"Friends are friends forever, if the Lord's the Lord of them......"
Last Saturday, my sweet friend Shannon Morris married the love of her life in a beautiful, Christ filled ceremony in Tampa. I've only met Josh once, but it's evident that the two of them are soul mates---a true match made in Heaven. I've never seen Shannon happier, and that in turn makes me happy for her!
Shannon and I met in 2003 when her family moved to Tallahassee for her Dad to become the Minister of Music at our church. I was in college at the time, and Shannon was just finishing up high school. We immediately made a connection and became good friends over the next few years. We made some great memories together, including taking up clogging with the Mountain Dew Cloggers. Our clogging days were some of my fondest memories. However, we also made some pretty good memories forking yards and pulling pranks on various people in the church. Truly, those were some of the best days of my life!
In 2008, I got married and moved away from Tallahassee. Shortly after, Shannon started school in Tampa and with both of us being away from "home", we just sort of lost touch. However, I'll always consider her one of my most precious friends and I'll cherish the memories that we made together over the years!
And now, just to completely embarrass BOTH of us, here are some pictures from our adventures together............
The time Shannon "stole" my new car on our way to a college retreat and went for a joy ride around the parking lot!
Forking the Pastor's yard!!!! =) (I love how you can see the neighbor's cop car right behind us!)
New Year's Eve 2005
We've both come a long way since then---We each started new lives in new towns, I became a wife and Mother, Shannon became "Dr. Shannon", and now she too is a wife. I remember being a young 20 - something, sitting in Natalie Mims' ladies Bible study with Shannon and talking about how much we both longed for the day when the Lord would bring each of us our "Prince Charming". All the ladies assured us it would happen in God's time, but I think we both had our doubts. And now, here we are both happily married and living out our dreams! God's plans are always SO much better than our own!
And now, here are some pictures from Shannon and Josh's beautiful wedding day on 9/22/12
Shannon's Parents
Josh was giddy! So sweet!
First glimpse of the beautiful bride!
Shannon's Dad somehow managed to hold it together long enough to sing a solo while they lit the unity candle
Sister of the bride/Maid of Honor, Allison
No wedding would be complete without SOMETHING going wrong, right? Well here's a funny story for you. I'm not even sure if Shannon has heard this in it's entirety. As we were waiting for the bride and groom to finish up pictures and be announced at the reception, I decided to walk over and take a closer look at the cake. I noticed from a distance that there were some very life-like cake topper figurines that looked JUST like Josh and Shannon. As I walked towards the table, Josh suddenly took a tumble from the very top of the cake, falling down two layers and taking lots of pretty icing with him! The first thing I did was hold my hands up and say "I didn't touch it!!!" I honestly was a good 4 feet from the table, but of COURSE it had to happen just as I was walking up to take a look so I'm sure everyone around assumed I had something to do with it. Anyway, my Mom and a few other ladies came running over because I was in slight panic mode. I knew that we were only a few minutes from the happy couple coming into the reception and the cake was a slight disaster! We quickly gave Josh a good wipe down and got all of the icing out of his ears---seriously, he was covered in white icing! Next, I realized that his left hand was GONE!! It had broken off during his tumble down the cake. OH. NO. I got down on my hands and knees and searched the floor until I found a teeny tiny hand all covered in white icing. So, what to do next?? We had a messy groom who was missing an entire left hand, not to mention a cake with huge smears all the way down the back side. I didn't want to stress the bride, so I went and found my crafty, creative friends Bonnie and Mrs. Gloria. I knew they'd know what to do! Long story short, Mrs. Gloria was able to somewhat smooth out the icing and Bonnie miraculously found a bottle of glue and mended Josh's left hand. We decided it best NOT to attempt to reunite Josh with Shannon because gravity just didn't seem to be on our side and we knew that he would probably take another tumble before the cake was cut.
Here's the team I gathered to quickly help me with the little crisis that I somehow found myself in the middle of!! Notice how serious everyone looks! We were on a serious mission to get this cake fixed before the bride saw it!
Shannon's Dad somehow managed to hold it together long enough to sing a solo while they lit the unity candle
I love this shot of Shannon and Josh praying together while her Dad sang----Probably my favorite picture from the whole day!
Sister of the bride/Maid of Honor, Allison
No wedding would be complete without SOMETHING going wrong, right? Well here's a funny story for you. I'm not even sure if Shannon has heard this in it's entirety. As we were waiting for the bride and groom to finish up pictures and be announced at the reception, I decided to walk over and take a closer look at the cake. I noticed from a distance that there were some very life-like cake topper figurines that looked JUST like Josh and Shannon. As I walked towards the table, Josh suddenly took a tumble from the very top of the cake, falling down two layers and taking lots of pretty icing with him! The first thing I did was hold my hands up and say "I didn't touch it!!!" I honestly was a good 4 feet from the table, but of COURSE it had to happen just as I was walking up to take a look so I'm sure everyone around assumed I had something to do with it. Anyway, my Mom and a few other ladies came running over because I was in slight panic mode. I knew that we were only a few minutes from the happy couple coming into the reception and the cake was a slight disaster! We quickly gave Josh a good wipe down and got all of the icing out of his ears---seriously, he was covered in white icing! Next, I realized that his left hand was GONE!! It had broken off during his tumble down the cake. OH. NO. I got down on my hands and knees and searched the floor until I found a teeny tiny hand all covered in white icing. So, what to do next?? We had a messy groom who was missing an entire left hand, not to mention a cake with huge smears all the way down the back side. I didn't want to stress the bride, so I went and found my crafty, creative friends Bonnie and Mrs. Gloria. I knew they'd know what to do! Long story short, Mrs. Gloria was able to somewhat smooth out the icing and Bonnie miraculously found a bottle of glue and mended Josh's left hand. We decided it best NOT to attempt to reunite Josh with Shannon because gravity just didn't seem to be on our side and we knew that he would probably take another tumble before the cake was cut.
Here's the team I gathered to quickly help me with the little crisis that I somehow found myself in the middle of!! Notice how serious everyone looks! We were on a serious mission to get this cake fixed before the bride saw it!
They put Josh back on top of the cake just in time for the photographer to snap a few pictures.........
Just as Josh and Shannon began cutting the cake, Josh came tumbling down AGAIN, making a loud crashing sound which set the entire audience into laughter!
It was a beautiful day for a beautiful couple! I wish you both all the happiness in the world! Now how about some babies, please?! =)
So glad you posted this. I couldn't make it to the wedding. You took some great shots!!!
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful story! Love all the photos and the mishap was quite humurous! Thank you for sharing!
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