Wedding Vows

We'd decided pretty early in the process that we didn't feel inspired to write our own vows. But when we started trying to pick a set of vows, none of them seemed exactly right. Finally, we narrowed it down to 2-3 different vows. Jesse combined them together, then we spent a couple of days smoothing out the wording and grammatical problems.

We were both very pleased with the final result--traditional and clearly Christ-centered. For those who weren't able to make it to the wedding (or those that did and want to read them), here are the vows we said.

I Raymond Jesse, in faith, honesty and love, take you, Charlessa Eileen, to be my wedded wife, to share with you in God's plan for our lives, united together in Christ from this day on, to have and to hold, for richer and for poorer, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, in joys and in sorrows, forsaking all others, until death do us part. With God's help to strengthen and guide me, I will be a strong spiritual leader for us in our life and give you all that I have of my love and my self to love and care for you as Christ does the Church. All these things I pledge to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. With this ring I seal my vow of love to you, Charlessa, and pray I may fulfill God's place for me in our home, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

I Charlessa Eileen, in faith, honesty and love, take you, Raymond Jesse, to be my wedded husband, to share with you in God's plan for our lives, united together in Christ from this day on, to have and to hold, for richer and for poorer, for better and for worse, in sickness and in health, in joys and in sorrows, forsaking all others, until death do us part. With God's help to strengthen and guide me, I will be your strong helpmate and give you all that I have of my love and my self, submitting to you as the church submits to Christ. All these things I pledge to you in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. With this ring I seal my vow of love to you, Jesse and pray I may fulfill God's place for me in our home, in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Wedding Pictures

Thanks, Jesse!

As of Friday, he's finished putting up pictures from every part of the wedding day.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jmcg.wedding

The three smaller albums are selected shots from the official photographer's collection. The older, larger album contains pictures taken by family and friends.

It Happened!

As my sisters, D & SR, have testified, we did get married! The wedding went wonderfully, thanks to the generous help of numerous family members and friends!

We have some pictures from family and friends already. We are expecting the digital photos from the photographer very soon.

If you have pictures that you want to share with us or if you would like to receive an e-mail notification when we have digital photos to share, drop us a line at jmcg.wedding@gmail.com.

This is our first days back at work since before the wedding. We had a great time in Las Vegas and got to relax at a resort in the Shenandoah valley.

Hopefully we'll get more details about the wedding and photos posted soon!

License

Warning: Another very typical post inspired by "pre-wedding excitiment" that will leave the rest of humanity shaking their heads and saying, "Why in the world is THAT worth posting?!?"

We got the marriage license this morning! Now we've got 60 days to get married before the license expires.....but there's only 19 days until the wedding! :)

People are asking a couple of questions commonly.
1) Are you excited/stressed/ready/etc? Yes, I'm excited, but not nearly as excited as I'm sure I'll be as the time gets closer. No, I'm not particularly stressed, but maybe I'm not thinking about it enough. Ready for what? I've barely begun my Christmas shopping. Buying gifts for attendents and other wedding participants isn't going much better. I've still got a list of things that I should've done last week, but really won't take that much time when I do them. But I have no doubts that things will come together and the wedding will happen on December 30th and (from my perspective) it will be beautiful!

2) Housing. Yes, we've found a place to live--a 2-story townhouse in Leesburg. It'll be a bit shorter commute for Jesse and a slightly longer one for me (more like 20 minutes instead of 10 minutes). Technically, my drive is counter-commute. But having made the commute for 9-months when I moved here 6 years ago and from stories I hear from others, I'm still losing the sweet exit off of Rt 7 to the college. Jesse has practically all of his stuff moved to the townhouse. My stuff is making it over there slowly, but surely. I'm trying to take a few more boxes everytime I go. I'm still living quite comfortably in the parlour, aside from the fact that I don't have a couch.

Stressed?

I've had 2-3 friends in the last week comment on how stressed I'm not. One friend even turned into a compliment saying that I was just the right balance of excited and happy, but not stressed.

I'd like to be able to say it's because I'm so well organized and that I've got everything in hand. More probably, it's because the semester hasn't ended, so I'm still focused largely on work and it hasn't yet hit me that three weeks from today is wedding eve.

