Venue: Concorde Banquets, Chicago, Illinois
Keith and I met when we were 14 years old and we both say that we would never have guessed that we would one day be husband and wife. Our wedding day was one of the best days of our lives because we got to publicly declare before God and our family that we promised to love and cherish each other forever.
Our wedding day was one of emotion, both joy and tears. We had waited and planned for the day for about seven months and we were so excited when it finally came. One of the funniest moments of the day was when we were all dressed and ready and our photographer Toby was ready to start taking pictures of me and the bridesmaids. He immediately found what he called "a rare spot" in my parents' bedroom where "natural light" was coming in from their skylight. Toby was very excited about the natural light! He told us all to gather tightly so he could use the natural light. The funny part was that this was in a small part of my parents' vanity and bathroom area and all of us girls fit, but then there wasn't much room for Toby. But he really wanted to get these pictures, so he was actually sitting in the sink in my parents' bathroom, and at times standing on the vanity to try to be far enough back to get all of us girls in the picture, yet still get the natural light! We were all cracking up because here is our photographer actually sitting in the sink just to get a great picture! The pictures did turn out great; some of my favorites are of me and the girls.
Although the day was filled with extreme joy, there were many tears shed during the ceremony. My dad and I have talked about how the moment he and I began our walk down the aisle, it was all over — we couldn't hold back the tears. The most emotional moment for Keith and me was when we recited our personally written vows to each other. They were true expressions of the promises that we intend to keep for one another for as long as we are alive. That moment of exchanging vows was very intimate: though there were hundreds of people watching, the only person I noticed was Keith. I didn't even notice that our friends and family were just as emotional as we were. I found this out when people came up to Keith and me after the ceremony and told us what an emotional ceremony it was and how they couldn't help but cry because of the emotion they felt.
One of my favorite moments was when our pastor told us that one of the photographers came up to him after the wedding and said, "What happened in that ceremony? I have been doing weddings for years and I have never seen a ceremony so emotional, where everyone was affected." Without hesitation, our pastor said, "Jesus was here." I began to tear up when he told me that story because more than anything about that day Keith and I wanted the Lord to be apart of it. We know that He is the one that brought us together and will keep us together.
Another moment in our ceremony that helped dry up the tears was after Keith and I had presented our mom's with their flowers, hugged our parents, and then made our way back up to the altar. At that point Pastor Oris was nowhere to be seen. The musical piece had now stopped and Keith and I looked at each other like we didn't know what to do. We thought we had forgotten something we were supposed to do from the rehearsal. So we turned around to our friends and family with confused looks on our faces and everyone started laughing. Keith dad yelled out, "Do you want me to tell a joke?" Everyone was really laughing at this point and then Pastor Oris came running back into the church. He was laughing himself as he explained to everyone that he had gone to get the bread and wine for Communion but the door was locked, so he had run to get the key from his office, which is why it all took so long.
There were many more unique moments in our wedding, from our best man having to leave because he felt like he was going to pass out, to Keith's little nephew taking the microphone the DJ had laid on the table and starting to sing "The Wheels on the Bus" at our reception. All of these imperfect moments made our wedding perfect in our eyes. Thank you, Bella, for capturing all of our wedding moments in a very creative way!
