Southern Green Beans

This is the recipe I grew up on and the green beans that I compare all other green beans to. My momma is a master Southern cook and this is a recipe I learned from her. It's one of the first side dishes I ever made for Pat and I when we first lived together and he was amazed. The man who used to hate all things green begs for these green beans. Get ready because this recipe is super hard. Not really, but I have to make it sound like I can cook above the equivalent of a 4th grade reading level.

Ingredients

Green Beans
Bacon
Salt
Pepper

First you're going to need to snap your beans. Below is  a picture of my method for snapping beans. It's super efficient and makes little to no mess.

Once you're done snapping your beans you will need to soak them for a couple hours. I have no idea what this is for but momma has always done this and dangit her beans are always drool worthy. If it ain't broke don't fix it, right?

Next drain the bean and then put them in the pot you'll be cooking them in. Fill that sucker up with a lot of water. The water will cook down during the cooking process so you will want plenty in there. After you have filled the pot with water add in at least 2-3 strips of bacon. Next you are going to add in enough salt for your sodium in take for a month. I'm kidding, but you will need more then you are comfortable with in order to season the water just right. You will also need to add almost as much pepper.  

Cover the pot and turn the stove up to medium high heat. Let your green beans cook down for at least two hours. You will need to keep an eye on them to make sure all of the water doesn't cook out. If the water gets low, just add some more. After two hours your beans are done! Warning: your house will smell heavenly.

This is one the side dishes I ask for for my birthday dinner every year. I hope y'all enjoy these as much as I have my whole life. 

Bon appétit, y'all!

Mississippi

I am asking that you please pray for a place that is near and dear to my heart. It's my other home, the place I was living when I really came to know Christ, a place I spent my childhood summers, where I went to college, and where I met some of the best friends a girl could ever ask for.

Mississippi is a place that is greatly misunderstood. It's the butt of just about everyone's jokes. It's a place that people make fun of and then they visit. Then they fall in love with the mysterious state. The people are some of the most wonderful you will ever meet, the food is some of the best in the world, the Blues are from there, and Rock n Roll exists because of one of it's most famous locals.

This magical place was devestated by the worst tornado outbreak that has ever occurred in the state. Louisville, MS was hit my a tornado two different times alone. Yazoo City, Tupelo, Jackson, Brandon, and Columbus were all also hit. I know people who consider each of those places their home towns. My mom included. Some who have found out that their parent's homes were in the line of the tornado. I sat on my couch all night sending constant updates to a friend of mine who was riding out the storm in Brandon. 

As much as Mississippi is hurting right now I am constantly reminded by how good her people are and how they always rise above any obstacle put in their path. Because of this massive line of storms I picked up the phone and called two friends who I haven't spoken with in way too long. Neither of them live in Columbus anymore but both of their families still there. It was so good to talk to my old friends, and I learned the valuable lesson to not only talk to people in the midst of something terrible. Call, text, write, Snapchat, whatever just because and whenever. I was also reminded once again that in Mississippi; when things get bad, we get good.

To understand the world, you must first understand a place like Mississippi. – William Faulkner

Weekend Shenanigans

This weekend was simple. The kind of weekend you crave every once in awhile. This post will be a little bit of a picture dump. Sorry in advance!

Friday was spent at home, going to our 10 year old neighbor's first soccer game down the street, grilling out, and seeing progress in our little herb garden.

Recipe

Someone tried out the "puppy dog" eyes on dad for the first time. Didn't work, but they do say that practice makes perfect, Chloe.

Saturday was a day spent at home getting our chores done and going for a walk around Stone Mountain.

Sunday started off as any normal Sunday would ... at an Irish Pub watching a soccer match. Oh, you don't do that? Weird.

My mother-in-law's favorite team was playing and she asked that we join her for breakfast. Who were we to tell her no?

We finished off the weekend with another lap around Stone Mountain. The picture at the top of this post is the first time you really see the mountain when you pull into the park. We go to the park to walk all the time but it always awes us the first time we drive over that hill and see the mountain.

This is the definition "dog tired." Chloe has been quite the hiker these past two weeks. She has twenty miles under those 4 little legs of hers.

Have you found fun ways to get out and enjoy the weather now that spring has decided to stick around? I really am loving all of this amazing weather on the weekends. We can't seem to spend enough time outdoors. Got to soak it up before summer arrives!

