Wedding of the Century

During the last week of 2011, on December 29th to be exact, we celebrated with Chris & Amanda as they committed their lives to one another as husband & wife. I call it "the wedding of the century" because it was : ) We have known Chris for a long time & have had the honor of praying for a wife for him for the past 4 years & God was SO good in providing such an incredible woman for him to join his life with.  Chris was actually a groomsman in our wedding...very fun to reverse! 

Our claim to fame is that they met at our house! Our friend Christine works with Amanda & thought that they may be a good match so yes, it was a set up, & a good one at that.  They got engaged in Colorado over the summer then came back to Orlando to plan away.  Theirs was the first wedding ceremony to be held in our chapel & it was beautiful. Rob was a groomsman & I was his wife, and an unofficial picture snapper per request of the bride & groom. 

We enjoyed dinner with the Lent & Molesky families in Celebration a couple nights before the wedding & then had a blast at the rehearsal & dinner.  We were childless for the wedding festivities thanks to some very sweet friends that spent many hours with the girls. 

Chris & Amanda were both in a state of delight, as they should be : ) Her entrance was my favorite part.  She chose the song "He's Always Been Faithful" by Sara Groves & had the recording played.  This song has been a precious part of our experience as parents. See why HERE.  After singing this song day in & day out to my girls, so much that Charlotte can fill in the words for me if I stop, I couldn't help but think about one of them choosing this song to walk down the aisle to some day if God sees fit that they marry. Charlotte requests it every night as "the piddy song" translated to "the pretty song." I agree Charlotte, it is a piddy song for a piddy bride!

Onto those pictures I snapped....unofficially...



the beautiful bride & the handsome groom



this might have been one of the best moments....Chris read his vows to Amanda which included "you are super sexy & hot!" Amanda loved it....as you can see : )



the Valentines

 We LOVED seeing some old friends including the beautiful family pictured below.  We met the Berghoefers when we visited Florida while considering moving here.  They hosted us for dinner & offered us encouragement as we were walking through an important decision.  We immediately bonded with them & couldn't wait to get to know them once we moved to Orlando.  Sadly enough, they moved to Maryland just before Charlotte was born for Bill to take a position with Fellowship of Christian Athletes.  We have missed them so much!

Chandler, Shannon, Bill, Luke, Logan, Rob & Me

So, the ceremony was just beautiful in every way & we were pretty sure the reception would be the same : )
Boy were we right! The reception was held at the Summerlin House in their outdoor terrace. 

The centerpieces- tissue paper flowers, dyed mason jars & personalized ribbon
I should definitely pin this on Pinterest : )

so beautiful

first dance

Another "sweet" idea of Chris & Amanda.... Instead of having a wedding cake, Matchmaker Christine was deemed "Christine the Baker." She organized about 8 of us to bake & decorate specific flavors of cupcakes that were then set out in this adorable arrangement with cards stating what we could choose from.  The table was complete with the banner. Also "pinable."

Me & my Jenny Girl

the table for the wedding party

We ate a feast & loved every bite then headed over to the dance floor.  Okay, for anyone that is unaware of my feelings towards dancing, here is the low down.  I will begin with quoting my husband "you danced like a mom long before you were one!" Hahaha this makes me laugh mainly because this statement is 100% true.  I am a nerd that likes to dance at home with Charlotte in the kitchen, perform a special show for family only when I am in a silly mood (one of Steve & Jenny's favorite nights at our house) or break it down all alone, memorizing moves from So You Think You Can Dance.  The bottom line is I will never look as cool as the rest of the folks on the dance floor & I am okay with that so I just have to get moving & then I have fun.  I did have quite the crew of girlfriends to be silly with so that helped.  I am just praying that I did a good enough job hiding from the video camera....if not I am sure Chris and Amanda will just smile & say "poor girl, what's wrong with her, did someone put something in her drink?"  Notice, there are no photos of me dancing...for a good reason : )

The Lents & The Valentines

Just after the Bride & Groom left, we had to snap a picture of the Red Raiders.  All but Tommy on the end went to Texas Tech at the same time & were part of  the nine30 College Ministry at First Baptist Church in Lubbock.  It was fun to catch up & get our guns up!



Me, Rob, John, Nick, Ben, Kyle & Tommy (the father of the groom)

We are so thankful to the Lord who brought Chris & Amanda together.  Both of them love Jesus & serve him in radical ways.  We have no doubt that they will be a great pair as they transition from single to married life & beyond.

I was quite tearful through those few days for a couple reasons. One, I am SO delighted to see them marry one another & could almost burst at the seams thinking about the many things they will experience together as they walk with the Lord through their life as husband & wife. Two, I experienced a massive amount of flash forwards.  Why is it that when your children are not even 3 years old that it brings you to tears to think about them being all grown up? It very much excites me to think about what they might be like as women or who they might marry but there is just something that makes your heart feel heavy when pondering all of these things.  During the rehearsal dinner, the bride & groom's parents along with close friends of theirs made toasts that truly affected my heart & my attitude towards parenting.  They thanked the bride & groom for being faithful to the Lord, for remaining pure & for not settling for anything less than what God had in store for them.  The friends of the parents spoke to the caliber of godly parenting that went into raising both Chris & Amanda.  The friends & family of the bride & groom shared time after time of the Christ like character Chris & Amanda each posses. God really used that evening to remind me of the importance of my role as a mother.  He reminded me that this journey of training my children to be godly is not in vain & that through His grace, we will not only make it but may see the fruit of our labor. We may someday enjoy an evening where we get to toast the bride & groom as parents who have seen a baby grow to woman who Lord willing, treasures Christ above all else & will make a wonderful wife because of that.  Who knows, maybe we will be the parents of a groom at some point too : )

Thankfully, my little ones are still SO little and I have lots of time to prepare for that moment : ) For now, we will anxiously await the arrival of the Lents back in Orlando.  They return from honeymooning in Canada tomorrow evening. Rob will be their limo driver from the airport to home.  Not really a limo, just an Expedition with car seats, crunched up cheerios & probably a diaper somewhere in there ; ) Just an ultra sweet taste of what may be to come for them!

Congratulations Chris & Amanda, we love you!