On July seventh I will make an unbreakable vow. When I proposed back in February the wedding date seemed to be forever away. Now it is coming up on April and me like a bullet train. This makes me more excited than anything, but still before we know it our special day will be here and that is a little nerve racking. Kind of like the massive migraine that knocked into me while I was at work today our wedding is going to come up suddenly, but not unprepared for.
Our wedding is going to be hodgepodge free because July seventh is a special day!
It is not just a special day for April and myself. Back in February when I proposed, I had July in mind because that would give me a month off from teaching to help plan the wedding and a month after the wedding to recover and I hoped for either the 17 or the seventh so that our anniversary could read: 7/7/17 or 7/17/17.
The numbers seven and 17 are special to me because seven is the number of completion and 7/7/17 just sounds good and then my birthday is on the 17 so obviously it is special to me. I mean without that date and that number I wouldn’t be here. Oh and 2/17/17 was when I proposed so I figured making July 17 would be a fun wedding date. Well, as it turns out July 17 is a Monday so that was a no go. But then April wasn’t sure she wanted our wedding to be on July seventh.
She was a fan of July sixth for a couple of reasons. Thursdays are a more affordable options for marriage and neither of us had any desire to blow up our bank accounts for our wedding. But I was persistent and wouldn’t let go of 7/7/17 and I am so glad that I did not. Not just because I am a huge Broncos fan and now that we are tying the knot on July seventh I am able to have John Elway‘s number in my wedding, but for an even cooler reason.
Shortly after our engagement April invited me over to her parents house for Dinner. She had been talking to her mom about potential wedding dates. I was sure her mom would have an opinion and throw a completely different date into the mix or say something like I think you two should hold off on marriage for another year so that you can save for the wedding.
But she didn’t do that! She said in Spanish that July seventh is a special date in her family as it is her anniversary and the anniversary of her parents. So with her blessing she asked us to be the third generation in her family to be married on July seventh!
Now that date is a month away and I feel like I have so much to do, so much to learn. Yet, I have already learned so much.
Planning our wedding I never thought I would learn something so simple yet so important like that my dad doesn’t know how to hodgepodge or mod podge and what the difference is between the two.
I know you’re wondering how this all came up, but I promise you that it came quite simply and rather hilariously. April and I have been struggling to figure out what to do for our guest book and about a month-and-a-half ago we were eating lunch at her library and I mentioned having our guest book be a photograph of the two of us from our engagement session with Becky Rice.
Somehow April thought I said that we should do a mod podge guest book because my dad knows how to do mod podge. So when she asked me again what we wanted to do I was confused as to why this item was resurfacing as I had thought the matter was settled.
She asked if we wanted to do a guest book where our guest left a cute note and then said she didn’t like mod podge. I said, “don’t you mean hodgepodge,” and she said, “no, mod podge because you said your dad knows how to do it.” Not quite sure what she was talking about I replied, “Um I don’t ever remember bring up hodgepodge.” This went on for about thirty minutes and broke down into laughter. It is my believe that she had a dream where I said my dad would do mod podge hodgepodge. She still claims it was a real conversation but instead of arguing about it we chose to laugh about it and decided to go in a completely different direction for our guest book. It helped that I guaranteed April that my dad, like me, doesn’t have a clue what mod podge or hodgepodge are at all. It turns out mod podge is where you glue cut out magazine pictures to a page or something like that and hodge podge is where things are thrown together haphazardly. So let’s just say hodgepodge has nothing to do with our wedding and neither does mod podge because April is classier than that.
So what I really learned through that is wedding planning is stressful and somethings can be misheard. It is best to give grace to your loved ones and give each other the ability to laugh when a weird disagreement occurs.
Just as importantly I learned about having a plan that way nothing in the wedding becomes hodgepodge. We have worked our tails off to have a plan for what we want in our wedding and how we want to pay for our wedding. Having a plan for your wedding budget is a must. We are paying for our wedding mostly on our own and because of that I figured we would have to go into debt. Debt is not okay. And yet I figured it was something that had to happen. But, as it stands right now, God is helping us pay for our wedding without going into debt!
I have learned the power of being blessed. Several friends and family members blessed us with the ability to pay for our catering right by the due date. I had no idea back in February how I was going to write the check for all the food, but yesterday I was able to place that check in the mail and for that I am grateful.
So I still don’t have a clue what God will do in my life and in my relationship with April over the next month, but I know that I am going to strive to be grateful for all of his blessings and act gracefully at all times. My hope is that my wedding is not a hodgepodge but a blessing of love to all who come to help celebrate the special day.
I know that when I give God all of my anxieties he will help my wedding come up sevens!
Adventure With Brendan 