World's Easiest Burgers

OK, not really but I had to get you to click somehow, right?!

Really these burgers are so easy that it would be really hard to mess them up. My husband and I have been playing around with the perfect burger recipe for awhile now. We think we have finally found a winner and of course it's the easiest out of every one we have tried. Funny how it always works out that way.

 

Ingredients
1 lb of ground beer (or whatever you prefer)

Worcestershire sauce
Dale's
Bread crumbs
Paula Deen's House Seasoning (recipe)

Garlic Powder
Onion Powder

Please notice that I don't have any exact measurements for this recipe. This has a lot to do with the amount of meat you have. Dale's is one of those marinades where a little goes a very long way. We usually just splash a little of that and put in about twice as much Worcestershire sauce. We put in a 3-4 pinches of the Paula Deen sauce. If I had to guess I would say we put in 1/2-1 teaspoon of both the garlic and onion powder. The bread crumbs is something that you really have to judge for your self. They are used to bind together the meat so it doesn't fall apart while it is cooking. You will need more depending on how wet your meat is.  

Once you mix it all together (don't forget to take off those rings!), start to form your patties. 1 lb usually makes about 4 patties.

Stick those babies out on the grill and cook them to your heart's content! My heart prefers medium-medium well ;)

Enjoy with some fresh corn on the cob, some baked fries and spoil your self with an Abita Strawberry! Or you know, just whatever you would want with it.

Five on Friday

Hallelujah , it's finally Friday! It's been a slow week around these parts. SO excited it's the weekend.

Let's break down my Five on Friday :)

ONE- NEW CAMERA

I know I posted about this earlier but Y'ALL I am just so so excited! I have been waiting for this for years and the fact that I finally have one to play with and document things means the world to me.

TWO- BOSTON MARATHON

I posted on Monday that my cousin was running the marathon. I am so so proud to say that she not only finished the race, she killed it! I teared up when I watched her cross the finish line. This has been a dream of hers for years. After the events of last year she was more determined to run the race then ever. Well, she did it and qualified for next year!

THREE- RELAXING NIGHTS AT HOME

Pat coaches two nights a week so those are usually my nights to catch up on my girly shows. This week all the stars aligned and two of my ladies tolerated each other and joined me on the couch. Christmas miracle in April!

FOUR- FROZEN

I'm seriously late to the party on this one, but I finally sat down and watched Frozen. I'm obsessed and now want to watch every Disney princess movie from my childhood. Say a prayer for Pat. He's going to need it when I find all of my Disney DVDs.

FIVE- APRIL 25TH

Nothing to add to that one.

I hope each and every one of you has had a fabulous week. Can't wait to read about your amazing weekends next week :)

Darci, April, Christina, Natasha

Losing weight is easy!

.... said no woman EVER.

Everyone on the "trying to lose weight/eating healthy/working out but failing miserably" train say "AYE!" Because that's me. Right now.

Now let's talk about my hubs, Pat. Let's talk about how he just casually mentions every other week that he lost 10 pounds.

 Now let's talk about how much he worked out. Hint- it's usually zero 

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Now let's talk about how I thought I was fat in this picture

Uhhh, WHAT?! Also, I loved my hair that day. That's the last time I can really remember having a really, really good hair day. Get your ish together ginger hairs!

And this one...

I was an idiot

And def this one...

1- I miss that summer/place; 2- idiotidiotidiot

Moral of that story is I was not the brightest crayon in the crayon box in college. Also... ihatemetabolisms. Well, I would still love mine if it acted like it did in college. When I would put ranch dressing on my pizza. (Thank you, Mississippi for living up to your repppp... and for introducing me to greatness. Like ranch. On everything.)

These days I work out more than I have since middle school. You know back in the day when I was playing soccer and swim teaming it up all at the same time. You know when I had actual abs. Then I became a teenager. You know what teenagers do? They sleep. They sleep and get lazy. Enter B of today- I walk/run every.day. after work and then do huge long workouts on the weekends.

Want to know how much weight/inches I've lost?

None.

