Our Love Story - Part 8- I Now Pronounce you…

(I’m telling the story of how my husband and I met, dated, and got married. If you missed it, you can read Part 7 HERE.)

The next months became a whirlwind of finishing up school, graduating, and planning a wedding all in between.  But finally, the day came - our wedding day was here, June 11, 2005.

We planned the wedding to start at 5pm.  I wanted it to be in the evening because I didn't want to feel rushed to get ready.  I wanted to enjoy our day.  I did my own make-up, had my cousin do my hair, then headed to the church to get in my dress. 

We planned to do pictures before hand.  I didn’t want to do them afterwards while guests were waiting around for us.  We did a “first-look” which seems to now be the popular thing to do, although we didn’t catch it on camera.  I wanted the first time Matt saw me in my dress to be just the two of us.  So I went into the sanctuary of the church and stood at the front.  Everyone left and they sent Matt in.  He opened the door and his smile was priceless when he first saw me. 

This was also when we shared our very first kiss. (I had made decided a long time ago that I wanted to save my first kiss for my wedding day.  It wasn’t easy to wait, but I don’t regret this decision one bit.)  We first kissed here because we didn’t want it to be in front of a crowd with everyone watching! Then we headed to get our pictures taken.

Soon after, my dad walked me down the aisle and Matt and I were married. Matt’s dad officiated. We wrote our own vows.  After the ceremony, we had a full catered meal.  Then the limo arrived and we ran out to rose petals being thrown and we left for our honeymoon.

To me the day was perfect.  I loved everything about it.  There was no doubt in my mind that I was marrying the man of my dreams, the man I had prayed for.  We had a “catch phrase” that we used all throughout the wedding planning and even used it for some of the decor at the reception - “God’s Perfect Plan.”  He brought us into each other’s lives at exactly the perfect time. We can look back and see how every detail was perfectly set by God to lead us to each other.

And so we were married and rode off into the sunset, ready to start our lives together. We honeymooned for a week in Tennessee, then spent the next week in New Brunswick. Two weeks after our wedding we headed up north to Nemeska, Quebec and ran the Bible camp for a month, the same one Matt had worked at the year before.

On our wedding day, we promised to stick together no matter what came our way.  Like anyone else, we didn’t know what lay ahead.  We didn’t know the financial struggles we would experience.  We didn’t know how hard being in ministry was going to be.  We didn’t know that there would be times when we would have no home, no job, and nowhere to go.  We didn’t know that I would have 6 major surgeries in the first 16 years of marriage.  We didn’t know that before our children were grown, and much sooner than I would have ever thought, that I would lose my ability to walk.  There was no way we could have known any of that.

But that was okay.  We didn’t need to know.  As we said to each other many times before - if we kept God at the center, we could get through whatever came our way.  It doesn’t mean it has been easy.  It doesn’t mean we haven’t cried thousands of tears.  And it doesn’t mean that we have had the perfect marriage.  What it does mean is that God has given us the strength to persevere whenever it get’s tough. 

It sounds cliche to say this but it is the truth:  I thought I loved Matt on that day we were married.  And I did.  But my love for him has grown exponentially.  I am so grateful God allowed me to be his wife.  He is my life-long love and my best friend.

I always enjoy a good love story - but our love story is my absolute favorite.