.wedding moments, in photos.

i'm not quite ready to write about my wedding yet. my thoughts are gathering, but not complete - lingering, but not concrete. they'll get there, i promise. and when they do, i will write. but for now, here are a few moments captured in pictures by family and friends for you to get a little taste of the awesomeness that is on its way. it honestly was THE BEST day of my life. so incredible in every teensy little way. the night before we got married, so giddy & in love...

chasing my one-year-old nephew around while getting ready, i'll miss him being this little...

my aunt got our first kiss as a mr & mrs...

my sweet niece taking in the cake-cutting...

our dads watching our love story video together...

oh my melting heart... this little guy loves his "yaya," my mom and i love how this picture just captures his fun personality...

stealing a kiss...

.the spotless kitchen.

***pre-post side note: our wedding was FLIPPING AWESOME. hands down best day of my life to date. will post pictures/thoughts when i have a moment to gather them without feeling overwhelmed.

day 1 of post-honeymoon wife-ness. my kitchen is spotless... why, you might ask? well, let me explain... when your husband of 5 days moved in while you were already at your wedding destination, it is a very bad thing for the house you come home to. i am SO loving being a wife and i think it's the greatest thing to wake up with a man with a ring on his left hand in my bed and drink coffee with him in the morning. i love wife life. what i don't love is a messy house. when said husband moves in and all then soon-to-be wife receives is pictures of every room in the house sprinkled with piles of clothing, kitchen gadgets and creatine, boxer shorts and clothes from high school, wife wants to cry.

when we got home from (mini) honeymoon #1, my sweet little teensy bit ocd heart was overwhelmed.in his defense, he did the best he could with the time he had and i'm thankful he showed up for his flight to the wedding. however, i'm swimming in laundry, clothes & need-to-be-re-organized cabinets and closets. when i get overwhelmed, what do i do? oh i make sure the kitchen is spotless... all the time. i think it's something that's small enough that i can control and something i see multiple times a day so i have yet to touch any piles of anything else, i simply just keep going from the kitchen to the computer - thinking about the piles. my poor little overwhelmed wife brain. the best news? tonight we're going OUT for dinner so i don't have to clean the kitchen again :) soon enough, i'll get a handle on this wife thing.

.learning to accept gifts.

i am getting married in 9 days. holy moly. i'm really getting married in 9 days. here are a few things i've learned in this season and i don't want to forget i've learned them so i'm writing them down: - i've learned that i'm lame at accepting gifts - i've learned that no matter how many times i say "thank you" it rarely seems sufficient for all that my family & friends have done for jarred & i in the last few months

- i've learned that i had NO IDEA how much work planning a wedding would be

- i've learned to say LOTS of "i don't care's" - it's just how this bride is coping these days - i've learned about true friendship, true family ties and that those people bring so much life and light into stressful situations

- i've learned that loving someone is so much more than saying "i do", that forgiving quickly is not an easy thing and that marriage will indeed be the hardest, best thing i've ever done

- i've learned that beginning a marriage is a community project and i can't do it without the people God has oh-so-graciously placed around me

but i think of all those things, the hardest one for me is accepting gifts. i still haven't totally learned that. i felt awkward at bridal showers, i feel weird when things show up to our house and we didn't pay for them. i feel really really badly that i won't see a bill for our wedding, nor our couches, nor our honeymoon because we have ridiculously generous parents who love us more than words on paper could convey. i feel bad about these things because i have an over-active sense of responsibility and in these last 4 months, i've not been allowed to take care of myself or anyone else - i've been doted on, pampered, showered with prayers, gifts and love and spoiled rotten. and i'm still working on accepting it. i have not doubt that my wedding day will be the best day of my life to date and no doubt that it will all be 100% worth it, but sometimes it's hard to let others give and give and give.

i think what my Creator is trying to teach me is that all these things - just a TINY glimpse of his grace, his gifts, his forgiveness, his mercy. all these huge things that others are unselfishly doing for us - just little bitty glimpses of how he loves. and i'm learning to accept the awesomeness that Jesus gives by being forced to accept the awesomeness of his people unselfishly giving in my life. and all i can say is, "i'm overwhelmingly grateful."