wish-fulfilled. sally and kristi's wedding!

Last week boone and I were incredibly honored to officiate our delta friends' wedding ceremony in Oxford. The weekend was so celebratory and the brides looked beautiful...the best part of the whole weekend was the fact that these two friends began the rest of their lives together. consider this a wish-fullfilled. ;)

see more photos from the wedding here (and more to come).

love is in the air!

here's something i ran across on a friend's gmail that she found at huffingtonpost to make your day... an original, super sweet proposal.

(if you're a crier, grab some tissues before you click on the link!)

the blanket of snow...

the delta got 6 inches of snow last night...which made the landscape so beautiful this morning. it looked like everything was covered in this smooth white blanket. in fact, neko (the cat who rooms with us sometimes) stepped out of the door and pounced on the snow just like she does on the bed when our toes move under our white down comforter. 

this isn't my photo, but i took a few when boone and i went for a walk around the town. as we walked, i remembered a retreat we went on together (getting trained for a summer job) just after we'd declared our mutual affection but just before we'd actually been on a date.

that day, we walked around in the snow and through a labyrinth on this amazing methodist retreat campus outside of atlanta and learned about each other. i was DYING to snuggle up to him and hold his hand, but we hadn't even been on a DATE yet so i tried to play it cool. it was really comforting to get to walk with him last night as the flakes fell and nestle under his arm as much as i wanted. ;) the joys of having a life-long partner, i guess!

did it snow where you were this weekend?

forever and ever...

here's another post from the road...
so boone and i are on our way to laurel for the wedding of a dear, beautiful friend i've had for FOURTEEN YEARS...megan. she's truly going to make the most beautiful bride and i can hardly wait to be her matron of honor since we've been talking about love, boys, and forever since we were 14 and 15. in celebration of megan and her handsome honey, here's one of her engagement photos. beautiful, right?

congratulations pretty girl!

marrrriage.......

so two of my dearestest friends are getting married this weekend... and about a year and a half ago they asked me to be the officiant. it's the most incredible honor and everytime i think about it i really just can't get over it. all week i've been remembering our own wedding and about the commitment that boone and i made to each other before our family, friends, and God. Then i remember that i get to stand there with kathryn and ryan while they say their vows and commit their lives to each other and i get teary and tingly and so, so happy for them.

any minute now we're going to get on the plane to head to see them, so if you don't mind saying some prayers that all goes well or crossing your fingers, or something else entirely for good measure and vibes, i'd be so incredibly thankful. my eposicopalian neighbor priests tell me (as did my divinity school preaching professor) that the holy spirit descends and gives the minister the words and authority to speak... so i'm holding out that that will happen on saturday. but until then, i'll have to keep taking deep breaths and reminding myself that although i have a big role on saturday, it's not about me at all. what happens Saturday is really between Kathryn, Ryan, and God...and i just get to be the vehicle. how humbling and beautiful is that?

one year!

can you believe it?

and away we go?

i had a job interview yesterday... on the phone. it turns out that the pool has been narrowed down to a group of six, and then three will be picked for a real-and-in-person interview.
it was so weird talking to group of people that i've never even seen. i mean, when i'm on the phone with friends, i know what they look like when they're smiling, or crying, or confused, so i can react like i would if we were face to face. and in person, i'm pretty good at reading expressions.. but on the phone with strangers? i had no idea.

which means i really don't know how it went. but i do know that i've lost a lot (and i mean, A LOT) of sleep over it even though I know that it's not really up me whether i get the job or not. but do know that graduation is looming for boone and me and that right now every single thing in our life is up in the air.

and that's kind of an exciting place to be...and kind of a scary one. but no matter what, at least we're in this thing together. nashville or durham? middle of nowhere maryland, or near family in small-town mississippi? vancouver or phoenix? no clue. but we're both going.

i think that's why i loved Away We Go so much... the adventure, and freedom, the couple's love, and the need for some honest-to-goodness roots. it resonated with me pretty deep. now if we could only find our dream house...

thank you notes

who's got two thumbs and is finished with her thank you notes?

this girl. ;)

photo from flikr.

sweating the small stuff...

honestly, no one told me that i'd worry about the wedding MORE afterward than i did beforehand. everyone was amazed that i didn't fall to pieces when we had to move the ceremony inside or when my veil came totally out of my hair while we were saying our vows.
"eh!" I thought "who cares? we're getting MARRIED!" but then i started getting bent out of shape a week or so later when i realized i hadn't gotten a photo with both of my parents, and that i had hardly spoken to the guests who had been sitting at tables inside. seriously, i've been waking up in the night tied up in knots about it...

