Wedding Week Link-up: Ceremony

Next up: The ceremony! Hosted over at Schue Love...I'm totally behind on this but this is my effort to catch up!

I've been noticing in a lot of these link-ups that people are beginning their posts with "warning lots of pictures, long post ahead!" ...which I'm thinking I may need to do for this one. So,
"Warning! Many photos ahead!"
Consider yourself warned =)

Our ceremony was at the Shenandoah Mill in Gilbert AZ. They have an adorable little backyard lawn with a gazebo which is where our ceremony took place.
One of my favorite views of the day!

Trying to sneak a peak at my groom!

Just before the ceremony was about to start and everyone went downstairs to line up my dear friend Kayla stayed behind to give me a little pep talk. Our husbands were deployed together in Iraq so we hung out all the time while they were gone. We would call each other by our last names, cause that's what they do in the military, and cause we thought it was funny. Before she went downstairs she goes "After today, when I call you "Townsend" from now on it will be real!" It was so precious and got me so pumped up for the ceremony!!

 

I always told Nate when we were younger that he was gonna cry at our wedding...cause I know deep down he's a softy. And he was always like, "Nuh-uh, yeah right" and blah blah blah.

Right outta the gate folks, I totally had him!
Chalk this photo up to Rissa: 1 Nathan: 0
I made him cry and I am the winner!
...but really though, it is pretty sweet right?!

 

So when the pastor asked for the ring from the Best Man...he handed over a ring pop...

...and then Nathan licked it...which is a problem for two reasons:

1.) That's not my real wedding ring riiiiight??

2.) If it was, and you're offering me candy in place...how dare you take a lick of it before me!!!

It was pretty funny

We had a unity candle during our ceremony, which I never noticed but I guess it kept blowing out. There was a little bit of a breeze during the day and I guess Abel (Best Man) kept having Unity Candle duties and had to re-light it.

Can't win 'em all right?!

We had long stem sunflowers to give to each of our parents, cause (obviously) they're the best and deserve long stem sunflowers for putting up with our shiz since Jr. High. 

...And then they prayed for us.

And I prayed for peace and not to let Nathan drive me crazy.

And my dad prayed for his wallet after all this was done.

 And then the moment we (at least myself) were all waiting for...

"You may  now kiss your bride!"

Woop Woop!!

Not too shabby eh?!...Rawr! =)

FINALLY! 

Nate and I walked down the Aisle to "This is it" by Dan Hartman

Google it. You'll wanna boogie. =)

 I'm all like, "I gotchu now sucka! For the rest of our liiiives!"

 ...just kidding, I didn't say that. Nor was I thinking that.

Acutally maybe I was thinking that a little, but not in such a harsh tone...more of in a loving, affectionate way right?...

And with Pookie as our witness, we signed our marriage license and we were too legit to quit!!

I had seen group photos taken before of everyone that was in attendance at a wedding and thought I wanted to do the same thing. So we rounded everyone up for a little photo sesh and I'm so glad we took these photos!

In my family we always take a "big arms" picture cause quite frankly it's fun and when you scroll through the pictures really fast it looks even cooler!...So we made all of our wedding guests follow along. Talk about the ultimate big arms picture!

We were so fortunate to have everything run so smoothly during our ceremony. Looking back, I can truly say it was the best day EVER!!