our wedding day: the night before

hi friends! I'm so excited to finally get to share the details of our wedding with you all :) my husband Justen and I got married on New Year's Eve of 2023 (just hit 3 months being married!), and we've been eagerly waiting for our wedding gallery. we got our photos mid-March and have been sharing them with family and friends. now that my social media fast is over, I'm sharing them with you all!

we have nearly 2,000 wedding photos that we received, so you can probably imagine how hard it's been to narrow them down to a few posts. I've organized my favorites into 8 different posts, which I'll share both on Instagram and on the blog. the full-length posts will be here, and the shortened posts will be on IG. the posts will be in chronological order, starting with the night before our wedding, getting ready, first looks, ceremony, reception, etc. at the end of every post, I'll have our vendors listed in case you want to look any of them up for your own wedding or give them a follow!

the night before our wedding

rehearsal

our ceremony venue was All Saint's Chapel in downtown Raleigh, and that's conveniently where we had our rehearsal dinner and worship night as well. we rehearsed from 5-6 pm, and all I really remember from the rehearsal was regretting my shoe choice, haha. I wanted to practice wearing my wedding heels in the chapel, but it was a bit much for my feet running around all evening!

between the rehearsal and the dinner, our sweet flower girls were running around and getting out their excited energy :) I'm honestly obsessed with these sweet girls and chased them around and explored while we waited for dinner to get ready. channeling my future mom energy haha.

rehearsal dinner

once dinner was ready, my father in law Bob took the mic and gave a welcome and prayer that was so heartfelt and kind 🤍

while we were finishing up dinner, we had an open mic and our friends went up and told stories about me and Justen. my favorite was my friend Tanya reading the novel of a text I sent her the week I met Justen about my thoughts about him 😂

we finished the dinner and almost forgot to cut our cake! our amazing planner helped us cut all the slices because we forgot to ask the catering company to stay back and help, oops.

worship night

I was never one of those girls that had grand dreams since childhood for her wedding day. I just really didn't think about it much.

but for years I've had this vision of my rehearsal dinner. weird, I know.

one of my best friends and bridesmaids, Jenna, leads worship at our church, and for years we have talked about her leading a worship night the evening before my wedding.

Jenna, Justen, and I sat in our apartment the month or so before the 30th and mapped out what songs we wanted and the flow of the evening. my favorites were In Christ Alone, Million Little Miracles, and The Blessing. the latter is one that’s been special to me for years (never fails to make me cry), and Million Little Miracles has brought Justen and I incredible peace during difficult times.

Jenna is a gift and her heart for cultivating a space of honor and reverence made for such a sacred night. we had so many sweet friends help out with the worship night, offering their time and talents to help us pull this off.

we started the evening off several worship songs, and Justen's former pastor Grayson gave a short sermon about love in marriage.

the last song we sang was The Blessing, one of my all-time favorites. I have listened to this song for years and it became particularly significant to me right before I met Justen and . I remember playing this song in my car and sobbing to the words "may your favor be upon you, in a thousand generations" and imagining singing this with my future husband.

during this part of the song, our worship team had our friends and family lay hands on us

May His favor be upon you

And a thousand generations

And your family

And your children

And their children

And their children

this evening was holy, reverent, peaceful, joyful, and redemptive. this last photo is a personal favorite — the blessing with laying of hands 🤍

I'll leave you with the following verse from The Blessing:

May His presence go before you

And behind you

And beside you

All around you

And within you

He is with you

He is with you

In the morning

In the evening

In your coming

And your going

In your weeping

And rejoicing

He is for you

He is for you

❤️

see you tomorrow for part 2 (getting ready) :)

much love,

our vendors

planner: C&D Collective (Kelsy Green)

ceremony venue: All Saint's Chapel

reception venue: Market Hall

florals: Selah Floral Co.

photo: Ashley Holstein Photography

video: Films by Kayli

band: Az Izz