Our Wedding

I can hardly believe that August 15^th came and went already. So much planning and preparation, many late nights and changes in plans… and finally we are married.

The night before the wedding we had a rehearsal. It was mostly so that our bridal team could practice their dance steps. Yes, here in Swaziland, the bridal team doesn’t just walk down the main isle, but they dance! They practiced until about midnight to make sure they had the steps down.

The wedding was a beautiful day. It was a sunny Saturday, without too much wind. My day started early… mostly because I was so excited that I woke up before my alarm clock. A newfound friend of mine named Morgan volunteered to help with my hair and makeup, and she was such a joy to spend time with! My mom helped me get my dress on in the morning. There were many, many people who blessed us and helped us with all the wedding preparations. A friend from South Africa named Joy made us a beautiful wedding cake, the Bible school students helped us clean the building, Dorcas Croft (one of the missionaries on campus) did the decorating, many ladies helped cook in the kitchen, and many more people spent lots of hours helping us.

The wedding was supposed to start at 10:00AM. Since things weren’t quite ready for the wedding to start on time, we took pictures instead. We had a real photographer to help us with that. She’s a really sweet American lady who has been living here in Swaziland for almost a year now.

 

 

We ended up getting started about 11:00AM. A whole team of ladies from our church marched down the isle first in their traditional clothes. Then the bridal party danced in as practiced. When it was time for my dad and I to walk down the isle, he stopped in the doorway, held my hand, and prayed with me over this marriage. That will always be one of my treasured memories from the wedding.

Then, as most weddings go, we said our vows and exchanged our rings. Maphile lifted the veil and kissed the bride. We signed our marriage certificate and lit our unity candle. After that, we took our seats with the bridal party in front of everyone. Many beautiful songs were sung, my dad preached, we took up an offering (a normal tradition in a Swazi wedding), our parents exchanged words of appreciation to one another and gave each other gifts, we cut the cake, and we danced out!

 

The whole wedding took about 3 hours. Right after the wedding had a lunch reception: where we ate together. There were no best man speeches, toasts, or dancing at this reception. We just ate our food, took a few more pictures, and then it was over!

We had been praying that our wedding would be glorifying to God. We wanted it to be more than our lifelong commitment to one another. We wanted those people who came to the wedding and didn’t know Jesus to hear about Him. We wanted those who are struggling in their walk with the Lord or in their marriage to be encouraged and challenged to seek the Lord. God gave my Dad a wonderful sermon to preach, where he shared the gospel and encouraged everyone to obey the Lord and go deeper in their walk with Him. I trust that many people were challenged that day, and I know that God answers our prayers!

After the wedding we went to Johannesburg to catch a flight to a place called Plettenburg Bay. My grandma blessed us with a beautiful timeshare at a resort there. We spent the whole week on the beach, and rested after all the hectic wedding preparations.

On the way to the honeymoon!

 

One of our most exciting days on the beach was when we went with a group of people to snorkel with the cape fur seals. We got geared up in our wet suits, jumped in the boat, and rode 15 minutes to where the seals live on the coastline. We went up and down the coastline looking at the seals, but we didn’t get in the water. After some time our guide said, “You may be wondering why we haven’t gotten in the water yet, but we’ve been looking for unwanted visitors, and unfortunately we’ve seen three.” Then she told us to look down in the water, and there was a great white shark beneath us! We could see it through the clear water, and we watched it try to attack some seals, but the seals got together and chased it away. There ended up being a total of four great whites that we saw on the coastline, so needless to say, we didn’t go swimming with the seals. On the way back to the resort, we saw two whales (which I prayed that morning that we’d see!), and many dolphins. Some of the dolphins came and swam right by our boat!

 

Now we are back in Swaziland. We got back this past Sunday afternoon. Maphile has been busy catching up on his schoolwork, and we have been settling into our home. This week we bought a futon, a dining room table, and a washing machine, so our house is coming together quite nicely. The days go by so fast. I am enjoying spending time in my new home and organizing our things. I hope to eventually work at a clinic in Manzini, once the paperwork all gets sorted. I need to have some type of a work permit and a valid practicing nursing license for Swaziland.

These photos are mostly the ones from facebook that you have probably already seen. When I get new photos from the photographer I’ll try to share those with you.

Thanks for your prayers. Though this has been a fun and exciting process, I sure do miss my family and friends back in the States who were unable to make it to the wedding.