Wedding Recaps: We Do

Our ceremony was fairly short, which was a good thing as hot as it was on our wedding day.

 

I'm not entirely sure what Pastor Joe said in his opening remarks; I'm looking forward to watching our video. My bouquet was a good five pounds and I was holding it one arm, so I was mainly waiting for the part where I got to pass it off to my volleyball player cousin.

Ah, relief.

A funny thing happened during the vows. I had told Nathan repeatedly that he wasn't allowed to cry during the wedding. I figured as long as he didn't cry, I would be fine. I knew if he did cry I would start too. Well, although Nathan cried when he first saw me before the ceremony, he made it through his vows just fine. Me...not so much. As I vowed to love him in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, I was overwhelmed as I thought of everything we'd been through already in the short time that we'd been together. What can't we  handle together? Bring it on!

Then it was time for our very nontraditional unity ceremony. Nathan wanted to do something unique - not candles, sand, or water. I found some Aqua Gems at Jo Ann Fabric and decided we could use those. They did work well for the purpose, but since Nathan poured a little faster than I did, a lot of my beads ended up on top. We laughed about it, as did some of our guests. The ceremony was a little silly, but so are we.

Next, David, Rachel, and Pastor Joe signed our marriage license.

Before we gave each other our wedding bands, Pastor Joe spoke about their significance. He said that although a lot could be said about the symbolism of the rings - how they're made of precious metals, how they're never-ending circles - they're most importantly a reminder of our covenant. Nathan's ring is a reminder that he is in a covenant with my family, and my ring is a reminder that I am in a covenant with his.

After a final prayer...

We were married!

As we were presented as husband and wife, Nathan turned to me and asked, "Are we really going to do this?" I just gave him a devious grin. Oh yeah, we were doing it!

And we skipped back down the aisle!

Because we're crazy like that.