Frustrated would be an understatement. Especially with the hubs just breathing and losing 10 pounds. So, now I ask all of you... What are your tricks? I've changed my whole diet. Seriously. Pat even likes veggies now which is a miracle. SO... have any of you tried Advocare? I have a lot of friends who are distributors and I'm seriously thinking about doing it. Please share your secrets. So I can whine and complain about being as "fat" as I was in college.

Who do you think you are?

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Is anyone else intrigued by that show on TV or is it just me and my husband?

I have always loved learning about my family history and where my ancestors are from. Luckily for me, I married a man who is just as interested in this as I am. I am fortunate and already know a lot about my family history due to other family members researching in the past. I guess you could say I have always had a pretty good idea about where my roots lie.

A few weeks ago Pat, his mom and I all did DNA tests through Ancestry.com. Through these DNA tests they can break everything down and find out exactly where your ancestors lived. They break it down by region and give you a percentage of how much your DNA matches those regions. 

Nothing shocking about my results

My results came back a lot faster than Pat's and his mom's. I guess their family history is a little more complicated then mine. Pat thought it was hysterical that I possibly have some sort of Asian background since I am not a huge Asian food fan.

On the other hand, I found it hysterical that I am considered "more British" than a person who is actually British.

I didn't learn anything too earth shattering from this test, but I love that I can now be scientifically linked to the information that my family found years ago. Makes it seem more official, I guess. 

Would you take a DNA test? Or do you think we're just insanely boring for doing this? ;)

Weekends are for celebrating

This weekend we got to celebrate so many different things. Some big, some not so big.

1- We celebrated the life of Pat's grandfather. He was such a wonderful man who was kind to everyone he met. You always left him feeling like a better person. That motivated Pat and I to want to be that kind of person to others around us.

2- We celebrated my dad's birthday. We got to go out as a family and enjoy a great dinner. Those times are few and far in between with Pat and I juggling our crazy schedules, then add in the schedule of a senior in high school, a Delta pilot, and a Delta flight attendant. It's a miracle we can all get in the same place at the same time!

My sister and I

3- I have the most wonderful in-laws in the world and they gave us our 1st anniversary present this weekend. They said they wanted to pay for half of the camera we have been saving up for, so we got ourselves a pretty new DLSR camera this weekend. I am so so excited! Pat and I both have been playing with it already.

In. Love.

4- I have been celebrating my cousin Brooke and the other runners running the Boston Marathon tomorrow. This has been a life long dream for Brooke and she was spurned on even more after the events at the marathon last year. I'm afraid to say I won't be getting a lot of work done tomorrow because I'll be watching to see the moment she crosses the finish line.

5- My mom and I celebrated something that has been 3 years in the making. My mom is a master gardener, and she planted two peony plants for me three years ago. She finally got her first bloom this year and it is a beaut!

6- Last but certainly not least, we celebrated Easter and the resurrection of our Savior. It never fails, I always tear up at some point of Easter service. It is so overwhelming to know that someone loves me and everyone else enough to give himself up for us. What a wonder, wonderful love! I pray that I become more like Christ every day and that those around me can see Him in me.

Post Easter service with Pat and my brothers

I hope y'all had plenty to celebrate this weekend. Celebrating even the smallest things makes life so much more exciting! Have a great week y'all!

My Spin on a Popular Pinterest Pin

If you really really know me then you know my favorite book in the Bible is Ruth. I read it over and over again and have done multiple studies on it. I just can't get enough!

I don't know about y'all, but I have been seeing two different pins all over Pinterest for a couple years now. It seems to be pretty popular in the newlywed crowd for obvious reasons ;)

Etsy Store

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While I love those two ways to display that famous verse neither of them stood out to me or fit into our home decor. 

Enter Annette at The Rustic Orange and her amazing Atlas prints. It's no secret that I love to travel and have been very blessed to have seen so many wonderful parts of this world. Since I love to travel so much I have also picked up a love of maps. I saw some of Annette's prints online and it was like a light bulb went off in my head. 

I could not love this more. To me putting it on an atlas sheet really helps bring out the meaning of that particular verse. That verse is so powerful in the book of Ruth and you can always feel the love and devotion that Ruth has for her mother-in-law. While it does not represent a marital relationship in the Book of Ruth, I believe it applies to a marriage in a very strong way. Wherever Pat's job takes him I will be going with him. No matter what.

