my something new with you: Looking Back: The Reception

There we were, now Husband and Wife. What a feeling! We weren't just simply walking down those front porch steps after being pronounced our very own, we were walking down a new path together, a new journey, as one. Love had branched off into a new direction from then on, and we were standing right at the beginning of our story.

As soon as we reached the end of our wedding march, we were greeted with a many congratulations and beautiful best wishes and such, but the photographers quickly swept us back up for the last pictures of the day. We took pictures with our wedding party full of life-long friends who had just stood beside us and witnessed our new beginning, grandparents, parents, siblings, nieces and nephews and finally solo pictures of just the two of us , which harps my heart real good just thinking of us during that moment. We were so happy after becoming man and wife that the photographers really had no need to instruct us on how we should pose or "look happy in love with goo goo eyes". It just seemed to come naturally of course from then on, we were indeed happy and could have easily forgotten the camera was snapping a few times. I am so very thankful for every emotion we felt that day, because they marked our photographs so well, when I look at our pictures together I see teary eyes full of happiness, I see so much love in our eyes and for that they are my favorite recollection of that day. And they inspire us to keep what we have so close and dear every time we look at them sitting pretty in a frame in our home.

The photographers followed us down to the tent where humbly sat our wedding cake ready to be cut. The Beatles, "Here Comes the Sun" came on just as I had requested as we cut into our cake. I chose the song not only for it's cheery sound but mostly because I wanted a song that would sort of say, "At the end of the day, love always comes back around.. through ups and downs, turn arounds, trials, broken heartedness and loss.. I guess you could say I chose it for my new husband, even though he thinks of "The Bee Movie" theme song every time he hears it. I chose it for him in a way that I wanted him to know that it was going to alright, I would always be there and so would our love, a new page was beginning to turn and I wanted him to feel my hands grasping tightly to his as we would now travel down this new walk of life together, and that it was going to be just fine.

We shared our First Dance at last to a song that had become "ours" while we were dating, Brad Paisleys " I Thought I Loved You Then". It just seemed to outline our love story right down to it! I couldn't have written it better myself, honestly. While Garrett isn't much of a dancer, I'm glad he agreed to a First Dance. The verses, " I can just see you with a baby on the way", " I can just see you when your hair is turning gray" just seemed to fall right onto the pages during that moment and we cried, again.

I knew after choosing the song, "My Little Girl" by Tim Mcgraw tears would most definately fly past the handle bars and a huge lump would build up in my throat on that day, but it's the only song I felt I could hear my daddy's voice in and I knew it would be right. He believed in me, my talents, the person I would grow up to be, and even though our relationship shifted, I would always be his little girl, singing on the back porch to Patty Loveless in a poodle skirt. The young girl on the radio singing Patsy Cline, when Britney Spears was way cooler and a girl who had his stubborn ways alike. I hadn't danced with him like this since my senior prom, and I don't know about him but I felt like our relationship was rebinding itself that day, I just felt at peace and I think he did too.

As emotional as my Dad and I's dance was, so too was my new husbands and his mother. They danced to Bryan Adams "Never Let Go", a song Garrett had chosen because of what a impact his moms strength and determination to live life to her fullest even though life had taken away someone so precious to them, A Father, A Husband. They were legends that day and this very day, as the song sings and their courage to keep going inspires me every time I'm around them. Not many families now a days make it during such hardships, but they are making it day by day, and Garrett and I plan to keep that strong bond going in our home, and our little family to come one day as well.

It was time to throw the bouquet and the garter, so the DJ rounded up all the single ladies and men folk. To our surprise, a little couple in our family both caught the bouquet and garter and would soon say their I Do's in this same location as we had.

We had enjoyed all the company with friends and family, but it was time to leave to go on our honeymoon now. My mom walked behind me with my dress gathered up beside her as we made our way upstairs to the bedroom where I would change into my "going away" dress she had helped me pick out. My feet felt the long-ness of beautiful day after shedding my shoes and it was so nice to finally feel the weight of my dress fall down past my waist toward the floor. My mom helped me gather my "going away" bag and called off every item to make sure I had it packed. We shared a "Mother and Daughter" quick moment and a few extra tears to go along before I took my now husbands hand and made it past the handfuls of bird seeds to our decorated vehicle. Everyone waved goodbye and have fun and even threw a few more handfuls of bird seeds until we finally got away along the driveway. To our surprise, my brother in law had snuck in the backseat of our car in an attempt to go with us, clever one, but we just couldn't take him along with us so we kicked him out shortly.