our wedding: ceremony

Our wedding ceremony was outside after quite the scare of an all day thunderstorm! But, the rain stopped and the weather was perfect for an outdoor fall wedding. 

I made some wood signs that lined the road to get guests to walk through the double doors. They each said something different, "10-16-13", "from this day forward", etc.

the rain was here and gone....for the most part. It did wash away the chalk handwriting on a chalkboard of my wedding party. At that point in the day, I didn't care too much but I do appreciate my friends trying to piece it back together ;)

we had one of Cody's good friends (who happens to be a worship leader!), sing and play guitar during our ceremony. He did a wonderful job and I loved that we were able to include a close friend who knows our relationship in our day!

The guy who married us is another one of Cody's good friends. When we got engaged we knew Matt would be the perfect person to ask. He's in seminary but before he moved north, he taught Cody and I both in Sunday School (prior to us even dating!). Again, Cody and I wanted the details of our day to be personal to us, which is why I'm glad we were able to have our good friends pronounce us and sing at our wedding :)

In the picture below, one of Cody's groomsmen is finishing off the phrase that Cody's best man had them say, one word at a time. I bet it helped loosen the nerves at the end of that aisle ;)

These next few pictures are a few of my favorite. I love the emotion on Cody's face as he sees me for the first time in white, at the end of the aisle!

**my advice: ladies, if you're engaged and getting married soon, don't set expectations. It's easy to see pictures of grooms awaiting their bride at the altar or day dream about your own, but setting up an expectation of your grooms reaction is bound to hurt your own feelings. I know that even sounds silly, but I know girls who "just know" their groom will cry, and when he doesn't, they feel "unloved", "not pretty enough", etc. You know how silly us girls are. So, don't set expectations about anything, enjoy your day as it comes and it'll be YOUR special day!

^^shoutout to my father who hand built and designed the double doors that I walked through and the altar table! Thank you soo much!

...and sometimes when you get to the end of the aisle and the nerves start to subside, your dad steps on your veil and almost pulls it out of your head ;) mother and MOH to the rescue though!

**my advice: laugh at the little things that go wrong! Everyone told me that in their advice leading up to my wedding, "things will go wrong, but you won't even notice!". I did notice... my dad stepping on my veil, the bee in our Lord's Supper juice, the chalkboard being drenched... but it didn't matter. So, leading up to the wedding day, be at peace with whatever the day brings and laugh at it!

^^the boy's chalkboard stayed together much better!!

so, how did I get to the doors with no walls and nothing nearby to hide me? I stayed in a cabin and peered out the window for my turn. My uncle had his truck up there ready, I got it in and he drove me down directly behind the doors so no one would see me!

Everytime I saw this tree during my wedding planning it was dead and alot smaller, so I was a bit nervous about how it would look. But, it looked PERFECT by the end of October! I love that its so big and wide and green!

Cody and I wrote our own vows and had not discussed them until we were at the altar. It was so sweet and precious to hear a big part of Cody's heart at such a special moment. There are so many ways to do the vow portion, but this was very special and perfect for us!

We did the Lord's Supper as a couple for the first time and prayed together, then our parents and grandparents came up to join us in prayer. 

And just like that we were husband and wife! I realized later that we were to at least the 2nd or 3rd row before Matt even finished pronouncing us, oops! We were too excited! So excited that Cody skipped down the aisle!