When I start to think about it too much, I start to panic that I am forgetting or going to forget something major. That I won't get around to finding anyone to clear the church parking lot and there will be a major snow or something like that.

But I also know that we have great family and friends. While I don't want to depend on them to do everything, I do know that they'll step-up and do whatever is needed to make the day go as well as possible. And beyond that, it really can't be considered a complete failure, as long as we end up married.

Lack of Posts

What?! We went a whole month without posting anything on here?! One would think that with less than 2 months to the wedding, we'd be doing SOMETHING as a couple that would be worth posting. Well, I can't say that either of us was much better about posting on our personal blogs.

Why the lack of posts? I won't try to analyze and answer that.

We did spend many hours addressing wedding invitations. I'd say we spend that time together, but I had an aching tooth that weekend. Jesse did most of the addressing while sitting at my kitchen table and I lounged on my couch. Jesse getting that done was a real blessing for me!

As a huge surprise, Jesse picked my sister up at the Baltimore airport and brought her into town to walk into the house when I was least expecting it! He also drove on the trip back up to the airport.

Jesse took the lead in getting our vows written. We'd found pieces of 2-3 different vows that we'd liked. He took the pieces and put them together for us. We then spent the next day or so proof reading the vows. The vows we'd ended up using as the base were off the internet and VERY poorly written. They had great sentiment, if you read them as intended rather than as they were written. For example, they included the phrase "until death do we part." I think if one diagrammed that phrase, you'd find that "we" are parting death, instead of death parting "us"--until death do us part.

One Saturday, we attended the Walk Through the New Testament seminar. (Along the same lines an the Walk Through the Old Testament seminar we attended in August.) Now we have sign/word cues to help us remember the major events of the old and new testaments in chronological order and enough geography to help place most of those events.

We spent Thanksgiving with Jesse's family. A very relaxing and enjoyable time. I'm very thankful that his family is so welcoming of me!

We finally signed the lease to rent a townhouse in Leesburg! We should be able to pick up the key today! Jesse's parents just got into town and are planning on helping me move this weekend. Then we'll move as much of Jesse's stuff as possible over the next month. His parents will move his final pieces after the wedding, before they leave town.

On finding a house, it got to the point where one just had to laugh or despair. We tried to put in applications on 3 or 4 different places, only to be told that we were too late--someone else had put in an application ahead of us or they weren't willing to negotiate on the price. Once the application for this place was in process, we got calls from two of the earlier places--for one place, the first applicant didn't have good credit history, so they were now willing to look at our application and the owner was now ready to negotiate on the price for the second place. But we didn't like either of those places enough better to back out on the lease process on the Leesburg townhouse. Though if they'd been willing to negotiate on the price earlier, it would've been very tempting--a house (not a townhouse) in Purcellville.

The final event of November--exactly a month before the wedding--Jesse was my driver after I got my lower wisdom teeth and the other problem tooth extracted. Thursday morning, Jesse picked me up. We stopped in Purcellville to pick up my prescriptions, a few groceries (soft foods), and the tags we'd had printed for the favors. My mother had mailed me (on the previous Friday) something for my recovery, but unfortunately it didn't arrive until today. We made it to the oral surgeons in plenty of time. They took my money and made me a follow-up appointment for next week, before I went in for the extraction. I'd met the doctor previously, but Jesse got the chance to meet him, ask questions, and hear all the instructions for after the surgery. He was also good about distracting me by talking about the heart monitor, controlling heart rate, and how much he'd like the chance to go under general anesthesia.

I had no problems with the anesthesia. They poked me, put on the oxygen mask, and the next thing I knew I was waking up and Jesse was coming back in the room. It was only about 40 minutes later. He helped me out to the car. I was definitely wobbly, though I've felt worse some regular mornings waking up. We made a couple of short stops on the way home--I was fighting falling asleep all that time I wasn't actually asleep.

Jesse helped me get settled on the couch with some ice chips on my jaw/cheeks. I was out for about an hour or so when I woke up to cold water running down the front of my shirt. I changed out the ice bag with the hole and fell back asleep. It was about 5:00 when I woke up more completely. Jesse had gone into work for half a day, as he had some pressing deadlines. He did stop by again between work and clogging. And brought me some food I was craving after clogging.

