E. G. Bella

Hello and happy Wednesday!

It’s been just over a month since my husband and I got married, and it’s hard to believe. In some ways, I feel like we’ve only been married for a week or so. The wedding just happened, right? But at the same time, I feel as if we’ve been husband and wife for months.

I keep being asked how different it feels to be living with him now, married, and settling in. To my surprise, it doesn’t feel nearly as strange as I thought it would. Besides the obvious practical things to figure out, I’ve settled in very well. It feels comfortable. Natural. Nice.

We took two weeks after the wedding for our honeymoon. One week (five days, to be precise) to actually go away from home and just relax, and then one week to settle in at home. Go through wedding gifts and write thank-you’s, do legal name change appointments, finish organizing the things I’d moved in, and those sorts of things.

Getting back to work has been eventful so far, with my first day back leading to the worst migraine I’ve had since Christmas. Thankfully, it was short-lived. Then, last Monday, I came down with mono, and had to take the entire week off of work. Finally, I’m feeling a bit better and getting back to work. Hopefully it can continue less eventfully for now!

My sweet, patient husband has taken it all in stride, taking excellent care of me, and picking up the slack around the apartment when I couldn’t do some of my normal tasks. Somehow he’s been juggling my eventfulness and his full-time work with grace, and I’m looking forward to being back to normal so he doesn’t have to do quite so much anymore.

And all that to say, it’s a month later and I’m finally here with an overview of how the wedding day went, complete with some pictures!

Firstly, the weather gave us quite a scare the night before the big day.

It was extremely warm that week for March (summer temps), but those temps began dropping on Friday, which led to very severe weather. Thankfully, we managed to get through almost all of the last of the food prep, decorating the venues, and the rehearsal before the pouring rain, thunder and lightning, strong winds, and swirling clouds chased everyone home.

It wasn’t how I anticipated leaving my soon-to-be husband the night before our wedding . . . with tornado warnings and power outages going around, but God must have known we needed something else to distract us that evening. And it did work. The night didn’t drag on as long as we were afraid it would.

And thankfully, we all came out of it unscathed. There weren’t any tornados that touched down in our area, just some severe weather. There was even a rainbow in the midst of the black clouds!

Our wedding day ended up being cold and cloudy in the morning, with a bitterly chilly wind. I got ready at my family’s house, packed the last of my things, then rode into the reception venue with my sister, who was helping get food prepped before the ceremony. Our photographer (also my lovely aunt!) would pick me up from there.

(It’s a crazy feeling, being chauffeured for your wedding by your little sister . . . very fun, it just made me feel old!)

Our photographer picked me up to do the first look with my soon-to-be husband (!), and we drove to the church where our wedding would be held. My husband was waiting for us. Neither one of us told the other what we’d be wearing for the wedding beforehand, besides the traditional white dress and a suit. We wanted to surprise each other the day of, so it was a mutual first look.

The photographer went in and got him situated facing away from me first, then came back out and led me into the church, where I could only see the back of him. After getting her go-ahead, I tapped him on the shoulder, he turned around, and we got to do our first look.

I’m so glad we decided to do the first look before the ceremony rather than during, when I walked down the aisle. Everyone is different, but we enjoyed getting to have a moment to ourselves before all the festivities, enjoying the peace and the realization that we were about to be married, and soaking in how the other person looked without embarrassment about our reactions. They were sweet few minutes and helped calm both of our nerves.

Here are a couple of pictures! One from the first look, and the other of our unity sand ceremony supplies all set up before the ceremony.

After the first look, my husband took me back to the reception venue, where I’d wait with my sister until ten minutes before the ceremony, and he went back to the church to greet everyone as they arrived. Those were some of the longest minutes of my life!

Right before the wedding, my sister brought me to the church, and I waited in the vehicle until my dad came to get me. That way I’d know when the foyer was clear of people, and I could sneak in the back.

