A Month Later - Honeymoon and Post-Wedding Life Together...

Renee and I decided not to leave for our honeymoon on our wedding night. Who wants to rush around before the wedding trying to figure out how to pack for a week of vacation?  Rather, we stayed at a local hotel and came home the day after to open presents and pack our suitcases.  My parents had taken Chili-dog home with them after the wedding so we got to spend a nice dog-free day in the house by ourselves. 

(must pause here and extend a big thanks to my parents for taking care of Chili-dog while we were gone.   She had managed to cut her leg a week prior so she was wearing a cone collar while it healed.  It couldn't have been easy putting up with that!)

Our honeymoon destination was the all-inclusive Couples Sans Souci resort near Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  We flew down on a series of Delta jets the Monday after the wedding.  We had a very relaxing week there.  Our accommodations were wonderful, the food was excellent, and the beach was very beachy.   (traveler's tip - if you want ice-cold drinks like you are used to consuming in the USA, you MUST ask for a glass of ice with your drink - they will not serve it ice-cold.  It's a cultural thing.)  We enjoyed a free couples massage, a ziplining trip, and a trip to Dunn's River Falls--think Johnson's Shut-Ins on steroids.   Aside from that, we spent a lot of time in the water, both ocean and freshwater pools.  The resort itself was large and beautifully landscaped with lots of Mediterranean-like stone walls and walking paths.  We never felt crowded, however.   The resort was adults-only and we never had to fight for beach chairs or rafts.  We would definitely return in a heartbeat!

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So, post-wedding life.

It's been an interesting month as Renee and I have begun the process of figuring out life together.  We're fond of saying that we have the maturity as an older couple that a really young couple likely wouldn't have had, but we also have the challenge of combining our lives after 22 years of collective singleness.  Included in that is learning new rhythms of living, new ways of doing things.  It's been mostly smooth, with a few speed bumps and potholes along the way.  Some old habits of singleness have been hard to break.  We communicate really well, fortunately and are taking care to pray together as often as we can.  It's been a real blessing having Renee off from school since we've been married.  She has had lots of time to make my house into our home.  Things such as curtains and throw pillows have appeared in our bedroom and the guest bedroom, for example.  Both rooms now look like true bedrooms rather than just rooms with beds and furniture.  And it's been that way throughout the house.  I am so thankful that I have a wife with a good eye for style!  She returns to school this week so we'll soon find out how life goes with both of us working.

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To sum up - our wedding, reception and honeymoon went as well or better than we could've hoped.  We're an "us" now, living life together and looking forward with faith to the future.

A Month Later - Post-Ceremony and Reception...

Immediately following the ceremony, Renee and I adjourned to the activity center of the church.  Our "Quest" worship service is held there and it's the place we think of as our worship home.  We thought it fitting that to have some pictures there in front of the stone facing of the room's fake fireplace.  Our photographer (Lisa Jenkins of St. Louis Color Photography and LJ Photography) did a fabulous job of capturing our day, with the help of her assistant Debbie and a second photographer Rebecca(?).  She hustled us through the requisite family portraits in the main sanctuary shortly thereafter and soon we were en route to Old Hickory Golf Club for the reception.

(I must pause and mention that this is where I was so happy that I'd pulled the trigger on a new black Kia Sorento a few weeks earlier.  Didn't really want to ferry my new bride around in a beat-up Mazda6 sedan.  Thanks again, Zeiser Kia!)

Renee and I arrived at Old Hickory a little later than we'd planned, but we were met by a club official who had a golf cart waiting to taxi us up to the front door of the clubhouse.  I helped Renee into the cart, then I hopped behind the wheel and took off.  We walked inside the clubhouse and were met by our DJ, Jimmy "A Rockin' DJ" Hussey.  We'd never met him prior to the reception so we were a bit taken aback.  DJ procurement was completely my responsibility and I'd only had telephone conversations with him.  He got the wedding party lined up and then cued up the wedding reception standard, "Celebration" by Kool and the Gang.  As the music pulsed, the wedding party was introduced pair by pair, then Renee and I entered the room to wild cheers and applause.  I couldn't help but pump my fist a couple of times as I lived the moment I'd been waiting for.

