Our Courtship pt. III-The Wedding!

Well, after he proposed, I was (of course) crying and crying, and I just kept saying, "Nuh uh!  Really?!  Are you serious?!  Nuh uh!", which made him laugh and say, "Is there a yes in there somewhere?"  lol  So we prayed together for awhile, and went to Ou.tback. :) 

So we set our date for the next April (we wanted it to be earlier, but my family convinced me I would need more time to plan), and that August I moved to his town to be closer to him.  :)

I won't bore you with all of the planning details; I'll just go straight to the wedding! :)  I woke up on the couch at my parents' house the day of the wedding with a migraine.  It was horrible; I even threw up!  So I went to my hair appointment feeling like I was going to die, but some coffee and Ex.cedrin cleared that right up.  My hairdresser is a devout Catholic (very rare in my town), so we had wonderful conversations about marriage and nuns and our favorite devotions-it was great! :) 

After my hair was finished, I went home to finish getting ready.  My aunt, who sells Mar.y K.ay, came over to do all of my girls' makeup for free.  :) It was so much fun sitting around with the photographers (some of my friends from college) and my bridesmaids, but my mother was starting to get nervous because she thought getting ready was taking too long. lol  Anyway, I was ready on time, and I had to hide away in the sacristy with my girls, and that was when I finally started to get nervous. I wasn't nervous about getting married or anything, I was mostly nervous that my dad was going to cry because I just cannot handle that. lol  

I walked down the aisle to "How Beautiful", and my husband and I had it timed so I would walk down at, "How beautiful the radiant bride...", but the priest kept nodding at me so I left early (I'm such a pushover).  My husband had his eyes closed the whole time I was walking down the aisle! lol  He opened his eyes at the line I was supposed to start walking, and I was already right next to him!  Sigh.  I totally regret walking early!


When Boomz and I were planning our wedding Mass, we wanted to make sure it was about glorifying God and not ourselves, so we went all out (or what we considered to be all out at the time. lol) with the liturgy.  We had the Gloria (it was a Solemnity, so we were allowed), and lots of incense and some Latin.  :)  Our readings were from Tobit, Revelation, and John 17.  Ugh I wish I could remember the chapters and verses, but I can't!  I know the Tobit one was when Sarah and Tobiah were praying before their wedding night, and the Revelation reading was the Wedding Feast of the Lamb, but I can't remember the verses...ugh.  Anyway, we had wanted songs that his family would know, since they would be so uncomfortable at Mass (they're all Protestant), so we had Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing, In Christ Alone, Be Thou My Vision, and other ones I can't remember. lol  Our prelude music was a recording of the Ta.ylor Chora.le (my husband went to Ta.ylor Univ.ersity back in his Protestand days. lol) singing Caritas et Amor, Holy, Holy, Holy, and Bogoroditse.  I cried during almost all of the songs because I was so grateful to God for sending His Son and for Boomz.  :)  My whole family (and many friends) said it was the most beautiful "ceremony" they'd ever been to.

In my hometown, it's tradition for the bridal party to go bar hopping between the wedding and the reception.  Ray and I didn't want to do that (who wants to sit in a dirty bar in their wedding dress? Not me.), so we all went to a nearby winery! :)

The reception is almost entirely a blur because I had to talk to so many people!  Boomz and I didn't actually spend much time together during the reception because people were pulling us every which way.  I was very excited about eating "wedding food" (we have traditional hometown comfort food at all of our weddings where I'm from), but I couldn't eat any for some reason.  Our first dance was to a song written and sung by Boomz' best friend, and my husband sang to me the whole time we danced. :)  At one point I said to him, "Everyone is looking at us!" and he said something like, "What do you think they've been doing all day, silly?". lol  We combined the father/daughter and mother/son dance and danced to the song "W.hat a W.onderful Wo.rld", and Dad didn't cry, which was good. lol  We had a "candy bar", which was a big hit.  I'm pretty sure Boomz' family was scandalized, though, because they didn't dance AT ALL and my whole family was dancing like crazy. lol 


I started feeling badly again, so Boomz and I left early (around 9:30, I think), but my mother said the party went on for long afterwards! :)  We Catholics sure know how to have fun! :)

Thank you, Jesus, for such an amazing husband!

"'Hallelujuah!  For the Lord our God the Almighty reigns.  Let us rejoice and exult and give him the glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his Bride has made herself ready'...And the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.'" Revelation 19:6-7,9.