Dream Wedding: Initial Moments as Husband and Wife

Chris and I were pronounced Husband and Wife

And everyone applauded :-D

And we happily began our walk up the isle -- our first walk as a married couple (with my wonderful maid-of-honor behind me handling my veil)

I love this picture!

We walked up the isle to the traditional wedding recessional Wedding March, and our wedding party walked up the isle to Ode To Joy ("Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee")

We were followed by our maid-of-honor and best man - Chris' brother, now our brother (Kelley and Nick),

Chris' family -- now our family, sister and brother-in-law (Becky and Daniel),

my cousin, Liz and my brother, Trent

and friends, Meghan and Jon

In our first moments, alone after walking up the isle, Chris and I looked at our wedding rings with excitement and bliss (and I'm actually showing Chris that I somehow cut my finger right where my rings are on my ring finger earlier that week... I know, of all the things to talk about...)

Then he kissed my ring finger where my cut was... and where my new wedding ring was!  It was a wonderful moment!  We were so excited, we never noticed the photographer, but I'm really grateful that he was there to capture these precious moments.

We hugged and thanked our wonderful minister

 

And a few good friends who attended our wedding and then had to run to be in another wedding... we were so grateful that they came

Then we began assembling the receiving line with our parents (my parents first, then Chris and me, then Chris' parents)

Another angle of our receiving line... and the start of our grandparents coming through it.  Upon close look at this picture though, I noticed something beautiful --

 

My dad shaking Chris' hand

I think I look oblivious even at that moment, on the wedding day, that Dad is officially welcoming Chris to the family.  Dad made sure this was the first thing he did after the marriage of his daughter (me).

Our first well wishers through the receiving line were our grandparents.
Here is my "Grandma" in the light blue congratulating us

 Here's a close up of Grandma and me

Chris and his beautiful Mom waiting for our first huggers to reach them in the line

My grandma kissing Chris

Chris' grandpa hugging me

Our guests then went outside the church to wait for our run from the church to our limo

 The last people I hugged through the receiving line were my beautiful bridesmaids...
my cousin, Elizabeth

My new sister, Becky

My friend, Meghan

... and there is no picture of my hugging my maid of honor because she was looking for my bouquet while the other bridesmaids came through the line.  She was so busy taking care of me, we didn't hug in the receiving line.

My new mom

My new dad

Such perfect first moments to begin the rest of our lives!