Caleb Zachery Perry & Mary Katherine Taylor Courtship and Wedding

This is a quick story attempt, with possibly some inaccuracies -- but a first-draft story nonetheless.

Katie returned home to Long Beach, California in February 2009, after honorably completing an LDS Church foreign religious mission.  Her 18 month assignment was to introduce the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the people of the country of Chile, teaching them in their own native Spanish language.  When she returned, her plan was to complete about 20 more university credits that she was lacking for her bachelor of science degree in biochemistry at Brigham Young University (BYU). 

As a returning student to the university, she prayed about where she should live, with the decision to move into local student housing close to the university campus.  She secured housing there in April 2009, where she lived until beginning classes for the Autumn school term at BYU.

While attending a student branch of the LDS Church at BYU, the bishopric had the inspired wisdom to assign her a home teacher by the name of Caleb Perry.  Caleb was attending BYU as a junior in electrical engineering (EE), following in the footsteps of his father Michael, who with an EE background, was working in Texas as a consultant for IBM.

There was a strong spiritual connection between the two young people.  And, as the proverbial saying goes, “The rest is history.”  By the time of October Homecoming, there were fun pictures showing the two together at the BYU football game, and at the dance afterward (See pictures).

At Christmas time in 2009, there was talk about securing an engagement ring and wedding band.  By April 2010, there was both a wedding ring in-hand and on-hand (see picture).   And there was also a specific date set with marriage sealing ceremony scheduled for the Mount Timpanogos Temple of the LDS Church set for Saturday, 19 June 2010.

The wedding preparations began immediately.  With the generous and talented help of her Aunt Gaile Sheffer, Katie began the ten-thousand-and-one steps of planning out the details.  In summary, she would wear a traditional white wedding gown with short train.  The wedding flower motif would be stargazer lilies.  The wedding attendant and flower-girl colors would be bright magenta and white, to match the lilies.  Katie would  design, print off, manufacture, and mail out her own hand-made wedding invitations (See picture).   She would also design her own artistic wedding guest register using pictures of herself and Caleb together as the pictorial theme.  (See picture).

Three days prior to the wedding date, Katie’s relatives would begin preparing for the wedding luncheon and wedding banquet, which included both the food and the decorations.  There would be healthy salads, vegetable trays, fruit trays, meat trays, and dessert trays.  Much would be prepared by hand, and some would be purchased commercially, to ensure freshness and safety of perishables.

There would be three major events on the wedding day:  (1) the formal sealing ceremony for the wedding at the Mount Timpanogos Temple at 11:00 AM on Saturday 19 June 2010, (2) a luncheon for the wedding guests later in the day at a local Orem, Utah chapel at 1:30 PM, and (3) a formal reception at the same chapel from 5:30 PM to 7:30. 

There would be one major event the following week:  A week later on the following Saturday of  26 Jun 2010, there would be a reception near Katie’s parents’ home in Los Alamitos, California from 6:30 PM to 8:30.

The honeymoon would include a cruise on the Pacific Ocean, sailing from the port of Long Beach, California down the sea coast to the resort of Ensenada, Mexico.  And there would be a relaxing one-week trip in slow motion up the scenic California coastline, to enjoy the remarkable scenery and vistas found only in California, courtesy of Caleb’s parents.

The temple sealing ceremony occurred on time, as planned, and in a crowded sealing room attended by both sides of the family.  The official photographer for Katie and Caleb was Katie’s cousin, Julie Sheffer, a professional wedding photographer.  The weather for the wedding was cloudless, sunny, and cool -- and perfect for pictures too (see pictures).   

Wedding guests came from as far away as Idaho (family of the groom), California (family of the bride), Michigan, Texas, and Washington state.

The early afternoon wedding luncheon started on-time at the LDS Chapel at 2168 South, 149 West, in Orem, Utah.  Lots of pictures were taken, and there were lots of  happy faces (See pictures)!

The wedding reception occurred later in the evening and featured lots of tasty food treats, with a long receiving line of guests offering their congratulations to the newly weds.  Three traditional ceremonies occurred: 

(1) the cutting of the wedding cake, of  great amusement to the children all seated around the floral arch over the cake,

(2) the bride’s tossing of her wedding bouquet that was grabbed by a little girl 4 years old, and

(3) the groom’s tossing of the bridal garter that was grabbed by a young gentlemen 7 years of age  (see pictures).