a corral ceremony and some rings...

...Matt and I before the wedding preping our vows...

So on our wedding day Matt surprised me with a new set of rings. I did not know this was coming and it was wonderful. And fit perfectly with the unbelievably perfect and emotional ceremony. Perhaps I should back up a bit... I was an emotional wreck at our ceremony in the best way possible. I thought I would be able to hold it together and not cry, that I would be the strong dry eyed type...not so. As Matt and I rehearsed our vows at the pond as to what we were going to say so that we wouldn't be overly nervous I started crying at the part... Matt, I love you because you are a phenomenal man. That was it...I was going to loose it. I was marrying a phenomenal man in front of all of our incredible friends and family who support and love us soo much....and that day was today. Unbelievable.

...us girls walking up to the stairs...

So all of my best girlfriends/bridesmaids and matt's best friends/groomsmen and I all gathered up at the stairs above the corral to walk down into the corral for the ceremony. As soon as we hit the gates into the hay-baled, friends and family laden, love filled corral, with logs covered in vines straight out of sunset magazine, and I heard our very special Andrew Bird song (one of our favorite musicians...and a non-traditional beautiful wedding song), and saw my future husband who I love more than anything...I started sobbing, not crying, sobbing. I literally couldn't see I had so many tears in my eyes.

...my sister-maid of honor, and ryan- best man, finding it hilarious that I was crying...

Once I was at the start of the hay bale rows, I picked up my mom and dad to walk me down the rest of the aisle. It was incredible. My mom has MS so the fact that she was able to walk with me down the aisle meant more to us then we could say... and I needed them by my side to clear the tears, and to be strong and present. Then they gave Matt and I an impromptu group hug, it was perfect. They both give me away to Matt...forever, for keeps. It was very sweet. Matt's uncle, Bud, married us...which was awesome. We asked him back at Christmas if he would do the honors...making our ceremony actually ours. We do not have god as a part of our lives, so we wanted a ceremony that bound us to reflect that...which is exactly what he did and it was powerful. We had a little bit of a quaker-feeling to it, where some friends and family said their blessings, then Matt and I read our vows. Thank goodness we wrote them down, because it was nerve wrecking to say something so personal in front of everyone...and loudly.

...in disbelief of the new rings...

Then Matt pulled out these new rings. I looked at them, and they sparkled soo much in the light...then I looked at him and said... those aren't my rings! We had planned on me just taking off my bands and he would place them back on my hand...because I loved my rings we designed. But these were sparkly! They were beautiful.... I was so excited I almost kissed him right then, Bud had to tell us to wait, it was funny that I completely forgot in that moment that we had a real wedding going on. As it turned out he had one of my grandma's (who isn't with us any longer) diamonds placed in the center, with two smaller ones on the side, which is so incredibly meaningful to me that she is with me all the time. Then the ring has my same textured bands but now everything was in white gold and pallidium (the pallidium makes it so it stays white, and you never have to rhodium-ize them...which we like the idea of low-hassle, and our rings were designed on Etsy, from a super talented artist, Justine, and we love her work. I bought Matt's ring from her...and both of my sets came from her). Before I had the same style rings with white sapphires and recycled argentium silver- for budget reasons, and I loved that it represented us and where we were in life...but now I feel like a wife, with these wonderfully sparkly rings from my husband... its quite simply great.

...my rings, with the lovely bouquets my mom made...

[all photos were from rob hart]