Chad & Adriana’s wedding day was incredibly beautiful. Their love for each other is so evident and they have such a special community surrounding them and cheering them on!
Chad is my husband Dakota’s cousin (which makes him my cousin too!) and he visited us in January for a week in the Alaska cold! While he was visiting, he told me about a special girl that he had a date scheduled with when he got home and that he was hopeful things would go well. He shared with me a story about them getting Christmas trees together in December - which sounded nearly straight from a Hallmark movie. The story - as I heard it - included them picking up Christmas trees for their church, being some of the only volunteers that showed up, getting stuck in a snow storm, and doing all of the work together. The rest, I suppose, is history!
Chad & Adriana's wedding day began with getting ready at their church. In the ladies room, worship music was playing and snacks abounded. The guys’ room on the other hand was sorting out which crazy socks to wear for the wedding.
After everyone was ready, we headed to a beautiful city park to take photos - ALL of them! Bridal party, family portraits and my personal favorite - photos of the bride and groom.
After photos at the park, we headed back to the church to get ready for the ceremony! Their ceremony was SO special and it’s so evident that they are so loved by their church family. The church’s worship team began the ceremony with several worship songs. The whole ceremony was translated into Spanish as well - which led to the sweetest moment when Adriana said “I DO” after the English translation and had to wait again to say it after the Spanish version. The whole audience chuckled at her excitement.
Their ceremony also included a beautiful moment of prayer and blessings in which special people in their lives were asked to join them onstage and took turns sharing a word of encouragement, a prayer, a blessing, or something they felt the Lord had for them. Chad and Adriana were glowing the whole time.
Chad and Adriana received communion and signed their marriage certificate and then it was time for the big kiss! The whole congregation erupted in cheers and congratulations and it was such a beautiful moment.
After the ceremony, the newlyweds greeted all of their guests and then shared a dessert reception at the church. As a part of the dessert reception, their wedding cake was a special tradition for Chad’s family. Chad’s aunt and grandfather made a traditional Danish wedding cake! The cake is rings stacked on top of each other, held together by icing. Think thinner donuts stacked on top of each other, each getting smaller as you go to the top. Tradition says the bride & groom should grab the cake from the top layer and lift - and the number of layers that are lifted indicate the number of kids that the couple will have. I was standing next to Chad’s sister-in-law during this part and she said at their wedding they lifted six (!!!) of the layers. Chad & Adriana lifted one. Then everyone cheered to do it again. They lifted one more. Then everyone cheered to do it again and they lifted a final one! This was a fun tradition, similar to a bride breaking ribbons at her bridal shower.
The dessert reception continued with toasts from the groom’s father, the maid of honor and the best man. Then, lots of mingling and we sent them off in their getaway car.
It was such an honor to be a part of this wedding day - it’s one that I will never forget! Congratulations, Chad and Adriana! Cheering you on in all that life brings you!
Thanks for reading!
~Kami
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