Finally...a wedding reception!!

Marcus and I met at New Life Church in Renton, WA on Easter Sunday 4/17/22. I was leading the greeter volunteer team at our church and Marcus signed up to start volunteering on Easter. Easter is a very busy day at Church and can be hectic for the volunteers. I hesitantly asked Marcus to do a job that most do not like to do and he eagerly said "yes". I was immediately impressed and thankful. When I checked on him a little later, I put my hand on his shoulder to get his attention in the loud and dark auditorium. That left him with quite the impression. After the service I thanked Marcus for volunteering. Then his mom Karen entered the church and I met her too. I even called her mom...because Marcus did not tell me her name. Foreshadowing! After I said goodbye and walked away, Karen told Marcus that she thought I was nice. Marcus told her "she had her hands on me all day!." Umm, no I did not! Do you remember the part where I said I put my hand on his shoulder? Anyway... A few days later he reached out to me and used the excuse of discussing volunteering in order to strike up a conversation. It worked. We had our first date on 4/26/22. We went out again a few days later and our relationship really took off. We lovingly like to say we are still on our second date. Everything felt quite right. We both have strong faith and a strong relationship with God. We had both been praying that the lord would bring us a faithful person to walk with. Knowing that God was on our side, we did not hesitate or have doubts. We have the important things in common like faith and our core values. We both had similar hopes and dreams for our futures all the way down to we had the same vision of our dream home. By May we were together every moment. We adopted our German Shepard Jacco and got engaged over Memorial Weekend. By July 15th, we were married in Hawaii. Just shy of 3 months since the day we met. If we had our way, everyone would have been with us on our special day. We had both wanted a destination wedding and Maui was just the fit. Being we moved so fast, there was not enough time for people to plan on making the trip with us. Thus, we told everyone we would have a wedding reception when we got home. Well... When we got home from Hawaii we sold our individual homes and purchased a new home. We moved in September into the home we had both dreamed about. A quite place with a lot of property and room to explore. Good thing there is a lot of room since we had 2 full homes to merge into one. Next came Christmas, winter weather, and still a lot of boxes to sort through. Now is the time to have the wedding reception. We thought that having the party on our 1 year wedding anniversary was the best way to celebrate our union with all of our family and friends. By having it at our home everyone can see how we landed, be relaxed, meet new people, and have fun. We want to share our love and blessings with you. We never did have the traditional wedding events or activities other than saying "I do" on the beach. Thus, this party is just as much for us too. We want to toast, have cake, and celebrate with you!! We hope you can make it to celebrate our wedding & anniversary with us.