The One About the Shotgun Wedding.

Patrick and I eloped on July 20th. It wasn’t our intention when we got engaged to go down to the courthouse on a random Friday afternoon and just get married but life and our circumstances at the time made a run to the courthouse the best option. No I’m not pregnant and definitely wasn’t at the time, so why the rush? Well…

When we got engaged on April 29th it was hands down one of the best days of my life. It happened pretty much exactly how I always imagined it would (you can read all about the proposal here ) but once the engagement high wore off life started to happen real fast. We started wedding planning and as much as we both loved the idea of short engagements we realized that weddings are expensive and short notice weddings are even more expensive.

So my mom and my sister-in-laws went on a crazy wide search trying to find a place in PA to have the wedding and found the perfect place and my dear friend Shallyn agreed to do our pictures. All seemed like it was going to work out. Except the venue and Shallyn were only available, at the same time at least, on September 8th. So September wedding it is we thought and began the planning process.

Then came the question of our living situation and we realized that both of our leases were up in July. Sure, we easily could have just moved in together and lived together for a few months before our wedding but there was one piece to the puzzle which made that an idea we didn’t want to entertain.

Before Patrick and I ever met we both made a decision about our lives and specifically about our sex lives that would go on to impact every single one of our dating relationships. We decided that we wanted to wait until we were married to have sex. It’s a decision that I made when I was a teenager. I didn’t get a purity ring or do some strange ceremony with my dad with him vowing to protect my honor. It was a conversation that happened in a room, between me and God, where I decided that sex before marriage was just not something that I was interested in. I was going to wait.

When I decided that I wanted to be in a serious relationship meeting someone that was also a virgin wasn’t a requirement of mine. Rather, I just wanted to meet someone who could respect that decision and who could honor that while we were dating. To find out that Patrick was also waiting and that this decision was something that meant a lot to both of us, was a real blessing. God is faithful.

So our leases were almost up, we found a place that was available in July but the wedding wasn’t until September, so what do we do? I’m not sure who came up with the idea but one night over dinner we decided that the best idea would be to go to the courthouse and make it official. So on July 20th that’s exactly what we did and it was awesome.

I was lucky that it worked out that my best friend Veronika was in town from Sweden and she, along with Patrick’s family and our friend Chad were able to come to the courthouse with us. We decided that we wanted to be in the actual room with the judge by ourselves in order to have one piece of the whole wedding ordeal just the two of us and everyone was fine with that and waited patiently outside.

Before this whole thing went down if someone would have asked me how does one go about getting married at the courthouse I probably would have said that it’s really simple. Now that I’ve gone through the process I know that it’s quite complex. You can’t just show up to the courthouse and meet with a random judge. You have to go online and find the judges in your district that perform weddings and then you have to reach out to them and ask them if they can marry you. If they say yes then you have to make sure that you get your marriage license before the ceremony and ask them what their fee is because they don’t do it for free.

The judge that we picked was so sweet and kind. I was nervous that it would all feel superficial and not special at all but I was so wrong. She was so intentional about every word that she used and made sure that we understood how big of a deal marriage is. She had us repeat the most beautiful vows and I’m so grateful that out of all of the judges we picked the BEST one. It was so special.

Something else that made the day feel really special and not just like something that we just threw together was the fact that we had a photographer there. Our friend Liz offered to come and take pictures for us and I’m so glad we said yes because it was so fun to have her there. Now that I’m looking through the pictures again and adding them to this post I feel so blessed to have such high quality memories from the day when the Magloire Casey family began. Liz if you’re reading this you’re awesome and we appreciate you!

So that’s pretty much how the shotgun wedding came about. Our leases were up, our wedding was planned for September and we didn’t want to live together until we were married. Looking back on it I’m so glad that we did everything the way and in the order that we did it. I can’t imagine having a huge wedding, moving in to a new place, going on a honeymoon and starting married life together all in the span of two weeks. For us, spacing it out and having time to process each step made us so present for every part of the journey.

From the ceremony on July 20th to the big wedding on September 8th, the Denver reception on September 22nd and the honeymoon coming up March 2019, they all feel like isolated incidents if you will. Experiences that we could soak up and enjoy individually without trying to do it all at the same time.

Yesterday was our two year anniversary and as I look back not only at our ceremony but at our relationship as a whole I’m amazed by how perfect God’s timing is. If I had met Patrick at a different time in my life I’m confident that we would not have worked out and probably wouldn’t have even gone on a single date. Yet here we are, two years and one day in to our lives together and it’s just so wonderful, far from perfect but yet perfect for us.

“You are the finest, loveliest, tenderest and most beautiful person I have ever known…and even that Is an understatement.”