It's now about 28 hours after the procedure. My mouth and jaw are a bit swollen, but haven't had any real pain. Hopefully it will continue this way and I'll be able to enjoy the bridal shower the church is throwing for us tomorrow morning!

One Month and Counting

Thursday, November 30 - 1 month to the wedding
Thursday, November 30 - 30 days to the wedding
Saturday, December 2 - 4 weeks to the wedding
In less than 696 hours, we'll be married.

There are some moments when that still seems like a long time away. There are other moments when it seems like not nearly enough time to do what still needs done and properly enjoy this time of anticipation.

In the last month:
- I received a visit from my Mom and my sister! They were both here for my bridal shower on the 11th with friends from work and clogging.
- I've had a seemingly un-ending saga with a bad tooth. (Hopefully I'll recover quickly from the extraction yesterday and get to feeling better very soon.)
- I signed the contract with the florist.
- Met with Beth about the food for the reception.
- We mailed the invitations out!! (And are getting back RSVP cards!)
- We wrote our vows. (Still need to run them by our pastor, I think.)
- Signed a lease for a rental townhouse in Leesburg. (Jesse plans to pick up the key today, I think!)
- Got out the thank you notes from the shower.
- Started putting together the favors. 2 boxes down, 5 to go.
- Put together the order of service, but still subject to changes.
- Got the major pieces of the rehearsal & dinner settled (time, place, etc). (Though just got an e-mail that might change some of that.)

Planned for the next few weeks:
- Finish the favors.
- Put together the final order of service & print the program.
- Announcements. Get them worded, printed, and addressed (including pulling together the needed addresses).
- Reception. Put together background music. Work out the order of events. Put together a slideshow of pictures.
- Get gifts for everyone involved in the wedding.

Oh yeah, I still need to go Christmas shopping. I'm sure there's lots more that I'm forgetting at the moment. But at the moment, it's feeling very manageable, in that I'm confident that everything that HAS to happen will happen. At some point, I may have to decide that some little things just aren't happening, and hopefully I'll be able to say that before we get too stressed.

2 Months and Counting

Monday, October 30 - 2 months to the wedding
Tuesday, October 31 - 60 days to the wedding
Saturday, November 4 - 8 weeks to the wedding

I was hoping that by today I'd be able to post that the the wedding invitations were all addressed and going into the mail within 24 hours. Well, my toothache and 25 "inner" envelopes that turned out to be outer envelopes have both slowed that down just a bit. Still, I have high hopes of having all the invitations in the mail by the end of the week.

Housing still isn't quite settled. Again, dental work for my toothache is causing a bit of a problem, among other complications. We think we have a decision made and then something comes up that the place isn't available. We keep praying about it and know that God has the place for us.

As the wedding continues to draw closer, details are more and more of what we need to work on:
- Making decisions about music and readings for the ceremony
- Making decisions about vows and rituals for the ceremony
- Preparing the order of service/program for the ceremony
- Finishing up the details of the favors
- Making final decisions about the flowers for the ceremony
- Working out arrangements for the rehearsal dinner
- Planning for all the little things around the wedding that we want to do while our families are in the area.

And, oh yeah, I still have to do Christmas shopping.

Invitations

This confession may not have a good effect on my macho reputation, but as the big date gets closer, I'm getting sappier. All the stuff I knew I would never do, I'm doing. I've got a picture of me and Charlessa for my computer background, and the next time Pat walks up and says "Wow, pretty girl, but who's that big ape holding her," he's going to get a fat lip! Actually, it just makes me grin like an idiot. I'm doodling hearts and C's on my notebook during meetings. I'm re-reading old emails from her. I'm doing that whole staring-into-her-eyes stuff. And of course lots of daydreaming.

The wedding had better hurry up or I'll be a complete mess! 64 more days!

