Blog Tea Party- Celebrating Marriage!

We were married almost 2 1/2 years ago on October 2, 2004. It was a very special and beautiful wedding. As far as weddings go, I don't think it was the most beautiful and definitely not the most extravagant. But it had many of the small touches that we wanted and was certainly "our own". My husband is a gifted musician and song-writer, so music was a huge part of our day. He also has a gorgeous singing voice, and sang an original song to me at the wedding-the same song that he sang to me when he proposed. :-) That was my favorite part and now he sings me that song on our anniversary each year. To signify the importance of keeping Christ first in our relationship and marriage, we decided to do communion together instead of the traditional unity candles. A friend sang "The Lord's Prayer" while we took communion and prayed together. We wanted the wedding to be meaningful and really focus on marriage God's way, instead of a quick "necessary" ceremony before the party!

Another important tidbit about our wedding is that we paid for both the wedding and honeymoon debt-free. This meant that we had no bills arriving after we got home from our honeymoon. This meant a lot of extra "do-it-ourselves" preparation for the wedding, but the freedom was so totally worth it. We spent approximately $1500 for a wedding and reception for 200 guests. (This included renting a facility.) We would not have been able to pull this off without the overwhelming support from our friends and family. Many of our friends offered their services(food, wedding cake, music, pastor, my hair, photography and videography, etc.) in lieu of wedding gifts which was wonderful. I think the only services we paid full-price for was flowers and we went very light on those, enjoying the simplicity of candles and greenery(borrowed silk plants and ficus trees) instead of flowers as decorations.
A close-up of my bouquet. The bridesmaids flowers were blue and yellow and both mothers and all the grandmothers carried a single yellow rose.
My Dad and I right before he walked me down the aisle. I sewed my own wedding gown, which was 2 piece and sewn out of silk dupioni. It was very simple in design but had a vintage feel to it that I loved! The headpiece belonged to my mother-in-law and the veil was from my sister-in-law(They both used the headpiece at their weddings). The trim on my dress and the flowers and pearls on the headpiece looked almost like they had been made to match. Stuck into my bouquet was my mom's lace handkerchief. I loved having something from both of our mothers. It added a special touch.
Finally! The wedding's over! We walked out to Rebecca St. James' song-Side By Side. Different, but we liked it! Notice the clumps of rose petals that our 3 year old niece "sprinkled" on the carpet on her way down the aisle. She took her role as flower girl very seriously and was literally picking the last pieces of petals out of the bottom of the basket by the time she got to the front of the church!
A friend made us this cake as a wedding gift. Although it turned out slightly different than the picture in a wedding book, I loved the all-white "hat box" style. For food, we had a dessert reception which featured mostly home-made family favorites.

God has been so faithful to us in the past 4 years or so, really our whole lives, as we can see how He carefully planned for us to meet and to be together. God continues to grow our love for each other and carefully fashion each of us into the perfect mate for the other! Something that stood out to us from our wedding was when the pastor said that in marriage each new day is another day to choose to love, to respect, to honor, to forgive our spouses, or to choose not to love, not to respect, not to honor, or not to forgive. With God's help we hope to choose to love, respect, honor and forgive each other for the rest of our lives!
A dear lady wrote to me in a bridal shower card- "Marriage is a garden that requires our care, our time and trust in a Living God. It yields the best friend you will ever have, the best growth opportunities to stretch... and the best spirit opportunities. God smiles when we seek to serve each other."

Thanks for "attending my wedding" today! To see more "Celebrating Marriage" posts, please visit The Homespun Heart. Thanks to Monica for hosting this fun event for us!