Wedding Week

Earlier today I thought, "Wedding re-caps aren't going to be so difficult. This isn't a wedding blog, so I don't have to share every little detail." But now I am realizing that I don't want to bore people, either. So I'll do a few posts, and publish them slowly, so those of you who do actually read this won't be suddenly overwhelmed with posting. :)

Today's theme is the week leading up to the wedding. It was busy, do not let me kid you, but it was also wonderful. I'm so glad we got married in Goshen (where we both went to college) because it was like coming home. Our to-do list was multi-faceted: 1) the things we had to do for the wedding, and 2) the things we had to do because we were in Goshen. List #2 included entirely too many restaurants to visit (we were forced to eat double scoops of Chief ice cream for lunch on Friday), coffee shops to go to, and people to see. We completed almost everything on both lists. Just walking around downtown Goshen made me grin. We also got to stay with Zeb & Sarah at their new apartment, which was awesome.

On Monday we did 30,000 errands, and even managed to get a marriage license (we forgot we needed cash, so we had to try twice).

Tuesday was also a lovely day. We met with our officiant, Doug, who was James' pastor at the church he attended in Goshen, to go over the ceremony. We went through all the details of the service: who stands where/where are the mics/who has the rings/who reads from where/when do we sit & stand/etc. Then, Doug asked us to tell him more about our relationship. James and I spent about an hour recounting the story of our dating life, including our first date and the craziness that was student teaching, making a documentary, and starting a new relationship. We talked about breaking up when James studied in the Dominican Republic, and how he spent 6 months in total in far away Latin American countries. We discussed the move to Denver, etc. It was so, so cool, and made everything so real. We looked at each other, grinning happily, when we left. I think we both felt that we had a deep history together that will only improve in our marriage.

Are you looking at the flowers in this picture? You should be. They are gorgeous. One of my favorite wedding-related tasks was driving up to Michigan to pick out the flowers for the wedding. We chose to buy our flowers from an organic (but not certified) farm called White Yarrow Farm. They sell produce and flowers at the Goshen Farmer's Market. It was important to me to choose flowers that were actively growing in the area at that time of year. It was so cool to go up to the farm and see our flowers growing in the ground! So many beautiful colors!

Thursday morning, James and I looked at each other and realized there wasn't a single item on our list that we could do until Friday. So we went to Goshen and hung out with friends outside the Brew. As I mentioned earlier, we didn't really feel that stressed over the week--couldn't really figure out what to stress about, and most people were shocked to see our level of calm. I guess we did a lot of organizational work before hand. We also didn't feel the need to micromanage every tiny detail. I had a lot more fun at my wedding because I didn't care too much.

As this post has gotten too wordy, I will leave Friday to it's own post. Look for one more on the ceremony, one on the reception, and possibly one on general wisdom/thoughts. Thanks for reading!