As it is, I feel really lucky to have Charlessa. She's doing all the hard work for the wedding while I get to do cool stuff like plan the honeymoon and find housing, and Charlessa even did plenty for those. If any of you married women out there have stories about how your husbands were wonderful and so helpful with the wedding, please keep them to yourselves - I don't want to feel bad. :^D

The big thing that made me realize all this - invitations! I was going to be really nice and helpful and go address and fill out invitations last night.

Einstein, Bohr, and Planck together couldn't have figured out all those envelopes and inserts!

This gets folded like that; that only has the guest name on it; this has the guest name and address; make sure to follow proper standards for writing names and addresses; little (%$&*#!) piece of gauzy paper goes inside that (I'm skipping that!); and have an ID system for all the response cards so that if they leave off their name, you still know who it's from.

Steven Hawking couldn't develop a more complicated Superstring theory!

And as I'm fumbling around with them, Charlessa seems to know which piece goes where almost without looking. The only salve to my ego - God must have put a special set of "Wedding Invitation" genes into women and left them out of guys.

Here's my background picture. Can we all say WOW!

3 Months and Counting

Saturday, September 30: 3 months to the wedding.
Sunday, October 1: 90 days to the wedding.
Saturday, October 7: 12 weeks to the wedding.

Another month has flown by in wedding preparations. At this point, I think I've got all the major pieces covered and have shifted to working on more of the details. In the past month:

• Food. Confirmed that two of my clogging friends are willing to coordinate food. They are in the midst of preparing to serve 2,000 for lunch on Saturday, so we'll talk details after they recover from that. But I figure if they can handle 2,000 for lunch, surely they can handle a light reception for 200.
• Cake. I met with the cake decorator last week to discuss details of what we want and settle on price. I know her through BRBC and she was recommended to me by others who have had her do their wedding cakes. (Unrelated, her daughter, AG, started working for me in the library in August.)
• Photographer. Have a photographer that I know through BRBC agree to do our wedding. He traveling to a wedding the second weekend of October, so we'll talk more details after that.
• Videographer. I believe Jesse is confirming our videographer this week--another friend through BRBC who has done other weddings.
• Flowers. I met with the florist over the weekend to talk about some details. Expect to meet with her again in the next week or so to decide on more details.
• Sign Interpreter. Jesse has confirmed a sign interpreter for the wedding. His sister isn't sure she wants to have an interpreter, but I'd rather have one available and leave that decision to the last moment.
• Hair stylist. It looks like a former PHC student will be doing the hair styling for myself and my sisters (bridesmaids) for the wedding.
• Guest List/Invitations. Over the last week or so, I finally (with much help from Jesse) got all of my guest list names compiled in one place. Last night, I ordered the invitations. At the moment, the number of invited guests on the list is just under 440. Hopefully, I haven't missed too many people. Since the church doesn't actually seat 400 and their reception hall doesn't either, we are counting on a number of people not being able to make it due to distance or timing. But I expect we'll be able to handle everyone that does come!

Nothing definite has been settled for plans beyond the wedding. We continue to discuss various ideas for the honeymoon. I think we have narrowed our decision down, but nothing completely settled. Housing is also something we continue to investigate. We looked at one basement apartement just over a week ago. There's a possibility that we'll be looking at a couple of apartments or townhouses in the next week or so.

We had our third pre-marital counseling meeting last night. I still find it a bit uncomfortable when I have to admit that I didn't learn anything about myself or Jesse in going through the prep materials for the session. The session was focused on the fact that marriage involves leaving your parents/family and accepting your mate as from God. Well, we are both living independently already, so not a lot of "leaving" issues to address. We've both been raised in Christian homes that believed and taught us of the permanence of marriage, so no revelations in the committing to your mate part either. Next week should be a big one--looking at individual expectations going into the marraige. Expectations like roles in the marriage (from who cleans the bathroom to who keeps the finances), standard of living (where, how quickly, what type of furnishings), and a bunch more. As soon as I find the time to go through it for myself, I'll be looking forward to discussing it!

Still Alive

OK. It's been a bit since either of us have actually posted anything on this blog. We trust that our individual blogs have kept you informed of our continued existence and assured our distant readers that life is good.

