wedding

Often, someone comes up with a brilliant idea, and later, upon realizing how much work the idea will take to come to fruition, the person gives up on the idea. However, when the idea is good enough, one might sacrifice quite a bit to make the idea reality.

Such was the case when, about six months ago, my then-fiancée and I decided we loved Chai Tea Latte. In fact, we became somewhat addicted to the substance. It didn't help that my sister and her husband encouraged the addiction :)

Stock photo... didn't have time to snap a shot of my own, as I happily drank it immediately!

After being introduced to some great-tasting homemade chai mix in Christmas 2009, Natalie and I decided we wanted to make enough chai mix to give two servings' worth to each guest at our wedding reception. Little did we know how much time and effort it would take to make this wedding favor.

Not only did we want the mix for each guest; we also wanted to put the mix into 'cute' little baby food jars with cloth-covered lids and custom labels. Cue step 1 - gathering supplies! Click through to continue reading...

Below is a time-lapse video of my wedding, generously recorded/posted by my Aunt (I didn't even know she did it!). I will hopefully have some pictures to post to Facebook sooner or later, and will also be posting a few of those previously-promised posts about our wedding preparations to this site, and to my and my wife's wedding website.

Here's the video (the techno beat adds something... I just don't know what ;-):

...as we are newly married! We'll be heading off to our honeymoon for the next week, but I guarantee there will be some great blog posts soon thereafter. Natalie and I are so excited to share some of the process of preparing for our wedding and our marriage in the coming months, both here, and on our wedding website, geerlingguyandgirl.com.

...is involved, to say the least.

It's just a few days until the 'big' day, when Natalie and I will become 'Mr. and Mrs. Geerling,' and I'm excited! It's been a thrilling year, and though things can be stressful (for both parties) at times, it's all worth it. I will get to share my entire life with one of God's most beautiful daughters, and someday (God-willing), pass it on to my beautiful children! It will be a life full of hard work, personal sacrifice, and devoted prayer.

As I am approaching the Wedding Liturgy, I am seeing more and more the connection between the Eucharist and the Sacrament of Marriage—most especially the sacrificial and life-giving love that Jesus has exemplified on the crucifix, and the sacrificial and life-giving love that I will soon get to share with my wife!

...of course, our rings won't be gold, nor will they be intertwined in some crazy manner which prevents either of us from ever putting them on. But they'll be on our fingers on October 2nd!

Please pray for me and for my fiancée as we progress on the journey toward married life and communal love! Expect a few more posts about Marriage/Weddings, and about love in general, between now and then.

[Update: Here's a gallery of photos from the big event (on Facebook).]

Image taken last week with my D90 (with 50mm f/1.4) and an external flash shooting through the famous $0.02 mini macro studio:

I hand-held a Nikon SB-24 flash connected via a wireless trigger over a folded sheet of paper that acted as a giant diffuser for the ring, which I simply placed on a 'seamless' piece of cut computer paper (standard copier paper.

You don't need to go expensive to have the finest results. No doubt about that. You just have to do things with care and love, and a little ingenuity.

Here's a setup shot: