Perfectly Imperfect
I've been trying to find the right words to describe this day and everything leading up to it and all it meant to me and to us. I'm still not sure I've done it, but here's my best shot:
We wanted our wedding to not be a production. We wanted simple and thoughtful and intentional and to love on all of the people that have loved us to this point in our lives. We wanted our people to come to our church and to understand our fairy tale of a love story just a little better. We wanted to share our place and our Jesus.
The Weekend:
We wanted our wedding to be especially intentional. Because we invited so few people to be a part of our special day, we knew we wanted it to be as much about them and the roles they have played in our lives as it was about us. So we planned out the whole weekend: We filled it with fun things and sweet things and everything in between.
Rehearsal + Dinner
We wrapped up rehearsal as the thunder and lightning rolled in, and managed to dodge the rain long enough to serve dinner. We hid from the incoming rain and shared the sweetest time of worship together, and then Tyler & I prayed over everyone & asked that the Father would just be present throughout our day and that His will would be done even if our plan didn't work.
Wedding Day
We woke up on the day of our wedding to the sounds of rain-- lots of rain. and thunder. Not all that promising for a morning wedding on a bald. But as we’d prayed the night before, the Father’s will would be done. So we decided to get ready as planned, and everything else would work out.
Every detail held significance and intentionality-- Tyler made our ring box before he proposed & my bridesmaids and I all made our bouquets together after the rehearsal dinner. The headband was my mom's when my parents got married. It was made to perfectly match the dress that her mom and grandmother spent hours upon hours to make by hand. My jewelry was almost all borrowed. I had a charm on my necklace from my dad's mother and one from my great grandmother (mom's side). The bracelet belongs to my grandmother (also on my mom's side). and when I found out last minute that my grandparents had tried so hard to make it to our day and wouldn’t be able to be there, I changed my earrings out for ones that she’d handed down to me the Christmas before.
We started to get ready like the schedule laid out (the men even showed up early!) and prayed continuously that everything would still be okay. As it would happen, not only was it raining with little chance of a break, there was also insane fog, and only 65° in the middle of July. We pulled an audible so our guests wouldn’t freeze **& possibly be struck by lightning… and my dad and the groomsmen moved every piece of furniture in our rental cabin so we could keep everyone warm and dry for the ceremony during our first look.
guys. let me tell you. NOTHING else mattered once I saw my Groom. all I cared about was being his wife. So we rolled with the punches. & took our Bridal Party photos with alllll kinds of cars in the back. (get you some photographers that can work m a g i c like Kidron and Becca did. I promise you won’t regret it.
We have the sweetest community. The people that stood with us are some of my absolute favorite people in the world. They have loved us and prayed for us and been with us as a couple and before we even knew each other. They have prayed us through some of the sweetest and hardest times in our lives (especially my side— sorry guys!), and we could not be more blessed to call them friends *and family.
I cannot tell you how many times we've heard that ours was the sweetest, most genuine, and most meaningful ceremony that someone has ever been to. Obviously, we are inclined to agree. But actually, I'm pretty sure that I've never seen such a high percentage of wedding guests cry during a ceremony.
During our ceremony, we had my incredibly talented brother-in-law sing our favorite hymn, "Come Thou Fount" acapella as we tied a knot from our "climbing rope" (peep our knot in the top left corner of the next shot) as a unity ceremony to symbolize that like our knot, our marriage would only get stronger under stress.
Tyler managed to not drop me on our first kiss (though we weren't so lucky every time after this when we recreated it), and we walked back down the aisle to "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." I originally picked it because we were getting married on a mountain, and I love old songs. It was so much more fitting after we adjusted our plans 5839034094 times because all we wanted was to be married and truly, nothing could keep me from this man.
I can't say enough good things about our families. About how they didn't give us too hard of a time when we told them we wanted to get married on a mountain, about how they made sure our day reflected who we are, about all the ways they let us toss tradition out the window, about how many times we changed the plans and they all adapted, about how hard they all worked to make sure we felt loved and celebrated, about what spectacular humans they all are. We are so blessed.
Our reception was the sweetest. We only wish we could have lingered longer. Homemade pound cakes, the most perfect cake topper, toasts and prayers, a song about a hurricane of a girl and all the people that told him to run. Tyler and his mom cut a rug with a choreographed & deeply rehearsed dance, and my dad & I sobbed through Michael W. Smith. Our flower girl (my / **our/ dog) freaked at the noise during the mother/son dance and tried to crawl in my lap and cover my dress with muddy paw prints & black hair, my dress came un-bustled, and I almost tripped at least 12 times. We loved every second.
& then it stopped raining
The clouds moved out for just long enough to climb our mountain and share it with our parents for the very first time. We got to say our vows in the spot we had so perfectly picked the night before. The place where we met. The place we came back to when our hearts were longing for the tall places. We got our chacos muddy & our dog muddy & my dress muddy & our hearts were light.
Gosh, I hope you too have the wedding of your dreams. I hope you find the same peace if nothing works like you’d planned. I hope you know that nothing but your marriage matters on your special day. I hope that you get a day that means as much to you as ours still does to me over a year later.
*all photos taken and edited by Cannon Wedding Photography