Husband and wife

Well, I don't even know where to start. I'm amazed that the wedding is finally over, that Ben and I are finally husband and wife. Here we are now, in our little apartment that has been taken over by gift bags and boxes full of the generous gifts people have given us. And we haven't even opened all of the gifts! Half of them are still at my parents', where we will open them after they've returned from California.

The wedding was beautiful, and everyone I talked to seemed to agree. Judging by the comments of countless friends and family members, I really do think that the Holy Spirit was fully present at our wedding. The weather was perfect, the flowers were beautiful, the cake was delicious, everything ran on time, and Ben and I were clearly loved by everyone there. I cried quite a bit, and I think Ben cried even more, especially when he saw me for the first time at 11 am, at our special bridal presentation. It was just the two of us in the worship center, with J.J. Heller's "Tonight" setting the mood. Ben saw me for the first time that day, in my dress, and he about lost it. I married a man with an admirably tender heart.

Ben's brother, Dan, performed the ceremony, and it couldn't have been more perfect. So many people came up to Ben and me at the reception and said what a great job he did - what a great testimony he shared, and how God-honoring his words were. I'm proud to have him as a brother-in-law, and having him officiate our ceremony was totally special.

On Sunday, Ben and I set off to Pine, where we stayed in a friend's cabin. It was beautiful - the perfect place to spend the first few days of our marriage. Hopefully I'll be able to post pictures soon.

Please pray that Ben and I will be productive the next few days. We have a lot to do, between putting me on the apartment lease, putting away our gifts, and getting me generally settled in. It will be a good time though :)

I could not be more ready

I'm sorry that neither of us have updated for so long. Obviously life has been very, very busy for us. The wedding is one week from today, and I could not be more ready for it to finally be here. I cannot explain how much I am looking forward to having no obligations for those several days following the wedding - no phone calls to answer, emails to reply to, decisions to make, or homework to do. It will just be me and my husband :)

Please pray that this week will go by quickly and smoothly. Pray that I will not get stressed out and be able to accomplish all the tasks that still need to be taken care of (including the two midterms I have on Monday). Pray for patience for both of us.

It's been awhile

It's been awhile since either of us have updated you all and I think it's telling of what life is like right now, busy. Cassia has been busy with mid terms at school which includes papers, projects and exams. On top of that she has work, ministry, planning a wedding, being a daughter, sister, friend and fiancee to balance in her life as well. I personally think she is doing a bang up job considering all she has set before her. I can't say I'm as busy as she is, because I'm not. But I've been preparing to move into the apartment on Nov 7th, buying the necessities, figuring out my budget, realizing I really should start packing soon, having more opportunities to play on various worship teams and with the band again which is definitely something I needed. I was getting pretty discouraged about that lack of opportunity lately so it's been a huge blessing.

As far as the wedding planning goes, we did pick out a cake and let me tell you, you guys are going to LOVE it. It's so stinking good, in fact thinking about it is making me hungry right now. Cassia has started to look for flowers and work on the invitations, which means we need to finish up our guest list soon. Which will actually be a pretty daunting task. We start our group pre-marital class on Nov 1st with a few other couples who recently got engaged (we started the trend) so that should be great. We're currently going through a "great expectations" packet which is really in depth and although some of the questions are ridiculous, it is full of things that need to be considered.

Some things we could use prayer for are; patience as we both are finding it hard to wait now as we come up on 4 months left to go. Financial guidance, as we figure out our budget and start to see it in action with me moving in. That our hearts will be guarded against Satan's attacks. And one of the bigger things right now is just that we can stay close to God right now and listen to what He desires for us, and as we continue to learn and see what our roles should be.

The dress

My dress came in this week! I went with my mom and Aunt Lisa to pick it up yesterday. Since some changes had been made, I tried it on again at the store, and it fit better than before, and I loved it even more than I already did. The actual dress I will be wearing at my wedding is now in my house. I'm stoked and just hope that Ben will love it when he sees it for the first time on March 13 -- just a little more than six months from now.

I would love to post a link, but that could be problematic, since Ben accesses and even writes in this very blog... so I'll avoid even the slightest description. It's a dress, that's all he needs to know :)

Personal data inventory discussion

On September 16 Ben and I will be meeting with John Lasley for our first premarital counselling session. There are so many great things about marriage that I'm looking forward to, but there are going to be difficulties that we just can't ignore. We had a really good conversation going through our premarital applications together. It was hard at times, but it was beautiful because we were able to be open and honest with each other. I was left feeling edified and reminded once again of the reasons I am marrying Ben.

In other events, I am going to call some cake places today to see if they're open on Monday. The time has come to really start looking into these kinds of things.

Apartments, apartments, apartments

We checked out these apartments today (floor plan A2) -- definitely at the top of our list right now. At this point, Ben could move in early- to mid-October and pay less than $600 a month (not including utilities). It's very secluded, close to my school, and a lot of other things we like.

There is the potential for renting a house that we're going to look into. The thought of moving into a house right away does kind of scare me, admittedly. First of all, the thought of maintaining a house sounds daunting to me. Second of all, the thought of ever being alone in a house makes me far more nervous than that of being alone in an apartment. We'll know where God leads us once the time for decision-making comes.

Ben and I had an initial wedding-planning meeting with my parents, his mom, Brenda Whiten (my "other mother" and our wedding coordinator) and Nancy Bohovich (wedding planner in training). We talked about a lot of ideas. It's really overwhelming sometimes, to be honest. I can imagine the relief I'll feel when the wedding is over and there's no more planning to do, in that respect at least.

Camden

Ben and I looked into the Camden apartments on 79th Avenue, just north of Bell. The downside to Camden is that you are apparently required to pay the "additional" fees for cable and valet trash pickup. This to me defeats the purpose of being "additonal."

We need to set an appointment with Brenda Whiten, our wedding coordinator -- hopefully next week. She'll be able to help us answer questions like, "Would it be weird to have the guys wear brown suits?" and "What do you think of having everyone take communion?" and "Which cake place did the individual cakes that you told us about?"

The big day

First things first: Ben and I have set the wedding for Saturday, March 13, 2010. At this point it will be a 2:00pm ceremony followed by a cake reception. Everything will take place at our church, Northwest Community Church. I have found my dress (yay!) and am anxiously awaiting its November arrival.

I still really want to have suits versus tuxes. My hope is that that will work out. Brown suits are being considered, since I'd like the colors to be brown, yellow and green (think sunflower).

The guest list is going to be ridiculously huge. From NCC alone there are at least 200 people I want to invite. When you add in both of our extended families, people from Calvary Chapel Central, and other friends... the list gets enormous -- haven't quite decided what to do about that yet.

On a different note, we got to spend time with the NCC Czech team at Megan's tonight. It was so much fun to talk and play card games, as well as eat absolutely delicious food served up by the lovely Kimm Brown. I'm stoked that she gave me the recipe for the blueberry dessert she makes. Ben loves it, so I foresee it being a favorite in our home.

Wedding website

We've been talking about having a wedding website ever since we got back from the Czech Republic and have finally gotten around to actually creating one. Ben and I will do our best to update this with new developments on the wedding plans... and life... and such as.

Today Ben ordered a TV! Hopefully it will come in soon. I think that counts as our first big purchase.