The reception pretty much flew by.  Renee's uncle Ed Smith prayed, then everyone ate lunch and cake.  Renee and I danced our first dance to Karrin Allyson's ravishing rendition of "Say It (Over and Over Again)"  I believe her version of this standard to be the definitive one and it was the perfect song to dance to.  Jimmy's slogan is "your music, your way" and he delivered just what I wanted.  I provided him a list of my favorite love songs and he picked and chose as he saw fit while drawing from his own library.  I highly recommend him.  Our flower girls and ring bearers found much joy in moving their little bodies to the music as Renee and I greeted our guests.  Time constraints prevented us from greeting everyone but we trust everyone had a good time.

I splurged on a room at the Four Seasons hotel on the riverfront for our wedding night.  It was a bit pricey, but definitely worth it.  We had a deluxe room with a great view of the Arch and St. Louis skyline.

A Month Later - The Ceremony...

I've been married a month now and it's pretty certain that Renee and I will be staying married for a good long while so I think I can safely deliver a bit of post-wedding reportage...

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hardly seems possible, that over 4 weeks have passed since Renee and I stood before our God, family, and friends and said our vows.  The days since have been some of the most alternately exhilarating, relaxing, and overall life-changing that I've ever lived.

I gave up my single life forever at high noon on July 9 at First Evangelical Free Church.  It's the church where I've attended since June of 2001.  Renee began attending there late in 2007.  I don't remember speaking to her until we met at a friend's Super Bowl party in early 2008.  We'd met briefly at a mutual friend's wedding in 1998, but never met again afterwards.  Over time, in God's time, actually, we became friends and then, best friends, and then, husband and wife.  Our pastor Kevin Hughes performed the ceremony.  There was no one else who could've done it for us.  He pastors the "Quest" casual/contemporary worship service at FEFC that Renee and I attend.  We've grown to love him as a trusted pastor/teacher/counselor/all around good guy.  I wanted my former pastor Mike "if you boast, you roast" Goodwin to offer a welcome and opening prayer but he was unavailable the weekend of our ceremony.

Our wedding party came together nicely.  Renee chose her sister as her matron of honor and I chose my brother as best man.  My groomsmen were a couple of old friends and Renee's brother Rob.  She chose 3 of her closest friends as bridesmaids and her good friend Melody as her personal attendant.  We had a suitable contingent of adorable nieces and nephews to serve as flower girls and ring bearers.  Renee's college friend Paula provided piano music and our friends Kim and Luke were our singer/guitarist combo for the ceremony.   Our friend Ben is a video guru by trade so we asked him to film the ceremony, using what I thought would be my dinky Sony Handycam video camera.  To our surprise, he showed up with 2 professional-grade cameras and set one in the baptistry and one in the balcony.  To say we are grateful to him would be an understatement.

So, was I nervous?  I really wasn't, on the day of the ceremony.  A man's wedding day is obviously one of the most significant days of his life but I don't think I let that overwhelm me.  I was so confident in my heart that I had made the right decision to marry Renee that I honestly wasn't nervous.  At the rehearsal the night before, I did break down when I tried to introduce my groomsmen and again when I tried to thank some people at the dinner afterward.  I was initially embarrassed but was later encouraged by others' assertion that I was only expressing my true heart at those times.  The ceremony went off without a hitch.  There was the potential for significant hitch-age with the aforementioned flower girls and ring bearers.   Happily, they all proceeded down the aisle voluntarily and adorably.  I must also give a shout-out to our amazing wedding planner Kelli McGill who coordinated everything wonderfully.  I will always be grateful to her for going along with Renee's plan to give the church's gaudy brass candelabras a much-needed spray paint makeover so we could use them.

We included two songs, Phil Keaggy's beautiful wedding song "Here and Now" and the popular praise song "God Of Our Yesterdays."  The former I have known about for many years and knew it had to be in my wedding someday.  The latter is a favorite of Renee's that was played as we lit the unity candle.  We asked Pastor Kevin to speak from Ephesians 3:14-21, the prayer of the apostle Paul for the Ephesian church.  It's a favorite text of mine that I thought would clearly communicate our desire for our marriage and deliver the gospel message to our guests.  He delivered it beautifully.   I wore a lapel microphone for the first time in my life so our guests could hear Renee and I clearly.

And then, in a flash, it was over.  Pastor Kevin pronounced us husband and wife, then uttered his signature wedding phrase, "John, she's all yours, bro.  You can can kiss your bride"  I did so happily and that sealed the deal.  We were officially Mr. and Mrs. John Matlock!

One Month On...

It's been one month now.

Would I do it again?

You betcha...