While I was in the parlor waiting, Luke was with David Mitchell, our pastor, waiting. Right before Luke entered the sanctuary, David gave Luke a 1916 half dollar. David was our youth minister growing up and it was such a blessing to have him officiate our wedding. He explained to Luke that right before his own wedding, his pastor gave him a half dollar of 100 years prior to his wedding. David told Luke to always hold on to this half dollar and to give it to his son one day when he gets married. On the raw footage of our wedding, I can hear David and Luke talking about the significance of this half dollar and praying together. Luke and I spent so much time choosing each and every element of our ceremony to create a worship environment and as a bride, you are so excited for all of it to come together. But, then you realize..for the first 10 minutes or so, you aren’t even in there! So, it was amazing to hear little tid bits of the parts I missed through our raw footage. We also had our videographer start the video of the ceremony 30 minutes prior so that we could hear all of our thoughtfully picked out prelude music, and I still listen to the CD in my car all the time!
After the seating of grandparents, parents, and bridal party entrance, it was time for Daddy and I to enter. Daddy came and got me from the room I was in and we made our way outside and around to the main entrance of the church, where we had just another minute to get ourselves ready to walk down the aisle. My coordinator straightened out my dress and veil, the song began, the doors swung open, we savored it there for a minute and then walked down the aisle to Luke, with tears and a beautiful smile on his face.
I walked down the aisle to one of my favorite hymns “To God Be the Glory,” which my mother in law, an incredibly talented pianist, composed into a special version for my entrance. She added a custom fanfare to the beginning and reworked the order of it to be unique for me. I was so amazed by how it came together. The song was just the organ and not words, but I was singing them in my head…
“Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice;
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice;
Oh, come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory; great things He hath done.”
He has truly done great things and I was praising Him with every step towards Luke.
The ceremony was so beautiful and the Lord so present. The gospel was presented, we worshiped through song, and exchanged our written vows. Luke choked up as he said his vows and I don’t think there was a dry eye in the room. I don’t ever want to forget what it felt like to worship the Lord and marry the love of my life in front of some of the most influential and loving people we’ve ever known.
After being proclaimed husband and wife and exciting the service to go back into the hallway, it felt so SURREAL. I was Mrs. Hamilton!! Some of my bridesmaids were like “What’s going on, Mrs. Hamilton!?” .. like asking how I was doing of course. But, not being used to my new name, I was like “oh no..is she ok? Did something happen?” And they said, NO…we’re talking about YOU!” Too funny.
Because we had already taken most of our pictures already, right after the ceremony, we quickly took extended family pics and signed our marriage license.
Then Lee took out my veil and put my flower in my hair, Lindsey bustled me, and it was time to go the reception!! Luke and I were picked up from the church in a white jaguar (we just asked for a town car, but they showed up in a jaguar?), and off we went to McBryde!!