Favorite moments from the wedding day

It has been over three weeks since my & Zach’s big day & the time to share about it has eluded me until now.  I’m excited to share some of my favorite moments with you!  The day couldn’t have been more perfect for us, & actually my most favorite moment of the day was the least planned part!  I’ll get to that in a minute.  I feel like I could write a post on each of my favorite moments but I’ll refrain :) Here they are in order of occurrence…

For me (& Zach too) the day was one big beautiful moment of intimacy with each other & with Father.  I woke up the morning of May 9^th & before I started into any of the typical “bridal preparations” I wanted to prepare my heart for what was about to come by spending time with Papa God.  I had barely even gotten situated on my sofa & cracked open my Bible when I heard him say “get on the floor & just talk to me”.  As soon as my knees hit the floor my heart became so over whelmed with what a privilege it is to not only marry my best friend but to be an earthly representation of Christ & his bride-the Church.  I began to tell Father how honored I felt by that.  In tears I told him that other than Jesus, this was the greatest gift He’s given me to this point in my life.  This marriage was the most precious thing I would possess & be part of.  Since it was the most precious thing in my life -the thing I placed the most value on- I immediately became overtaken by the awareness that He was worthy of having me give it right back to Him.  He is so worthy of everything I am.  When you’re in love with someone you want to give them the very best of you & the very best thing you have.  I wept on the floor at what an amazing gift I would be given on this day & how honored & happy I was to lay it right back down at Father’s feet to use & do with us what ever He would like.  After 5:30pm that evening, I would have a better gift to lay down at His feet than I’ve ever had before.  Not only would I be giving Him my life alone, but Zach & I would be giving Him our lives as a team to work in tandem & covenant partnership with him to accomplish the purposes of His kingdom.  We would learn together what it means to die to ourselves in completely new ways as we step into marriage.  We would learn how to take on the heart of Jesus in new ways.  I could keep going about the depth of the revelation He gave me on this but then I’d be out of space to share the reset of the day!

After getting off the floor (& putting cold water on my eyes) I spent the morning getting ready with my very best friends.  We took our time, relaxed, had brunch together (thanks to mama Pam!), laughed & enjoyed each other.  It was perfect.  I wanted all of us to be together that morning & just enjoy friendship as we started the day & we did just that.

We arrived at The Loom (the venue) early afternoon for pictures & my & Zach’s first look.  Another one of my favorite moments was in our first look.  When we saw each other for the first time all we could do was burst into laughter!  Our hearts were so full of joy that it wouldn’t stay inside of us.  That’s the best kind of laughter :) I also got to present Zach with a letter I’d written to him almost 2 years ago when he did his 3 month stint at Harvest School in Mozambique (little did I know at the time that I would follow his footsteps there a year later).  I had addressed the letter to “my leader” & signed it “your bride” because I knew even then that He was the one who would be given that role in my life.  It was a page of blessing & declaring identity over him in ways specific to the role of husband.  I loved finally being able to give it to him.

The ceremony held my MOST favorite part of the day!  After the vows & rings were exchanged, we took communion together & then invited all of our friends who had been in Mozambique with us at Harvest School or had served with Iris Ministries to come forward & lay hands on us to bless & speak life into our new marriage.  We told the Lord that we wanted this time to be what ever He wanted it to be & that He had full cooperation from us to crash in.  We wanted what ever He wanted even if that looked different than what some people had seen at a wedding before.  When our friends began to pray for us & declare things over us His presence fell on us so beautifully & heavily.  The musicians played “On Christ the Rock” by Kim Walker as a declaration of what we wanted our marriage to stand on & when the song was over they could tell that the moment wasn’t finished so they went into spontaneous worship singing “Holy holy are you Lord God Almighty. Worthy is the Lamb”.  As they sang the song of the throne room (Revelation 4 & 5) everyone laying hands on us picked up on it & we all began to sing to the King together.  You could feel the holiness in those words as our hearts united to lift Him higher.  It was so beautiful.  My hearts desire was for our wedding not to be about us, but for it to be about Him & in that moment of worshipping Him, where all eyes & hearts were on him, my desire for the day was fulfilled.  His presence was so thickly surrounding us.  That was the most precious gift Father could have given me on that day.  I just wanted Him to come in & be part of the ceremony as our most honored guest & He did.  It was amazing.

After the ceremony, we partied & danced our shoes off at the reception.  It was a blast!!  The only thing I would change if I could, would be to have slowed down time.  I felt like I blinked once & it was over!  

It really was the best day & I’m so thankful for all the sweet moments & surprises in it.  They made it perfect for us.  Thank you for taking time ready up on how it went down! :)  Love you friends!





Side funny fact:  We all forgot about signing the marriage license at the wedding so it was signed at Cracker Barrel the next morning-haha.  That’s how we roll