Yes I know we've been married a month. Yes I know I should have updated before now, but I've not had time to because I've been enjoying married life! It's wonderful. It's everything I've dreamed of and MORE! Our wedding was perfect...well perfect for us! If anything really went wrong we had no idea about it. I do have to send out a huge thank you to my bridesmaids for being by my side all day! I love you girls and you helped make our day more special. I love each and every one of you dearly and I'm so blessed to have you in my life. I know that Justin feels the same way about his groomsmen too--but boys don't share their feelings like us girls do! ;)
Incase you weren't at the wedding--which if you weren't invited and thought you should have been I'm sorry. Our list kept growing and growing and my parents aren't millionaires so we had to draw a line somewhere. I would love to have invited everyone who has ever been a part of our lives...but in the end we just couldn't afford to. Here is a run down of our wedding day from my point of view--which will probably be the only view you get b/c Justin doesn't blog!
The morning of our wedding I woke up at my parent's house--it was important for me to spend my last night as a single girl at home with my mom and dad. I woke up around 4:45 and layed there for awhile and when I finally did get up I found a letter from my mom. She had slide it under my door the night before. As I sat in my bedroom reading that letter I cried. Happy tears of course--almost bitter sweet. Here I was on my wedding day, sitting in the room where I grew up playing barbies, cabbage patch dolls, rainbow brite, talking on the phone to old friends who I have lost touch with, hiding from my brother, crying myself to sleep after the boy didn't call, after the break up with the boy in high school I just knew was "the one", and finally moving out for college. As I was reading this letter I saw it all though my mom's eyes and realized that one day (hopefully) I would write a letter like this to my little girl. Little girl...sounds funny to call myself that when I'm 30 years old, but that's what I am to my mom and dad. I always will be and I don't mind that at all. Ok back to that morning...after reading the letter and crying I decided to go outside and enjoy the sunrise. My dad was downstairs already and mom was still asleep. By this time it was around 5:30. At first I just went outside and sat in the swing that now hangs on our old swing set frame. The sky turned this amazing red/pink color and it made me think of the sunrise as God's love embracing the world. I knew then-and I knew before but I think God needed to remind me that as much as I love Justin, God loves us both so much more! I said a prayer that day for my future husband and our lives together. That was the first time I had watched the sunrise in a long time and I soaked up every minute of it. After enjoying the sunrise I decided to swing on Peighton's tree swing dad put for her in the same spot our old swing used to be. Little did I know that my mom and dad were watching me--after a slight freak out that I had run away when they couldn't find me in the house. I then decided to shoot some basketball. Something I used to do a lot of back in the day with my dad and brother. After shooting for a few minutes my dad comes out to join me. Looking back and after a few people commented it really was a "Father of the Bride" moment. Just my dad and me like old days playing a game of HORSE. I have never beaten my dad at this game. NEVER. He beat me the first game. I beat him the second game. So of course we can not end in a tie so we played one more round and I won. I think he let me beat him, but does it really matter? My last morning as a single girl was spent with my earthly daddy and my Heavenly Father. To me nothing is better and I will never forget that morning. I know I'll cherish it forever.
Mom captured it on camera! :) Thanks mom!
Moving on to our hair appointment--4 of my girls went with me to get our hair done in Dublin. Lori is amazing! She used a curling iron to curl my massive head of hair and it looked beautiful! All the girls looked beautiful! It finally started to sink in that I was finally the Bride when Lori put the hairpiece in my hair. I have been a bridesmaid so many times it really was a dream come true to be the bride!
Lori trying her best to make me beautiful!
Paige getting all dolled up!
Erin, Karen, and Sarah looking all beautiful!After we had our hair done we headed to the church to get ready since John and Cindy (our photographers) were going to start shooting group shots at 2 and we still had to do our make up and get dressed! I had my make up done by Liz Shaver--a friend of my mom's who sells Mary Kay. I think she did a great job and I still looked like myself and it was very natural. Everyone kept asking me if I was nervous, but I really wasn't. I was going to be marrying my best friend why should I be nervous? I finally got into my dress and we had our pics made and as the seconds ticked by I started to get excited! I wanted to see Justin. Hear is voice and become his wife! From 2-4:30 seemed to take forever! It was finally time for us to walk over to the sanctuary. It was HOT. We stood outside for a few minutes before we moved into the vestibule. When it was my turn to go down the asile they closed the doors so I could move over to the doorway and the harpist started playing the bridal march. It sounded beautiful and all I could think was open the doors already I want to see my future husband! IT seemed to take forever because dad and brenda were fixing my massive train (it was like 7 ft or more). When the doors opened and I saw Justin all I remember thinking was I'm the luckiest girl in the world! I don't remember walking down that long asile I was focused on Justin and of couse I got a little teary eyed--especially when I realized that Justin was on the verge of tears too. It came time for my dad to give me away--which is something he had been saying for a few months that he didn't think he could do it--and even told my brother the day of the wedding to be on standby to walk me down the asile b/c he wasn't sure he could do it. I'm a daddy's girl incase you haven't figured it out yet! Well he did it and did it without crying, but during the ceremony I did hear some crying and I found out later it was my dad. The best words of the whole day were when the preacher said "I now pronounce you husband and wife". This was the moment I had been waiting and praying for my whole life.
After the ceremony we rode in a white limo to RU to Muse Hall for our reception. It was beautiful. We danced some--the dj and music is a whole different story--we were not happy with it at all. But it was still fun and it was nice to get a chance to speak to everyone who came to share our day with us. I hated we didn't get to talk to everyone for very long, but as I said before we had over 200 people there to talk to. If we didn't speak to you I'm sorry! We really do appreciate you being there!
We left the reception running though sparklers--and no one got burned! Our car was covered with TP and condoms and the car was filled with balloons--regular balloons and animal shaped balloons. (which made for some fun on the drive to Charlotte the next day) From RU we headed to the Inn at VT and our honeymoon began! :) The next morning we had breakfast at Panara Bread and headed to mom's for a brunch with our families and to open the wedding gifts so our families could see all the wonderful things we got. From there we drove to Charlotte to spend the night and ended up having dinner with Paige and Josh. It was a nice surprise and we had fun hanging out with them. The next morning we flew to Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic for our honeymoon, but that's a whole other blog! Let's just say it was heaven on earth! We had an amazing time and did not want to leave.
Since we have been home and getting into the swing of things as a married couple things have been wonderful! Of couse we have our quirks we are each getting used to, but I wouldn't change a thing! I hope we are always this happy and in love and I know that as long as we keep God in the center of our marriage we will be. We have started reading the Bible together from the beginning each night before going to sleep. We are also reading a devotional called the Love Dare that was given to us by Lisa and Kevin who also got married this summer! We are only a few days in but I think it's going to be a good devotional for us. It will challenge us and bring us closer together as we grow in our marriage during the coming year.
On a side note I want say that our photographers were amazing!!! I would recommend them to anyone! His name is John McCormick. I will link his website below and you can go look at our wedding pics if you would like. When you get to his website follow these steps to see our pics:
1. Click on weddings
2. Click on "your stuff"
2. Click on "your stuff"
3. Click on Justin and Sheri
4. Enjoy! There are over 700 pics so prop up your feet and enjoy!
5. You can also look at my wedding portraits if you want from that same page-- instead of clicking on Justin and Sheri you can enter the password sherim in the box for Sheri Miller.
Here's the website: http://www.johnmccormickphotography.com/
