Chasing Cars - Family and Friends

Once we ushered all our guests out of the church and over to the museum, it was time to (hopefully) breeze through our family and bridal party portraits.  When we met with our photographer, we told her we wanted very few formal portraits taken.  Just the bare necessities: us with my parents, us with my dad, us with Matt's parents, and us with our party.  We preferred more informal, fun pictures.  We wanted to hurry through them so that we'd get over to the museum to enjoy at least a few minutes of the cocktail hour.  We...sort of got what we asked for.  We ended up taking way more time at the church, but I don't think it was anyone's fault.  We just underestimated how long things would take.  That, or we were way too optimistic. 

First, though, we had to get a picture with Pastor Cindy.  She did such a great job with the ceremony, and we really felt we got a lot out of our premarital counseling with her.  She kept it short and sweet but it brought up some things that we needed to talk about.

Then, it was time for my family.

Us with Mom and Jeff

Us with Dad, Sister Callie, and BIL Anthony

Then, Matt's family joined us.

Us with John and Nancy

L-R: Brother Mike, Pop Lou, John, Nancy, us, Brother Dan

A few portraits of us.

Our bridal party.  We decided to do just the entire bridal party.  None of me with the boys or him with the girls.  Now I kind of wish we'd taken them, but...oh well.

Then we headed outside to take some fun pictures of the bridal party.  It was October 23, which in Central PA, is typically in the upper 50s.  On our wedding day, it was 72 degrees.  And sunny.  Absolutely perfect.  Anyway, when we stepped outside of the church, our bridal party surprised us with a champagne toast!

I love these people.

We headed over to the other side of the trolley to take some pictures.  We had so much fun with these.

Look at the ridiculous height of GM Matt

My husband, ladies and gentleman!

Once we'd finished taking pictures, the bridal party got on the trolley.  Then waited for me and Matt while we took a few more portraits.  These are some of our favorite pictures, and we blew one of them up to hang over our mantle.

This is the one we blew up

One of my favorites!

We stepped up and settled in for the ride over to the museum...

*All photos courtesy of Everlasting Images

We're In Love

Real People in Love, that is.  The fabulous Cole at Adventures in Love and Happiness does a weekly series she calls "Real People in Love."  Each week, she features one couple and their particular love story.  This week, she's featuring us!  Head on over and check it out!  Cole's blog is great fun to read, so be sure to peruse the whole thing, not just our story.  Enjoy!

Happy Times

~ I got a new phone last week.  I did the whole Verizon Backup Assistance thing to transfer my contacts.  I realized on Sunday that not all of my contacts had transferred.  I played around, did research, tried to manually upload them...all to no avail.  I was about to give up on my idea of being a self-made technology guru and take it to a store to have them do it for me.  Until today, I was clicking around, and found a button that gave me the option to show "All Contacts."  Click!  There they are!  So happy.

~ Just saw an ad for the Water for Elephants movie.  Can't wait.  One of the best books I've read in a long, long time.

~ Brett Dennen's new album, Loverboy, comes out today.  iTunes is getting a visit from me!

~ I went back to the gym today for the first time in a few weeks.  It's amazing how quickly I forget how good it feels to work out.

~ I made a patient smile today.  I hope I can make him smile even more tomorrow by delivering some great news.

~ Just opened up iTunes (to download aforementioned Brett Dennen album) and my NPR Tiny Desk Concert for the day is Josh Ritter.  Love!

~ New Harry Potter movies comes out on DVD on Friday.  Belated birthday gift for me!

Chasing Cars - The Ceremony

The girls were hidden away in our room, and the boys had finished seating the guests.  Matt's mom was escorted down the aisle by his brothers, with his dad following behind.

My mom was next, escorted by my step-dad, Jeff.

Then David came to tell us that it was time.  We lined up in the hallway.  I was giddy.  Nervous.  Excited.  Kinda had to pee.  My girls kept turning around and smiling at me.  David was giving me reassuring smiles.  My dad just kept holding my hand.  The boys took their places at the front.  The coordinator instructed the girls down the aisle, one by one.  Suddenly, we were ready.  The coordinator fixed my train and sent us on our way.  My groom was waiting for me.

photo from Karen

My dad and I reached the front.  We had decided not to do the whole "giving away" part of the ceremony.  It seems antiquated to me, and I am not a piece of property to be handed off from my father to my husband.  So my dad hugged me, shook Matt's hand, and took his seat.

[Funny story: during rehearsal, my dad sort of kept his hand on my butt when "handing me off."  I warned him not to do it at the ceremony.  He did.  I yelled at him.  When he sat down, leaned over to my mom and said "I can't believe I did that!"  You can hear it on the video.  You can see me laughing about it below]

Pastor Cindy started the ceremony with the greeting and a prayer, then welcomed our guests to the ceremony.  Then Matt and I said our declaration of intention: Erin, will you have Matthew to be your husband, to live together in the covenant of marriage?  Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and, forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?  I will.

She then asked our families to declare their intent to help and support us in our marriage: Families, friends, and all those gathered here with Matthew and Erin, will you support and care for them, sustain and pray for them in times of trouble, give thanks with them in times of joy, honor the bonds of their covenant, and affirm the love of God reflected in their life together?  We will.

The readings.  For the first reading, we chose Ecclesiastes 4:9-12.  We asked Matt's cousin's wife, Denita, to read it for us.  Matt is close with this cousin, and I have come to consider Denita to be one of my very good friends. Two are better than one, because they have good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up.  But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!  Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.  But how can one keep warm alone?  Though one may be overwhelmed, two can defend themselves.  A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

My brother-in-law was our next reader.  We asked him to read "Union," by Robert Fulghum.  It's a very popular reading, and it spoke to us about the evolution and development of our relationship: You have known each other from the first glance of acquaintance to this point of committment.  At some point, you decided to marry.  From that moment of yes, to this moment of yes, indeed, you have been making commitments in an informal way... Look at one another and remember this moment in time.  Before this moment you have been many things to one another - acquaintance, friend, companion, lover, dancing partner, even teacher, for you have learned much from one another these past few years.  Shortly, you shall say a few words that will you across a threshold of life, and things between you will never be quite the same.  For after today you shall say to the world - This is my husband.  This is my wife.

For the third reading we chose 1 John 4:7-12.  Matt's cousin Beth read this one.  Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God.  Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God.  Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love...Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another.  No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.

Pastor Cindy gave the homily next, speaking to the power of love and importance of God's love in our relationships.

Then it came time for the vows.  If you want to know how I felt during that moment, read this.  Matt got through his fine, but I definitely didn't make it.  I gasped, cried, laughed...it was hysterical.  And perfect.

Trying to hold it together

Starting to lose it

Lost it.  Tissues from cleavage

I love how you can see the GM reaching for tissues.  Matt told Steve to bring some.  He knew I'd need them.

Pastor Cindy, trying to calm me down

I, Erin, take you, Matthew, to be my husband, my partner in life, and my one true love.  I will cherish our union and love you more each day than I did the day before.  I will trust you and respect you, laugh with you and cry with you, loving you faithfully through the good times and the bad, regardless of the obstacles we may face together.  I give you my hand, my heart, and my love, from this day forward, for as long as we both shall live.

We exchanged rings.

Matthew, I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness.

Pastor Cindy gave the acclamation and pronounced us husband and wife, and it was finally time to kiss!

Pastor Cindy closed the ceremony with the marriage blessing and the Lord's Prayer, a final blessing, and the dismissal.

Matt and I walked back up the aisle together.  Husband and wife.  Newlyweds.  Partners for life.

Followed by our bridal party, we were inundated with hugs and congratulations from all our friends.  Then we rushed back into the sanctuary to dismiss all of our guests.  I'm disappointed that our photographers got no pictures of this, because it would have been a fantastic opportunity to document all of our loved ones who made the trip to celebrate with us.

Once every guest was ushered out the door, we took some formal portraits...

*All photos, unless otherwise noted, courtesy of Everlasting Images

Chasing Cars - The Boys Arrive

The girls were hidden away in our classroom, so it was time for the boys to arrive.  The trolley pulled up and the boys tumbled out, dressed in their fine brown tuxes.  I am so so glad we went with the brown tuxes.  Every time I look at the pictures, I am in love with the look.

After getting off the trolley, our moms helped the guys put their boutonnieres on.  The bouts were hand-made by my mom and BM Abriel's mom, Melinda.  They were peacock feathers with rust ribbon; Matt's had a white button mum to distinguish his.

Matt and my dad

Matt's mom affixing his bout

 

Once the boutonnieres were attached, Matt took some pictures with his parents and brothers.

Then it was time for the boys to pose!

Best Man Steve

GM Matt

GM Shane

GM Eric

GM/Brother Dan

GM/Brother Mike

 

What a bunch of studs, right?

They finished up their pictures and headed into the church.  Time to get ready for the ceremony!

*All photos courtesy of Everlasting Images

Over and Over

Reason #497 why I love my husband: "I wish I made more money to spend on you."

Money is tight in our house.  Matt works for a small engineering firm.  With the downturn in the economy, things have been tough.  They laid people off and cut back on benefits.  Matt has survivied 2 rounds of lay-offs (because he's awesome and works his tail off) and the benefits don't matter cuz we're under mine.  But they also cut salaries by 7% and cut hours to 32/week across the board.  Because of this, for the moment, I'm the higher earner in our household.  And I'm a social worker.  I don't make much. 

We do ok.  We pay our bills and our mortgage every month.  And we do manage to go out a few times a month.  And we manage to save some money.  But it is hard, and sometimes we overspend and have to buckle down to make bills.  So we often feel like we're living paycheck to paycheck. 

I know that eventually the economy will turn around and Matt's salary will go back up and he'll work full time, if not with overtime, again.  But I worry that we're both kind of financially "stuck" at our current pay grades.  As a social worker, I don't have opportunity for upward movement.  In fact, I've recently started thinking about persuing something that means more to me, like sex education for teens, but that would probably mean a pay cut, so I'm not sure I want to take that leap.  And Matt works as a CAD tech, but his degree is in kinesiology, so even if he wanted to, he couldn't be an engineer. 

I'm not gonna lie - we're worried about the future.  We make things work now, and we'd definitely be more comfortable once his hours are back and his salary is re-inflated.  But kids are expensive.  We're worried about our ability to save once we have kids.  He has a 401K and I have a 403B, and they're both doing very well, but we want to be able to give our kids the same lifestyles that we had.  Our parents were able to provide us with a very comfortable lifestyle - we had pretty much anything we wanted, we traveled a lot, we ate well, etc.  That's the lifestyle we're accustomed to and we hope to provide that for our children.  And I think we can, but we're both worried about our ability to do that and to continue to save money. 

Which brings me back to the original statement: "I wish I made more money to spend on you."  Matt said this to me last night.  I told him I don't need him to spend money on me.  I'd rather that he save it now and spend it on our kids.  Or spend it on a nice vacation.  Fancy meals don't last, but memories last a lifetime.  Seriously, how priceless is the look on a child's face when she sees Cinderella's Castle for the very first time?  I'd so much rather have that than dinner at a 4-star restaurant.  But the fact that he says that, and that he wants to spoil me, is adorable.  And I fall in love with him over and over again.  Big freakin sweetheart.

Don't most couples worry the same way?  Doesn't everyone have the same concerns?

You Can't Make This Stuff Up!

Sometimes, it seems like I work in a psychatric hospital rather than a medical hospital.  Some of the things we see here are just...well, they're beyond words. 

~ A patient told a nurse who went to check on him: "I'm manic!  You better back the f*ck up!"

~ A patient called me 6 times over the weekend, filling up my voicemail.  She left these long, rambling messages about how she needed to talk to the President because she couldn't find her book and only Obama would know where it was.

~ A patient painted the walls with his poop.

~ A patient refuses to take "real" medication, preferring his herbal medications.  He claims they work better.  His ejection fraction (the percentage of blood pumped out of the heart with each beat) is 20%.  In a healthy individual, it's around 65%.  Clearly, his herbs are not working.

~ A patient claims he can't afford to purchase his medications ($4 each at Target).  In his room, he has an iPhone, new Nikes, and he came in stinking of booze and positive for cocaine.  Priorities, much?!

~ A patient is ready for discharge.  Her family takes a cab to get here to accompany her.  They demand a cab voucher for the ride home.

~ A patient continues to have heart attacks and chest pain.  He comes in about once a month.  Each time, he's positive for cocaine.  He wants a new heart.  Umm...quit snorting coke!

~ A patient swallowed a bunch of coins because she thought it would make her rich.
 
~ A patient was brought in by the police.  They found him wandering around on I-95.  He was looking for his sheep.

Say what I want about my job, at least it gives me some stories to tell!