This Kind of Love: The Ceremony

As we were finishing our pictures, the clouds literally parted and the rain magically stopped! We rode to the Church, and tried to sneak in the back without anyone seeing us! We only waited for a few minutes before it was time for the wedding ceremony to begin.

The room we waited in had a one way window, meaning we could see the guests arriving, but they couldn't see us! Belle and I had fun watching everyone arrive.

I expected to feel a lot of things as I was walking down the aisle, and I didn't feel any of them on the actual day! I thought I would be really nervous, but I wasn't nervous at all. I thought that hugging my dad at the alter would be really emotional, but it wasn't as bad as I'd expected. I think I was just so ready for this moment, that I'd waited months for, to arrive. 

I did however, alternate between these two facial expressions as we walked down the aisle!

But I promise they were happy tears!

Words cannot even express how wonderful our minister was. She helped us write the ceremony, and it was absolutely perfect. We got so many compliments on the service and how lovely Nancy was. There is something totally angelic about her, and we're so lucky to have had her celebrate our wedding!

Next came the vows, which we wrote ourselves. They looked short on paper (only two paragraphs!) but felt SO long when we said them in real life!

We both thought that I would be the one to lose it during our vows, but when it was Zac's turn to talk, he choked up and couldn't get a word out. It was so sweet, and surprising coming from a guy who doesn't show much emotion!

One of my favorite parts of the ceremony was our wine box. We ordered this beautiful box from Etsy and sealed a bottle of wine and two love letters inside during the ceremony. The rule is that we can't open it until our 10th wedding anniversary - unless we ever have a dark moment where someone is thinking about leaving our marriage. Then, we need to read the letters and drink the wine together before making any decisions. We're planning to open it on the anniversary, by the way, and not before!

At long last, it was time for the best part of the wedding ceremony - making it official with a kiss! We hadn't thought to talk about this part beforehand, and Zac surprised me with the best wedding kiss ever!

I love my sister's face in this one! Officially husband and wife, we headed back down the aisle - together this time!

I don't remember taking this picture, but it might be my very favorite picture from the whole day:

And now, it was time to PARTY, PARTY, PARTY!!!