wedding

I’ve been looking through my wedding pictures again. I can’t believe it was almost a year ago. This is one of my new favorites even though Josh isn’t even in the picture. (Photo taken by: Brad Neal)

I’m pretty sure I’m hugging my father-in-law. Jess and Emmy Lou are waiting next to me with my hair pin and flip flops. My dad is in the background, trying to get it together. Look at my pretty little momma in her pink dress, smiling…

This makes me happy. That day really was perfect…

I think it was my Junior year in college that I was feeling pretty down about not having a boyfriend. Valentine’s Day was coming up and I had the usual feelings of “I hate this holiday”. The dorm was doused in red hearts and everyone (at least it seemed like everyone) had a significant other.

V-Day finally rolled around and I grumbled through most of the day feeling sorry for myself. Late in the afternoon I got back from class and headed to check for mail. I pulled out a wonderful little slip of paper that said I had a package. (Package slips were the best thing to get in your mailbox.) I went to the desk to get my package and Cindy the secretary brought out a bouquet of beautiful flowers. A couple girls were walking past and came over to check them out. They asked me who they were from and I said honestly that I didn’t know. More people gathered… I opened the card. It said:

“Happy Valentine’s Day! To my favorite daughter. Love, Dad”

Collectively we all sighed “awww”. At that moment I realized that maybe I didn’t have a boyfriend because of my dad. My dad had set such a high standard for me. He always treated my mom so well and with such respect. I knew that I wanted that and not just some stupid boy.

Luckily I waited and didn’t settle. Now I’m married to my best friend who is more like my dad than I care to admit. But I’m so thankful to my Dad…my very first Valentine.

Josh and I still had a gift certificate to K’s Merchandise from our wedding. On Sunday I saw in their ad this votive holder. I have longed for a similar one at Pottery Barn for about two years now. The one from K’s is only $25 compared to PB’s $100! We got it on Sunday and it makes the living room look so cozy. I love the warm glow from it. (The walls are actually beige, not orange.)

There’s one missing on ours because we broke it while putting the thing together. Good thing for super glue!

The photographer has finished our wedding album (except for some minor adjustments). You can view it here. He’ll send the pages away and in about a month we’ll have our album! I’m so excited…I think it turned out great. Check out page 10, my hubby looks like a model!

Updated Flickr with some honeymoon pictures.

Today I am leaving work early to go get my name officially changed. First I have to go to the County Clerk’s office which is downtown to pick up our marriage certificate, then I drive to the other side of town to the Social Security office and then I have to drive to the exact opposite end to the DMV. Sounds like lots of fun, doesn’t it? But Josh is going with me so we’ll still have a good time. Maybe it’ll hit me when I am legally a Knight. I still giggle when I get to say he’s my husband. It has only been two weeks. Only? Good grief, I can’t believe it’s been two weeks already!

I’m working on loading some candid wedding pictures into Flickr. It’s funny because three different cameras so far have captured about the same look on my face. I was a little happy that day! Actually this has probably been the best 13 days of my life because I’ve been married to Josh.

I finally think I have time to write about the wedding. It’s only been 11 days…that’s not so bad. Saturday, July 9th I woke up just like any other day and laid in bed thinking about what I would be doing that day. It only took a few seconds to realize that it was my wedding day! I sat up in bed and then realized it was like 6:00 in the morning but I didn’t care. I finally went into the spare room and woke up Jess. “I’m getting married today!!!” She just laughed at me. So I hopped in the shower and the bridesmaids eventually started arriving around 9:00. Morgan, our hair girl and her sister Becca showed up to beautify us. When we weren’t getting our hair done we were watching the Friends episodes leading up to Chandler and Monica’s wedding. My favorite part that I had to watch a few times was when Monica runs out of the bedroom and yells, “I’m getting married today!” and then trips over a piece of furniture. Totally something I would do. FINALLY it was time to put on my dress. I got into it and the girls laced me up. Once the dress was on I was SO ready to go to the church. Brad, my photographer, came over to take some pictures. He kept saying, “Softer smile” but I couldn’t, I was just cheesing like crazy! In the pictures there are a couple where I look terrible, like I’m mad at the world but really it’s just me trying extremely hard not to grin from ear to ear.

