Hmm...where to even begin. Ryan and I got married in August of 2010, but our story started long before that. We have know each other since, well, as long as I can remember.
We grew up going to the same small church together, and then when I was in second grade, my parents built a house in the country right across the road from them...literally. So we have lots of memories together including- me falling off of his horse while I road with him, him injuring my toe on our trampoline, a family vacation together when I was in 6th grade, him driving me and my sister (who was actually in his class) to school before she could drive, being in "youth group" together (this group consisted of me and my older sister and him and his younger brother (who is just a week older than me) and another girl), hanging out together with my older sister and another mutual friend Christine, and from there it got a little more romantic.
My junior year of high school, I developed a tiny little crush on him, but was convinced he, being a mature college student, was way out of my league. Sometime after that we started talking on AIM (anyone remember instant messenger from the dark ages?), and sometime after that we started talking on AIM until like 3,4,5 in the morning. Then he invited me to hang out with his friends on campus, to which I regretfully and embarrassingly wore my letter jacket to (oh the shame, oh the horror), but despite that major fashion blunder, he still asked me on a first date later that fall to Olive Garden and ice skating, and a short month later we went on another date to see "The Bee Movie" and spent the next day riding the snow mobile, during which he stopped and got off and nervously told me why he "liked" me and we became boyfriend and girlfriend.
Over the next couple of years, we had ups and downs and God had a whole lot of grace on us and our immature, highly lacking in communication skills, selves. God brought us through that time! In January of 2010, Ryan proposed, during a snow mobile ride, in the same spot he had defined the relationship the year before, and I said yes. And the wedding planning began.
Sometime between saying yes and saying "I do", Ryan bought our first home, and then we decided it would be a good idea to destroy it and start over (aside from the studs and foundation), and so we started remodeling, with the naive (dare I say stupid) goal of having it finished (or done enough) by our wedding night in August later that year. It was not finished by our wedding night; in fact it was not finished by the time we returned from our honeymoon. We stayed in his parents camper the first night we returned and then the basement for the next few nights before we moved in to our "done enough" home (although our definition of done enough had drastically changed by that point). We moved into dirty sub-floors, a mattress on a tarp on the dirty sub-floor, one mostly finished bathroom, and a kitchen consisting of a card table and chairs, a mini fridge, and a microwave and toaster-luxury! It was rough, but looking back now it is fun to think about those days (and be thoroughly relieved that they are behind us). Anyway, more on the house later!
August finally came, and our wedding was beyond hot and in an un-air conditioned chapel at a church camp Ryan had formerly worked at (our church was too small for our guest list thanks to giant families), so we began the ceremony at 7:30 hoping to avoid much of the August heat. It was still hot, and I don't remember much from our wedding honestly; it was all a blur and super surreal. We had a simple wedding, and while I enjoy helping other people plan their weddings, I am glad you only get married once because wedding planning and budgeting but still making things look good and serving your guests that are so generously giving of their time to support you and attend is STRESSFUL. But, at the end of the day, we were married! Isn't that kind of crazy? For those of you who are not yet married or maybe even engaged and in the midst of the craziness of planning, this might not really make a lot of sense to you, but marriage is a crazy and miraculous gift. We had spent 8 months planning this wedding and then after a hot, humid, 30 minute ceremony, suddenly we are husband and wife. It didn't matter what music was played or what attire was worn or whether the flower girl made it down the aisle or what people ate, or how fancy the decorations were-we were married! Crazy!
God is good! We look back on our wedding day with thanksgiving and humor-thanksgiving for how faithful God has been despite our immaturity and ignorance and sinfulness, and humor for how young and ignorant and silly we were. It's fun to look back and the two of us standing at the altar-20 and 23 years of age, and remember them as a faint memory. Time flies and God changes us (hopefully), and we get to look back and think "how fun that season of life was" and at the same time "thank you God that we are not the same people who said "I do" back in 2010". I mean, neither of us has changed to be a completely different person with completely different personalities, but by God's grace, we have changed, for the good, and I am so thankful!
