We're married!

The day finally came and now, Nate and I are husband and wife. Yay! We had a wonderful wedding week and a beautiful wedding that we both really enjoyed. It was amazing to have so many great family and friends together for the big day - what a blessing. After all of our planning, the day went very smoothly (I can't really think of anything big that went wrong) and I wasn't stressed at all the week of the wedding. I was SO thankful for this. The ceremony and reception were exactly what we had envisioned and they were both a reflection of who we are as a couple and what we value.

We both have agreed that the wedding was one of the most exhausting things we've ever been through. The combination of spending so much time with family and friends and not being able to sleep because of the sheer excitement meant that we were extremely over tired by the time we left the reception. Thankfully we had a wonderful and relaxing honeymoon in Los Cabos, Mexico planned for the following week!

Here are a few photo highlights from the wedding... (Photos from friends are just now trickling in.)

Listening to the message from our pastor, Thomas Gold

Watching the musicians. On the left is my sister and matron of honor, Crista.

Pouring the unity salt - two colors of salt meshing together to symbolize our lives being melded into one. It was poured on a foundation of white sand to represent God as our foundation.

Departing the church for the reception.

The bridal party!

Cute pic with my cousins' girls - Natalie and Amy.

Posing at the reception with my bridesmaid, Sarah, who flew from Moscow, Russia to be there!

Posing with my beautiful bouquet!

A special performance by the Veerman brothers... It garnered many laughs!

Our final dance before departing the reception...

lindy hop (8-count swing) to the song "The Best is Yet to Come".

Here are a few photo highlights from the honeymoon in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico.

Visiting a blown glass factory in Cabo San Lucas

America's Cup Sailing Adventure

Riding a dune buggy through the desert to a large canyon...

Then ziplining through the canyon!

Self portrait on the beach

The view from our balcony

Next week, everything changes!

It definitely hit me this past Monday – Nate and I are getting married next week. WOW! After 8 months of being engaged and many more months of anticipating engagement and dreaming about our future together, we are just days away from beginning our lives as husband and wife. If you were to ask me how I’m feeling right now, I would probably list emotions such as excited, nervous, overjoyed, eager, mildly anxious, and impatient. We are so ready to be there and at this point, it just feels like the days are dragging by! And then, when we each walk out of work next Tuesday and enjoy the rest of the week with family and friends, I’m sure it will fly by so quickly we can hardly keep up with it all.

It’s interesting, as our engagement is coming to a close, to reflect back on this time we’ve had to prepare. I cannot tell you how many times people said to me, “Enjoy this special time of preparation! Don’t get too stressed! This is such a fun time for you both!” Overall, these are good words of wisdom because it is a special time – to begin making plans together and to create a day to celebrate your marriage. But…I have to admit that engagement definitely wore on us after awhile and it was harder than I expected it to be. We’re both tired of being in limbo and waiting for our lives to start. We feel like everything is kind of put on hold until the wedding and then we can move on and face the joys and challenges of marriage. So, for all of you engaged couples out there, I have one thing to say: It’s ok if you don’t like being engaged after awhile. Don’t feel bad for admitting it, just because everyone tells you’re supposed to enjoy it. It’s hard to wait, but it will get better!

One thing that I am currently very thankful for: I am not stressed or overwhelmed. I worked hard so that these last few weeks, I wouldn’t be very busy and, in fact, I’ve run out of things to do. My tasks for this weekend are limited to cleaning my house and car before guests arrive late next week. Yay for planning ahead!

we are to that point

We are to the point where whenever we say our wedding date, the other person's eyes get really big and they say something like, "wow that is really soon!" I think it is one of the only times that we as a couple are wandering around on the cusp of a major life change and don't really physically appear to be there yet. For example, if we were having baby, it would be pretty obvious if you just looked at Bethany (especially 3 weeks before the due date!). I guess maybe we would be in this position if we were adopting a child. But even that is so much more private, there isn't the same comparison.

It is a fascinating proposition, to stare at yourself in the mirror and say, "I am right on the edge of a story that I will tell for the rest of my life." There is a surreal quality to all of this. I felt this way acutely when I was in Bosnia for my internship. People would tell me, and I would tell myself, that this experience will shape how I view the world for a long time. So what exactly does the monumental feel like? Is it supposed to be that much different than a normal Tuesday?

I guess I am just marveling at the fact that in the end it will be exactly like everyone says. I will forget what I did most Tuesdays or even most Saturday nights for that matter. But on April 18th something mystical and lovely is going to happen. And it will shape how I think and feel and see the world for the rest of my life. And there really isn't anything that I can do to make most Saturdays more normal and that day any less abnormal - in a good way. I think the best I can do is to ride it out. Ride the emotional and surreal waves of life and drink what I can from those cups while they are my table for that day.