Lucky in Love: You Make My Dreams Come True: Ceremony Part 3

After exchanging rings we lit the unity candle. We chose ‘When I Say I Do’ by Matthew West to have sung during this time. I was originally just going to have a recording of it played, but our friend from high school, Cooper, who we’d asked to sing ‘The Luckiest’ was more than willing to learn it and play it for us (with about 2 weeks notice!) I’m so glad he did. I wanted to be able to share it with you, so the only way I could think of was to take a video of our ceremony video – I apologize that the quality isn’t great, but you can at least get an idea of how incredible he sounded and you get a little live peek into our ceremony!

We also gave roses to our moms at this time. We didn’t include this is the program or let them know ahead of time, so it was a bit of a surprise for them. I carried two pink roses with my bouquet and had my sister/MOH hold them and hand them to me.

We really wanted to honor them for providing both of us with such great upbringings rooted in love and in Christ. The sacrifices they made to send us to private Christian schools hugely impacted us both as individuals and as a couple. Without them there’s no way we would be where we are today – We would have the foundation we have, we wouldn’t have the experiences we have, and we likely wouldn’t have even met.

After Cooper was finished singing, Pastor M read the hand ceremony that we’d chosen. Again, this was something that was really important to me and I took a lot of time looking through different ceremonies and taking bits and pieces of several of them to create something that really ‘fit.’

That song spoke of your hands. And your hands, that now have rings on them, are the hands of your best friend that are strong and full of love for each other. These hands are holding yours on your wedding day as you promise to love each other today, tomorrow, and forever. These are the hands that will work alongside yours as together you build your future. These are the hands that will passionately love you and cherish you through the years, and with the slightest touch will comfort you like no other. These are the hands that will hold you when fear or grief fills your mind. These are the hands that will countless times wipe away the tears from your eyes – tears of sorrow and tears of joy. These are the hands that will give you strength when you need it and lastly, these are the hands that even when wrinkled and aged will still be reaching for yours while still giving you the same unspoken tenderness with just a touch. Our prayer for you today is that both of you will use your hands to build a marriage rooted in your faith, commitment, and love for one another.

When he was finished, Cooper came back up, this time with Mikayla, another one of our friends from high school. They sang ‘The Luckiest’ by Ben Folds while David and I took communion. While we didn’t have communion for all of our guests (as some of them might have been uncomfortable and it would’ve taken quite awhile) we did want to take it together for the first time as a married couple. It’s something we do every week at church as a couple and it was a really special part of our ceremony.

I’d post a video of them singing together, but it took forever and a day to upload the first one. They did an awesome job. And watching the video, you can see David singing to me and me trying to keep from crying. That was hands down one of my very favorite parts of the day.

Pastor M: Let’s pray for Laura and David. Father, we thank you so much for bringing these two together. It gives us great joy to see your work in their lives individually and your work in their lives together. Lord, we pray every blessing upon them. We pray that you would grow them, that you would strengthen them, that you would bind them in a closeness that they’ve never even known as of yet. But Lord we commend them to you, to the praise of your glorious grace, that they might live a life together for your glory. Thank you for the joy and the love you’ve put between them. We pray that you would bless them in every way. In Jesus’ Name, Amen.

David, Laura, because of your commitment to one another and to your Lord, by the authority granted to me as a minister of the Gospel of Jesus, I now pronounce that you are husband and wife. David, you may kiss your bride!

I love this progression of pictures because you can see me pull him towards me! Ha! I loved our kiss. :)

After I let go of him I leaned back in for one more peck like I always do and everyone laughed. Pastor M smiled and asked ‘Are you finished?’ and David said, ‘Yeah, we’re good!’ Haha, the result was this picture: