i thee wed | 3.23.19
On March 23, 2019, I said “I do” to spending my life with my best friend.
It. Was. Perfect.
I mean…PERFECT. We wanted our day centered around God, the mass, and family. And it really was.
We had really hoped for an October wedding in the mountains, but shortly after getting engaged, we found out we’re expecting a baby in October! So, plans changed.
We quickly enlisted our moms to help figure out what would be the best course of action. Everyone agreed that Spring Break - in other words, 7 weeks away - would be ideal before baby comes and so I don’t look epically knocked up in our photos. Ha!
(And actually, for the record, although I’m pretty old-school, I had started having all the worst 1st trimester symptoms, so I told everyone I just wanted to wait until after the baby was born to get married. Joe heavily objected and so the 7-weeks away date was set.)
Our incredible moms, who went above and beyond to make sure Joe and I had the most special day possible.
Joe and I knew that planning a wedding in 7 weeks would mean making a lot of sacrifices. We knew that not everyone we wanted to be there would be able to make it. We knew that we wouldn’t have our first choice of location. We knew that I probably wouldn’t have my dream wedding dress. We knew that we’d have to give up little things that are fun to have at a wedding (like a bigger venue with more to do than just eat and dance, or late-night snacks), but we just couldn’t afford certain things in 7 weeks time, rather than having months and months to save.
These were hard pills to swallow. I had been mentally (and Pinterest) planning my wedding for YEARS. And so I had a few evenings filled with tears of sadness and frustration that it wouldn’t 100% be what we wanted - or what other people would want or expect. And we did our very best to please many people, but at the end of every stressful day of planning this 7-week engagement, we’d look at each other and say one of two things:
“It is what it is.” (This was followed by a sad look in the eyes to each other, but also knowing we just had to let little things go and not speak more of it. Once a decision was made, it was made. No time to switch it up.)
“Remember, our wedding is between 3 beings: you, me, and God.” (Family drama and stress is certain to happen for any wedding, and we MOSTLY side-stepped it, but with a couple little moments that really hurt Joe and I, we found ourselves constantly turning to prayer to help remind us what was most important on our day: God, us, and our vows to be united under Him.)
So…7 weeks. Really, 52 days. It was planned. I had ridiculous nausea and exhaustion the entire final week leading up to it, and looking back now, a lot of it is such a blur. Partly because of the excitement, yes, but mostly because I was napping through a ton of stuff that I probably should have been doing, but Joe and my mom did instead.
Which brings me to Joe. My husband.
First of all, isn’t he ridiculously handsome?!
Things I love about Joe, in no particular order: his adventurous spirit, his love for God, his ability to make me laugh - even if I’m super angry or crying hard heavy tears, how freaking good he is at grilling and/or smoking allllll the meats, how he takes the dog for a walk every morning so I can sleep in just a few more minutes, his work ethic and care for students, his calm and cool demeanor, his love for both of our families, and so so so many other things…
But especially, I love how he just lets me be me. He knows who I am (or as he jokingly says to me “I know what I got myself into with you”). He knows what I care deeply about, why I react the way I do at times, what makes me upset or hurt, and knows how sometimes I just need to eat something to feel better (#truth). And despite all of those flaws, he doesn’t seek to change me. He accepts me - all of me - and loves me for who I am. And although I know he accepts me as me, I also get the urge to want to be better, be more patient, calm, understanding, and empathetic — just like him.
Before Joe and I got engaged, one of his brother’s said to me, “Never rush an Ekhoff!” In the moment I just laughed and said “yeah, I know…” but really what I wanted to say was, “I’VE KNOWN HIM FOR 5 YEARS!!! And wanted to marry him for AT LEAST the past 3.5!!” But as much as I joke about that, I also know that God’s timing is everything, and we wouldn’t have had the most incredible day we had on March 23, 2019, if anything had happened any different in our past.
I love who we are as a couple. A married couple. And I know not every day will be easy, that we’ll have challenges. But I also know and rest soundly in the fact that there is no one else I’d rather go through all the valleys and mountains in life than this man.
Some credits:
Photo + Video // Fox & Ivory
Hair + Makeup // Beauty by Tassi
Church // Saint John of the Cross Catholic Church
Reception // Katherine Legge Memorial Lodge
Catering // Taste of Home Catering
Desserts // Dunkin’ Donuts
DJ // Five-O Entertainment
Flowers // The English Garden
Basically everything else // my mom.
Our incredible wedding party, all of whom played a huge part in helping our day go smoothly, but I need to do a special shout-out to my Maid of Honor, Brook. I mean, if there was an annual award for “Best MOH,” Brook would get it hands-down. Case in point: she agreed to be my MOH before we found out we were pregnant. THEN, when we found out, I immediately called her to see if she was still up for the task……because….she’s an accountant, also in grad school to get her MBA, and we were planning on getting married mere weeks before taxes were due, in the final semester of her MBA program. So on top of her already uber-stressful time of year, she (1) threw me a bachelorette weekend at a spa, (2) threw me a bridal shower the very next day, (3) ordered a MOH dress online with weeks to spare, fingers crossing that it fit, and (4) took a weekend to be in Illinois for the wedding. And to her credit, I didn’t see her do any work ONCE either of those epic weekends. So, like I said: Best MOH of the year - if not of all time!
Our readers // My cousin, Michelle, and our sister-in-law (on Joe’s side), Christina. Both read scripture that was so special and sacred to us.
Something old: the lace on my veil was from my mom’s wedding dress in 1984
Something new: my veil. it was handmade by my mom and sister-in-law (I could wear it every single day)
Something borrowed: my nanna’s mink coat, and necklace (the first diamond my grandfather gave her)
Something blue: my mom sewed a patch of one of her blue shirts, in the shape of a heart, on the inside of my wedding dress - that way, she could also walk me down the aisle (I’m crying again about it now)
I truly don’t know how we pulled this off in 7 weeks. It was everything we could have dreamed of, and then some. Joe and I are eternally grateful to our parents, our bridal party, and so many others, for their help and support in planning this incredible day.
I love love love this photo. She captured the verse underneath the statue in the church’s grotto. “Blessed is she who believed.” For so long, a lot of people told me to just move on - if Joe and I weren’t going to date, if we were going to just be friends, I should move on and let another guy come into my life. But I knew. I believed. He’s the one. And I am abundantly blessed because of it.
Now to start building a time machine so I can go back and live it all over again…but maybe not during the 1st trimester of pregnancy.
xo,
Jaclyn (& Joe)
