This was us. 6 months before our meticulously planned and carefully scheduled garden wedding. Good grief, I'm a wedding planner, you should have SEEN my notes...and notes...and notes...you get it. With 6+ years of experience under my belt in the wedding industry you best believe I knew EXACTLY what I did and did not want and how I was going to accomplish it. My fiancé is a design engineer and had been in Ohio on job site for almost 5 weeks. We were counting down the days for his return and our perfectly planned April 4th wedding.
Chatter about the Coronavirus had begun to creep onto every news outlet and media source.
I coordinated a wedding on Friday, and by Monday, March 16th, it was clear that carrying on with our 300+ guest wedding would not be the most loving choice for our family and friends. I couldn't bring myself to ask our loved ones to choose between their health and their desire to celebrate with us. With the rising unsurety of the pandemic we decided that the joy of being married far outweighed the option of postponing our wedding indefinitely.
2 hours and fifty-two thousand (ok fine...I'm dramatic but you get the point) phone calls later, we were getting married in 5 days.
It is genuinely a joy to look back on those 5 days and reflect on all of the sweet details the Lord orchestrated for us. I spent the week relishing in my time with my roommates, packing up my room, foraging for flowers, finding a new wedding dress, buying Funfetti cake mix for my wedding cake, selecting my favorite pieces of china, and reminiscing in the whirlwind. (Relevant fun fact: my mom and I had spent the last six months collecting mismatching vintage china plates, teacups, saucers, dessert plates, platers, and on and on. We had dishes for each and every guest. In total, we had gathered about eight hundred pieces. Yes, you read that correctly. I know. We're insane. But I swear we had SO much fun.)
March 21st rolled around and after sleeping on mattresses in the living room and starting the morning right with a well loved ritual of Ridge brunch, off to the church building we went. We spent a calm and peaceful day setting up tables, making pumpkin muffins, putting together flowers, and laughing. My sweet fiancé spent his time driving 9 hours back from Ohio, recovering, and having lunch with friends.
Fun string of sweetly ordained graces: because we are both uptight and planners to the bone, we had gotten our marriage license early while he was home for a weekend. The tree we were married under only bloomed that week. We were able to celebrate with our favorite people, in the following days a shelter in place order was issued. Each person that joined us remained healthy. I found a dress in one trip that actually fit and suited my old school style. My roommate is a florist and was able to put together my bouquet. Other roommates were able to whip out the sewing machine and sew the sleeves on my dress how I wanted. All of my vendors were incredibly gracious and flexible as I sought to reschedule. Most importantly, Jonathan and I (myself in particular) was able to take the opportunity to cherish the covenant of marriage above any and all of our plans. I am certain that there were thousands of other details that fell into place that I was unaware of!
Incredibly thankful for amazing iPhone cameras these days. Check out a few photos from our day...
Moral of the story: corona was (and is) crazy, but there isn't an iota of our life that escapes the sovereignty of God's hands. For years I have preached "your wedding is more about a marriage than a wedding day" and I was graciously given the opportunity to treasure that reality.
A dear friend summarized the experience in this way: "...The day was not the one we had planned months ago, but it was made all the more lovely for it's simplicity. It was a joyful reminder that wedding isn't about a wedding at all, but about a marriage: a life-long covenant to serve and to love someone more than you love yourself; a dim reflection of how Christ loved His church. Flowers are beautiful, but so small in light of a love such as that."
And in the midst of looking towards all of the higher purposes...ya just gotta laugh! :) Peep our tribute to Rona below...
Friends, what a ride. Can't wait to tell our kids about the insanity that was our union. *insert laughing emoji here*
soli Deo gloria,
Mrs. Robertson