Fort Collins Temple Dedication - Dress Rehearsal

What an incredible weekend. After literally years of anticipation, the Fort Collins Temple was finally dedicated.  The weekend was very busy, but spiritually remarkable - an experience that I will never forget! The weekend started with a dress rehearsal practice at the temple on Friday night.  I was lucky enough to be selected to be a member of the Cornerstone Ceremony choir - which as an incredible experience.  The actual Cornerstone ceremony was so amazing (detailed below), but the practices each Sunday night for about 3 months were equally incredible.  It's the first time in my life that I've memorized choir music and it was so fun.  The choir was really incredible - 55 members and we sounded awesome! For the Dress Rehearsal, it was our first time being on the risers and getting into the right positions for the actual performance.  We really had to squeeze in tight, but once we were assembled, we got to sing for our spouses and any other guests that were there.  The cool part was that they were also sealing the time capsule behind the cornerstone at the same time.  Here's a photo of the contents of the time capsule:

Photo of the contents of the time capsule

Amy was able to snag a great photo of the choir as we assembled ourselves during Dress Rehearsal - it was a really fun rehearsal!

Friday Night Choir Dress Rehearsal

 

The Time Capsule before being sealed

 After the Dress Rehearsal, we were invited to sit in the Celestial Room and act as the congregation for the dress rehearsal for the actual temple dedication choirs.  This was such an incredible experience.  Amy was able to join me and we sat and listened to an incredible choir of only 11 members.  They blended so well and really filled the Celestial room with angelic voices.  At the end, the final song that we sang was "The Spirit of God" and we were able to join the choir to sing that song.  It was so powerful!  I broke up a bit, had tears in my eyes and just stared at the chandelier in the celestial room.  I really felt the voices of angels singing with us - the experience was SO POWERFUL!