Due to a couple of slightly late arrivals, my dad and I ended up waiting around the corner of the foyer for a little longer than anticipated, but my dad used that time to pray with me, and I’m thankful for those moments. I was shaking so badly.

When I felt ready, Dad stepped out from around the corner, extended his arm to me, “Canon in D” started playing, and then the wedding was on!

My dad walked me down the aisle, we did our vows (traditional) and ring exchange, a family friend read 1 Corinthians 13, my uncle played guitar and sang “Love Never Fails” by Brandon Heath while we did our unity sand (three colors: one for me, one for my husband, and one to symbolize God), the officiant gave a message on God’s love, and then we were pronounced husband and wife!

Here are a few photos from the wedding ceremony, including the unity sand that we did.

After the ceremony, we took lots of family pictures, which went surprisingly fast, considering that we both have pretty big extended families. Then everyone else headed over to the reception to have lunch, while my husband and I went with the photographer to take our couple photos.

We’d hoped it would warm up, or the breeze would die down before our outdoor pictures, but no such luck! It was cold. But thankfully, we were so hyped up on adrenaline and the joy of the day that we all had fun taking the photos anyway. Even as our hands went numb, and our eyes watered from the wind. I’m still surprised my veil never flew off during it all.

And although we would have preferred it to be warmer, I discovered an unexpected blessing from the cold, which was that it froze away my headache that was starting. So I ended up feeling much better for the reception, and it didn’t come back until nearly all the way until the end. God is good, even when we don’t see how He’s working!

Here are some of our official wedding photos that we braved the cold for!

Then, after taking pictures in two different locations (and getting waved and shouted at by some random passerby that were excited to see a bride and groom running around, I guess), we headed to the reception, where we had time to have a warm lunch and visit with family.

We had a family-only wedding, with the only exception being some people who were in the ceremony. So the lunch afterward was only for those who were at the wedding, and then partway through the afternoon, we had an open reception for everyone else that we knew, featuring lots of snacks and desserts, games for the kids, and socializing.

My husband and I are both introverts, so I wasn’t sure how we were going to handle the constant conversations, but it ended up going very well. We were certainly tired by the end of the day, but it was a lot of fun to see all the many, many people that came, and we felt extremely blessed by all of the support and love shown to us.

We were also super blessed by all the help! Both of our families helped with the food, the set-up, the clean-up, making sure we ate during the day, the pictures, bringing stuff to our apartment while we were gone on honeymoon, and much, much more. Our day went so smoothly, and even when it didn’t, we usually didn’t hear about it until later because it was handled so quickly and well. We’re so thankful!

And here are some pictures from our reception, featuring yummy food, a beautiful quilt my mom made us, a Lego box one of my husband’s cousins made, our finished unity sand, and my bouquet!

After the reception, people helped us pack what we needed into our vehicle, including some extra wedding food, my mom prayed with us, and his family waved us off as we drove home, exhausted but so very happy.

We stayed that night and the next day at home resting, and then left Monday through Friday for a honeymoon that included a water park (one of our favorite special activities together), an escape room, two of our favorite restaurants, walks, card games, laughter, and many good memories.

And now we’re back to real life again – but as husband and wife!

All in all, our special day ended up going so well, and I honestly don’t think I’d have changed a thing. It felt laidback, but also special, which was what we wanted. Nothing too fancy, but a God-centered event where people could enjoy celebrating with us and each other, where they could have good food, and where they could laugh. And it all worked out!

We had quite a few people tell us how much they loved the simplicity of it all, and that it was peaceful. And I especially loved hearing that, as peace is something I’m really striving to improve at finding this year. It doesn’t come naturally to me, but I wanted our wedding day to be peaceful and it was. God really provided, and we’re so grateful.

Thank you for joining me today, and I hope you enjoyed the rambling recollections, haha. And thank you for all the congratulations, encouragement, and patience with me the past few months as I’ve tried to keep up with everything. You mean a lot and I appreciate you!

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