The guys were suppose to be out at the church at 1:00 so we left about 15 minutes early so I didn’t run into Josh in the parking lot or something. The girls piled me into the backseat of my car and Jess drove us to the church. As we were pulling up I see some tuxes walking into the church so I start yelling, “The guys, the guys!” Jess parked, located Josh, sent him to the sanctuary, came back and got me, put me in a room and then got Josh. Ha. She was awesome. So I’m standing in this conference room waiting for my future husband to come in. I kept fidgeting, fixing my veil, dabbing my eyes, adjusting my dress… Those 60 seconds felt like days. And then the door opened and there he was…walking in looking as handsome as ever… He had the biggest smile on his face and I could see tears in his eyes. For the longest time we kind of just stood there and looked at each other. Finally Josh said, “I’m speechless. You look . . . amazing.” And all I could say was, “My dress is strapless!” (I never wanted a strapless dress and Josh knew that so he never expected it to be.) He walked over to me and pulled me into a hug. Yep, then I started crying. It was a really special moment that I’ll never forget. We spent some time in there alone and then we headed out to the hallway. I turned around and there was my dad walking down the hallway. I just then realized that I hadn’t seen him yet and I could tell he was crying. We didn’t say anything just hugged and cried really hard. Even now thinking about it makes me choked up…

We started pictures as soon as everyone was ready. They went really quickly and it seemed like everyone was having a good time. It helped that we weren’t doing your typical posed shots. We finished pictures up and had to wait around FOREVER (only like 45 minutes) for the ceremony to start. I sat in the conference room with some of my bridesmaids and my mom just waiting…and waiting. My mom kept asking me if I was okay because I got really quiet. I think I was just so ready to get the show on the road… Finally someone came to the door and said, “It’s time. We’re going to be starting.” I waited just around the corner as my bridesmaids lined up. My dad paced back and forth and kept asking me if I was ready. And then there’s that moment where the ushers closed the door and my dad and I walked around the corner. I put my arm through his and we stopped. I couldn’t believe that I was finally to that point. We heard the music start and finally the ushers opened the door. My dad and I stepped through the doors as everyone stood in the sanctuary. In that instant I looked up at Josh and started to cry a little bit. My dad was doing his best not to cry. We walked down the aisle and I don’t remember anything but looking at Josh. My dad and I got to the end of aisle and Pastor Jack started the ceremony. Before my dad could give me away Jack spoke and then said a prayer. During the prayer my dad reached up with his right hand and held onto my hand that was through his arm. At that point there were just tears streaming down my face. I found out later that my little brother who was standing up with Josh saw that and got pretty choked up as well.

The ceremony itself was beautiful. It felt like Jack was giving his little sermon just to Josh and I and everyone else was just there to listen. Tony sang the song that he wrote for us which was absolutely perfect. When Tony got up there he said how he wrote this song for us and that we mean a lot to him. He got pretty choked up and you could tell he was having a hard time getting out the words. I looked over at Josh and he just lost it for a second. I whispered, “The song hasn’t even started yet!” We both pulled it together though and Tony sounded amazing.

One of things I had been worried about before was crying too hard to say my vows. But when it came time for them I actually did pretty good. Of course I was choked up but I spoke clearly to which Josh said later that he was surprised and very impressed. During the exchanging of rings Josh tried to put my ring on my right hand so I had to whisper, “Left hand, left hand” but it was really cute. And then the moment Josh and I had been waiting for was finally there. Jack pronounced us husband and wife. I can’t ever remember smiling that big. We kissed and turned around to face everyone. Pastor Jack introduced as us Mr. and Mrs. Joshua Knight and we got huge applause. “All You Need is Love” by The Beatles started playing we walked back down the aisle as husband and wife.

