The Day I Became A. Sharpe

It was the best wedding I have ever been to. Mainly because of the man involved (I mean, just check out that photo below), but also because of my amazing parents and our incredible friends and family who gave up an entire weekend to celebrate with us. We seriously had so much fun with everyone and feel so humble that people were willing to do that for us! It was like a dream come true for me…everyone I love in one place at the same time! AHH! So great!

The ceremony was incredible—the best I have ever heard. My brother, Drew, married us, which was super special. He did such an amazing job portraying the holiness of marriage and our responsibility to each other in this relationship. I have a copy of it if anyone wants to read it. Seriously. It really was amazing. It was so special to me to have Drew marry us. He is such an awesome brother that I just look up to so much, so to have him in that role of marrying us, challenging us in this step, was incredible.

The reception was a blast too! I just love to dance, and dance is what we did.

We even line danced!! Praise God!

 

We left on a motorcycle and side-car…well, sort of!

Allan revved the engine to take off, everyone was cheering and then…..chhhhuuuuu….the engine died!

That’s okay, we tried again! Allan revved the engine, everyone cheered and……chhhuuuuu…the engine died again!

Third time is a charm though!

Allan revved the engine, everyone cheered and then…..chhhhhhuuuu….but then we started moving!

how?

Three of Allan’s groomsmen started pushing us! How incredible is that? They pushed us up the hill and then one of them said “drop it into gear” so Allan did and off we went! YAY! It was so much fun!

It was such a fun day! We are so thankful to everyone who helped to make it so special by being there and supporting us! We were humbled by the outpour of love, gifts, time, words, encouraging words, and excitement for us. So THANK YOU! We’re married! for life! Crazy! and so exciting! YAY!

Here are some more photos to check out of the day! Thanks so much to Elizabeth of Almond Leaf Studios (who has a really cool motivation to her photography, by the way) and Lauren Jackson of Lauren Jackson Photography for these amazing shots! They are so incredibly talented!

so thankful that Geordan, my primary from the DHP, and his girlfriend got to be there! and the CLB’s!

There are even more here (Almondleaf blog) and here (Lauren Jackson Photography)  if you want to see them!!

and here is a sweet 5 minute video by Ryan Plantz to help us remember the day in motion!!

Allan & Abby Sharpe 8.14.2011

  

p.s. Thanks Mom and Dad for everything! It was awesome!

My friends are the best.

I have some incredible friends. It’s true. I feel so blessed to have the friends in my life that I do.

The wedding weekend made that even more evident to me as these girls that I love so much came from all over to hang out with me and support me as I married my best friend. It was such an awesome, special treat for me to have all of my favorite people in one place. I felt like I was on cloud 9! I know it was a glimpse of heaven!

Kallie and Steph arrived on Wednesday and I was soooooo thankful for their help! I literally (not just figuratively) could not have done it without them. They tied bows, wrote names, wrapped presents, just anything I asked them too! and with such willing hearts and excited spirits. I was so happy to get to spend that time with them! …and show Kallie some of the South at its finest : )

The event really kicked into gear on Friday night! Everyone was there!YAY! It was soooo great! My sisters-in-law and my awesome friends Christine and Annie planned a stellar bachelorette party. I felt so cared for and celebrated that night. Thank you so much to everyone for being there! Sadly, I don’t think we got a group pic!

Saturday was equally as great with an incredible bridesmaid's brunch hosted by two of my best friend’s moms, Katie and Sheri! The food was delicious and the time was sweet! Thank you guys so much!

My beautiful bridesmaids!

 

Saturday night was the rehearsal dinner! It is so cool how the Lord worked things out! There was a wedding at WinMock on Saturday, meaning we should have had to have the rehearsal in a different location, but the wedding was in the morning, which provided the entire afternoon for us to set up and have the rehearsal and rehearsal dinner there! So perfect!

That night was so incredible for me! I loved everything about it. Even more people arrived that night! Lindsey and Rudy from NYC, David from OK, Geordan and Deborah from CO, Travis from CO, Allan’s high school buddies from SC, Guion and Abby from VA, Lisa from New Orleans. (I know I am forgetting some people! I’m sorry!). It was just so humbling that people would sacrifice time and money to be there to celebrate with us. I was so honored and thrilled!

and did I mention it was Tar Heel themed?

We started the night with a time of worship, led by Guion and Allan (Tuesday Night Worship style!) and I loved hearing all my friends singing to Jesus and honoring him. That’s what we wanted the wedding to be—an honor to Christ and focused on him and what he has done, and it was just a great way to start things off.

I was also so thrilled because my primary from the DHP and his girlfriend got to come! I had not seen them until the rehearsal dinner and I almost peed my pants when I did! I was so excited! AND he had ABBY shaved into his head. Talk about an amazing wedding present!

The evening was great. The time of sharing after dinner was so special, and thanks to Steph, I have every speech recorded : ) My brothers and sisters-in-law also planned a super funny newlyweds game for Allan and I to play. It was hilarious! You can watch it here!

It really was such an awesome night. I wish I could really express how thankful I am for all my friends and family who helped to make it so special! Thank you so much!

Most Eventful Summer of my Life (part 2)

(this is a continuation of the last post which you can read here if you like, but a quick summary…Allan and I drove across beautiful lands, saw lots of cool things, then got engaged! Now you’re all caught up!)

 

…and plan we did. In fact, that is all we did. We’ll not really.

We also took a trip to Honduras for a week (!!!) It was the 20th anniversary of Mayatan so we went back to celebrate with our students and friends. It was a blast! I love that place so much! Our students were so much bigger! I couldn’t believe how much older they looked in just one year! Other than that, nothing about Honduras had changed! and I love that! 

 

We also spent a week at the beach with my family and got to hang out with these cuties the whole time. Their cuteness is almost too much for anyone to handle. 

 

Oh, and I started a job at College of Charleston.Thanks to Jesus. It is quite a miracle how it happened. Short story version (Kinda) …I didn’t qualify for in-state tuition because CofC does things weird. I would only be able to qualify for Spring semester. I missed all the deadlines for scholarships and graduate assistantships (where they pay for your school if you work 20 hours), so I was basically SOL in terms of reducing my out-of-state tuition to go to CofC, meaning the different of $18,000 as opposed to potentially free the next year because of in-state, an assistantship, or scholarships.

I was calling the School of Education to see if there was someone I could talk to about deferring my acceptance. I explained the situation and the person on the other line got quiet and said…”well, I think there is actually one assistantship left, but its competitive.” “WHO DO I NEED TO TALK TO?!” I was so excited!

So I immediately called the woman and explained the situation to her voicemail. Then, when I hadn’t heard back from her a few hours later, decided to go by her office. She was so nice but told me that she didn’t know what would happen.

So I waited. About 2 weeks later, I received a call from them asking if I would be interested in starting a job for them during the summer, and that it would guarantee the assistantship in the Fall. Um…YES! And even better, they would pay me for working in the summer! Holler.

Pretty crazy huh? Yea, I thought so too. Thank you Jesus.

 

Whew.  What a whirlwind!

But a really fun whirlwind!

So in the midst of those things….

… we took Save the Date pictures (maybe with such short notice this wasn’t necessary, but hey, that’s okay)…

and we registered….

and planned, planned, planned!

and had amazing showers thanks to some awesome friends and family who really showered us with love and gifts to help us start a home. It was such a blessing and we are so grateful for everything! …

 

and then August was here, meaning it was almost time!

 

More on that in the following posts : )