I'm so excited that I have finally gotten this printed out and put out on display in our home. I have been searching for the perfect way to do it for awhile now. I could not recommend Annette at The Rustic Orange enough. Not only did she get this print to me super fast (like she made it and had it ready to send out in an hour fast), she also managed to send me two other prints in the package just because. Now that is some fabulous customer service!

*Side note- Would y'all please keep my husband and his family in your thoughts and prayers tomorrow. His grandfather passed away on Tuesday after a long battle with cancer and tomorrow is his funeral. Thank you!*

Giving a lot; receiving very little

*If you don't read this then please watch the video at the end. The lesson in that video is one that we should all carry with us every day.*

You know the old saying, "It is better to give then it is to receive"

I am repeating that in my head constantly these days. For a few years now I have felt like I have constantly given a lot of myself to friends and others around me without receiving a lot from them. 

This was something I especially struggled with during our engagement. I was so used to seeing so many couples from my college years have 10+ showers thrown for them throughout their engagement. That is not an exaggeration, I promise. Going from seeing people get 10+ showers to having an engagement party and one shower for yourself was a hard pill for me to swallow. 

1- I am never allowed to cut my hair that short again; 2- The earrings are gone. For good. Praise!

I should have never been upset about something like not having a lot showers. That is not the point of the engagement season by any means. I am just putting myself out there and showing that I know I have a lot to work on.

 With that being said, I am still struggling greatly with being the friend who people depend on for certain things. I love being able to help friends, but then I'll make plans for things down the road and get ditched for something better with other friends who don't care nearly as much. I start to get resentful, and then I start to not care about celebrating them in their exciting time. Geez. Could I sound anymore sinful or terrible?

I have been going through all of this over and over in my head all week. It's a constant prayer. Kind of like my constant prayer for patience as I drive home in rush hour every night, haha.

 Then I get on Facebook last night and see people posting the story of Katherine and her new car all over the place. I got curious and watched. I was immediately humbled.

 Y'all, it so better to give then it is to receive. The blessings of selflessly giving something of yourself to another is repaid in a more important way. Giving so selflessly to another allows them to see Christ in you and isn't that what we should be striving for every day? I pray that I will continue to keep the story of Katherine in the forefront of my mind as I get frustrated with people in my every day life. I pray that I can give as selflessly as she did and probably still does. I pray that I can bless others through giving and that they can see Christ in me. I pray that all the resentment that is currently in me is taken away. Will you pray all of these things for me?

Here is the story of Katherine. I really encourage you to watch it. The wisdom that is in her lesson is something that we all need to hear and carry with us every day.

Read about her here.

Spring Bucket List

Better late than never, right?! Because I am really really late on this one...

Spring is my favorite time of year. I love finally breaking free and spending countless hours outside. This spring we are trying to find things that are cheap and outside that we can do with Chloe (our little pup). I have a few things lined up that have her in mind and some things that are just for me.

SPRING 2014 BUCKET LIST

1. Bark in the Park- Pat and I are really really looking forward to this. It's $15 a person/canine and Chloe gets a Braves leash. Cannot wait!!
2. Renaissance Festival- Pat loves this festival every year and sadly we couldn't make it last year. We have plans to go this year, and we are thinking we are going to go on Pet Appreciation Weekend. Here's to a day filled with jousting, turkey legs and mead!  
3. Get a mani/pedi- It's been almost a year since the last time I got one. The last time was right before our wedding. My finger and toe nails have been seriously neglected.
4. Brunch with the girls- it has been just way too long since the last time we did this. 
5. Have the crawfish boil we keep talking about
6. Celebrate our 1st Wedding Anniversary 
7. Have a doggie play day for Chloe
8. Bike around Stone Mountain
9. Celebrate Pat being finished with school!!!
10. Have a Girls' Night 

 I hope you have been enjoying some spring like weather wherever you are. I am enjoying everything coming to life down here in Atlanta.

What's on your bucket list this spring?

Five on Friday

Darci, April, Christina, and Natasha

It's Friday!!! I'm not going to lie, I am sad to see this week end. It's Spring Break here in Atlanta and that means traffic has been heavenly this week!! 

ONE- NATIONAL PET DAY

As if Pat and I need an actual day to celebrate our three ladies ... If you can't tell we love our babies large and in charge! Love all three of them dearly and love how different all of their personalities are.

