Old, New, Borrowed and Two Years Later...

As I mentioned previously, two of my best friends from high school and one of my best friends from Utah got married recently. Through all of the nuptial activities I surprisingly received a lot of comments about our own wedding. Now don't get me wrong, J and I loved EVERY bit of our wedding ceremony and reception but we know that it was ... well... WEIRD. Growing up in Oklahoma gives you a very specific mentality about weddings. They need to be classy, upscale, detail oriented and fabulous!

As Joel put it when telling some of our friends about our big day: "You know those weddings that you see on TV that you don't think really exist? That was the wedding we had!"

Needless to say, Oklahoma weddings often seem to have something to prove. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying anything negative about the wedding culture in Oklahoma. It's just that seeing the wedding culture in Nevada and Utah has opened my eyes to just how lucky it is to be married in a state with such a high standard.

Joel and I assumed most people wouldn't understand our wedding and I expected the jokes and scoffs I got from so-called "friends" at our reception. BUT (to my surprise), two years down the road and I have received so many loving compliments and comments.

As one of my friends said: "Weddings always seem to be classified. There are awkward ones, tense ones, funny ones, etc. Yours definitely fell into the romantic category."

ROMANTIC?! Does that mean people got it!? At each wedding I have been to this season, I have been told that! I even had some of my parents' friends tell me it was the first wedding they had been to where they could tell the couple was completely and truly in love. My response was Shock and Awe.

Our wedding was every bit of weird! J grew up LDS but hasn't been a practicing Mormon since about 10. I grew up non-denominational Christian but have not found a church in Utah yet. Regardless, we wanted someone to marry us who truly knew us (both as individuals and as a couple). So.. we settled on our Native American Medicine Man who had done all of our premarital/personal counseling.




We had a Native American ceremony complete with Eagle feathers, smoke and a Pendleton Blanket Ceremony. (You can imagine the initial push-back we received from my parents). My dad read a Native American prayer too... which meant a lot to me!




We wrote our own vows which were utterly beautiful :)


Side note:
I know what you're thinking.. BLANKET CEREMONY?! The ceremony is the Native American equivalent of lighting a unity candle. Basically, the two mom's each bring a blanket that is representative of the individual and place it on each person's shoulders. Then, the blanket is removed by the Medicine Man and replaced with one blanket that represents shedding your individuality and becoming one under the Creator.


Besides the ceremony, we had completely nontraditional wedding music too. I walked down the aisle to a piano version of "Hey Jude" by the Beatles.



J's lovely sisters sang the Beatles "In My Life" during the blanket ceremony.




And after the kiss, the wedding party exited to "When I'm 64" ... again... by the Beatles.




So after growing up in a culture where picture perfect weddings are the norm, you can imagine the negative feedback I expected to receive from people who were petty and immature. Surprisingly, only one group of "friends" responded in that way. And two years later, I'm realizing... people got it. They got us. They felt the love, sincerity and passion that J and I wanted to encompass our PERFECT day.






I couldn't be happier to be continuing the journey of life with J. Can't wait to see what God has in store!





Moving Forward:
J and I have had a lot of discussions lately about my creative passion and reigniting my love for painting/writing/crafting/etc. I feel stuck when it comes to being creative. So, in order to hopefully reignite some passion, I was thinking about taking this 30 Post Challenge! You're supposed to do it every day but since I run out of time to blog usually, I am going to do it in 30 posts! I'm going to do my VERY best to stick to it too :)

Day 01- Guilty pleasure.
Day 02- Something that inspires you.
Day 03- The five songs you would have with you on a desert island and why.
Day 04- What you imagine paradise to be like.
Day 05- A thank you letter to someone who has changed your life.
Day 06- Earliest thing you can remember.
Day 07- Favorite cover of your favorite song.
Day 08- Someone you think would make a good president.
Day 09- Five things you want to see change.
Day 10- A dream you had this past week described in detail.
Day 11- Favorite picture ever taken of yourself.
Day 12- Your favorite musical artist’s life story.
Day 13- A memory that never fails to make you laugh.
Day 14- Best mashup you’ve ever heard.
Day 15- A moment, phrase, or song that has changed your life the most.
Day 16- Something that you want to do within the next five years.
Day 17- What you want to be remembered for.
Day 18- A picture that makes you feel.
Day 19- A passage from a book that has touched you.
Day 20- A band that you immediately liked and the song that made you like them.
Day 21- Your favorite medium of art.
Day 22- Someone you would give your life up for without question.
Day 23- Most awkward first impression you feel you’ve ever given.
Day 24- Something you did as a child that other people remember you for.
Day 25- Something you would do if no one stopped you or if you knew you wouldn’t fail.
Day 26- Your definition of love.
Day 27- Your definition of the meaning of life.
Day 28- A moment you remember being completely happy in and a description of why you believe you were. What is your definition of happiness?
Day 29- What you live for.
Day 30- Ways you believe you have grown over the past thirty days.


Wish me Luck! :)