17 interesting facts you may or may not have known about our wedding

Instead of writing a boring three page recap about everything that has happened in the past month, we decided to make a list of 17 interesting/funny/weird facts about our wedding and the events leading up to it. Enjoy!

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1. We made over 130 fabric votives with the help of our friends. Thanks to everyone who joined us in our crafts sweatshop and to those of you who ate ungodly amounts of pasta sauce and jam to supply us with empty jars. Your stomachs may not be happy about that, but we are. If you want to make your own pasta jar votives, directions are here.


2. The church we got married at, Crossline Community Church in Laguna Hills is a Bible-loving, Christ-exalting church. When we first met with the wedding coordinators there, the packet they gave us had a section explaining the purpose of marriage according to the Bible. How awesome is that! Plus, they are located right down the street from Albatros.

3. Vanessa spent hours upon hours hand-making the boutonnieres and corsages for the Bride's family, the Groom's family, and the bridal party. That's more than 70 flowers! Her tendinitis is worse than ever, but, hey, those flowers look great. Also, unlike real flowers, our fabric ones last forever.

4. We made over 40 yarn balloons (but a fourth of them collapsed or were crushed in the process). Making yarn balloons is actually a really good upper body workout. If you need to get in shape or want to decorate your apartment, here are directions for making the balloons.

5. I bought my authentic titanium wedding band off of Amazon for 13 dollars (shipping included). Hey, its the symbolism that matters right?

6. Vanessa's dad was so excited about his daughter getting married that he not only recorded the wedding, but the wedding rehearsal as well! If you would like CD copies of us awkwardly walking up and down the aisle over and over again, just ask.

7. A month before the wedding, Vanessa went to the hospital for some pain in her abdomen. It turned out to be a Urachal Cyst, which is basically a pimple under your bellybutton (feel free to Google it, but, we warn you, the pictures are gross). Here is a picture of me with her in the hospital:


Thankfully with some shots and antibiotics, she was able to feel a lot better. But, the week before the wedding, Vanessa's stomach started to hurt again. She used the same medicine as before, but it turned out that she had an allergy to one of the antibiotics. Antibiotic allergies can be pretty serious, and Vanessa ended up with a fever and a rash all over her body. Thankfully, God is sovereign over allergies and weddings and she was able to walk down the aisle rash free and healthy. Looking back on that experience, we can safely say that if we didn't have that health scare before the wedding, we definitely would not have depended on Him as much as we did.

8. Upon hearing that her grandson and soon to be granddaughter-in-law were feeling under the weather, my grandmother hitched a ride with my uncle down to Socal to take care of us. She planned to come down to make us Chinese chicken soup. My grandmother is in her 80's. She is also a devoted Christian. When you have been a saint for that long, you know what your priorities are. My grandma placed her obedience to God and duty to love others above her own convenience. 

9. My brother Joseph got lung surgery two weeks before the wedding. He was recently diagnosed with a lung condition called Spontaneous Pulmonary Pneumothorax. This congenital disease causes bubbles to form in the outer lining of your lungs that can randomly pop, causing partial collapsing of the lung. We were worried that he wouldn't be able to participate in the wedding (he was supposed to be a groomsman), but he recovered fast enough to at least make the drive down. If you were wondering why there was a stool on the stage, it was there so that he could sit down in case he felt like passing out. There were lots of health issues in the family in the weeks leading up to the wedding, but God was in control the whole time!

10. Pastor Aaron, Tina and Silas spent many many hours with us in the months leading up to the wedding doing premarital counseling. In these meetings we covered everything from the theology of marriage to practical things like communication and budgeting. It was a joy to watch his family interact and see what God potentially has in store for us. 

11. Vanessa and her bridesmaids had to wake up at 4 AM in the morning to get their makeup done for the wedding! Vanessa's mom provided a makeup team for the wedding that day that consisted of four people working on their hair and makeup and, even then, they didn't finish until 7:30. I have no idea why it takes more than 3 hours for all that to get done, but I'm assuming that most of the time was spent attaching these hair extension things to Rebekah's hair. In all seriousness, that makeup team was awesome and they made all the girls look great. They even helped put concealer on one of my pimples.

12. Half an hour before the wedding, the flower bouquets for the parents went missing so Lawrence drove all the way to the grocery store to buy us flowers. Funny enough, we found the flowers when Lawrence was at the store so we ended up not using his flowers. Thanks Lawrence!


13. I am a big fidgeter. Vanessa was so worried I would be fidgety during the ceremony so she made me practice sitting and standing still for long periods of time. It obviously didn't work because the day after the wedding, Vanessa's dad told me I was really fidgety up on stage. Looks like I need more practice.

14. If you look at all the pictures of our kiss during the ceremony, I am leaning in ALOT. It's a little embarrassing. Vanessa hesitated and now I look like an eager beaver in all the pictures…

15. Our ring boy and flower girl absolutely refused to hold hands or link arms during the wedding rehearsal. They avoided each other like the plague the whole time, even though everyone encouraged them to pretend to like each other. Thankfully, they sucked it up and linked arms during the ceremony and managed to look like a happy couple.

16. 130 lit candles can make a room really really hot. Remember all the votive jars we made? Well, once you throw a candle in it and light up a bunch of them, it makes a room really hot. Add over a hundred people and it makes for a pretty uncomfortable setting. It was so hot that Silas had to walk around in his diapers.


17. There was a lake behind the church! And we took pictures there.

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Well, we hope you enjoyed your behind-the-scenes look at our wedding. Thanks to everyone who helped us out, to all the parents and family members who supported us, and to all of you who have been praying for us. My wife and I (woohoo I get to call her that now!) are so thankful for all of you! Please keep us in your prayers.