but (FINALLY) i've decided that rather than keep on fretting about it, i'll take a few days to just share with you all the beautiful, special things we made for the wedding and guests that made it extra personal for me. i mean, honestly... my first attitude was the right one: "who cares? we're MARRIED!"


i already mentioned the silhouettes and the homemade praline favors. Now, here's a fun fact about our ceremony site: we ended up getting married in the foyer of a beautiful historic home. we were planning to do it outside in the garden but then it poured down rain the entire day.
instead, we had about 115 or so guests seated around us, our parents and family sitting right behind us, and our attendants standing directly beside us. it was a tight squeeze, but it felt just right and really cozy. we had wanted the ceremony to be small so that those who witnessed our vows were the people who we loved most deeply and who we knew would support us in our marriage. being inside wasn't what we had planned but it felt so comfortable and personal that it turned out to be perfect.

plus, my dad had the brilliant idea to open the bar in the sun room for people who didn't get to sit down during the service. i don't think anybody minded. ;)

step 1. legally united.

The first thing i have to say about our wedding weekend was that we stressed until the very last minute about whether to get legally united or not.

my parents had brett's family and two of our closest friends who were in town early to our house on Wednesday night for BBQ and we didn't decide what we were going to do until all the dishes had been washed and my parents were in bed.

we finally decided that we would accept the legal rights that come with marriage, but we wouldn't allow them to be in any way associated with our marriage ceremony. instead, we decided to go to the courthouse the next morning and have a judge sign our certificate without flourish or fanfare. we also wouldn't claim to be married until the minister pronounced us so. this way, we would minimize the importance of the legal part of being united (since the spiritual part is what matters to us) and not let the state get all up in the church's business.

we invited our two friends to go with us to witness our legal contract, and wrote a statement to read after the certificate had been signed. It said:

Today we take advantage of the rights afforded to us by the law as a united couple. However, we believe that the legal rights associated with marriage should not be limited to heterosexual couples. Our country was founded on principles of equality but as the institution of marriage currently stands, there is great inequality and injustice. As Christians and Americans we uphold the separation of church and state because such a relationship increases their individual integrity and strength.

we were true to what we believed and haven't regretted the decision.... but i guess there was a moment's pause when we looked up and saw the giant Ten Commandment's plaque hanging behind the judge's desk. ;)

*the photo above is from the "ceremony" that the justice tried to perform for us. by the time that we realized what was going on he was asking us for a ring!

real life fun....

i'm a pretty bad wedding blogger...i mean, i got married an entire month ago, have only made about 5 posts since then, an barely mentioned the ceremony, the reception, or the honeymoon when before it was all i could talk about.

sorry, guys.

the only thing i have to say for myself is that i'm loving married life so much and having SUCH FUN (see above) that playing on the internet just pales in comparison to being with boone. honestly, i don't think anyone told me it would be this great.

but, i do think it's important that i reflect on everything that happened that day, so then it makes sense to share that here, with you.

stay tuned...



photo from joe.

risky...

isn't this lovely? and perfect for those of us who may need a mantra to calm nerves up until the big day...

counting down!

only 100 days until i'm a mrs!!!


image from fab love,jenna

hug it out...or something like that...

today is our FIRST premarital counseling sesh. YIKES. we're doing all the get-to-know-you stuff and then getting into the down and dirty with marriage expectations and conflict/conflict transformation.

How do I know, you ask? because i wrote out the questions... yep. that's right. i said me.

we were going to use some kind of book... but the thing about premarital counseling books is.. that they're all REALLY awful. we looked/researched a few and either they were all not in depth enough, had pretty icky theology (ie. "The Bible says A marriage is Between a Man and a Woman and that the Woman needs to Submit to the Authority of her Husband) or weren't actually for PRE-maritial counseling, but rather for couples who were facing tough times.

None of these fit us, and since our awesome minster was ok with it...i just came up with our discussion points for the first meeting. no biggie fries.* ;)

it may turn out to be a HUGE disaster. if so, then we'll abandon ship and get a book pronto. i'll keep you posted.


*name that reference and i'll send you something.

whoo hoo!!

We're getting married!