...at the end of a leaf-strewn aisle, under the canopy of a beautiful tree, two people stood before family, friends and God to unite as one...
Couldn't have had a more perfect wedding day! We prayed and God certainly provided! :) As we began planning the wedding, I never had a "back-up" plan as to what would happen if our wedding day turned out to be an inappropriate day to have a wedding outdoors. I had stray thoughts here and there that would flit by and make me think that I might need to have an alternate plan, but I just kept coming back to the simple truth, that God had already prepared everything for us to that point, so why wouldn't He give us the wedding day of our (well, more my, I suppose... :) ) dreams? And boy did He ever! :)
Sunday, October 3rd dawned beautifully! And I would know, because I was up before the sun rose! :) I had flowers to pick up at 7:30, hair to get done at 8:00, and needed to be to Papa and Nanny's by 9:00 to be there for the chair set up. I got up a little before 6:00, showered, dressed, and woke Samantha up - I allowed Davis to sleep in, but I requested Samantha accompany me to pick up the flowers and get my hair fixed, and she graciously indulged me! We headed out to get my flowers, and if I may say so, they were BEAUTIFUL!!!
Here's a picture of them! L&D Florist in Cornelia did them, and they did a wonderful job!
And also a picture of Brandy, me, Davis and Samantha :)
Then, we headed over to the church, where Joy was all kinds of awesome, and did my hair before Praise Team practice that morning! Brandy met us there, and then the three of us headed on to other things. It took a little longer to get my hair done than I had anticipated, so thankfully, Papa, Nanny, Sharon and David were at Papa and Nanny's house for the delivery of the chairs, and then they were wonderful enough to take care of getting them set up - and they did an INCREDIBLE job of that! :)
We ran by my house to pick up my dress, drop Ryan's razors off to him, and check in with Mama and Davis, and then headed on to Papa and Nanny's to get ready. Ryan's cousin Josh, and his girlfriend Brittney are going to school for photography, and they did our pictures. The photographers and wedding party were at Papa and Nanny's by 11, and everything got underway! Ryan and I had our "first look" around 12, I think. We made the decision to do all the pictures we possibly could before the wedding, so we saw each other before the wedding - and I was very glad we did that. We got to enjoy seeing each other, without a major audience, got to talk and be with each other, and were then able to have a time of prayer together before the ceremony. It was just a very sweet, God-blessed time, that I wouldn't trade for all the traditions of years gone by. We did what was right for us, and were completely happy with it! :)
Some shots taken before the ceremony:
Mama, me, Ryan and Daddy
***I promise Daddy wasn't angry. He was just a tad bit emotional. :)
Love this picture! :)
One of my favorite pictures, artistically, by far! Marcia did a great job with this one! I love that it is tilted just a tad, and that she got part of Josh in the picture as he was taking the picture of us! I just love this shot! :)
Nanny, me, Ryan and Papa
I was very pleased with this picture! And I love that Papa is smiling so big you can see his teeth! :)
Us with the kids. LOVE them sooooo much!
The day was simply beautiful, and God even allowed the temperature to drop a little bit so I would be comfortable in my dress, rather than miserable and hot! :) How great is He!?!?!?! :)
An incredible picture that Olivia (a girl in my youth group) took of the sun breaking through the canopy of trees in the backyard! Look at that beautiful blue sky! :)
I'm a huge fan of black and white shots, so I had to share this one with you as well! :)
At 1:15, the guest vans arrived (we shuttled people from a church up the road to the house, in 15 passenger vans), and Ryan, Matt and Aaron started up our worship service! Which I thoroughly enjoyed! :) I had decided way back when I requested the worship service, that I would hang out in the window of the full bathroom at Papa and Nanny's house, and I would have a perfect view of the service - and I did!
Me hanging out in the window - and, as an added bonus, for a while, I got to see people as they were coming in, and got to "greet" them with a smile and a wave as they were being seated! :)
Ryan singing during the worship service!
At 1:55, Ryan excused himself from the front, joined his best man (his brother, John) and Pascle (a combination word of Pastor and Uncle) Wes and everything got started. Mama and Daddy were first down the aisle with their sand, followed by Connie and David - Aaron just strummed a lovely little tune while this was going on. Once the sand pouring was finished, Aaron began playing "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and Brandy started the wedding party off, followed by Matt, and then Samantha and Davis walked side by side. Once, everyone was in place, I ran like crazy through the house from my post in the bathroom (it really was wonderful, because unlike most brides, I got to see my entire wedding, start to finish, for real - not looking back at a video, but in person! :) ), and joined Papa on the deck. Aaron smoothly transitioned into "Canon in D," and toward the aisle we went. I will never forget the feeling I had as we turned toward the aisle, and I looked down to see Ryan standing there under our tree, waiting for me to join him. A feeling of complete peace. God's breath was all over us that day, and we basked in it!
Pascle Wes spoke for a few minutes, telling our story, and then speaking a little bit on Isaac and Rebecca. Then Papa gave me away, and Ryan and I stepped through our arch, and into our beautiful, God-blessed sanctuary under the tree. We said our vows, did the ring ceremony, did our unity sand, at a table on the left, as Pascle Wes explained it, and Aaron played "Be Thou My Vision," then had our first communion together as husband and wife, at a table on the right, then returned to the center for the wrap-up, first kiss, announcement and walk down the aisle to the happy little pre-recorded tune of "You've Got a Friend in Me" - pun intended! :)
***Funny little side note: As the ceremony started up, a gentle breeze picked up and blew throughout the entire ceremony - Ryan and I both felt that God was breathing right on us through the entire thing! (This is not the funny part :) ) However, right before we turned to face each other and hold hands to take our vows, a gust blew through, a limb cracked, and it grazed Matt's head and face, hit his chest, and flopped to the ground. I saw it, and Aaron saw it. I was going between wanting to laugh, because it looked funny, and wanting to go check on him, because I knew it couldn't have felt very good - the limb was probably a little over 2ft long, but wasn't too big around). And Aaron was about to crack up. He was doing everything in his power to contain himself - and he did! I was proud of him! Matt never broke his stride, and kept a smile on his face the entire time! (He's a wonderful guy - he got engaged the same day we did, and is getting married on Dec 11th!) Anyway, Ryan didn't know anything had happened, because...well...I don't really know why he hadn't noticed, but he didn't, and so when we went to turn toward each other, I caught Matt's eye and mouthed "I am sooooo sorry!." Ryan then got a look of panic on his face, and began darting his eyes all around, trying to figure out what had happened, and why I was sorry! :) It was the first thing we talked about as husband and wife! :) Haha!
