, to dismay that they didn't land in her hands, to absolute defeat when she realizes they were stolen from her. It was hilarious.

The dancing portion of the night was my favorite part. Those Brazilians sure know how to cut a rug! They could totally move and they put all the rest of us to shame.

We still had fun anyway, though. Here Joseph and I are dancing to our wedding song, Nora Jones's "Come Away with Me". Will was trying to cut in here, but sorry, this is OUR song, honey.

Sophie and Avery loooove to dance! I think Avery had fun with her aunt Julie the beautiful bride, and we all had a great time at their wedding. Thanks for an awesome day, and congrats Julie and Leo Almeida! We love you!