Planning all of the details for our wedding just wasn’t my thing.  I thought I was going to really enjoy it, but after a short amount of time, I was kind of over it.  Partly because it just overwhelmed me to think about all that needed to be done. Although, I do realize that most of that came from me wanting everything to be perfect and to look a certain way because, after all, the images that would be left from the day would be what told the story! And I wanted our wedding album to be united with the “Old World” theme that I had in my head!

It’s funny when I tell people this because their first response is, “But everything was beautiful and the reception was wonderful!”  And that’s when I get to brag on my awesome friend Lindsey Mart and all of my other amazing friends who pitched in to make everything SO unbelievable perfect.  But, you’ll have to wait for that post to see more of those details for yourself :-)

What didn’t stress me out at all about the wedding was the ceremony.  I was excited about walking down the aisle to my groom while surrounded by all of our friends and family.  I was excited about writing our own vows to read to each other (although I didn’t think I would ever want to do that!).  I was excited about being the bride!  We met with Ben’s dad (who married us) about two weeks before the ceremony and tweaked things here and there during that time.  The only other thing were the decorations, which were simple, and my friend Melody took care of most of that!

Again, I want to thank Jana and Kim for their mad skills and creative eyes as they captured one of my most favorite days of my life :-)

I can’t remember whose idea this was, but I love the pictures from it!

 

Matt Kelley is our worship pastor at church and Elisha Petree interned last summer. To have them sing at our wedding was like a dream.

My handsome brother walked me down the aisle. I cried when I asked him, I cried when we were at the rehearsal, I cried when we got to this moment (and I might be crying right now…).  Brother dear, you are so special and I love you so much.

I realized while looking through this set of pictures of my brother and me that I don’t have a “pretty cry”! But this one isn’t so bad :-)

And then it was really time…

For those brides who are back and forth about whether to see each other before the ceremony… I want to reassure you that even with spending the few hours before the wedding with Ben, nothing could have taken away how beautiful and special this moment was.

 

I couldn’t hold back the tears at all…

 

My brother was trying his hardest to hold it together…

And Ben was doing all he could to keep tears from spilling down his face.

This, my friends, is how lucky I am… to have a man that loves me with all of his heart and can show it in his face without saying a word.

I love my church… and I just adore this building.  I think I might love it more than anyone :-)

We had some of 1 Corinthians 13 read in Spanish, French, and English.  Ben’s brother-in-law, who is Paraguayan, read the Spanish.
My “sister” read the French (my non-smiling face is me listening intently so I could understand the words!), and my sweet friend Diana read the English.

 

This one makes my heart melt.
Neither one of us made it through the vows without tears.

 

We decided to have a salt covenant during the ceremony and will be using the salt in our cooking.

 

And then… there was just one more thing to do!
I’d heard of this idea from another photographer and when I asked Ben about hiding my camera and pulling it out at the end of the ceremony, he was all for it!
Only Ben, myself, his dad, and Arica (my maid of honor) knew about it.

Jana’s picture…

 

My picture (that she captured me taking in the above picture).  EVERYONE is smiling in this! I love it!!

 

Then I took one of us…!

 

We LOVE this picture and may have talked about this moment more on our honeymoon than any other moment from the day :-)

And then it was finally and fully official.

 

Jana’s shot…

 

Kim’s shot…

Ben, these past seven months since 11/05/11 have been nothing short of amazingly wonderful.  Thank you for continuing to reject passivity, to pursue me, protect me and provide for me. You blow me away on a daily basis with your love for the Lord, for me, and His plan for us.  I love you so very much.

If you’d like to see more from our wedding, feel free to visit the old blog!