Life in Photos, Poetry & Words

POETRY & WORDS :: Yes, We Know. And We Do.

Bride and groom Bridesmaids wearing mismatched black

When we announced we’d be married on the 13th, people gasped. “Oh!” they said, “Don’t you know that means your anniversary will” — here they lowered their voices to a whisper — “sometimes be on Friday the thirteenth?

“Yes,” we said.

“We know.

And yes, we know the bridesmaids are wearing black. And the wedding party is walking in to The Godfather theme. And we’re reading from Isaiah. And it’s going to be ok.”

(Did they forget about the One who makes all things new?)

Happy five years, Josiah. It’s been a little bit more than ok.

β™₯

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Life in Photos

LIFE IN PHOTOS :: One thousand, four hundred and sixty-one days

Four Year Anniversary, photo via Oaxacaborn

Four years ago, I walked down the aisle to this song, and back up the aisle to this song.

(Oh what a thing to do.)

And then we moved from California to Florida, and then back to California, and then back to Florida again.

(I swam across, I jumped across, for you.)

Josiah, oh, I truly love you more now than I did then.

(Look at the stars, look how they shine for you, and everything you do.)

Poetry & Words

Look at the stars, look how they shine for you

Three years ago today, I walked down a grassy aisle in Grandma C’s backyard to Norah Jones’ Come Away with Me.

walking down the aisle with daddy - outdoor Norcal wedding

I want to walk with you
On a cloudy day
In fields where the yellow grass grows knee-high
So won’t you try to come

Come away with me and we’ll kiss
On a mountaintop
Come away with me
And I’ll never stop loving you

And I want to wake up with the rain
Falling on a tin roof
While I’m safe there in your arms
So all I ask is for you
To come away with me

And so we were married in the mountains of NorCal, with the grass beneath our feet, the towering California trees overhead, and our family and friends all around us.

NorCal wedding outdoors

We had these verses from Isaiah 41 read during the ceremony. Non-traditional, yes, but oh, so beautiful.

I the Lord will answer them;
I the God of Israel will not forsake them.
I will open rivers on the bare heights,
and fountains in the midst of the valleys.
I will make the wilderness a pool of water,
and the dry land springs of water.
I will put in the wilderness the cedar,
the acacia, the myrtle, and the olive.
I will set in the desert the cypress,
the plane and the pine together,
that they may see and know,
may consider and understand together,
that the hand of the LORD has done this,
the Holy One of Israel has created it.

NorCal outdoor wedding

A dear family friend and missionary to Japan officiated the ceremony.

NorCal outdoor wedding - classic urn and column with ivy and white flowers, lisianthus bridal bouquet

We walked back down the aisle to Coldplay’s Yellow.

Recessional  - Dried red milo berries on grass

Look at the stars,
Look how they shine for you,
And everything you do,
Yeah they were all yellow,

I came along
I wrote a song for you
And all the things you do
And it was called yellow

So then I took my turn
Oh all the things I’ve done …
D’you know you know I love you so
You know I love you so.

wedding party - bridesmaids and groomsmen in black

Josiah and Gina - Wedding Portrait with Lisianthus Bouquet

It was all kinds of perfect.


All images courtesy of B. Sarah Klein, who, along with her sister, is preparing to launch A Sea Apart: Two Sisters, Two Countries, Two Photos a Day.