Wow, that was fun.

The thing they warn you about is this: it goes by—snaps fingers—like that. We heard this from everybody. All that planning and it’s over in an instant. Knowing this, my goal became to be aware of every moment—and not only the moment, but myself as part of the moment, as well as myself being aware of my place in the moment. Basically, turn my brain up to 11. It was difficult, but in the end I think it worked. I can close my eyes and I’m there.

It’s also helped that Sarah and I spent all of our honeymoon reliving every part of the wedding. Apropos of nothing, say while playing Scrabble on the beach, one of us would exclaim, “That was an awesome wedding.” Reply: “Yeah. That wedding rocked.” “Remember when Wade put me on his shoulders?” “Or how Martin stole all the buttons for his lapels?” And so on. By the end of the honeymoon each moment had been reviewed and singed even deeper into our long-term memory.

It’s important for me to remember the details. I live for the details. It’s probably why I enjoy photography so much, and by the same token, why it was so hard for me to put the camera down at my own wedding and just experience it myself. (See photo above.) Several times I had my camera taken away from me by some responsible friend (thanks, Levi, Jed and Zach). In the end I was glad they did, because that gave me more time to live it—instead of recording it and living it later.

As for those seared-in moments, we’ll replay some of the decisive ones here over the course of the week. The point of the wedding, after all, is to share the celebration, and there’s no reason it has to stop with just those were there.