We are married!

On March 4, 2023, God’s desire that I’ve written blogs about, kept journals and prayed for years came to fruition, and I married my best friend. While I have not written a post in a while because wedding plans were eating my brain, the last few weeks have been a whirlwind. I cannot describe my emotions sufficiently to express the joy and excitement of this miraculous event. I know. Shocking! I must have used all the words for my vows.

“How do I document what I have written blog after blog about in one post?”  

“How do I form a paragraph about the husband I’ve imagined and prayed about for years finally becoming a reality?”

“Hope deferred makes the heart sick, But when the desire comes, it is a tree of life.” – Proverbs 13:12

I decided it was too much to think about, and there is nothing new I could write to demonstrate my feelings for this incredible, long-awaited answered prayer and what feels like a cliched “God is good. I married my best friend.” Instead, I will recap one of my favorite blogs. After all, the man I prayed and wrote about for years before knowing his name brought us on a snowy trip of a lifetime for our Honeymoon. I could finally wear the brand-new-with-the-tags red ski jacket I wrote an entire blog about when I suddenly bought it at a thrift store on a hot day in New Orleans for $35 a few years before meeting Ryan.

“It is easy to feel forgotten living in this world. It’s easy to feel as if we do not have value because we may be hidden and isolated and are in a waiting season that never seems to end. Nothing seems to ever work out and you’ll be in the same spot forever.

Then, one day, while you’re just hanging on a rack or living the hamster wheel life, someone suddenly spots you. Your light is what catches their eyes, but they soon realize the treasure you are and questions how no one else has noticed before. They understand the value you hold and are simply thankful you are theirs. God had to put other pieces together to make the whole outfit, and you were the final touch to the set He put together. You couldn’t have been there any other time because it was only then it all made sense.

“Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised.” – Proverbs 31:30″

Our wedding was everything I had always imagined because Christ was the center. I will have to write a separate, more detailed post another time because I want to keep this short and sweet to let the photos speak the thousands of words I cannot.  

Ryan walked down the aisle with his mom to, ‘God gave me you’ by Dave Barnes, and I walked down the aisle with my dad holding my mom’s bible to Phil Wickham’s “House of the Lord” (but agreed to the acoustic version). I could not think of a more fitting song for our wedding to celebrate the day than this.

We wrote our vows, and we were honored to have a dear family member and brother in Christ as our officiant. Ryan was nervous about my vows being longer, but I told him it did not matter to me the length of his vows. I had things I wanted to say. Because everyone knew my vows would be lengthy, I made a joke of it, folded a 12×12 piece of cardstock, and popped it open with the vows covering the back and front.

Our closest family and friends surrounded us, and the reception was at a venue with much of my family’s history. A few of our guests have such special meaning and were monumental witnesses of Christ in our lives. Ryan and I have two different backgrounds, but it is beautiful to see Christ’s church come together, and that’s what truly meant the most. We kept the day peaceful, with Christian music playing in the background so people could feel relaxed and visit with each other. We are so blessed with so many people who traveled from all over the United States to share our special day with us. A lot of my family is scattered around and came to our wedding. Ryan’s whole family traveled to New Orleans from Texas and Florida. My cousin Emily (matron of honor) and her husband traveled from Washington state with their kids. One of my best friends drove in from Tennessee to spend the week with me. She was our getaway car and drove us home wearing a chauffeur outfit. She, Emily, and I had fun hanging out and made a lot of memories with my driving skills as a catalyst. 🙂

One thing stood out from the wedding the most to both Ryan and I, and we talked about it almost every day since the wedding. My cousin Beau approached Ryan, my dad, and me separately and told us, “Christ was honored today”. It was such a short but powerful statement that meant so much because it is what we prayed for our wedding day to be.

Weddings can be stressful because you are planning one of the most important days of your life. Leading up to the wedding Ryan and I were questioning what we were doing because we are not party people at all. We do not care about matching ties, yet suddenly it mattered. We went to the courthouse to get our marriage license application, where we witnessed a massive reminder of WHY we were having a wedding. We WANTED the opposite of what we saw. A sad-looking girl in a mini-tutu dress with a sequin Mardi Gras jacket on who did not look happy at all nor spoke English. The man she was marrying kept mentioning that they didn’t want anything cliche after a random person in the waiting room offered to give her away.

We both needed to see that because, at that moment, everything mattered but also didn’t. While the little details were getting to both of us, it was a perspective check, and we knew it was most important to both of us that we have our family and friends there to share our special day, and we were happy we did not elope. We had a smaller wedding and a strict budget, but it was perfect, just how I always prayed it would be.

My aunt suggested I add our vows to the blog. While mine would take a blog of its own, I really loved the idea and both Ryan and I’s vows are posted.

Ryan’s vows:
“Friend,
I am so happy to be here today before God, before you, and our families. Finding you was not an accident; falling in love with you was not by chance, and I know in my heart that this is my place. God brought us together, and your friendship is one of the greatest gifts that I will ever receive. I find comfort in knowing that the path that led us here was by design, as God prepared both of us for one another. I am truly grateful for every trial that I faced and that many of the things I thought I wanted never worked out.When we met, I knew something big happened, and I realized just how special you were, are, and always will be. From our very first conversation, you have shown me patience, grace, and beauty as I have never seen and a loving kindness that I have never felt.