Some pictures of the wedding:
Papa and me strolling down the aisle.
I don't know if this is pre or post kiss, but we both laughed when we saw this picture, because neither one of us can remember Josh being that close to our faces! I gave Josh and Brittney complete permission to be wherever they needed to be to get whatever pictures they wanted to. We chose not to video the ceremony, so pictures are all that we'll have in years to come, and I didn't want them to miss any shot they might want to get for fear of being in the way! And so they took it to heart! But obviously it didn't matter to us, since we didn't even remember it happening! :)
Being announced as Mr and Mrs Ryan Friend for the very first time! :)
Love this picture!
This was after my dress had gotten caught on the brick edging around the tree, and for about 20 seconds everyone was just clapping, Ryan was trying to pull me along with him, and no one was responding to my plea for help. Samantha and Brandy finally realized something was wrong, and jumped on the task of getting me free! And then, away we went! :)
After the ceremony, it was on to Mt Carmel for our reception, which, if I may say so, was pretty great! Samntha, Davis, Ryan, Mama and I worked several hours together on Saturday to prepare the fellowship hall, and I think we were all happy with how it turned out! It was definitely a team effort filled with lots of love, and tons of laughter! :)
A room-shot :)
The entry table
Our table, that turned into a table for us and Samantha and Davis as well :)
The cake table!
A lady, Joyce Cash, that worked with me at Target made our cakes! She did an incredible job!
The monkey cake was the Groom's cake, and has special inside-joke significance to us, as the weekend we met, Aaron, Ryan and I formed the "Monkey Clan from Santa Land" - we all have monkey key chains as our memento of the clan and our weekend in Tennessee, and so the Groom's cake just had to have monkeys! :)
I didn't get to try the cake, as we had peanut butter crackers instead, since Ryan doesn't eat sweets, but I have heard rave reviews of it, and am looking forward to trying some on my one year anniversary! :) Because, of course I saved the top layer! :)
Bottom layer - Strawberry
Middle layer - Chocolate
Top layer - French vanilla with Raspberry filling :)
And the monkeys got saved too! :)
***This picture doesn't have it, but when we got to the cake table, the monkeys tails were up, and they made a heart around them!
Ryan calling everyone to order once everyone had made it to the reception. We're standing over our lovely food spread here, brought to us by Carol Smith and Erin Cross (a lady that Mama has worked with for years, and her daughter)! She did an AWESOME job on everything! We have several diabetics, and she even made a regular and sugar free punch, and regular and sugar free dips and such, so that everyone had something! It was wonderful! And she just took care of everything! :)
After the reception started, things happened pretty quickly. The kids had to leave at 4:30, to make their flight back to Texas, so we had to get the show on the road. We ate a quick bite, did our cakes and punch, threw the bouquet and garter, changed clothes, ran through the bubbles, said our goodbyes and away we went! :)
I think that catches you up on the wedding! Sorry it took me so long! But here it is! And I'll do another post soon, with pictures from the rehearsal dinner - Kim and Connie did an incredible job with it!
I'll say this about the wedding day - I have gone over it and over it in my mind, and I can honestly say that there was never one moment that day that I was nervous or worried or anxious or anything to that affect. It was an absolutely beautiful day! I was surrounded by incredible people that took care of the things that needed to be taken care of, and I didn't have an anxious thought about anything. Sharon took care of the little details that needed to be tended to, and took my phone so I didn't have to field questions. Nanny and Papa sat up some kind of diner in their kitchen and fed everybody and their brother - and everyone was extremely thankful for that! :) They did an excellent job! Everything was just absolutely perfect! :)
As for marriage, it has been quite a ride! :) I read something in a book the other day, and as I read it, I had to agree with it completely. Here it is:
"I guess I always thought of marriage as this huge mystery. You find the right person, and you become one, and somehow everything changes. Things don't really change. They go on, only now it's, I don't know...fuller. Deeper. Richer and more complete."
~"Whispers" Pg.199 by Robin Jones Gunn
We are daily learning about one another, and what it really means to love someone completely, just as they are. I am sure there are days that he wants to string me up, because I am driving him crazy, but he loves me through it all. Every second isn't perfect, but every second is an opportunity for learning and growing. God has been gracious, and has given us such a blessing! I look forward to seeing what the coming days, weeks, months and years hold for us! :)
I love you all!
In case you didn't get the email the other day, here are a few "preview" pictures from the official wedding photographers: (I'm just really thankful for Marcia and Olivia taking pictures so I have had some to look at before now! :) )
A kiss :)
Us, with our tree in the background
Our arch - thanks to Papa and Mema (Ryan's grandparents)!
Our tree - thank to Papa and Nanny!
This picture is still amazing me every time I look at it! :) I love the vibrant colors of the flowers, and of course I love the ring shot! However, side note, it was the most awkward picture I've ever taken. Our fingers were melded and smashed into some kind of weird gridlock to get our rings close, but it turned out great! :)