TWO- NEW HOME DECOR

I am all about having unique, homemade pieces in our home. Ruth is my favorite book in the Bible and I always learn something new each time I read it. Pat and I both love to travel and I have wanted this particular verse printed for our home for awhile. I knew I wanted it over a map just for symbolism purposes. Well, Annette from The Rustic Orange came to my rescue. I sent her a custom order request at about 9AM this morning and she had it done and ready to be shipped by 10AM. Talk about wonderful customer service!! I can't recommend her enough. Y'all, check out her shop and get to talking to her. She's wonderful!

THREE- TRYING NEW THINGS

Usually for me that means cooking a new recipe. We tried out a new one last night, and Pat says it needs to be put into our rotation. I was a bad blogger and didn't take any pictures, but I loved spending time in our kitchen last night making something from scratch. It's so therapeutic for me!

FOUR- KEEPING WITH THE OLD

While I love trying new things, I also having our favorites every week. Taco night is pretty normal for us. We make our own taco seasoning and it's super fast! This week we decided to throw in some homemade margaritas (in mason jars of course!) and enjoy Monday night catching up on our DVR. Perfection!

FIVE- HELPING FAMILY

While I would rather be going to Augusta for The Masters this weekend, I am so happy that we can go and help Pat's mom move to a better apartment. She lives there during the week for her job and needed a better and safer place to live. Who knows, maybe I'll get to see Rory while we're there ;)

I hope y'all have a wonderful weekend! What do you have planned?

Throwback Thursday: Super Bulldog Weekend

If you can't tell by now, I loved my college and every thing about it. Still do. There has always been something about Mississippi State that has drawn me to it my whole life. My mom went there and my grandparents lived in Starkville almost my whole life. My grandmother didn't move away till my Junior year of college and we still give her (lovingly) crap about moving away. No free place to crash at now ;)

There are two big weekends every year. One is in the fall and the other is in the spring. One is built around football and the other is built around baseball. This weekend is Super Bulldog Weekend and it is all about baseball. I love it and my heart is aching that I am not there. It was always one of my favorite weekends in college. I loved attending our baseball games and hanging out in Left Field Lounge. I loved all the crawfish boils that popped up around campus and I loved how all the fraternity houses transformed into their own little hideaways for the weekend.

Many of you probably don't know a lot about Mississippi State besides the fact that it's a cow school. State is very well known for it's baseball program and is continually ranked as one of the top place to watch college baseball. We hold all of the Top 10 attendance records for a college baseball game. How could you not want to be in the middle of all of this- 

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Walk around Left Field Lounge and I can guarantee you you will leave just as full as you are on Thanksgiving Day. Some of the best food in the world is cooked out there on those grills. There really is no place like it.

Now for some throwbacks-

Woof! We are such babies in this picture. Our Freshmen year of college and our first SBW. Now I'm going to go cry that this picture was taken about 7 years ago. Also, why doesn't my hair curl naturally like that anymore?!

Pretty sure this was my junior year of college. I always seemed to have a million guy friends. Maybe because I'm addicted to sports, and I only have a couple girl friends who can stand to watch a whole series of baseball or stay at a whole football game with me. SO, I was usually stuck with the guys :)

Senior year and extremely early to a game. I miss going to these games and getting the best views by hanging out in Left Field Lounge. 

John Grisham (who attended State) has written about Dudy Noble and the magical place that it is. You can find the full article that he wrote on it, here. Here's just a couple excerpts of that article on one of my most favorite places on earth-
"The older I become, the more I find myself drawn back to Dudy Noble. There are many reasons. It's great baseball played by very talented kids. The game is pure and uncorrupted by money. The place is filled with memories, both of my college days and of the great games and moments since then. It's a wonderful place to unwind. The mood is festive. Time is meaningless. The game is played without a clock. There are no telephones in Left Field. Deadlines are more distant. Appointments seem insignificant.   Regardless of wins and losses, I always feel better when I leave Dudy Noble than when I arrive. There are few places of which this can be said."

"I wish I had played there, too, but I never came close. And so I return year after year to watch the best of college baseball, to see old friends and make new ones, to cook and eat, to see the show. There may be larger parks, but not larger crowds. There may be prettier parks, but I doubt it. Dudy Noble is college baseball at its absolute finest."

Wedding Wednesday: Scripture

I haven't talked a whole lot about our wedding on here, but I wanted to talk about one part of our ceremony that I spent a long time working on: Scripture.

The ceremony was the most important part of the day for us. I spent hours pouring over the scripture and listening to different hymns that were presented to us by my family's church.

Today I wanted to focus on the scripture that we used in our ceremony. We had two different scripture pieces, one Psalm and one Gospel piece read during our ceremony.

Not included in those 4 pieces was a piece of scripture printed on the front our programs that we want to be the foundation of our marriage.

A three-fold cord is not easily broken. Ecclesiastes 4:12

We always want to have God at the center of our marriage. This scripture represents when you have God at the center of the relationship and you both are pursuing Him that it will not be easy to break apart your marriage. All things are possible through Him. Now that is my take on that scripture, and it may not be what everyone believes it to mean.

Set me as a seal upon your heart,
    as a seal upon your arm,
for love is strong as death,
    jealousy is fierce as the grave.
Its flashes are flashes of fire,
    the very flame of the Lord.
 Many waters cannot quench love,
    neither can floods drown it.
If a man offered for love
    all the wealth of his house,
    he would be utterly despised.

Song of Solomon 8:6-7

Unless the Lord builds the house,
    those who build it labor in vain.
Unless the Lord watches over the city,
    the watchman stays awake in vain.

It is in vain that you rise up early
    and go late to rest,
eating the bread of anxious toil;
    for he gives to his beloved sleep.

Behold, children are a heritage from the Lord,
    the fruit of the womb a reward.
Like arrows in the hand of a warrior
    are the children of one's youth.
Blessed is the man
    who fills his quiver with them!
He shall not be put to shame
    when he speaks with his enemies in the gate.

Psalm 127

This Psalm spoke so deeply to us. God is the center of our marriage and we need to make sure our home is built according to His will. This is something that we are constantly working on, and I believe that it will always be something that we will have to work on. I love the reminder that children are a gift form the Lord. They are the greatest gift (besides the gift of Christ and his sacrifice) that we will ever receive. Whenever the day comes for us to have our own children (adopted or biological) we hope to bring them up in the ways of the Lord. We pray that they see the Lord working in our marriage and our lives. We pray that they will crave to have a relationship with the Lord all the days of their lives.

Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience,  bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.  And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.  And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.  Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.  And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Colossians 3:12-17

This scripture is one that really spoke to my heart as I was surrounded by such a wonderful group of believers who were constantly pushing me to be a better version of myself and to become more Christ-like in college. It took on a whole new meaning as Pat and I were preparing ourselves for marriage. Marriage is really really hard, y'all. You have to be constantly prayerful in reminding yourself that your spouse is imperfect just as you are. I pray constantly that Pat continues to grow more in Christ and become more Christ-like. This also means that I pray that Pat sees Christ in me and my actions. That means forgiving him for a wrong even when my pride is telling me no and showing him love on his darkest days.

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.
Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell, and great was the fall of it. And when Jesus finished these sayings, the crowds were astonished at his teaching,  for he was teaching them as one who had authority, and not as their scribes.”

Matthew 7:21, 24-29

I tried to tie all of our scripture together so it would give a strong message to all of those in the church that day. We both felt strongly (and still do!) about the foundation of our marriage being built on Christ and his love. By building our marriage on Christ we will always have someone to look to in all the hard times and know that a hard time is a teaching moment. A hard time is not a moment for our marriage covenant to fall apart, it is a time for us to grow stronger as a couple and to grow closer to Christ. Now I'm not saying that will be easy or that we will not want to buck the system (so to speak) from time-to-time, but it is so wonderful knowing that we will always have Christ and that he is always on our side. 

We both strongly believed in starting our marriage by taking part in Communion. Communion is a symbol of Christ's sacrifice for us when he died on the cross. It is such a beautiful picture and it meant a lot to us to start our marriage by taking part in Communion with our families and friends.

What scripture did you/do you want to use in your own ceremony? Picking out scripture and putting our ceremony together was such a fun time for us. We really hope that people walked away from our ceremony seeing Christ in every aspect and perhaps drawing closer to him.