My husband, Jody, and I were married in March of 1995 at the local Assembly of God Church where we both attended. The pastor who married us was Reverend Leonard Stoner. Our wedding colors were red, white and black. Our flower of choice was a red rose. We had two special songs at our wedding, The Rose, sung by my husband's Aunt Joyce (who happened to be the piano player and song leader for our church) and Love Lives On by Joe Cocker. (That was my husband's pick, it's from the movie Harry and the Hendersons, and at the time I thought he was crazy, now I can't hear the song without getting teary eyed!)
Our daughter, Krista, was only five months old at our wedding and acted as the honorary flower girl. She had a beautiful white dress with red roses and looked like a little angel. My matron of honor was my Aunt Janey (who always seemed more like a sister than an aunt to me) and my husband's brother, Gary, was his best man. Gary's oldest son, Michael, was our ring bearer. My husband's cousin, Anne, was our candle lighter. My Aunt Joyce made us a beautiful wedding cake adorned with red roses and my Uncle John (who happened to work for a local newspaper) took all of the wedding pictures for us. Our wedding was truly a family affair! We were very blessed to have all of them.

The best part of any wedding story is the love story of how it all began...
Jody and I met in high school Biology class. He was one of the first people I met at a new school. There was something special about him from the beginning. He wasn't the normal kind of guy I was interested in, but he had an amazing attraction to me. We started our relationship as friends, getting to know each other and depend on one another. We spent a big part of that school year with each other and by the end of the year we were inseparable. We began dating that summer and spent almost every waking moment together, and loved it! Even as young as we were there was no doubt that we were meant to be together. We had dreams of getting married and having a family.

Dreams that would come true sooner than what we had planned...We discovered I was pregnant by beginning of the following March. Jody was right there with me from the time the stick turned blue to the delivery room, where he held my hand and assured me through a complicated birth. We had a beautiful baby girl with fiery red hair whom we named Krista. A few months later we were married. We were both told it wouldn't last, that we were too young. Our first years were very difficult, we fought a lot (we were living with his parents and working on remodeling a house that had been badly damaged by a fire.) We separated many times over the first five years of our marriage. Finally, shortly before the birth of our second daughter, Sydnee, we decided to give things one last try. I had already hired an attorney to get a divorce, things had gotten so bad. That last try was so worth it. We are now happily married and are friends like we were while dating. What saved our marriage? Would you believe it was a love poem? Jody wrote me all kinds of sweet wonderful things while we were dating, but I never got one in the time we were married, until he asked me to give it one more try. I was so touched that he had taken the time to write me something so special I was in tears. That poem was a bigger blessing than he could have ever know when he was writing it.
So, where are we now? We have been together for over 15 years (married 14). Life together is by no means perfect, but we both know now that it is forever, and we wouldn't have it any other way. Sometimes you have to live through the worst times in your life to appreciate the best times. I truly believe that is how it has worked out for Jody and me, and I wouldn't have it any other way.