on the eve of the wedding // march 24th 2016

Thanks to my friend Amanda we had a feast prepared for us the night before the wedding at the family-style Italian place, Buca di Beppo. Luke and I had invited our dearest gal and guy friends to celebrate with us. It was a fairly last minute decision to combine our bachelor and bachelorette parties. We're so glad we did. For both of us this was the first time that we met each other's friends. Not to mention, the first time most of them had ever seen Luke and I interact. That alone was significant and special, but for them all to mix together and get to know each other and form this gorgeous community, that left us beaming.

Everyone came back to my place afterward and we ate ice cream, drank tea and Blake's kombucha, shared songs and stories with each other, and enjoyed the interactions between Barley and the Spina's dog, Niko. So much laughter, some tears, and a hundred moments of knitting brothers and sisters together for life. Our friends are crazy creative, generous, and genuine. Photographers, musicians, writers, filmmakers, actors, entrepreneurs. The fact that theyre all passionate lovers of Jesus only amplifies the purity of their giftings. 

Mid Air - facebook.com/midairrock

I would like to take a moment here to share that each of my girlfriends told me the next morning that they had never felt so honored by a group of single men as they were by Luke's friends. They experienced the sweet intimacy of Christian fellowship without feeling that the guys looked at them with any motives other than pure brotherly love. Come on, Church! 

Green Leaf kombucha

fresh VISION products - etsy.com/shop/freshVISIONproducts

I received a wildly generous gift of Young Living's Essential Oils from my friends Amanda and Katie. Here's the link to my friend Casey's page if youre interested in purchasing YL oils.

After awhile of seeking Jesus' face and soaking in His presence, we spent time speaking prophetic words over each other. There was much encouragement and several breakthroughs. We couldve gone on for ages. At 2am we shifted into winding down and cleaning up, sending the men off to their AirBNB for, what remained of, the night. 

Everyone that was there that night will tell you the same thing, that it was a taste of the Church in real life, that they would relocate in order to do life together in community like that, that this was only the beginning of many more days and nights together, that Jesus is King, that we love Him and each other -- in Spirit and in truth.