After spending a week together with my family in Kansas. We came back and our schedules continued to work out that we could spend time together everyday for several weeks. When the weekend earlier this month came that we wouldn't see each other for three days, I "complained" about it to my mom. She wasn't very sympathetic to my plight.

Today looks to be another one of those rare days when we won't see each other. After work, he's picking up Jer and I'm having a library staff meeting. After that, he and Jer are attending a new home group our church is starting while I'm going home to clean for the arrival of my sister. After that, he'll be taking Jer home to go to bed and I'll be heading to the airport to pick up my sister.

On the upside, tomorrow, we are all planning on attending the annual pig roast that's held in my front yard (literally). Lots of friends! Lots of good food!

I've been feeling better the last week or so about wedding planning, but I'll leave the details of that update for my count-down post in a week or so.

The house hunting is at a slow point. By one manner or another, all of the houses we've considered buying have been eliminated from consideration, at least for the time being. There don't seem to be many houses being put up for sale, at least in our price range.

Without houses on the market to look at and the wedding getting closer, it seems like a natural time to start looking at rental places a bit more seriously--an option we expected to start considering within the next month anyway.

We also have started pre-marital counseling. We had the second of seven meetings at the beginning of the week. As assigned, we'd answered some questions and exchanged our answers before the meeting. The questions were largely focused on general family history. When we got to our meeting and Pastor asked "What did you learn new about the other person." I almost felt like I'd missed something, cause I couldn't really say that I had "learned" anything. But then they reminded us that we are coming into this after a full year of dating and a total of nearly six years of friendship--time we've had for exchanging stories, anecdotes, and tales that many couples who are beginning pre-marital counseling have not had.

And when Pastor asked each of us we are still planning to get married, we both said, "Yes."

4 Months and Counting

Wed, August 30: 4 months to the wedding.
Fri, September 1: 120 days to the wedding.
Sat, Sept 9: 16 weeks to the wedding.

Well, more items have been crossed off the list in the last month than in the month before.
Done:

• my dress
• bridesmaids dresses
• tuxes (thanks, Jesse!)
• rings
• guest book (thanks, Mom!)
• color scheme (determined by bridesmaid dresses)
• slippers/shoes for me, bridesmaids, and Mom

In Progress:

• Musicians for ceremony (Looks like we'll get a cello quartet! :)
• food (getting ideas formed, need to arrange more help)
• cake (this has been on the bottom of the list, not much has happened here)
• photographer (have about 3 names and am working on talking to each)
• videographer (have a couple of names, need to decide if we can afford)
• flowers (been watching for pics, need to pull them together and talk with florist)
• guest list (I have most of the info in my possession, need to get it into a manageable list)
• sign interpreter (Jesse is following up on possiblible names.)
• hair dresser (Need to decide if we want one and find one.)
• honeymoon (Narrowing down ideas, still rather vague.)
• housing (to rent or to buy, that is the question....and where in N. VA?)

Then there is various detail stuff:

• veil & tiara (Mom's working on veil. I need to decide on tiara.)
• jewelry for me/bridesmaids (Looked at a couple of possibilities.)
• ring pillow (Mom's working on it.)
• Decorations for reception (We've got so many ideas, it's coordinating them to work together.)
• Ceremony order & wording (Borrowed a couple of books, including the pastor's for ideas)
• And so much more!.....order invitations, create ceremony programs, create & address announcements, bridal showers, marriage license, and all the resultant thank you notes!

Time to quit thinking about everything that needs done and go back to working on the next item on the list!

Week at Home Summary

If you want more details, you can enjoy Jesse's perspective or wade through my full account of wedding shopping.

I enjoyed 10 days at home (Aug 3-12), but especially enjoyed having Jesse and Jer come out for the last 6 days (Aug 7-12).

