We would like all of you to know that your love, support and kind and caring words mean so much to us. We were so blessed to get to celebrate with our families in Florida. But it just won’t be complete until we can celebrate with all of our friends as well!

Here are the details we have so far:
September 19th, 2009
Somewhere fun and fabulous
In the Bay Area
ALL friends who wish to celebrate with us are welcome
PLEASE just be sure to RSVP by e-mail:
mattshanwedding@thestrangeland.net
or by phone:
510-387-7002

We’ll be sure to keep you up to date as more details come. We are expecting to have LOTS more info soon!

All Our Love,

Shannon (for Matt and Shannon)

Blessings,
Matt

I can’t believe that just one month from now I will have the blessing of becoming Mrs. Shannon McGraw. We are really looking forward to our Florida Ceremony with all of our extended family – and trust me, this is one large, extended family!

And we are going to be starting the work on our Wedding Celebration back here in California. It won’t feel like it is complete until we have the chance to share our joy and celebrate with all of our friends and those closest to us.

So, as this exciting journey is about to begin, we want you all to know how much your thoughts and prayers, help and support have meant (and will continue to mean) to us.

All Our Love,
Shannon (and Matt)

As much as it means the world to me to be planning this wedding to be exactly what we wany it to be, if it all goes wrong and we are simply left standing there, just Matt, me and Matt’s son, on the beach in Florida . . . soaking wet from a hurricane . . . which demolished the reception site . . . destroyed the bridge so the caterer couldn’t bring any food . . . and the minister couldn’t make it either . . . EVEN if all that happened and we had to go to City Hall the next day (if it is still standing), I would be happy. I would be blessed. I am marrying a man who loves me. And I get to love him forever.

I know that it all sounds so easy to say, since it probably won’t actually happen that way. But, I have begun to realize something. We often wonder about what God’s plan is when it doesn’t seem to be in line with our own. Instead, we should be questioning our own plan when it is not in line with His.

He sees a much bigger picture than I do. His plan is not shaken because the flowers are the wrong color. It is not hindered by the weather being bad. His plan is not interrupted by the cake falling over. His plan is so much greater. It is to have even a shadow of His perfect love reflected in our love for each other. What a great gift that is. So, all the details, they are meaningful, but not critical. What is critical? I could only come up with 4 things.

Matt
Matt’s son
Me
and Love

She has even embraced this high-tech platform for blogging and communication with all of you. A few weeks back we discussed using the Blog for our RSVP system and I installed the software and gave her like 5 min of instruction on how to use it. I just logged in here and checked and she has entered ALL THE GUESTS! She is just so amazing. I love her so much!

Thanks, Shanny-Girl, for being an amazing woman, and more for being my amazing woman. I love you!

Love,
Matty

I haven’t posted much here besides technical blog info.  I am taking this opportunity to write a short note about how I’m feeling and what’s going on with me as the wedding approaches.

For the most part, I am ecstatic!  I am so madly in love with Shanny and I can’t wait to start our life together as a family.  To some degree, I already feel like our life together has started, but I know dating and being engaged is different from being husband and wife.  I am so excited to be Shanny’s husband.

I am also feeling very overwhelmed.  My life is stretched these days between wedding planning and work and school… I feel a little thin… and not in a good, more attractive, fit-better-in-my-clothes kind of way.  However, I know that the Lord is Good and that He has this whole process in His plan.  The conflict comes when my head knows but my emotions/heart forget.

So, pray for me… pray for us… as we walk this path together toward our wedding and our future life together.  Pray for peace and for blessing and for stamina.  But mostly, give thanks to the Lord our God for all the blessings we already have.

Grace and Peace,
Matty

You may notice the site is a little different today. There is a good reason for this! I initially set this site up as a blog at wordpress.com and forwarded the “ourwildwedding.thestrangeland.net” address to it. I did this because of several technical reasons which I won’t bore you with here, but I also did it because I had no idea if anyone would visit the site or if Shanny or myself would really be excited about blogging the wedding. Turns out, people are visiting the site and my dearest is an awesome writer.

So, I migrated the site to our domain, “thestrangeland.net” and we are now hosting the blog ourselves. Among the technical upsides are the two “widgets” you can see in the sidebar to the right side of the screen. One is a countdown to the wedding day and the other is the current weather in Clearwater Beach, FL where we will be getting married.

I hope you enjoy the redesign. I am hoping to have an RSVP system set up here as well so you can indicate if you are coming to the wedding. Stay tuned for more information on that.

4 mo/23 days

Matty

I have to say, one of the best decisions that we made was to go with a destination package! It handles so many of the details of the ceremony. One thing I had no idea about until we had already booked was that many of the hotels have whole packages, too. They even coordinate the minister and decorations, even for outdoor weddings. I’m super happy with the package we chose, but just some info for those of you who may be planning your own wedding.

Now we are looking at reception sites. It’s great because there are many that handle lots of those details, too.  If this weren’t for my own wedding, I think it would be a lot more fun. But, each time we get something set, I get more excited to see how it turns out.

And I keep reminding myself that there are 3 important things about the wedding. Is he there? Am I there? And did we both say “I do.”?

Everything else is just details.

Next detail . . . Dress!

Not really a comfortable place for a simple chic like me. First, there were all these words that I didn’t understand – tool (on a dress?), gathers, english mesh, blusher (or something like that) and the rest I can’t even remember. I certainly want to look gorgeous for my wedding. But there is NO WAY I can afford $2,500 for a dress. And that was the CHEAP one!

Now, don’t get me wrong. I looked AMAZING in some of them; I admit it. But who has money for a dress like that (if YOU do, I take cash, check or money order – LOL!). Part of me felt a bit bad because I am marrying the most amazing man I can imagine and I only want the best for him. But I am certain there is no way I can afford that for a dress.

So, I am beginning to think that I just need to go to one of those shops that is the bridal version of Costco. At least there, I don’t have to feel like a total goober who doesn’t even understand the language they are speaking. I’ve never had many fancy things in my life, but I’ve always had what I needed. And I can’t ask for a greater blessing than getting to marry my sweetheart (and his son) – who found me again after 11 years apart.

So, I guess I can afford the best – maybe not in a dress – but his love is free!

More to come. . .

For those of you on Facebook who got to this blog from somewhere other than Facebook, here is the link to our Facebook group: It’s Official… Matty and Shanny are getting hitched!

I have just created an event in the Facebook group called “The Wedding… Part I”.  Here’s the deal with the wedding.

We have decided to do a small, family and “friends so close they might as well be family” ceremony in Florida on June 13, 2009.  We want to keep this small and we chose this location because Shannon and Matty have most of their family East of the Mississippi… and because, who doesn’t want to get married on a beach, right?

However, all is not lost!  “The Wedding… Part II” will be a no-holds barred, all-day ceremony and party somewhere in the SF Bay area sometime later in Summer 09!  We are going to be inviting EVERYBODY we can think of, so stay tuned for more details on that event.

I also wanted to say a word or two about the purpose of this blog.  I foresee not only using it to communicate news and information about us and the wedding and dates and stuff like that, but also an opportunity for Shanny and I to share our excitement and our fears and our “i’m-going-absolutely-bonkers”.   

Thanks for coming on this journey with us and please leave comments when you can!  I know there are people reading and I would love to have commenters… not lurkers!

Grace and Peace,
Matty