Renewed, AT LAST!!

renewed | joe & cori
photography: amy hildebrand

T-Minus… ZERO days.

Whoa.

TODAY!!! [& in case you’re wondering, yes, this entry is backdated. Hush.]
p.s. - more wedding photos coming soon. Stay tuned!

The day started [for the gents] with 9 holes of golf. It was colder this morning than yesterday. So yeah. Take that for making fun of us floating around icebergs yesterday. J



preparation is hard work.. :)

The ladies all made their way to the ‘Big House’ [factual term] for a bridesmaid breakfast. Thanks to Maricor for jumping right in on the omelette pan – you’ve got skill, cousin, SKILL. It was so nice seeing all of my bridal party together, informally, just eating and getting to know each other. I am so grateful to have these women in my life, and even more blessed that they were all here because I asked them. Each one of them means the world to me; I am definitely one blessed girl.

Once the ladies headed back to their hotels to spend some time with the dates they’d brought or just to tie up any last minute details, Kalyn and I embarked on our own mission to get all the final finites in order. We all rendezvoused back at the big house to do the hair & make-up prep before tailing over to the manor. We met up with the photographers there for final touches, zip-ups, double checks, bobby pins, and hairspray before lining up in our aisle-marching order. The music trickled in, and we were off.

Show time.

I had a revelation:

During the moments I stood still holding my father’s arm, staring at the husband God created for me, it hit me. As Cynthia finished out singing Look at Me, I had just a moment to breathe deep and realize that everything – all the planning, re-planning, budgeting, phone calls, emails, stressing, and crafting – had not only paid off, but was completely minute compared to the serenity of that moment. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that.



top photo | jess. cori. kalyn. brittany. donna
bottom photo | our handsome gentlemen!



To say that we are blessed is a gross understatement. My beautiful niece/bridesmaid Cynthia blessed us by singing, Eric did a reading, my husband and I sang our first public duet, our friends and family were there to see us, and we couldn’t have asked for better weather. I wouldn’t have changed a thing. We had officially had our first real wedding, and it was perfect.

As the night wound down to a close, and our guests started trickling home, we loaded all our gifts into Adam’s car, and we all headed back to the hotel. That brings us to now [still back-dated], which means curing our exhaustion with some sleep.

[The renewed] Mr. & Mrs. Dills are gonna get some Z’s, starting now.

xo | cmd