Highlights of the trip included:

• Wedding shopping. My gown, the bridesmaid dresses, and the wedding rings are ready for the wedding. Also picked up a wedding book, cake topper, disposable table clothes, announcement paper, some silk flowers, and various other decorative detail items. Worked on colors for mints, veil, and brainstorming ideas for the ceremony and reception.
• Fun at the fair. Including attending the style review (Great job, L!) and royalty crowning. Seeing lots of exhibits--food, photo, clothing, and much more. Visiting the animals for the competition (cows, pigs, sheep) and in the petting area (ducks, kittens, donkey, turtle). Eating free food! Visiting with lots of family, friends, and acquaintances.
• Fun at home. Playing with the ducks, watching the storms, shooting the paintball gun, playing games.
• Visiting family and friends, including Grandma, Great-aunt Marie, and Everett.
• A double date with my parents for sharing of experiences and advice. OK, I really enjoyed it. Jesse said he enjoyed it, but maybe he was just saying that to be polite. Advice from future in-laws isn't necessarily "enjoyable" even when it is all phrased positively and constructively. It might be more accurate from his perspective to say it went well and wasn't unpleasant.
• Flying home together on Saturday. There were some doubts as to whether that would happen, as all three tickets were purchased separately. The computer bumped Jer to an earlier connection for the second leg of the trip. Of course, he can't fly by himself! It took Jesse an hour and talking to at least 5 different people to get his ticket changed to be on the same flight as Jer's. (Under some unexplained airline reasoning, Jer's ticket could not be changed back to the later flight, even though there were seats on the flight.) Then I was able to get onto the earlier flight flying standby. It was very nice to be arriving in Dulles at the same time we were originally scheduled to still be laying over in Chicago!

5 Months and Counting

By the calendar, this past Saturday was 22 weeks until the wedding.
By date, Sunday, July 30th was 5 months until the wedding.
By days, tomorrow is 150 days until the wedding.
I'm leaving on Thursday to visit my family in Kansas. The Saturday I return (Aug 12) is 20 weeks before the wedding.

I can't say I've crossed much off my to-do list from last month. Most of my accomplishments in the last 4 weeks have revolved around just making some initial contacts and starting to get some ideas about what we want to do for the wedding. I spent an evening looking through cake books. I've spent 3 evenings/afternoons bridal gown shopping (and countless hours looking at bridal gowns on the Internet). I spent an evening going through books with ideas for flowers. I've spent several hours looking through photography websites and portfolios.

At the moment, I'm excited about the fact that I expect it will work out for us to have a cello quartet for our ceremony music. Jesse and I spent the other evening going through some possible music for the ceremony.

Also in the music considerations, yes, the Blue Ridge Thunder Cloggers will be performing at our reception.

And while I've been working on ceremony and reception details, Jesse has been exploring possible honeymoon destinations and housing options. Nothing definite in those areas yet either, but making progress in figuring out the realistic from the dream.

6 months and counting

183 Days until December 30. [No, I didn't figure that out myself--one of the features of a wedding planning site.]

Considering that I didn't get serious about wedding planning until less than two weeks ago, I think things are going ok.

Accomplished:
- Pastor
- Church
- Reception hall (at church)
- Attendants decided on
- Invitations & wording selected, I believe
- Colors narrowed down to 2-3 choices. May depend somewhat on what we find for bridesmaid dresses in August.
- Started working on guest lists.
- Started a gift registry

Still to do:
- Cake
- Other food & drink for reception
- Photographer
- Bridesmaid dresses
- Bride's gown
- Attire for groom and groomsmen
- Pre-marital counseling (Have the book. Scheduled to start meeting in August, after everyone's vacations.)
- Music
- Flowers
- Favors
- Accomodations for out-of-town guests
- A minor million other details.

Am I ready to elope? Nope. As long as I work on one thing at a time, I'm having fun. And as I'm a big family person, I really can't imagine the day being quite as perfect without my family there to share it.

I promise I'll post something besides wedding stuff next time!

The Story: The Big Day

We've got a little announcement to make:

We've tentatively set our wedding date for December 30th!

Jesse: What, you didn't know we got engaged? Yup, she said yes on Thursday night, after clogging! I had a great little speech all memorized, and then promptly forgot it when I went to ask.

Charlessa: He SAYS he forgot the speech. When I read it later, I think there was only one sentence he forgot.

J We've probably spent more time in the clogging barn together than just about anywhere else, so it was an appropriate place to pop the big question. Just one little snag: they wouldn't stop talking!! Mary, Joyce, and Beth usually stay around for a bit after clogging before they leave us for the evening. THIS time though, they decided to talk for an extra hour! I had the ring burning a hole in my pocket, butterflies holding a party in my stomach, and I had to sit there waiting for them to stop talking!!!! Aack!

