Surprise! We Eloped!

Yep! 20 days after getting engaged, The Man and I tied the knot in an intimate ceremony in Central Virginia! Crazy? Maybe. Spontaneous? Definitely. And it was absolutely perfect.

This was not our original plan. Although to be honest, we never really had an “original” plan – I kept changing my mind because I couldn’t decide what I wanted. One day I wanted a small intimate ceremony at a nice hotel with just family and the next day I wanted the whole shebang with everyone I’ve ever met. At one point we discussed doing a small private wedding on a Friday night, followed by a picnic for friends and family on Saturday. We were actually going that route when we got to church last Sunday morning, when everything changed. (so dramatic, I know!)

The sermon on Sunday was taken from Malachi – a book of the Bible that I doubt I’ve ever even read from – and the topic was “defective sacrifices”. I know what you’re thinking – how in the world does that tie into me eloping? Well I’ll tell you, because frankly I was sitting there in church wondering what exactly was the point myself, considering nobody offers burnt sacrifices to God anymore.

And then the Pastor asked us this. “How do you think the Israelites got to the point of offering blemished and defiled sacrifices to God? Was it overnight?” He then said something that hit me like the proverbial lightning bolt.

“it happened gradually, over time, with a series of small compromises that don’t appear to have any consequences.”

Yikes. You see – that’s exactly what The Man and I were doing with our relationship. I never wanted to live together before marriage, but we were under a time crunch and figured “it’s just like when we visit each other…only not.” Then we were going to have a civil ceremony the weekend we returned from Cali…but Pennsylvania has a 3 day waiting period for a marriage license and you need to apply on a weekday. Virginia has no waiting period but they don’t do Justice of the Peace weddings in the Courthouse…you have to find your own officiate and location, which was too much work. Then we pushed the date to October because what’s a couple extra weeks, right?

It’s amazing how easy it is to keep compromising your morals when it doesn’t appear to have any consequences…am I right?

Except that how can we expect God to bless our lives together if we are blatantly disregarding His word?

So we got into the car after the service and decided we would get married the next weekend – Friday August 16, 2013. We found an adorable Bed and Breakfast that offers elopement packages, and we decided that because The Man’s family couldn’t fly out from California on such short notice, we’d have an intimate elopement with just the two of us, and we’re planning a ceremony for our friends and family to be held at a later date.

We actually woke up fairly early on Friday and went for a morning run – nothing crazy, it wasn’t even two miles, but it was just enough to get our day started off right and put us in a great mood for the day to come!

We hit the road at around noon and headed down to Central Virginia – to a beautiful B&B called The Inn at Meander Plantation. It was gorgeous – set on about 80 acres of rolling hills with a gorgeous plantation mansion front and center. As I mentioned, they have an elopement package which included a bouquet for me and a boutonniere for The Man, the ceremony and officiate, an elegant five course dinner, a champagne toast and wedding cake for two, and the Innkeeper graciously offered to take pictures during the ceremony. All we had to do was show up!

I have to admit that getting married without any family was hard at first – especially since we are so close. But the moment The Man and I stood there together saying our vows, I knew it was exactly what I wanted. The day could not have been more perfect – it was a day truly blessed by God.