Wedding Preparations

 The two days leading up to our wedding were two of the rainiest days I can remember. For the entire week leading up to the wedding my family and I anxiously watched the weather report, praying that Saturday, the day of the wedding would be beautiful.

I never imagined what damage the rain would bring, as it was unlike anything that had ever happened on our property. You can see the huge mud puddle behind me in the photo above.

 Here is a close up! The day prior to the wedding I would occasionally walk out to the tent and inspect the conditions, wondering how our guests were going to manage walking through all that mud and water. We did rented a huge industrial fan and my uncle attempted to dig a trench to drain the water away from the tent- all to no avail. I was growing rather depressed. What were we going to do with 100 people coming to enjoy a beautiful day?

 We thought maybe straw would do the trick! It did help, but still not quite enough. The morning of the wedding mom and I were ready to say we had made a huge mistake, that planning a wedding in the field next to our house was crazy, and we would relocate to the church in town. But the LORD in His mercy provided an amazing miracle!

The day previous we had had a problem with some of the equipment we rented  (we rented the tent, chairs, tables, generator etc. from the same company), and the owner of the company came out to take care of the problem we had with the generator. At that time we told him about the difficulty we were having with the mud, and he offered to loan us special flooring at no cost! The flooring would have been far too expensive for us to afford, so this was a huge blessing!!

 The catch was we would have to find the means to transport the flooring and lay it down. The flooring was very heavy and rolling it out was quite the undertaking. In the photo above you can see the flooring being rolled out. I was so grateful for all of the hard work family and friends put into making the wedding come together.

Our original plan had been to decorate the tent and tables the two days prior to the wedding, but due to the weather the tent was delivered later that originally planned. We all were decorating for the wedding right up until the time of the wedding! Considering all the delays and problems I thought everything looked beautiful!

In the photo above Beulah, Hannah's dog, is doing her best to help put up the Chinese lanterns. Oh, the limitations of being too short. : )

In this picture you can see that we used the straw part of the way as a trail for our guests to walk on in hopes everyone would not become too muddy. I loved how the straw looked so cozy and rustic. 

The Chinese lanterns and lights. You can also see that sun came out for our ceremony! I was so blessed to see the sun shining for our wedding vows, and time of worship. It had been raining lightly just two hours before.

As I walked down the "aisle" a friend played "Great is Thy Faithfulness" on his violin. I chose "Great is Thy Faithfulness" because it is one of my favorite hymns, and also because God has been so faithful! Faithful to send me the most wonderful husband and friend, as well as provide all that was needed for a beautiful wedding day- even sunshine! : )

"Great is thy faithfulness." Lamentations 3:23b