April 19th. So many rotten things happened on that date in recent history, but one glorious thing did: Keith and I were married before God, and in the presence of many witnesses -- our dear friends and family. One year ago, at noon. In the pavilion at the Confederate Reunion Grounds in Mexia, TX. It was such a magical day; I don't believe I will ever see the like again.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Flash forward to April 17-19, 2009 -- Mexia, TX reenactment
While we hoped for as beautiful a weekend as last year (and many years previous), it didn't start off very promising as we gazed dubiously out our front door at the torrential line of storms which passed through central Texas that morning. We knew it was headed for Mexia.
Then seemed to get better. The radar showed the line of storms had gone through Mexia and was in "light" rain at the time. The rain let up entirely at home so we decided to chance the trip to the reenactment and see how we'd fare at the thing. But we drove right into more rain on the way there.
But the rain subsided. For a while. We got the tent set up before it started sprinkling again, and we were on tenterhooks wondering if it was going to wash us out, but sprinkle is all it did throughout the evening and night. We had a wonderful little night in our tent, listening to the rain and just ruminating on what this last year has brought us -- each other, plus one very little thing.
Then the rains came around 7:30 am. We tried to wait it out.
And wait. And wait. But there was no hope. We had a puddle outside our tent, and under it. It was A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, only in real life. In our tent, that is. We had a little stream that eeked its way into our tent and swathed a path along our floor tarp. We tried every means to stem the flow, and it worked for a time, but the ground got soggier and soggier until we could hold it back no longer. We packed up.
Before we left, though, I caught some images of the water and rain and various "creeks" cut into the earth by the rain that morning. Glad we left when we did. We would have been camping in a swamp.
All's well that ends well, though. We got home Saturday afternoon, washed ourselves up, and sat around feeling mopey that things didn't work out so prettily as they did a year ago. But Sunday -- our actual anniversary date -- was a gorgeous day, full of sunshine and promise. We watched movies and I sewed, and we went for a nice dinner to celebrate our first year together. I'm so thankful to have Keith in my life. I praise God for bringing him to me, and for bringing (so quickly) a new little life into our care and keeping.
Here's to many more years together!
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *Flash forward to April 17-19, 2009 -- Mexia, TX reenactment
While we hoped for as beautiful a weekend as last year (and many years previous), it didn't start off very promising as we gazed dubiously out our front door at the torrential line of storms which passed through central Texas that morning. We knew it was headed for Mexia.
Then seemed to get better. The radar showed the line of storms had gone through Mexia and was in "light" rain at the time. The rain let up entirely at home so we decided to chance the trip to the reenactment and see how we'd fare at the thing. But we drove right into more rain on the way there.
But the rain subsided. For a while. We got the tent set up before it started sprinkling again, and we were on tenterhooks wondering if it was going to wash us out, but sprinkle is all it did throughout the evening and night. We had a wonderful little night in our tent, listening to the rain and just ruminating on what this last year has brought us -- each other, plus one very little thing.Then the rains came around 7:30 am. We tried to wait it out.
And wait. And wait. But there was no hope. We had a puddle outside our tent, and under it. It was A RIVER RUNS THROUGH IT, only in real life. In our tent, that is. We had a little stream that eeked its way into our tent and swathed a path along our floor tarp. We tried every means to stem the flow, and it worked for a time, but the ground got soggier and soggier until we could hold it back no longer. We packed up.Before we left, though, I caught some images of the water and rain and various "creeks" cut into the earth by the rain that morning. Glad we left when we did. We would have been camping in a swamp.
All's well that ends well, though. We got home Saturday afternoon, washed ourselves up, and sat around feeling mopey that things didn't work out so prettily as they did a year ago. But Sunday -- our actual anniversary date -- was a gorgeous day, full of sunshine and promise. We watched movies and I sewed, and we went for a nice dinner to celebrate our first year together. I'm so thankful to have Keith in my life. I praise God for bringing him to me, and for bringing (so quickly) a new little life into our care and keeping.Here's to many more years together!
6 comments:
At least the actual day - April 19, 2008 - was picture perfect!
Great photos! Makes me wish my wife and I were reenacting when we got married - unfortunately, at the time, reenacting was nowhere near as large as it is today. And, although we talked of having an "old-fashioned" wedding, we married very modern (1985 modern!).
Ah, well, maybe a re-newal of the vows for our 25th anniversary next year, dressed in period clothing.
Oh my goodness! Such incredible pictures! What a flood!
Happy anniversary! May you have many more blessed years together!
Happy Anniversary to both of you! I just loved seeing your wedding pictures, what a lovely celebration you had!
Paris
Oh yeah. I'm sorry I missed you. I was there the whole weekend but spent Saturday at the B&B. Sunday was beautiful! I'll blog my experience soon.
You have the neatest blog!
Your wedding pictures are absolutely beautiful. You were a lovely Bride.
What a beautiful wedding cake and food spread you had.
God Bless you real good.
Thanks everyone for the kind comments and well-wishes. I have to thank my friend Kerri for the layout of food and goodies she did for us that day. She loves entertaining in the Victorian style (she even threw me a Bridal Tea!) and just went out of her way with the reception.
Ken - you should definitely renew your vows in period clothing...it really is quite fun and is a fabulous memory to take with you. We had my husband's uncle officiate for us (who is NOT a reenactor and really didn't quite get the concept of why we reenact until the day before we were to be married), and I think by repeating the vows from the Common Book of Prayer (the norm in the 1860s) it really added something special to the event.
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