Sophie’s December: When She Married Luke Wonnacott

Dear Family,

I feel a little silly writing about anything in this month’s letter besides the obvious, but I feel like Christmas, at least, deserves some page space. Fortunately, this year’s Christmas did an excellent job of setting the stage for a union of two families.

Luke and I seem to agree that everything is better once the plane lands in Maryland. Whether the drive from BWI is to Gaithersburg or Silver Spring, it’s beautiful, peaceful, and feels in almost every respect better than the drive from SLC to Provo. I don’t mean this to be an argument for the quality of the roads or the airports themselves, but I think there’s something impossible to pick out of the atmosphere in the greater area of my home neighborhood that makes it better than anywhere else in the world.

And now it’s also the place where I got to marry my favorite person in the world. But we haven’t gotten to that part yet.

First, we had Christmas! A nice thing about having my in-laws and my parents in the same place is that we don’t have to be as stingy with our holidays. On the other side of the coin, we have to figure out how to split up individual holidays between two families. I still find it preferable to the alternative, but it’s one of those things that I can imagine feeling tiresome after five years of marriage. I hear that there a bunch of things like that, though. I’ll save the worry for five years from now.

We spent Christmas Eve with the Willises and Christmas with the Wonnacotts. Both were so much fun, and I enjoyed introducing Luke to our silly yet persistent Red Lobster tradition. It’s one of those traditions that I’m embarrassed to tell people about but would be very sad not to follow through on.

He also had the chance to spend time with my cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents for a few hours a few days before he officially became a part of the family. It was really nice, and I’m glad that we’ve both taken the time to get to know one another’s families.

It makes me glad to be married to someone who considers strong relationships with family to be as important as I do.

Christmas was just delightful at the Wonnacott home. It was a little rowdy, as it was the first Christmas in a while with all of the kids and their spouses at home. The whole day was so much fun, and I felt like a part of the family.

Which finally brings us to what you sent me all that money for: my marriage to Luke Wonnacott.

The short of it: we were married in the Washington D.C. temple on December 27th, then celebrated with local (and many non-local) friends the following day at our wedding reception. Luke and I then drove down to Tampa, Florida to leave on a five-day cruise to Southern Mexico. And if this small paragraph answers all the questions you had, feel free to stop reading. Here are some pictures for your troubles:

The longer account of it is this: Hannah and Emma came in on a redeye around 6 am on the morning of the 26th with my rented wedding dress. Later that morning, Luke’s first cousin once removed (it’s amazing how many first cousins once removed have come out of the woodworks for this wedding), a talented hair and makeup artist, so kindly did my hair and makeup so that Luke and I could have our pictures taken in the afternoon.

A lovely woman in our stake took the pictures and they turned out far better than I could have hoped. I’m generally a pessimistic picture subject, but I’m glad that the one time in my life that I’ve had zero qualms with the way a picture of myself turned out was this December.

The smallest of many happy wedding blessings.

Everyone in my family came to watch this photo session, including Hannah, Emma, and my father (the most surprising addition to the party). As soon as the pictures finished, the Wonnacott family came to enjoy the temple lights. For a brief moment, my whole future family was all together the night before we’d all be legally and covenantally brought together.

It made me really happy.

Finally, the morning of the 27th came, and then it went. And now I’m married!

It’s odd how one minute you can be single with a standard deduction of $14,600, walking into a beautiful and holy building. Then, after less than an hour, you walk out legally allowed to file taxes jointly for all of 2024.

Luke almost didn’t qualify for tax returns this year. Luckily for both of us, I caved just in time.

But in all seriousness, the temple ceremony was everything I expected it to be. It was a simple promise that I’ve been looking forward to making for my entire life in the place that I always dreamed it would be in. I will admit that I never anticipated being as nervous as I was. My heart was in my throat for the thirty minutes leading up to the ceremony, and I was glad that I always had either Luke or my mom by my side through every step of the way.

Many beloved family members were able to attend, and Luke and I talked afterwards about how much love was present in that room as we looked around at the people who came because they love us and because we love them. And that’s not even to mention the many more people who waited outside the temple for us to come out. To me, they showed an even more remarkable love, waiting in the cold to see us after the marriage had been performed.

I’m an extremely lucky girl.

The temple ceremony was followed by a family wedding luncheon, which was followed by mine and Luke’s escape to our hotel in D.C. to do, I don’t know, whatever it is married people do. My father’s suspicions were that we participated in Bible study and then slept in separate beds. While we didn’t do our Bible study that night, we did have a little Book of Mormon study and watch The Prince of Egypt, so he wasn’t too far off. I do have to admit that, contrary to my father’s vision of the night, we did, in fact, share a bed.

There was only one in the room, so it seemed that the alternative would be a little ridiculous. Sorry, Dad.

The next morning, Luke and I visited the Botanic Gardens and the African American Culture and History Museum, both of which we thoroughly enjoyed before returning to our families’ homes and preparing for our wedding reception that evening.

The reception was a hit. I don’t know if everyone else was bored out of their minds, but I felt like I was running around the whole time trying to meet and greet every beautiful person who came to celebrate with us. If you came, thank you. I truly loved seeing you there. Our families did such a wonderful job planning and setting up the party and I had to do absolutely nothing other than show up in a dress.

