A Look Back at our Wedding
24 years of marriage sure have flown by! Each year, I dig out our wedding album so we can take a quick trip down memory lane. In that album is a letter I wrote to Country Woman Magazine before they featured one of our wedding photos on the cover of their book, Down the Aisle Country Style. Here are a few excerpts from that letter, written by my 22 year old self as a newlywed in January of 1998…
Keith and I were engaged on New Years Eve of 1995, a year from the day we first met. We went for a horseback ride on that rainy December day and when we reached the river, he climbed off his horse, got down one one knee and proposed. Soon after, we decided the Western-themed wedding and reception would be held at my parents’ home.
The months preceding our wedding were filled with activities and planning. My Aunt Teary offered to make my dress, and after a year of work and many old bed sheets as samples, she came up with the dress I had dreamed of. The finished product was a two piece dress, created with countless hours of love and dedication, and at a material cost of under $100. It was beautiful and unique!
There were 4 wedding showers to attend – and we were indeed showered with love and gifts to begin our new life together at each. My sister-in-law really incorporated our Western theme with potluck food set out amongst hay bales, decor to include old farm equipment, ropes, and skulls, and she corralled Keith’s horse right next to my seat, where he stole the show!
Our wedding week flew by. Tables, chairs, and linens to seat 400 were set up on Thursday afternoon. A buckboard wagon we had rented arrived as the backdrop for our ceremony. Friday afternoon, a crew from my dad’s construction company built a temporary old-fashioned wooden dance floor. My mother-in-law to be hauled truck and horse trailer loads of wildflowers in that she had grown just for our wedding.
Suddenly, after a year and a half of planning, it was our wedding day. The rented barbecue arrived early that morning and our next-door neighbor got to work smoking the meats. Tables were decorated. Food, all prepared by family and friends, arrived throughout the day. The menu included: beef roasts, turkeys and ham, baked beans, potato salad, tossed green salad, fresh baked rolls, and fruit-filled watermelon baskets. Beverages included fresh fruit sangria, margaritas, wine, beer, and soda. As the final decorating touches happened, wildflowers were tucked into every available space. At 2pm, our wedding party arrived and the hairdressers got to work on the girls. A local cafe provided snacks for the wedding party as we got ready – a variety of sandwiches and fruit pizza for dessert.
As the wedding party got ready inside the house, the florist arrived outside with beautiful bouquets and displays of wildflowers and sunflowers; the cake lady set up our beautiful wedding cake – a base of 5 smaller rounds and 3 tiers of horseshoe-shaped cakes above, all in different flavors; the band arrived (they would later entertain until well into the early morning with classic country songs); and the smell of smoked meats and delicious dinner preparation filled the air.
At 4pm, I made my first appearance in my wedding dress, and we began our photo session with one of my high school teachers, also a photographer, which lasted until 6pm. A good friend had groomed our horses for the photos, and those images would become some of our favorites. The day was hot, and we were glad we had opted for an evening ceremony.
As photos were finished, guests began to arrive for the 7pm wedding ceremony. The 30 minute ceremony was fun and casual; we were married by Pastor Joe Dillon of Messiah Lutheran Church, the church I had grown up attending. Afterward, Keith and I excused people from their seats to the nearby reception and we loved getting to talk briefly with our guests that way, rather than having a receiving line. The reception began with dinner and was followed by the toast, cutting of the cake, first dance, & father-daughter dance, which led into hours of more dancing after. We loved every minute of the celebration that was our wedding reception.
It was a real joy getting to plan all the unique details of our Western wedding, and the day was even more wonderful than we could’ve possibly expected. I think the best part of our wedding day was that we truly enjoyed every bit of it and just had a wonderful time as we began our life together as husband and wife.