Wedding Story

I decided instead of stopping at the engagement I would go ahead and tell the story of our wedding.

My mom and her husband Larry and my dad had agreed on a modest wedding budget. The semester before we got married I was taking 18 hours of classes and planning the wedding. I planned the whole thing myself and was very obsessed with doing everything as cheaply as possible. I bought my veil online for $15 since the ones at Davids Bridal were about $75. I think I enjoyed trying to be so thrifty because it also made me be more creative.

We knew that we wanted to get married on December 20, 2003. That was more out of a desire to not wait until summer rather than anything special about that date. But, I do love love love Christmas and the whole holiday season. Since it was right before Christmas the choice of flowers and decoration is somewhat limited. I decided on beautiful red dresses with white roses and holly berries for the bridesmaids. I had the dress of my dreams and red roses and holly.

Pleasant Ridge was due to start construction on a new auditorium, atrium area and classroom wing the first of the year so we had I think the last wedding in the old auditorium. There was a really neat stone wall at the front of the church so we set tons of candles up there and intertwined garland. The isles were lined with garland and lights and instead of tons of flowers in the front of the church I had candelabras with decorated Christmas wreaths.

One of the things that I will never forget about my wedding was how personal it was. It truly reflected Josh and I - who were are and our relationship. I had several people ask for a cd of the wedding music - it was not very traditional but each song had a special meaning. One of my 2 favorite things about the ceremony was the unity candle. After Josh and I prayed we had the whole wedding party come up and surround us to say a prayer. During that time my youth minister who was performing the ceremony saw my pooh bear sitting on the floor behind the candle stand (my mom put him there earlier). So when we were done praying Rick held up pooh and made a few jokes. My other favorite part of the wedding was the vows. Josh and I not only said vows but promises. We had each written 5 promises to the other and kept them a secret. We both ended up witting several of the same things but we each also added one funny thing. My promise to Josh (that I admit I don't do very well) was to always keep Dr. Pepper in the fridge. His promise to me was to always have my inhaler beside the bed when I needed it. When he said that me, my mom, Josh's mom, Josh's grandmother and all the bridesmaids started laughing. What Josh didn't know was that my inhaler was tucked down the front of my dress. I put it there more as a joke but also in case I needed it. When everyone laughed and whispered to him that it was down my dress and he turned bright red.

Some highlights from the rest of the event were: Josh's Dr. Pepper shaped, red velvet flavored grooms cake; leaving in the decorated youth group bus; toasting with Dr. Pepper instead of champagne (not to mention that we were in a Church of Christ where my husband was employed); and as we walked back down the isle to the Shrek version of I'm A Believer Josh's dad entertained everyone with his dance moves.

In a few months we will celebrate our 5 year anniversary. I know that it isn't a huge milestone but to me it is such a blessing. The time has flown by in some ways and in some ways it seems like such a long time.