our wedding day.

I realize I have not written much about my wedding day! The summer was hectic and I'm finally sitting down to write write write! I'll have updates about all my other adventures, including our honeymoon throughout the next few days as well.

The wedding really started several days before when my friend Elizabeth Barlow and her sister Hanna arrived by bus all the way from Ontario, Canada! It's a funny story, our friendship. It consists mostly of writing letters back and forth for years. Elizabeth and I met about 9 years ago at an 1860's girl's school/camp in Tennessee. Yes, you read that correctly! We were both obsessed with the 19th century and we had met each other on an online forum before going to the girl's school. So once we met each other in person we knew we were kindred spirits! I remember thinking the best thing about going to that school was meeting Elizabeth. We kept up writing (or rather, she kept writing me, despite my lack of letters!) and continued our friendship. When I got engaged, I wanted Elizabeth to come, but I did not count on her traveling all the way for my little wedding! But she came! And she brought her lovely sister Hanna with her! They helped me so much. They made all of the tissue flowers, which I left off until the last minute. That was a huge help!! And they were there for wonderful conversation after conversation. What a perfect week it was. I think they helped me keep wonderfully calm. The easiest house guests I've ever had! We vowed never to let another 9 years pass before seeing each other again!

Elizabeth also was our music for the ceremony! We thought about having instruments, but when it came down to it, we decided we just wanted a simple no fuss wedding. Elizabeth sang solo and it was gorgeous. She sang a very old song called "Matrimony" as the bridesmaids and finally the bride (me!) walked down the isle. It was a very small wedding, which is just how Jed and I wanted it. We had it in the same church in South Amana, Iowa where I was living at the time, which made decorating quite easy!

The night before the wedding we had a lovely rehearsal dinner with all of Jed's family and my family and a few friends. It was relaxing and fun to see everyone sitting around the table laughing and having a good time. As we were about to head home, we had the idea last minute to have a shape note sing at my house in the church! It really was a lovely way to spend the last day of my single life; gathered around in a square with a small group of friends singing old hymns. Hanna and Elizabeth are excellent shape note singers, but the rest of us were not quite as good I'm afraid! It still was such fun, though! And reminded me that I must try to get back into singing again.

The wedding day went so smoothly, I could hardly believe how smoothly it went! My friend Alanna spent the day before baking cupcakes and her dad built wooden boxes to carry them in. I definitely could not have done all of this without the help of my friends and family! Especially my mom! She did a lot of running around finding wine glasses at thrift stores or calling people to tell them the venue had changed last minute (we were going to have it at the park). Both my family and Jed's family were a great help. We're really fortunate to have such great people in our lives!

I was pretty nervous about the ceremony. I hate getting up in front of people, let alone being the center of attention!! But we did it! And we loved every second of it. We keep saying how we want to spend the day over again and that's how I want to live my life. Spending every day like it was my wedding day. I'm so glad my mom talked me into having a wedding instead of eloping. The day was more special than I can describe. I'll never forget that day.

Photographs by John Allen