Six Years Ago

On Saturday, August 2nd, 2003 at 2 o'clock in the afternoon I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to marry my best friend!

Six years later, I can honestly say that it was a wonderful day....however there are many things that I would change about it. (Is that bad to say?)

First of all - HATED my hair! I mean hated it! I had spent about an hour sitting in a chair having my hair done and it looked beautiful. It was down and exactly how I wanted it. Then it started to sprinkle outside. There was this big conversation and everyone convinced me that I should wear it up so it didn't look a mess by the end of the day. By that time we were running late so the hairdresser did this quick "up do". I was so sad!
(And the day ended up being nice and sunny.)

I also was not a huge fan of my dress. I liked it, but I really didn't love it. I never found one that I loved, so I just went with one that I thought was fine. Now..I regret that decision. I did like my veil though...

And finally I wish that I would have spent more money on a photographer. I look at other people's wedding pictures and I get all jealous. I really wish that I could have a "do over" (which would include another dress and my hair down - or at least done differently than it was.)

There were things that I loved about my wedding.

Most importantly~JOSH! I had waited almost 6 years to marry him. And gosh he was handsome in his tux! (I love Josh in a tux! Maybe it is because our first official date ~prom~ he had a tux on.) I knew walking down the aisle that day that God had made Josh just for me. I knew that he would not only hold my hand and love me that day, but he would hold my hand and love me for the rest of our lives. I knew that he would always be standing by my side and that I could trust him with my whole heart and life.

One of my favorite thing about the whole day were the flowers! My bouquet was exactly what I wanted. I loved my purple roses. There were also a few stephanotis mixed in because, well they were white and it use to be a nickname that people called me. I also loved my bridesmaid's flowers. They were yellow roses with pink tips. I then decorated the stage with 100s of white roses and candles. It was very pretty.

Our location was perfect! We were married at the performing arts center on our college campus. It was really special to get married there because we felt very at home since we spent 3 days a week for 4 years in the auditorium for chapel services. Also we were the 1st people to ever get married there. I really loved the auditorium. They have very pretty lights hanging from the ceiling that looked like stars. The lights were dimmed, except for on the stage and there were candles everywhere so it was a candle light service in the middle of the day. I also loved it because we could not see the 200 people who were in the audience, so it seemed very private.

Our vows are very special to me. In fact, they are printed out and are hanging right beside our bedroom door where we can see them every day. We did the traditional "Do you take this woman/man..." vows, but we also wrote our own. Josh promised to bring me flowers once a month. I promised to bake him a dessert once a week. So far, we have (pretty much) stuck to those vows. :)

I loved our reception. It really wasn't fancy. There was a big dessert buffet -milk and cookies (oreos and chocolate chip), an ice cream sundae bar, lots of fruit, and other random candies and sweet things. And of course a big wedding cake. It was all of our favorite yummy things. In the background there was big band music playing. LOVED it!

So, do you want to see some of the pictures?
Ok, here we go!

Here is a head shot. See my "beautiful" spiral curls framing my face. (EWW!)

This is my sister and I. I loved the blue color of the bridesmaid dresses. See how pretty my flowers were?!
This is a view of what the stage looked like.

After 6 years of dating, we were finally Mr. and Mrs.

This is our whole bridal party...

I know it looks huge, but we really only had 4 people each stand up with us.

I had my sister-Danielle, Josh's two sisters-Maria and Rachel, and my college roommate-Erica as my bridesmaids. The rest of my ladies were good friends who were "honorary attendants". First there is Joy, who is like a sister to me, Jess - my roommate, Jessica - Jonathan's now wife, and Laura - another roommate.

Josh's groomsmen were our good friend Jonathan, George and Aaron - who were teammates and friends, and Zack- his roommate. The rest of Josh's guys were ushers. Hummel- another of his basketball teammates that he we wanted to include in our day, Lee- another roommate and Jeremy- a family friend.

Also pictured is Doug, Joy's husband and then our flower girl and ring bearers, Emma Grace, Mac, and Jacob who are Joy and Doug's children.

We were married by our youth pastor, Brian. My dad also had a part in the ceremony.

After the wedding, we took pictures forever! I felt very bad for all of our guest at our reception, but it was fun to just spend some time by ourselves and take some pictures of just the two of us.

We also walked over to the gym (were we spent a LOT of our time) and took some pictures there. I wish that I had some pictures of the guys shooting around on my computer...but I don't.

Finally at the end of the day we walked out to a shower of rose petals.

It really was a wonderful day.

And plus - I really did marry the man of my dreams!