Weddingbee bios

 

I (Jenn) am one of the King's daughters, my name is written in the Lamb's book of life. I am beloved and lovely. My devotion is not required, but desired by the King of kings. Since I am the King's daughter and I have eternal life in me I will: speak words of life, heal the sick, see the lame walk, and raise the dead. The supernatural will become the normal in my life. My passion is for God and to see those who are oppressed and held captive to walk in total freedom.

Stephen is one of many “nameless, faceless” worship leaders God is raising up in this generation to release the Kingdom of God through song. His deep desire is to see people set free and come fully alive in love by the power of the Holy Spirit. Additionally, Stephen is committed to training others to lead and minister on worship teams. He serves as the Director of Worship at Light & Life Ministries where he is helping to develop and establish Elgin’s House of Prayer as a 24/7 worship center in the spirit of the Tabernacle of David.

Together, we love worship and prayer. We greatly desire to see people set free. We are similar in many ways yet so very different. I love the outdoors, camping, running, kayaking. I am very direct and more of a get things done kind of person, whereas Stephen is the visionary artistic person with lots of dreams.  We stretch each other to do things that are difficult and love learning together.  It's the quality time and moments that turn into memories that we love. 

 

It was a Saturday, August 7, 2010.  The day prior I had suggested we not go hiking if he was going to be up all night in the prayer room.  Upon his adamant refusal of canceling our date at Matthiesen State Park,  I knew something was up, Stephen was all to excited about the fact that we were going hiking.

At the park, we hiked along a creek-bed and took random pictures.  Upon arriving at the main waterfall I was slightly disappointed because the rushing waterfall that I remembered from a prior visit was barely a trickle. The serene moment I was expecting was further diminished by many children and families loudly splashing around.  

We began the hike uphill, away from the falls, on this journey up hill Stephen made a comment,

"This isn't so bad for an adventure."  

Me, making one of the normal sassy remarks that had been going back and forth between us for months replied with, "You know what a better adventure would be?  If we could go camping together.  But no.  I'm not your wife, so that isn't happening."

At this moment Stephen pulls a ring out of his pocket and says something along the lines of, "Well if you would marry me, and be my wife, we could fix that." (His version of the story if slightly different at this point).  

I excitedly said yes, and slid the purity ring off my left hand as the engagement ring took it's place.  

The rest of the proposal can be read here.  If you don't want to reread the above section, skip the first four big paragraphs. 

 

We didn't have engagement photos taken, however, a week after being engaged we were on vacation in Montana and a friend took these pictures for us.  They turned out great and have turned into our engagement pictures.

 

 

 

I loved my wedding! Using yellow and white turned out to be stunning.  

 

I chose six dresses from Alfred Sung and am allowing my seven bridesmaids choose the dress they like best.  These are the dresses everyone has chosen. It's worked out great with six girls wearing the first three dresses (two in each) and the final girl being my sister in the 4th dress. I'm really excited about these dresses and cannot wait for them to actually come in!

My wedding colors are yellow and white.  What color shoes should I request the girls wear?

The groomsmen will be wearing these tux's from Jim's Formalwear.  If you click the link it'll bring up the appropriate color of the vest/tie.  The groom will be wearing a white vest/tie. They're going to look great next to the bridesmaids who will be wearing bright yellow!

Just picked up my custom made wedding jewelry and it's beyond perfect!!  I first learned of this designer when I received one of her pieces as a Christmas gift.  After a brief disscussion,  TallyAna Jewelry created the perfect earrings and necklace!  She also made a matching headband.

 

I also gave her the extra beads and sequins from my dress, and she was able to incorporate them into the earrings and necklace.  Allowing for everything I'll be wearing on my wedding day to match perfectly!  So excited!!!

I am by no means a heels girl.  I want the height though, and after the ceremony and pictures I'll be slipping into some yellow ballet flats. My wedding colors are yellow & white and I figured these would be most perfect!  For $19, I had to get them!

 

This first image is a partial of our save the date.  Which I've been unable to take a decent picture of and the computer file is too big to upload.  So, behold the good image.  (I said partial, but it was what my graphic artist -best MOH ever- sent me to use as a wallpaper on my iphone)

 

 

Below is a picture of the actual. Yes, the lighting for this is terrible.  However, it's basically a postcard and we used rubber cement to adhere the magnet to the post card.   They turned out super cute and I'm so pleased with them!

Our cake will only have three tiers and there will also be a sheet cake (saving on costs!)  We're not planning on having a cake topper.  Are you?  

Three days after the proposal, FI, myself and three friends climbed into a mini-van to begin the 1,550 mile journey from the Chicago suburbs to Kalispel, Montana.  Roundtrip we spent over 50 hours driving and added 3,000+ miles to the odometer.  Purpose? FI was bestman in a wedding and along the way we used all those precious hours to begin our own wedding planning.  

FI and I knew our ten month engagement would be plenty of time to plan our wedding, but in the excitement of being newly engaged we brought forth a lot of vision as to what we thought our wedding would like.  

We quickly discovered that my dream wedding was intimate, excellent and included a MOH and Bestman along with 50 guests (immediate family and our closest friends). FI's dream wedding is a huge party, where many people are honored and everyone is invited. He was baffled at the thought of cutting his 6 closest buds + he just had to have my brother.  Being a PK, worship leader, and in leadership at a separate ministry warranted another dilemma: how to cut the guest list.  

Not knowing what I know now, I didn't think there was any way around this problem and I caved.  I figured out who my seven BMs would be, and our guest list caps at 300 people.  

Lesson learned: FI takes a long time to come into agreement with new ideas.  If I had waited out the size of the wedding and the wedding party, things would be significantly different.  The thing is, those two things are effecting so much of the wedding planning process.  I'm trying to make the best of it though. 

Has any of the other bees experienced this?  What is something you wish you had realized early on in your engagement versus later?