I almost didn’t want to leave afterwards, but Luke and I had to make it to his brother’s apartment in North Carolina before our carriage turned back into a pumpkin at midnight. After a speedy four or five hour drive, we made it and collapsed. The next morning we attended a sparsely attended college student holiday sacrament meeting before finishing up the last ten hours of the drive to Florida.

The next morning, we took our time getting to the ship. We got breakfast at Waffle House, stopped by Wells Fargo to open joint checking and savings accounts, got our car to a place we could leave it parked for five days (“PARK 4 CRUISE”— a place $20 cheaper than the official cruise line parking and kind enough not to steal anything from our car while we were gone), and moseyed onto our cruise ship. We were feeling pretty productive.

Here are my thoughts on cruises:

1. They are the perfect vacation for two young people who don’t necessarily want hide away from the world but who also don’t want to have to interact with anyone else. There is just enough interaction with other people to keep you from feeling completely isolated and yet no real obligation to interact with any of them. Well, except for the person who asked me at every meal whether they could get me something to drink and to whom I would respond, “No, thank you. My husband is already getting me a cup of water.” Because I have one of those now.
2. It strikes the balance between the vacationers who like to do everything and those who like to do nothing. I wouldn’t say Luke is an “everything” vacationer, but he definitely comes from a family with more structured down-time than I do. I could go watch him climb the rock wall, play shuffleboard with him when the court was open, or sit and read while listening to Juanito play his fourth hour of piano for the various bars on the ship. We had things to do but really didn’t have to do anything.
3. It doesn’t really feel like traveling. Upon reflection, I realize that, in my mind, I never actually went to Mexico. I went to EPCOT Mexico, where they have a good restaurant and lots of “local cultural attire” for sale, and then got back on the boat. That’s not necessarily because there wasn’t anything non-touristy to see (well, except in Costa Maya. There was nothing non-touristy there), but because I just don’t go places by boat. Boat is simply not a method of travel that has ever taken me to a new place before. So, while my passport was thoroughly checked and I did rely on Luke’s Spanish for communication with locals, something in my brain is still not really convinced by the whole, “you went to Mexico,” idea.
4. It feels like an inexpensive holiday for what you’re getting: a place to sleep, every meal provided, and travel to a foreign country. We quickly realized that it manages to be cheap because the cruise line continues selling to its passengers throughout the entire cruise. I was constantly offered alcoholic beverages, had my picture taken at random places, and assaulted by the absolutely captivating smell of $2.50 movie popcorn. Luke and I had a good times taking note of the strategies the cruise uses to get you to spend more money once the spot on the ship has been purchased and the other ways they save money on their complimentary services.

Anyway, cruises are great. I may wait at least ten years before doing one again, but as someone who doesn’t typically like vacationing very much, I recommend cruises.

Highlights from the cruise include an egg drop competition, celebrating Hanukkah with Royal Caribbean’s Jewish passengers, identifying “Mexican” birds (the one below is a Great-tailed Grackle), going to art auctions and listening to a man tell us that it’s worth using $25,000 of credit to have a Salvador Dalí in our collection and then proceeding to help ourselves to a complementary ice cream cone elsewhere on the ship, snorkeling the coral reefs of Cozumel, seeing beautiful blue water everyday, and reading between lunch and dessert in the dining hall.

We had a lot of fun, and we’re grateful to anyone who helped us out by contributing to our honeymoon fund.

Then there was the drive back.

I’m not sure what people expect to hear about this part, but from some of the conversations I’ve had in which I’ve mentioned that Luke and I drove down to Florida as part of our honeymoon, some of you probably think I’m going to say something along the lines of, “I wouldn’t go so far as to say I was considering a divorce by the time we reached Raleigh, but the thought did cross my mind a time or two.”

I’m happy to report that Luke and I had no memorable arguments during our returning fourteen-hour drive, and we quite enjoyed the chance to listen to a book together, discuss many important future life decisions, and go through the list of things we would’ve googled while on the cruise ship if only we’d had WiFi.

We made it safely home and were even able to spend a day with each of our families again before flying back to Utah and BYU and responsibility.

Before I let you go, I just want to share one last experience from our wedding that I hope conveys how much we love you. When it was time for everyone to leave the sealing room, my grandpa Willis, our officiator, directed us to stand by the door to say goodbye to everyone who had come in. We purposely kept the number of guests small, due partially to limited space in the temple and partially to our desire to keep the ceremony focused more on our covenant with God than on the performative aspect that is also a valuable part of any marriage celebration.

As Grandpa Willis directed us to the exit, he clarified that neither Luke nor I had to give anyone a hug that we didn’t want to. He said this in a way that made me unsure whether he was being completely serious or not.

After we had all left the sealing room, Luke and I agreed: there is no one who came into that room, and I’ll expand now, to any part of our wedding celebrations, that we would not readily and gladly hug, regardless of any accompanying instructions. I was just so happy to see, receive notes and gifts from, and hug people from every part of my life throughout this whole process of getting married.

Obviously, the best part of getting married is the chance to build a life with the most thoughtful, responsible, wonderful man in the world. Second to that has been the chance to reach back out to old loved ones and feel so much support and excitement from pretty much everyone who has ever loved me.

Thank you, dear friends and family, for your tireless enthusiasm for me and Luke and our decision to get married. Thank you for whatever emotional and, well, fiscal support you’ve given us. We’re so grateful for you.

Hopefully we’ll see you again before too long. We’ll cherish how loved you’ve helped us feel for the rest of our lives.

Love,

Sophie Wonnacott