Happy Anniversary

Today is our 4 year anniversary! We had a beautiful wedding four years ago on this date. I proposed a year earlier while decorating the Christmas tree at my apartment. The ring was inside a special gold ball ornament. Our first "unofficial" date was Anne helping me decorate the tree in my apartment the year before that, so this time of year is extra special for us.

Our wedding was at Highview Church of God, my home church, in Washington, IL and we had three pastors officiating: Ed Beasley (my pastor growing up), Ben Johnston (our pastor from Grace), and Father Reese (Anne's pastor from St. Mark's). We had the River City String Quartet playing for the ceremony and I arranged the processionals and recessional. Our bridesmaids walked in to the theme from "Legends of the Fall," Anne's processional was the bridal march from "The Sound of Music" and the recessional was an arrangement of "Joy to the World" that began with the "Throne Room" fanfare from "Star Wars" and ended with a quote of "White Christmas." Her attendants were her sister Gina, her friend Holly and our friend Jenny. My attendants were Nathan, and my brothers Jason and Chad. The flower girls were Emilee, Hannah, Liesl and Tessa. Amber and Jeremy did the guest book and Isaac helped pass out bells.
Pastor Beasley performed the majority of the ceremony with Ben leading the unity candle portion and Father Reese providing a special blessing at the end of the ceremony.

The reception was at Wildlife Prairie Park and was beautiful. We decorated it how we wanted right after Thanksgiving and they used our decorations for the whole season. Anne had just finished student teaching at Richwoods HS, so their madrigal singers came and sang for us, as well as presented the bridal party. We had a small jazz combo playing dinner music (piano, bass, drums, and sax) and the whole evening was enchanting.

The day after Christmas we left for our honeymoon in Asheville, NC. A beautiful place to stay!

Happy Anniversary, honey! I love you!