The Wedding, Reception, and Honeymoon

Well, it's all said and done. Sarah and I said our vows, exchanged our rings, and were declared husband and wife on Saturday, June 7th, 2008. It was a great ceremony. Of course, Sarah and I would have enjoyed it more if we weren't as nervous as we were. We even had several family members and friends tell us they felt the presence of the Holy Spirit of God in the ceremony. We were hoping and planning on honoring and glorifying God, and He honored us in it even more by being present. Well, now, it's all just a blur, even the hour and half of pictures for which we had to pose. We'll let everyone know when they're posted online by our photographer and make sure everyone who wants it gets the link. Just so everyone knows, you can order your own pictures through the photographer's site, instead of through us.
Then, we had the reception. That was good, too, and wasn't very long. We were planning on it lasting 3 hours or more, and I think it lasted only 2 hours. We were just fine with that until we were confronted with more pictures and a few other things we had to do in order to leave. It was all very good, though. Ravanelli's, a restaurant in Illinois, catered the reception, and Debbie Walker, a lady that attends the church I was raised in, made the cake for us, saving us hundreds of dollars. Anyway, it was good to see so many people I hadn't seen in a while, mostly aunts and uncles that I hadn't seen for a couple years before the wedding.
We were finally able to leave for the honeymoon around 8:30 that night and got to our hotel around 9:00, after turning around and retrieving Sarah's purse (Thanks to my bro-in-law, Tim Curbow, who brought it out of the reception hall to us). We stayed in the area near St. Louis, and saw and bunch of sites in Forest Park, St. Louis. I believe it was first opened when the World's Fair was in St. Louis (a long stinking time ago!) and was designed to be completely free, and that includes all the sites in it. Visitors only have to pay for special events and attractions in the part. The permanent attractions (like the St. Louis Zoo, Science Center, and Art Museum) are free to enter. So, that's what we did. Of course, we should've known better than to try walking across a park that's more than 1,300 acres in size. We didn't realize that our Metrolink tickets were good for the buses, too, and walked more than half-way across the park, getting tanned/sun-burnt in the process. We had a good time, though, and definitely spent plenty of time outside that week. We'll get pictures up sometime soon, maybe, if we feel like posting them online. For now, here's one for you to think about: (For those who know of them, no, it's not from the Botanical Gardens.)