pre-ceremony.

Slowly but surely, I'm making my way through reminiscing about that wonderful day (exactly) 9 months ago...

Our wedding wasn't until 5, and I was super thankful to not have to get up ridiculously early to start getting ready.  I purposely set my alarm a little bit earlier than I needed so that I could get up and have a few quiet moments with Jesus before the craziness of the day began.  I'll be honest, this is the sort of thing that I often plan to do but don't follow through on, and I will always be thankful that I actually did that morning.  We- meaning me, my parents, my brother and his girlfriend, and two of my bridesmaids, were at my parents house, so I crept out to the back porch with my journal for 30 minutes.  It was a very sweet time of recognizing that what I was about to do was a picture of what I will again someday- as part of the body of Christ, I will unite with Jesus in heaven forever.  I reflected on my engagement and how I'd be a mess and Cori- my sweet, steady, Cori- would be patient and love me anyway.  It struck me that this time on Earth is like my engagement to the Lord, and He is patient and forgiving, just as my earthly fiancee had modeled over the last 6 months.  

After time with the Lord, I crawled in bed with still-sleeping Katherine and Laura, for a few girly, giggly moments of, "I'm getting married!!"  Then, it was off to my mom's salon where we were getting our hair done.

bride and maid of honor- pretty curls!

Kimmy!  Kim is one of my very best friends (we lived together for almost 5 years!) and got into Virginia on Saturday morning after taking a red-eye from  L.A. where she interned for the summer.  I was SO happy to finally have her there!

So yeah... I definitely ate Chick-Fil-A on my wedding day.  I'm kind of obsessed with it, and since we needed to eat SOMETHING before the ceremony, I requested a party platter.  :)  Katherine's sweet mom picked it up for us.  Katherine and I in particular love Chick-Fil-A party platters, going back to our graduation party. 

me and my bridesmaids :)

After that, it was off to the church to get ready.  It's getting late and I need some down-time before another busy work week kicks off, so I'll have to post those pictures later.  The good news is, from here on out, all pictures I post will be those taken by our wonderful photographer, Rebekah Hoyt. :)