May 15, 2014
This is the hardest part…putting the story of what we captured into words…because it’s so difficult to find letters and sentences to explain things felt so strongly by the heart.
I showed up at the Lodge to find Andrew with shaky hands searching for suspenders, a bow tie, and packing up the clothes from the night before. He was calm, but I could feel this overwhelming sense of his emotions…he was excited, nervous, overwhelmed, ready, and then….there was this peace in eyes overflowing with gratefulness…
Because there he was…in his wedding day attire… swarmed by the family and friends that love him most, finding ways to serve him, to run his errands, to take his bags, to hold his possessions until the next day when he would inevitably hug those people with the weight of something new on his finger.
This day had been waiting for Andrew for 27 years….and he had arrived.
And then there was Rachel…. a ray of light…. who was calm, confidant, excited, overwhelmed, and also…surrounded by women who loved her, who painted her nails for her, prepped her hair, and helped mold her story of change, creativity, and love.
So you can imagine the emotions when Rachel slipped her hands under Andrew’s arms for the first time. You know that feeling….when all the nerves subside and all the feelings you’ve ever felt come pouring out into an embrace of the person you love. What a freeing moment…
The day was myriad of those moments. Watching people who haven’t seen one another in years embrace, laugh, toast, roast, and dance. All because Andrew and Rachel, both first of the siblings, were married.
I could go on and on, but we’ll end here, when Andrew and Rachel read vows to one another, taken from two different novels, that so warmly and accurately told the story of what it means to be a husband and wife, and hit the hearts of every single guest.
“Rachel, now I’m not going to deny that I was aware of your beauty. But the point is, this has nothing to do with your beauty. As I got to know you, I began to realize that beauty was the least of your qualities. I became fascinated by your goodness. I was drawn in by it. I didn’t understand what was happening to me. And it was only when I began to feel actual, physical pain every time you left the room that if finally dawned on me…. I was in love for the first time in my life…and it’s not that I want you. All I want is to deserve you.”
“Andrew, I will love you as sure as God has loved me. I will discover what I can discover and though you will surely remain a mystery, save God’s own knowledge, what I disclose of you I will keep in the warmest chamber of my heart, the very chamber where God has stowed himself in me. And I will do this ’til my death.
I will love you like God, because of God, and nighted by the power of God. I will stop expecting your life, demanding your love, trading for your love, and gaming for your live. I will simply LOVE. I am giving myself to you and tomorrow I will do it again. God risked himself on me. I will risk myself on you.”
Venue: Leiper’s Fork Inn | Flowers: Soul Flowers | Catering: Delish Nashville |
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