It truly is incredible and clearly demonstrates how Christ is always working in and through you.

You have a heart like no other, you are truly beautiful inside and out and I am so thankful to not only call you my best friend but now my wife.

Thank you for always making me laugh and showing me everything doesn’t have to be so linear. Thank you for your forgiveness now and in the future when I make mistakes, and thank you for helping me see everything happens for a reason. God reminds us that he can turn a heart of stone into flesh, and receiving you as my wife is proof God loves me beyond what I deserve.

I vow to keep Christ first in our lives and in our relationship.

I vow to continue pursuing you and never stop trying to know you more.

I vow to honor, love, and cherish you with my words and actions.

I vow to continually work toward our friendship and never forget that God brought us together as friends first.

I love you, Amiga, today and every day. Now and forever.

No take backs!”

My vows:

“Hi Friend,
I remember, as a little girl praying for God to protect my heart for my future husband. Little did I know how sacred he would make that by keeping me single my whole life.
I was raised with an almost impossible standard for a husband by refusing to settle for anything less than how my dad loved my mom and witnessing how a godly man cared for his wife.
When I grew up and gained a personal relationship with Jesus, I longed for Him to make me a wife. After all, scripture says if we delight in Him, He will give us the desires of our hearts.
However, I learned He does not give us what we want, but instead, our desires change to want what He wants. He did not do as hoped and instantly send a man to be my husband. Instead, I suddenly desired to study scripture intensely, buy plants, and learn to cook.
Through various circumstances and all my time devoted to Jesus, He transformed my heart and shaped my character into His bride. He guided me through His word and molded me into His image, transforming me into the person able to be in a union with what He desired.
I waited and prayed so long before I knew your name or what you looked like I would know it was you when our paths crossed.
I can only describe it as God giving me a description of you; all I had to do was wait, so I spent that time praying for you.
While the waiting was excruciating at times, it was there that I learned to trust Him and appreciate the gift He would give me.
I asked God for a friend, and He gave me someone from another state, which forced communication and getting to know each other.
I requested someone caring, understanding, and handy and received someone always willing to lend a helping hand, drop everything to help their mom and grandma without being asked, and work on projects with my dad in record time for fun.
I dreamed of someone I could pray with and received someone with matching intensity and conviction with whom I can have deep biblical debates and discussions and who calls me out when I worry by asking, “Don’t you trust God?”.
My prayers and ideas were so small compared to the blessing God had waiting for me. While we have led entirely different lives, it was in the waiting that He was fixing us for one another.
It takes little time spent with you to recognize the selfless, kind-hearted, witty, and incredible man you are. You push me past my comfort zone and encourage me to try new things, but keep me humbled with your diplomatic gift of bluntness. I am honored to call you my best friend and have the privilege of living out God’s plan by walking together through this life as your wife.
I vow to honor and respect you according to God’s expectations and not my feelings. While I will sometimes fail at this, I know I can love you properly because I first love God.
When trials and tribulations come our way, I vow to remember you are my friend and not my enemy and to treat you as such.
If we are blessed with children in the future, I vow to raise them the way they should go so they will not depart from it when they are older. They will grow up knowing, “but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord”.
I vow never to let pride or comfort let me forget how long I prayed and waited for you and what a miracle you are in my life.
I vow to encourage and love you the way scripture says a wife is to encourage and love her husband, and I vow to do that as long as we both shall live.
You were worth waiting for, and I vow not to take you for granted. I am thankful to be blessed with a man who loves me like my dad loved my mom.
I love you, Ryan. No takebacks”

“Pinkies!!!”
Ryan and I’s entire relationship centers on a pinky promise (ok, pinkies after Christ…), and on the day of the wedding, one of us could not remember what a pinky was under all the stress. 😉

Our first dance was met with some party crashers. 😉

Ryan bit my finger and caused a bruise in the cliche feed each other photo and responded with, “Why was your finger in my mouth?!?”

One of our greatest team achievements: the groom’s cake

I don’t have words for this photo. It just means a lot. ❤

Since my mom is not here, I decided to honor the women in my life who are.
My three aunts, Brent’s mom, Ryan’s mom, and grandma, are incredible women I am blessed to be surrounded with and have always been there for me. Ryan’s mom and grandma welcomed me into their family as a daughter from the start, and I look forward to building a lifetime of friendship and memories.

My friend Laura and I went through a stretch of our single season together. We both met the men God had for us in a short timeframe, and they have rhyming names. God is in the details. 🙂

This group of photos means so much to me. It was the “gym season” of my life where God planted me for a season of SEVEN YEARS working in customer service at a gym owned by a hospital. We were all bonded by trauma (haha!!!). I learned a lot during that time and made friendships for a lifetime. Mr. Louis and Mr. Isiah showed up at my reception desk as angels and are so precious to me I cannot explain it. I can remember every single conversation we have ever had and how God used them in my life. God sends whom you need when you need them, and I am so honored to have them at the wedding. Also, let’s remember Mr. Isiah is my BFF. 🙂

Venue & Catering: The Four Columns
Photographer: Rare Sighting Photography
My dress: Natasha Marie Bridal
Hair and Makeup: House of Cole
Emily’s single rose and my aunt’s flowers: Petals and Pastries

Both Wedding cakes: Sweet Generations
Decorator: Sherrie A’more Events and Decor