Forever

We were outside of church; he waited for the bells to ring and dropped to one knee.  I was clueless!  We had rushed out of the house to get there, my hair was in a messy ponytail and I managed foundation and mascara. Not. Glamorous.  I should have known something was up he was so nervous; I mistook it for still being sleepy on an early Sunday morning.  I had always envisioned being completely put together, dolled up, and photo-op ready. Nope. But when he knelt down to ask me to marry him, I practically swooned, cried with excitement, and the last thing I was thinking about was “I hope I look okay”.   The ride home I didn’t check the mirror to see if my mascara was running, I was far too busy beaming at my fiancé and looking at the amazing 1912 engagement ring that fit so perfectly with my personality and on my ring finger!

Things don’t always go as WE plan them.  That doesn’t mean that it wasn’t meant to happen that way.  God has a funny way of making sure that what needs to happen takes place when and how He knows it’s best.

My big idea:

After about 10 months of planning what was supposed to be our beautiful outside wedding, the anniversary of hurricane Fran had other plans.  It was supposed to be a wedding on the dock, Mother Nature providing most of the decoration and being beautifully simple. Nope.  As the event inched closer I kept checking the weather forecast, 40 % chance of rain. The next day, 70% chance of rain. The next day, no percentage listed, just Thunderstorms.  Three days before our wedding it became painfully clear that an outside wedding was out of the question.

Let the scramble begin:

            Have you ever tried to plan brand new wedding in 3 days?  Ever tried to book a location in 3 days?  If you answered yes, you’re crazy.  A VFW is never a girl’s first dream location when thinking about her big day.  But it was available and only with the help of my Dad making phone calls to friends.  After 10 months of planning every detail, this was God’s way of shaking me and saying, “You get it yet?”  How easy it is to get so wrapped up in the event and forget the BIG picture.  I was marrying the love of my life and I was worried about tea lights or no tea lights?  I was making one of the biggest commitments of my life, a vow before God to love an honor this man and I was worried about the perfect seal to put on the programs?  Talk about a wake up call. 

The beauty of it all:

            Our family and friends rallied and we had that place looking better than I am sure it looked for most weddings.  Our families were there into the wee hours of the night getting everything set up, reassuring us that it would be wonderful, and making us laugh at how perfectly imperfect it was.  God took over.  He made the arrangements, put these wonderfully loving people in our lives and gave us the safety net we needed.  He had it planned all along, how silly of me to think I was in charge of the details.  I married my best friend with the love and support of our family and friends.  It doesn’t get much closer to perfection than that.

"If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans."