“Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.”
What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.” John 2:7-11
I love weddings! Each of the weddings in our family have had their own special touches, some big, others small, some at our home, others at a distant location, but my favorite thing about weddings ands the one thing they have all had in common is that there is nothing sweeter or more special than having all of your favorite people in the world come together in one place, under one tent, to celebrate, honor and bear witness to the marriage of one of your children. It is truly one of the most sacred, and also most fun moments of life!
The morning after Sadie and Christian’s wedding I woke up and thought how fun would it be to somehow give that gift to someone else. I know weddings while being joy-filled occasions can also be stressful, overwhelming and let’s face it…expensive! So I decide then that we would “give away” a wedding to someone that needed it. I didn’t know what that would look like, just determined that we would, and then 2020 came, our world went into a global pandemic and all of a sudden there were thousands and thousands of brides who had dreamed and planned, prayed and saved and put deposits down for weddings that would have to be canceled. I could only imagine how devastating that would be! Sadie and the LO team immediately began dreaming about how they could help this group of “Covid brides” feel a little less alone, and I along with my awesome assistant, fellow dreamer, and ultimate party planner, Lindsay, immediately started planning how we could gift a wedding to a special bride!
I loved getting the opportunity to help Elizabeth and Adam celebrate their love story in such a special way, even if it looked different than they had originally imagined. I think we can all agree that 2020 has been far from normal, but to be a part of the beginning of a couple’s life together, and to help them to celebrate when every thing seemed lost and turned upside down was a complete joy. I hope this inspires you to find ways to celebrate, even in the midst of whatever setbacks or disappointments life brings. Two becoming one is always something to celebrate! Enjoy Elizabeth’s Story…
P.S. Don’t you love that the very first miracle that Jesus performed was at a wedding! Isn’t it so beautiful to see that the savior of the universe listened to his mother and turned water to wine so that a wedding celebration could continue? Our God is always about the business of bringing beauty out of the ashes!
From Elizabeth:
Let’s talk about wedding planning. It’s a subject that every bride from past, present, and future knows all too well. It’s a little crazy, stressful, and can even be dramatic at the worst of times. Now let’s make it interesting by throwing a little bit of 2020 into the mix and see what concoction we can come up with. Here’s my story of how my wedding went from being something I always dreamed about to a complete nightmare and then circled all the way back to being the most magical, perfect day a bride could hope for. It’s a bit of a journey so bear with me.
I met my husband, Adam, back in 2016. We started dating about 6 months after meeting and got engaged Christmas 2018. I could not believe how perfect the proposal was! He even picked out the ring himself and let me tell y’all – he didn’t just do good. He did great! We immediately began wedding planning by picking out the date – April 4, 2020. We knew we’d need some time to save up and we were about to move to Texas, so we gave ourselves plenty of breathing room.
We moved and got our lives started in the Lone Star State with a new job for me and a job transfer for Adam. As an event planner for the past 7 years, I was in familiar territory or at least I thought I was. We had everything finalized and then the world turned upside down.
I was sitting in a conference room at work in March when my boss made the announcement that we were cancelling our annual conference due to the pandemic and the thought suddenly occurred to me that I needed to start looking at a contingency plan for the wedding.
I’m not going to lie and tell you that I kept it together. I cried for maybe a week on and off about the wedding. I was a mess and full of panic. Adam and I had to make a decision and we had to make it quickly since our wedding was less than a month away.
We decided to postpone the reception indefinitely and have a small intimate ceremony with 10 people at my Dad’s house in Shreveport, LA. We would try to get back as much as we could from vendors we no longer needed and keep the ones we did need. We had a plan, and it was all going to work out! Except it didn’t – my Dad, stepmom, and little sister were all exposed to someone with Covid-19 and their 2-week quarantine wouldn’t be up until April 5. Did I mention we learned all of this after getting back home from getting out marriage license in Louisiana?
And then the tears were there again. We put things on hold for a while until I could work up the courage to make another plan. My amazing florist, Brianna Belton, was seriously a godsend. She was the one person who helped keep me sane and didn’t make me feel crazy as I asked her question after question about what her other brides were doing and what dates she had available.
From there, we set on a new date and venue – October 3, 2020 in Bossier City, LA at Brianna’s own workshop. We decided to keep things small with 70 people and go for it. Honestly, I was sick of wedding planning at this point. It was supposed to be the greatest experience and it just wasn’t anymore. But then something I can only describe as a miracle happened.
Brianna called and said she had a vendor reach out to her who had a previous client that was wanting to do something nice for a bride and groom affected by the pandemic. Brianna asked if she could give them my contact information for them to reach out to me and I said yes.
About a week went by when I received a Facetime call from Korie Robertson. I was in complete shock. Korie offered for Adam and I to get married at their family farm in Calhoun, LA at no charge. It immediately felt like such a blessing that we really needed and a sign from God that this was really going to work itself out for the better.
We kept wedding planning and the blessings kept pouring in. Glass Chapel Videography who was looking to get back in the game after moving back to the area and wanted to be a part of our wedding at no cost to us. Bash Booth (and the original vendor contact) offered their services free of charge. A Element Event Rentals based out of New Orleans who wanted to be a part of this by giving us rentals to use. Not to mention the Robertson’s who not only let us use their property, but also paid for the food for the wedding, gave us their tent to use, and opened up their home to us the day of to get ready.
We are forever grateful to the Robertson’s for this amazing opportunity and for making us fall back in love with our wedding. They gave us the best day we could have ever dreamed of.
I am extremely honored to have been chosen for this and to have worked alongside the many amazing vendors who made this day possible. Your kindness will be something I never forget as long as I live. In more ways than you can imagine – thank you.
Venue – Willie and Korie’s Farm, Korie Robertson @bosshogswife
Florals, Styling, & Catering – Brianna Belton Designs @briannabeltondesign
Photobooth: Sarah Jeffords @bashbooth
Photography – Kayla Hall Photography @kaylahallphotography
Videography – Glass Chapel Motion @glasschapelmotion
Hair & Makeup – Grace Coyer Trahan
DJ – HollyTrees Weddings & Events @hollytreesweddingsandevents
Cake – Uptown Down @udruston
Dress – A & Be Bridal Shop Dallas @aandbe_bridalshop
Explore Elements: @exploreelements
What a kind thing to do! We need more people like your family in our world ?
Where are the lamps from, my husband and I are having a 25th anniversary in two weeks and I would love to have a few of these around my yard for the event.
Yall are truly amazing people and I really wish that we were still able to see yall on TV every week . Yall made life a little easier to deal with. I miss Yall
How wonderfuland such a blessing!!! Love and hugs for everyone!! God is alive and well in the South!!!
A very touching story. Your kindness is a
blessing to all.
I watched my daughter go through the rollercoaster of emotions described in her recounting as their wedding plans seemed to roll out, and then roll back, over and over. It was heartbreaking. Then, the blessings started to flow which started with the Robertson’s incredible offer to host their wedding. It really was an amazing day! Thank you so much!
I Love this Story! God always has a Good plan! He is always Faithful! Life may not turn out like we hoped and dream, but God is still Good and Faithful and able to be Trusted! My husband and I have been married for 22 years! We love doing life together and raising our 5 blessings together! We homeschool and my husband is a ranch manager, which essentially means that he gets a pay check and we ALL do the work :)) But we love it!
We are not by any means perfect, but we have worked hard to instill the love of Jesus and God’s Word into our kiddos (and anyone that has come into our home – which is a lot haha). As a family, we have loved watching Duck Dynasty and I am very grateful for the ministry that you helped your daughter, Sadie, do in teaching and writing about purity to girls. I read the books with my daughter and I am so thankful for the influence the messages had on her.
