Wedding Time Capsule!

Years ago the kids found our Wedding Time Capsule in our closet. Jack particularly wanted to know what was in there SO badly...he was just counting down until we could FINALLY open it! 

So a few days after we came home we sat down as a family to open it! 

Still in love after all these years! ;) 

I can't believe we've had this sitting in our closet for 20 years! It was covered with dust! 

I remember when I got this at my Bridal Shower I thought it was a cool gift, but not much else. I mean you don't really get the gift until years and years later!

After opening it though I realized what a gift it was!!! We actually went to a wedding a couple days later (post tomorrow) and I ended up buying this for the happy couple. 

We didn't seal the time capsule until our 1 year wedding anniversary. When we were unsealing it the stickers were so old that they really weren't stuck all that much anymore. 

The first thing out! Oh my goodness! I actually remembered that this was in the time capsule. Okay so the story is Michael got me this VHS tape for our first Christmas. I loved Austin Powers! The funny thing is look at the sticker on the bottom left. I noticed it right away. He got me Austin Powers En Espanol!!! We laughed and laughed about this. Michael couldn't remember what store he bought it at so he went to all of the ones he bought me stuff from and they all said that they didn't sell Austin Powers in Spanish. So we figured it would make for a fun story and kept it in our time capsule. I actually think we should open this and pop it in the VCR. I'm sure we'll get a lot of laughs out of watching Mike Myers in Espanol! 

Paper plate and napkin from my shower. 

Another story goes along with this. Right before we got married there was this commercial with a couple sitting there opening their wedding presents. The bride opens another box and begrudgingly pulls out the present. It was a toaster and she says...."Another Toaster" and adds it to the huge pile of toasters they received. The very next box she opens it's like heaven is pouring out of the box and angelic music is playing and she says..."S & W Stewed Tomatoes"! It was a funny and super silly commercial. Michael's Mom thought it would be so fun to buy a can for us and put it with all the other presents. We didn't open all our presents at the reception, but we opened a handful...I can't even remember why now. This can was one of the presents that we opened. We have pictures of me opening it and I'm in awe that we got S & W Stewed Tomatoes. It was hilarious! I've tried to find the commercial on Youtube, but it's too old! 

Unfortunately the stewed tomatoes lid popped just a little bit and ended up messing up the next item in the time capsule, but it just made it all the more hilarious really. 

Hello Grannie Panties!!! 

So here's the story with these. Sometime before the wedding someone bought a giant pair of Grannie Panties and all the groomsmen and Michael signed them. Then during the reception or the wedding I don't know, Michael shoved them up one of his sleeves. Right when I was going to sit down so he could get the garter he whispered in my ear...."Don't get mad!" Seriously I was freaking out! I had no idea what he figuratively had up his sleeve let alone actually had up his sleeve. The DJ was playing this silly clown music and Michael was taking forever to get my garter. For some reason his hand was down by my ankle and I kept pointing to where the garter was up by my thigh. Everyone was hooting and hollering since he had his hand under my dress FOREVER!!! What I didn't know was he was having a hard time getting his button on his sleeve undone so he could pull the panties out. Finally he pulls his hands out and shows off these giant panties and starts waving them around. 

We got married back when it was super cool to have those Kodak disposable cameras at all the tables so there is a 360 degree shot of my mouth wide open! 

It was hilarious, but I was so thankful that he gave me a heads up! I was a good sport about it for a few seconds before I snatched them out of Michael hands and then he went after the actual garter! 

The kids thought the panties were so gross since the can popped and had spilled tomato juice on them and it didn't look like tomato juice. Ella was hilarious because she just looked at them and said, "Did you wear those?" 

A piece of coral from our honeymoon. 

A bracelet that had our wedding date engraved in it. I didn't remember this at all!!! 

Our wedding bubbles! 

Matches from the place where we stayed when we celebrated our 1st wedding anniversary! Notice Ella in the background...she has totally claimed that bracelet now! 

This book was the coolest part. It had all sorts of things that you write down so you'd be able to read about what life was like back then. I actually filled out the whole thing. 

There were also letters that we wrote. Michael is opening the letter we wrote to our future kids! 

Michael ended up not being able to read it because he was so emotional. To think when I wrote this we had no idea what was to come. The years of infertility and heartbreak, the longing and not knowing if we would ever be parents, the ups and downs of getting pregnant with Brayden and then losing him and later losing Kyan as well and then finally the blessing of holding our babies in our arms. God is good all the time and all the time God is good!!! 

It's not what was said in the letter that was emotional it was all the things that it doesn't say. 

My letter to Michael! 

We have certainly accomplished a lot in 20 years! 

Michael's letter to me! I started laughing once I saw "shure"...he was never the best speller! :) It was funny how we kept going back and forth with the number of kids we wanted 3 or 4. There are a lot of places in these letters and the book as well where we will say one or the other. We just told Zeke that he was the cherry on top of our family! 

Also Michael's P.S. is the best thing ever!!! 

We also wrote letters to our parents. This is honestly some of the best advise for married couples....kiss in front of you kids!!! I loved seeing my parents kiss even if I did make silly faces and say "Ewww"! It was such a great indicator that they loved it each other. There were quite a few friends in my life especially during my teenage years where their parents got divorced so to see my parents loving on each other was the best gift ever!

Michael's letter to his parents. At first we weren't sure what to do. Michael's Mom has been gone for almost 2 years and now his Dad is remarried. We weren't sure if we should give the letter to him or not. We didn't want to open up old wounds and we for sure didn't want to offend his new bride. Michael ended up texting his Dad and asking him what he wanted and he was open to whatever we wanted to do. We decided to open it and then text him a picture of the letter. Again I guess we were only planning on 3 kids...Zeke was just a bonus! :) 

These are cards that were sent to us on our first wedding anniversary. This was when I got really emotional. Between these cards there are now 6 people that signed them that are no longer here with us. Michael's mom, my Grandpa Grant, my Grandpa Giest, my Grandma Giest, Uncle Lee and Santa Al. 

You never know when you'll lose someone and it sucks that they aren't here, but I do cherish the time I had with them and I know I'll see them again someday! 

The last thing was the daily journal that I kept while we were on our honeymoon. It was fun to read them because half of the stuff I didn't even remember. 

This was such a fun gift and I'm pretty sure I'm going to buy it for every wedding we get invited too. We've actually been thinking about redoing the time capsule with help from the kids. I think we'll have the kids write letters to each other and us and vis versa. If we open it 20 years from now the kids will be 32, 31, 29 and 27! Now that would be so fun!