My Love Story: The Wedding {chapter 12}

This is the story of how my crush became my husband. It has been a pleasure to share a new piece of the puzzle with you every Wednesday for the past several weeks. Need to catch up? Here is last week’s post: Engaged.  Do you want to read my real life love story from the beginning?  Start here with The Window.

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I crawled through his window.  I fell for him hard, but thought for sure he wasn’t interested in me.  Boy, was I wrong!  We kissed on night number one.  We said good bye, not once, but twice.  We jumped on planes and saw the world.  We fell madly in love and I said yes.  Then it was time for us to say, “I do.”

Nate and I were married outside in my parent’s yard on a beautiful September day.  The ceremony took place under a huge weeping willow tree.  As a little girl, I had played under that tree for hours.  It was a perfect day filled with family, friends, and lots of happy tears.

We were unconventional with our bridal party’s attire.  I asked the girls to buy any black dress.  I wanted them to have more control over the cost and fit of the dress.  I told them it had to be a dress they would want to wear again and I gave them some guidelines for hem length.  Nate and the groomsmen wore khaki pants and Mexican wedding shirts.

I asked both of my parents to walk me down the aisle.  They stopped half way.  Then Nate walked rest of the way back up the aisle to greet me and we walked the rest of the way together.  I loved the symbolism of us walking this path together.  It felt so romantic to have him come and get me.  I cried big time.  Yep.  Big time.

Our ceremony was my favorite part about the wedding day.  Nate and I wrote letters to each other that we read out loud during the ceremony.  Neither one of us could get through the letters without crying.  It was a beautiful moment.

The letters were quite long, but here are just a few of the things we shared.

When I think about the step we are taking together, I have to admit that it is a little scary.  I don’t feel like I am old enough to be a wife.  Thinking of myself as married causes images in my mind to flash of me as a 42 year old woman making a roast for Sunday dinner.  The whole idea is just a little intimidating.  But no matter how scary or intimidating marriage may seem to me, nothing is scarier than the idea of living life without you by my side.  It is in your eyes and your arms that I feel the safest.  It is having you in my future that makes the unknown ahead exciting and not frightening.  It is your gentleness and kindness that makes my worse days seem ok.  You are the man that I want to father my children.  I want to travel the world with you and seek God with you.  Today in front of all of our family and friends, I choose you.  – Rebekah

I’ve said I love you a thousand times.  I’ve stared lovingly into your beautiful, blue eyes and today here I stand in front of all of our loved ones professing my love for you, but even this moment does not give justice to my love for you.  Rebekah, one of the greatest testimonies of God’s goodness is that he has placed you in my life.  Thank you for the awesome and incredible way that you have loved me throughout our relationship. I love you with all of my heart.  I love your touch, I love your humor, and I love your sense of self. I deeply admire your faith and the importance that you place on family.  I enjoy your individuality and your flair for the dramatic.  You are always going to be my girl.  Forever you will be my best friend and soon you will be my wife.  Let us never stop laughing together.  Let us never stop crying together.  Let us always remember what brought us here today. – Nate

Instead of having a unity candle, we planted a fern that we brought back to our apartment.  Just last month Nate asked whatever happened to that plant.  I laughed and then showed him where it was in the dining room.  It is still alive after all these years, but apparently we don’t treasure it that much.

We also left stones at the base of the tree at my parents’ house.  They had words like LOVE, JOY, and HOPE on them.  We left them there to mark this as our special, sacred place.  I think it makes my parents a bit nervous to have these precious stones in their yard, but they haven’t lost them yet!  (We bought our stones at Ten Thousand Villages, but you can find similar ones on Amazon.)

Looking back, I am still so incredibly grateful for Nate.  I feel so blessed that he picked me to be his wife and the mother of his children.  He is a remarkable man.  In fact, he is such a nice guy that he doesn’t even realize that I got the better end of the deal.

This is the end of “My Love Story,” but really it is just the beginning.  UPDATE: A brand new chapter to this series has been added.

Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.  Thank you for supporting Simply Rebekah!  All photos are by Amanda Faye Photography.