I previously started a series on our wedding and it began with Our Wedding - The Morning Of. You can start there by clicking the link. Our wedding was easily the happiest day of my life. Aside from when we found out when were expecting Baby P. I feel like the entire day I floated. Just floated. Trying to capture and soak up every single moment of what was happening around me and within me. When Mr. Charming and I sat down to plan our wedding we talked of what we dreamed of it being. What we had to have, what we didn't need to have and all the in betweens. Luckily our visions existed together beautifully and he was hands on for the entire process (more on that later, he was really hands on.) What started as a ceremony at the beach with a small crowd, morphed into a fancy wedding at Hotel Del Coronado, then to somewhere we never expected, and something so much better. When I was deep in the initial stages of wedding planning, I let the fancifulness, money, and our own hearts desires get the best of us. So I went to the source I knew would handle this SO much better than us. God. I prayed and picked up the book Inviting God To Your Wedding (And Keeping Him In Your Marriage) and it was the best move I could have made. It shifted everything and led us to have a wedding that was so God and love filled it blew our dreams and expectations out of the water. Mr. Charming's cousin has a beautiful home on a expansive piece of lush green property in Arizona that transports you to the oaky parks of California and I fell in love. With her backyard for the ceremony and reception. I fell in love with her crisp white interior for photos and cocktail area. And I knew that Arizona would be the right place, so that all of our friends and family members could enjoy with us. All 175+ of them. As I stated earlier, Mr. Charming was really hands on with the wedding. We drove to Sedona to harvest our own Manzanita trees for our centerpieces (which resulted in a bad hand injury, a lot of blood and Mandi applying first aid in the forest to her fiance'. That was scary and I don't suggest.) He also built, by hand, our head table which is now our dining table from gorgeous Poplar wood, as well as the arbor we would stand under to be married. It was a dream. One of my very best friends, Paul, flew in to be a groomsman and helped Mr. Charming set up the ceremony early while I got ready with the girls at the hotel. After the boys had gotten ready and had their photos done, the girls and I arrived at the ceremony locale in a stretch black SUV. After a fun photoshoot in the parlor room of Mr. Charming's cousins house I retreated to a room to spend time with my dad and hide from the groom and guests! The guests arrived and enjoyed jazzy 40's music to be seated and it was near showtime! Standing in the doorway to the backyard, my dad holding my hand tight just as he did when I was a little girl, the butterflies flitted about and my soul beamed. The sense of peace and love I felt in that moment just may exceed any other moment of calm in my life. God walked with us that day. Walking down the aisle to my husband to be, surrounded by family and friends that we love so much, was indescribable. I don't remember the walk very well, I don't remember speaking my vows, I don't remember much. I do that. I never remember my best concerts. It's like I float in these moments, and then they are gone from my memory. The happiness remains, the peace, but the memory of exactly what went down, it exists back in that picture perfect moment. Thankful for video and photos, haha. I'm weird I guess. We wrote our own vows, which was so special and adored the pastor we hired to perform the ceremony. My girls looked beautiful, the men, so handsome, and it was just the perfect ceremony. I felt like I had waited so long to confess to this man, in front of God and our loved ones, how very much I wanted him to have my forever, it was a moment of such elation. I'd marry him again and again. Every day for all of my days. Take a peek at the other posts in the series as the become available:
What was your stand-out ceremony memory?
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