C: Before I'd left work, I'd caught Jesse's blog post saying "today is the big day." He just didn't say a big day for what. Then after clogging, he changed back into his work clothes--a bit unusual. I was suspecting, but didn't want to presume or start thinking about it too much, afraid I'd end up disappointed if it was something more mundane.

J: I had picked up the ring last Friday, so I had been carrying it around for a couple days. There were several times that I had almost pulled it out to ask the question ahead of time. The 18th was exactly 9 months since I had first asked Charlessa out. Probably the hardest time to resist was when we were watching a movie one evening and I actually had it in my pocket. (thankfully on the side away from Charlessa!) But when I actually did ask, I'm glad I waited - I got to experience the full blast of nervousness and anticipation! It was getting late and I knew I would have to ask right away or not at all that day. I was looking forward to this more than anything else, but I still almost chickened out! I think the girls have the easy part - they only have one word to say, we have the whole speech and knee and ring deal we have to take care of. Do you have any idea how hard it is to coordinate knees, mouth and hands when you're trembling like a leaf!?!

C: I had a meeting in Charlottesville (2.5 hours away) the next morning that meant I had to be on the road by 7:30 Friday AM. I had decided early in the day that I would need to leave the clogging barn earlier than usual and try to be in bed by midnight to be up the next morning. I knew that if "the day" was what I suspected, there was practically no way a midnight bedtime would happen! So when it was 11:00 before everyone else left and it was getting to be 11:30, I figured a midnight bedtime was a good way to force the topic.

J: And I appreciate it! Once I got started, it wasn't so bad, but trying to figure out how to start was a killer! Of course I had a great scenario worked out in my mind how it would seamlessly happen, but of course as I was trying to remember how I had planned to start off, I came up with a total blank. So, there I was on one knee and I hadn't the foggiest clue what I was going to say! And by this point it was obviously too late to get back up and try to shrug it off. So I said something, but I'll be darned if I can remember what it was! The important thing was that she said yes though, so whatever came out it must have been intelligible.

C: Yes, it was intelligible, intelligent, and sweet. And of course, it concluded with the important question. At that point, my ability to think coherently was pretty much gone. The only thing I could remember was that I wanted to say "yes."

J: Well, I like that! She can't think straight so she says yes! Well, thinking straight or not I'm glad that she said yes. And it's too late to take it back now - she's stuck! We finished up the evening with a couple more hours of talk and phone calls to parents before we finally took off. And then we were supposed to get some sleep after all that?! Huh. I eventually got to sleep, but still woke up a few times during the night thinking about it - I'm engaged!!!! Woot!

C:Sleep did seem like an impossibility! I think I managed to actually be in bed for 4 hours that night. Time asleep? Not that much. I did make it down to Charlottesville and managed (I think) to be coherent for the meeting, even if slightly distracted. I had a constant reminder on my finger that my life was changing, even if it hadn't completely sunk in.

So nine monthes after we started off, here we are planning the wedding. We've started the announcement going around, but figure that there will still be a few people that we'll forget, so if you're one of those who just found out, sorry!

We've had just over 40 hours, and we're starting to work out some of the details like when and where. Check back for further details!

Dating is nice. Engaged is GOOD! Can't wait for MARRIED!!

Continue: The Story: Jesse's Wrap-Up

Another Wedding!

Congratulations to Jeremy and Jessica Cole! They had a beautiful wedding, the first one held in the new Blue Ridge Bible Church building! Then to PHC for the reception which was wonderful! I was feeling sorry for Jeremy and Jessica though during their reception line - they had a lot of guests and it took a LONG time for everyone to go by and offer their congratulations. I'm thinking that's a perfectly valid reason for having a smaller wedding!

There are some great pictures taken that are on display at:
Jeanette's Blog
Janessa's Thoughts

But my favorite pictures was taken by Sarah Mehrens. Thanks!!

Whose cake?

I didn't notice the coincidence of initials until this week. Honest. :)