We got married! Let’s party!

Have you been wondering what the deal is with our wedding/marriage? Let us fill you in! We tied the knot on November 22, 2022. We decided to get legally married in 2022 and keep our “big wedding” with all of our friends and family scheduled for September 2023. Jessie didn’t work for about 6 months in 2022 so we wanted to file our taxes jointly (pragmatic of us). We were so set on not making this a big deal that we didn’t even call it our wedding, we called it our “Signing of the Papers.” We were trying to figure out who on earth would be able to certify our marriage, do we ask a friend to get ordained? Do we know anyone? Then it occurred to us that, “duh!, Chuck used to be a minister! Chuck can sign our papers!” We also knew there was no way we could ask Chuck to do this without including the rest of our families so we invited Pam, Doug, Mo, Penny, Lucian and Grandpa Ed to bear witness at our Signing of the Papers. We planned for Thanksgiving break because everyone would be in town - perfect! We were not expecting the Signing of the Papers event to be so special - Chuck surprised us by leading a beautiful ceremony at Pam and Doug’s house. Having this intimate experience with our closest relatives was profound! We capped the night off with a wonderful meal and a big bonfire! We were absolutely filled with love and joy, it was everything we could have ever dreamed of for a wedding day! A few weeks later, we realized we were not excited about the “big wedding” we were planning. It didn’t feel like “us” - too many frills and details, not enough chill out and have fun! We had such a meaningful ceremony with our families that we decided to call off the “big wedding” and regroup. During our regroup, we bought a house (May 2022) which we’ve been working on non-stop, we both took on new roles (Jessie in August 2022, Eric in November 2022), we got to see 16 of our friends get married, started a new business (January 2023), hopped around from one beach to another, went to Portugal, and spent months trying to decide on a new venue in Richmond for this wedding party. We took tours, got sample menus and bar packages, but there were so many rules and restrictions, none of them felt like us! We kept saying “I want it to feel like a back yard bbq” and eventually we connected the dots. Now that September 2023 is rolling around and our house projects are mostly finished, we are excited to have a relaxed backyard celebration at our home!