Our oldest daughter is 20 now. A couple years ago, when she was a senior, she started dating her first boyfriend. He was great boy! We had known him all his life. The family is some of our closest friends. He worked with us on the ranch under my husbands supervision. He loved the Lord. He came to my husband and told him that he fancied our daughter and asked if he could date her. He said he wouldn’t be asking if his intention was not eventually marriage. We agreed for them to date. Our girl was head over heels and knew that she would marry him. Several months before this, she had committed to going to Africa for a school year to help a missionary family homeschool their children. They dated 8 months before we put her on a plane to the other side of the world, which I will say was extremely hard for my mommy heart to do. The boy and her dreamed and made plans that when she returned that they would marry. She loved Africa and God was clearly using her in so many ways there. She was not only doing what she went there to do, but also teaching teenage girls from the village in Bible Studies and teaching them to live in purity. She did a book study with them using Sadie’s book. She was there for 5 months when our whole lives broke apart and our dreams were shattered. The boy had been killed in a car accident at 19 years old. A few months before this, he had quit working the ranch with us to go to seminary in Dallas. We had to fly our girl back home, on a plane, across the ocean, three days of traveling, most without any contact, with a broken heart. I spent those three days weeping on my knees, clinging to my Bible, begging God to wrap his arms around my baby girl as she traveled home in complete brokenness. I can look back today and clearly see His Faithfulness in that! We picked her up from the airport and unbeknownst to her, her grandmother had gotten sick that week and was in the hospital in her last day. We had to tell our precious daughter who was completely broken, that we had to go right away to the hospital bc her grandmother, who our daughter adored, was also about to go to Heaven. It was the worst nightmare. It was an utterly devastating time to not only be grieving myself, but to see my daughter, who was so full of Joy and life and love, be so shattered. We made it to the hospital and minutes after Cambry got to her grandmother’s bed side, she passed away. In those few minutes, Cambry had told her grandmother to please dance with her Joshua. Her and Joshua loved to dance! She called him her Dancing Partner. As we were leaving the hospital, I was practically having to carry my 18 year old daughter bc she was so heartbroken, we crossed the cross walk and a car was blaring music with their windows down. Cambry literally stopped us in the middle of the cross walk and fell to the ground in the middle of the street weeping. I was urging her to keep walking and I was still practically carrying her. Through her weeping she uttered “That’s our song! Joshua and GG are dancing! That’s our song!” It was like a hug from Father letting us know that He was there! That was a few days before Thanksgiving two years ago. It was hard to think of things to be Thankful for that year, as we all grieved, but we chose to remember that we serve a Sovereign and Faithful God! The months that followed were very dark, and hard months for our family, especially our daughter. We clung to the promises of God, holding tight to His Word and Truth.
A year passed and my daughter would not give any boy the time of day. She was taking college classes, though and needed help with Spanish. A guy that was an intern at our church said he could help her. She was desperate for an A in that class and was out of options for people that could help her so she agreed. Long story short, they are engaged to be married now. He is very different from anything we imagined our girl marrying. He is smart and is an accountant and honestly a little nerdy. He doesn’t really do ranch work or hunting. We have 2 girls and 3 boys and we all hunt and fish and work the ranch. So, it is quite different and quite humorous. The one thing we pray over all of our children though is that they marry someone who loves the Lord. This guy does Love the Lord! He is passionate about ministry and sharing the gospel and he does love our girl. So, we have to remind ourselves, that in the big picture, maybe hunting doesn’t really matter lol. My husband is still not fully convinced, but he did give his blessing for them to first date, and now marry.
They were engaged in August and we set the wedding date for January 30. However, due to many circumstances, we have decided to do a much smaller wedding than we planned and move it up to December 5. So many things out of our control and not as we had planned, but still trusting the Lord! We have 5 kiddos like I said and we have always chosen to live on as little as we could so that I could stay home and homeschool them. I clean houses on the side to help make ends meet. We wanted to give our daughter a weeding though, so we have been saving for that. The circumstances of the world though, made the decision for us to not risk spending a lot of money for a big wedding with a good chance that it will have to be canceled. Another unexpected punch thrown in, is that the people that own the ranch we work on are having trouble in their marriage. It is not a good situation and does not look good and sadly, as the ranch foreman, we are getting a lot of the fire from that. The man is very kind and generous and wants to keep the ranch and us. He knows my husband is a hard worker and faithful and honest. He knows my whole family really works hard and we are happy to. The wife however, well, I am just going to be nice and say has very different feeling and opinions. We are not only living in great uncertainty in the world, but also personally. We have no idea if we will be able to continue working this ranch or not. We have prayed about it and looked around a little for another ranch manager job, but have found nothing and seeing that as our answer to stay until something else happens. We are praying though for restoration in that marriage also.
So, we are two weeks from our oldest daughter’s wedding, with so many uncertainties and every second and every day fully Trusting Father and His good plan! It is hard but I love that not only can we Trust Him, but also just being in that place of having no other choice! Cambry’s wedding will be a bit thrown together. I don’t know how it is all going to come together, but I know it will and I know it will be beautiful. It is the marriage that matters, not so much the wedding! I only desire that it is a reflection of Christ! I am so proud of her and I am so thankful to be able to say that she has fully saved herself for marriage. I partially have you and Sadie to thank for that for your boldness to share Truth! You were faithful to share what God gave you and some of those seeds were planted in my little girl and now it has not only done a beautiful work in her, but also multiplied! So thank you again for your ministry and boldness in sharing Jesus!