Happy 7th Anniversary!

Just for fun I want to walk down memory lane of one of the happiest days of my life, May 28, 2004!!! What an awesome begin to a life-long journey with my best-friend, soul mate, and total love of my life! He's given me some of the other greatest days of my life with Joss & Emit too, but this particular post is dedicated to the memory of our special day seven years ago!

  My handsome groom :) Our wedding day was a day I will never forget. It came a down pour while all us girls were in the salon getting our hair done, and as you can see it was an outdoor wedding. I remember my mom getting totally nervous and ready to hyperventilate, but the whole time I just felt like, "I don't even care... I'm getting married today!" The Lord truly blessed me with peace and very little anxiety on this day and it was AMAZING.

 My dress still makes me feel like a princess when I see it! It was probably about the 5th dress I tried on the first day I went dress shopping, so of course I thought, I have to try on more to make sure... and after hours of frustrating attempts we fell back on this beauty! I think wedding dresses are like art. Everyone has their own taste of what truly makes a gorgeous gown and is 'the perfect dress'. My dress was MY PERFECT one :)

Dallas' Best Man was his brother, Jeremy. My Maid of Honor was my sister, Bev. We are both blessed to have close siblings that are also some of our best friends.

The Groomsmen were (from left to right): Damien Miller (long time friend), Andrew Sivulka (college roomie and now both the boy's Godfather), My Sexy Man (and Groom), Jeremy Knowles (Best Man & brother), and Elliott Knowles (brother).

I love this photo with me, my mom and dad below. This was a traditional pose for photos for a long time...after big wins in softball, high school graduation, college graduation, so of course we had to capture it for this big event :)

The Bridesmaids included (again from left to right): Rachel Hamby (friend from college), April Savage (Dallas' sister), ME, Bev Riggan (my wonderful sis) and Ann Marie Striggow (my best-friend from 6th grade). Aren't they a beautiful group of gals :)

I have my mom to thank for putting this whole thing together. I had a very hard time envisioning everything, so I took care of the things that I really wanted to have a say so in, and the rest my mom did. We both feel like she did a fantastic job and really took away the stress of the occasion for us. THANKS MOM!!! (wink wink) The ceremony was outdoors at the JSU Alumni House in Jacksonville, Alabama. I think I gave my mom about four main things that I just HAD to have at the wedding. 1) It had to be an outdoor wedding with plants and lots of greenery. 2) I had to have white twinkle lights and candles that sparkled. 3) I wanted wild flowers (or flowers that were all mixed together...not just one type). And 4) The colors...we took my mom and dad on a trip to the northern Exuma Cays with Dallas' family after we were engaged. I looked out over the aqua, blue and turquoise waters and told my mom... I want those to be the colors at my wedding :)

I had to put this shot above on here... Jeremy & Andrew crack us up in this one :) Gotcha boys!!! I think April (far left) was getting a little tickled at them too :) I'm glad to see smiles (for whatever reason it was) in the photos as we go through them. And speaking of photos.. some of these look really old and it is unreal how far photography has come since this time (just 7 years ago). Dallas and I took a 36mm camera on our honeymoon too and took about 6 rolls of film... CRAZY!

Dallas and I wanted to write our own vows, ones that we would both say, but ones that we wrote to make it a little more special. Our vows went like this:

I, Dallas/Tamara, take you Tamara/Dallas as my wife/husband. Declaring my endless love to you and forsaking all others. I promise to love you in sickness and in health, in good times and bad; I promise to be your eternal partner on this journey we begin today. I will stay by your side no matter the challenges we face. God as my witness, I will love you forever!

Of course, I didn't make it through without blubbering like a baby. I can honestly say that our marriage has only gotten better and stronger each year that has passed. Dallas has proven to be a wonderful and godly husband. He still, to this day, makes me feel like the most beautiful and special woman in the world to him. Seeing him as a Daddy has only increased my love for him. He is an amazing father!!

I'm sitting here looking over the program that we had for the ceremony... the one that our pastor, Brother Mike (from my old church up by my folks), used to follow along with the stuff he had planned to say with the things we asked him to add. I can still feel the presence of the Lord on this day. It was such a sweet spirit there and I hope and pray that anyone that came to it felt the same.

As with any big day like this, there were a few minor things that didn't come out quite like we had envisioned it. For instance, the mens' boutineers, my cake, the unforeseen rain that I've already mentioned, and one for me was my Dad's attire. He wore his old Army dress-blues in Bev's wedding last summer and it was just the right touch. I'm not really sure why we went a different route for our wedding, but that would have been a great effect I think. But again, none of these ruined the day for me, or even came close.

Our rings.... such special pieces for me. My engagement ring belonged to Dallas' great-grandmother. I had always hoped to have heirloom jewelry and Dallas was made aware of that early on in our 'courtship' :) It was perfect for me! Our wedding bands were found in my Nannie's (my mom's mom) old jewelry collection that my mom was given after she passed away. My Nannie always had two hands full of beautiful rings, and each other four granddaughters were given a special piece of jewelry 'at the right time' as a keepsake. I never, ever, ever dreamed I would have had the honor to get her wedding band set. Dallas' band was in there too, and we're pretty sure it was one she randomly found when my mom was a little girl and just held on to. So now instead of having one special wedding set, I have a ring for each hand. My engagement ring is on my right hand and has been since this day, and this has been on my left hand. It is such a sweet reminder of my dear grandmother every time I see it.

Our reception was held at the same spot... just moved some chairs out of the way for the dancing. I guess I could add the music played to my list of nags. But on the whole it wasn't a huge deal. Dallas' Grandma Ann played the song for our first dance on a keyboard. She's taught piano lessons for a long time. When we asked her if she would play something for us, she knew just the song she wanted to play. We were having a very hard time deciding on THE song, so we went with it. She played Through the Eyes of Love (theme song from Ice Castles). It was just after sunset and the lighting was so poor for her sheet music so it got a little messed up, but we hardly remember that being a problem :)

My dance with my daddy was very emotional for both of us. We danced to Mark Wills' In My Arms, and once again...I cried like a baby. Read the chorus here and tell me if you were dancing in your loving Daddy's arms at your wedding, don't you think you would cry? 

In my arms
Wish I could hold you forever
In my arms
I will give you shelter
Still I know I can't always be there
To protect you from this great big old world
But I swear this much is true
There'll always be a place for you...in my arms

I love you, daddy!! From the sky to da moon :)

BUBBLES everywhere!!! So much fun! This part of the night was so bittersweet for both of us. We were very anxious to get our honeymoon started, but it was also so much fun having so many dear relatives and friends from both sides in one place at one time. How many times in life do you really get to experience this (on a happy note especially)? We had folks travel from the Bahamas, Kansas, Tennessee, California, Georgia, South Carolina, and all over the state of Alabama. It was a BLAST!!!

Staying true to our commitment's to the Lord, our honeymoon was...let's say 'traditional'?! Not sure that's the word I'm looking for, but hopefully you understand. For any single/unmarried readers out there, I can't tell you how much it means that your newlywed has waited to share that experience with you (and only you)! We were listening to a sermon just this last Sunday and it was talking about how much trust and security you start your marriage off with when you know it's a 'first' for both of you. And that is so very true!!!

  I asked Dallas to surprise me with the honeymoon. I just needed to know what to pack :) We were moving to Exuma right after our honeymoon and we both had always wanted to do this at some point, so he planned an Alaskan cruise that set sail from Vancouver, BC. It was AMAZING!! A truly great start to an amazing journey. 

Seven years have passed...no doubts, no regrets...I'm with the man God created just for me! He continues to amaze me every day and I look forward to a long happy life with him by my side. I love you, babe!!