Then Comes Marriage

Then Comes Marriage

With the promised ring on my finger, you’d think that I’d be comfortable in the engagement phase to tell Nathan about the dream. But I wasn’t and didn’t want any added pressure to the betrothed stage of our relationship.

Though we set a date six months away, I had everything planned in four. We knew our wedding would be cost-effective and casual, so the planning was minimum and as representative as possible of our personality.

Our friend Becky and Jarrett graciously allowed us to use their backyard as our wedding location. A swath of trees separated their house from a gorgeous green lawn that grew right down to the waters edge of a large pond—complete with dock and gazebo. A stone patio with pergola and fire pit and a bridge over a stone lined creek amongst the trees set off the scene and gave us a beautiful backdrop for games, live music and grilling burgers.

Scattered throughout the wedding were small little touches I incorporated to bring in a little meaning. I’m nostalgic and love to use family heirlooms or trinkets to represent moments, family members, or intentions. For instance, my bouquet was made from mostly heirloom brooches I’d inherited from my mother and grandmother, along with a brooch I borrowed from my sister-in-law. A few new brooches rounded out the bouquet and made it more full and vibrant.

My bouquet was wrapped in antique ribbon that my husband bought for me, and I held my mother’s handkerchief in my hand as a tear catcher.

Throughout the food tables, I’d placed antique bird paperweights to represent my mom and her love of birds. My wedding cake was chocolate with chocolate—in there any other way to do it?—my husband’s “cake” was apple pie. Our cake/pie servers were hand-stamped with our wedding dates and quotes like “You’re the apple of my eye.” And the glasses we drank our toast from were filled with Dr. Pepper and made by Nathan and me at Janke glass studio. All just little things that meant a lot.

Our wedding day was a fun day filled with wonderful friends, family and beautiful scenery.

After it was all over, Nathan and I headed to a “secret” location—secret to me, but I figured it out as soon as we took a left out of driveway of the wedding location. (Smiley face.) Because we’d already secured a cruise vacation a week later, we took just an overnight trip to Callaway Gardens south of Atlanta.

When we arrived, we changed our clothes and started walking around the resort. We sat across from one of the large landscaped waterfalls and talked over the day—what he’d done all morning (finished up last minute touches for the wedding), what I’d done all morning (shopped and ate Waffle House), how good it was to see so-and-so and a bunch of “did you notice when I did such-and-such?”

So, in the midst of this conversation, I wasn’t planning to blurt out that I’d known since 2006 that he was going to be my husband . . . and why did he take so long? (Winky face.) But I did tell him, and because I often feel the need to preface everything, I gave the “I have something to tell you” speech, along with the “you’re going to think I’m crazy but there’s nothing you can do about it now . . . we’re married” fine print. (Another winky face.)

So, I launched into it. I reminded him of my ex and how hard things were through the process of breaking up, and how I prayed for God to give me a dream and He did. And I told him about the dream and about how God had set Nathan apart for me. And I told him that the dream was the reason I’d had such a hard time when we stopped seeing each other in 2009—because I’d had a dream! And I didn’t tell him about the dream before because I didn’t want him to think I was crazier than I already am—Nathan knows my crazy, friends. And I told him that I didn’t mean to tell him about the dream now, but it just sort of came out.

And he said: “I don’t think you’re crazy. You’re the love of my life, and I don’t think God giving you that dream is crazy.” Whew. Awkward annulment proceedings avoided! Haha!

The next day, we slept late, ate breakfast and walked around Callaway. It was a beautiful day and we ended up on a deck overlooking a pond complete with lily pads and ducks. We sat together, perfectly content . . . and updated our Facebook accounts, making our new relationship status “Facebook official.”

So, now you know . . . we’re married, and we’re ridiculously happy. There isn’t a day that goes by that we’re not grateful to God for bringing us together, and there’s not a day that goes by that we don’t attribute the blessing of our relationship to Him. He’s a good God. And He loves Nathan and me ridiculously much.

Read our story from the beginning:
how we met
a dream about my husband
between the dream and dating
meeting my husband again
we tried to date but didn’t
a year of silence
how we became friends again
we started dating . . . for real this time
we got married!

©2015 Jennifer Wilder. All rights reserved. For permission to reprint or publish this content elsewhere, please contact me through this blog.