Out in the foyer it was chaos…hugs all around. Of course my parents were crying but surprisingly when Josh’s parents came out from the sanctuary they both had tears in their eyes. Josh and I dismissed everyone row by row which was a cool way to see everyone that came.

The reception was perfect. It was so nice to have everything in the same place. The women’s fellowship did the catering and the food was delicious. The servers were on the ball getting everything out quickly. The place looked so nice with all the candles on the tables. I had put together a picture slideshow of Josh and I as kids so that was played after dinner. It turned out to be a huge hit. We feed each other cake and none of that shoving in faces…that’s not us. Jess and Chunk both gave very nice toasts. Soon it was time for the first dance. Josh and I took two dance lessons right before the wedding and didn’t tell anyone. Not even my mom knew what song we were dancing to. I was pretty nervous that we would just look like we didn’t know what we were doing but as soon as “My Girl” by The Temptations started, I just couldn’t help but have fun. We did okay remembering our steps but about halfway through I stepped out of my flip flop and had to try to get it back on quickly. We were laughing the whole time. I thought people were just going to think it was dumb that we tried but I’ve heard most people thought it was really cute and it looked like we were having a good time. It was fun though but definitely more difficult in my dress! The father/daughter dance was next and my dad and I cried through the whole thing. Although now when asked about the wedding my dad will say in a macho voice, “I was a rock.” Sure, Dad. We did a special anniversary dance for all couples married in July since both sets of parents were married during that month. The weekend before us was a couples’ 50th wedding anniversary. They have been like grandparents to me so I had the DJ say something special for them. It was so sweet to see my parents, Josh’s…the other couples all dancing to “The Luckiest” by Ben Folds.

The rest of the night went great. There was quite a bit of dancing especially by the Knight clan who looked to be having a great time. My brother did a Napoleon Dynamite dance to “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai. He had told me before that he was going to but I didn’t believe him. He got out there and kicked butt on the dance floor with everyone in a circle around him. Hilarious. I laughed SO hard. I had such a blast dancing. Everything I had ever heard was no matter how bad of a dancer the bride is she still looks great. So I remembered that and I boogied down. So much fun.

Once the party was wrapping up our parents helped us load the gifts in my car (which by the way, was decorated with toilet paper and complete with cans tied to the back). Josh and I got back to my apartment and sat at my kitchen table eating ham sandwiches and drinking champagne.

The day was so special and I really couldn’t have asked for things to go any smoother. I remembered to take everything in. Although the day sped by I don’t feel like it’s a blur. It was so fantastic to see all of my friends and visit with so many people. Jess was the best maid of honor ever…before I could even finish saying what I needed she would have it in my hand. Josh and I are so blessed to have friends like Jess and the others in the wedding and families like we do. My parents are exceptional people and because of them our day was everything we could have wanted it to be.

I am so lucky to have married my best friend.

Alright folks, you asked for it…my wedding pictures are up and going. Here’s the link: (removed). There’s over 700 pictures so please don’t look through them all but you can browse the index and then click on pictures to see them larger. Enjoy! (Page 10 starts some good pictures of Josh and I together…)

I’m still planning on writing all about the wedding but for now the pictures will have to suffice. I’m trying to get back into the swing of work… blah. But luckily our luggage was delivered last night.

We’re back in good ‘ol Illinois. And it’s great to be home… My parents are completely and utterly amazing. They got us groceries and my apartment hasn’t been this clean since I moved in. What a nice surprise to come home to especially when the airport lost our luggage which completely sucks. I don’t even have a toothbrush. I called this morning and they’ve located ONE of the two bags and it’ll be in at 5:00. Grrrr… I was so wiped out last night that I couldn’t help crying when we realized our luggage wasn’t with us. Hopefully it won’t take two weeks to get like one of my dad’s co-workers…all of my good clothes are in there! Well I have loads to write about with the wedding and honeymoon so as soon as I get a minute to think I will get on that.