Wishing you and yours a wonderful holiday and brightest New Year!
With love,
The Harris’
Tag: Zach <3
{ Introducing the Harris’ }
It’s been 10 days since the absolute best day of our lives. I will post a longer post once we get our official wedding photos but to commemorate the occasion I had to share my thoughts on my first week of marriage.
- Having complete solitude for prayer and reflection the morning of the wedding helped me keep an inner peace and calm that I’ve never felt before. I kept saying I was “eerily calm” all day. It allowed me to stay present for each moment of the day instead of anticipating the next step. By the time it was time for our “First Look” I was so ready to see Z. I expected to be overly emotional and tearful all day but the calm kept sweeping over me. I just wanted to see my fiancé one last time before we became husband and wife. It is the same calm and inner peace that has also provoked gratitude instead of the rumored “post-wedding blues.”
- You can never say the words “husband” and “wife” enough. I thought fiancé sounded good. Being called “wife” and saying “husband” is a whole new level of music to my ears.
- The first time a complete stranger referred to me as Mrs. Harris it was equal parts strange as it was sweet. While I am beyond thrilled to be Z’s Mrs. I am still a little wistful about letting go of my maiden name. The sadness is quickly forgotten when I see how happy it makes Z to see my name with his.
- The level of joy you feel the night you get married is unlike anything we’ve ever experienced. You didn’t know your heart could feel that level of happy. Happy isn’t even the right word. It is a feeling unique only to the first few hours of wedded bliss. We will never forget it as long as we live.
- I’ve been asked a lot if it feels different yet. Admittedly I think the leap from boyfriend/girlfriend status to engaged is the biggest. Emotionally we can feel the connection and love has changed in a bigger, more complex, and incredible way now that we’re married. Physically, seeing a ring on my husband’s hand (See? I told ya. You can never say husband enough!) is the best difference of all.
Here’s to our first 10 days of marriage, Z. Marrying you is already the best thing I’ve ever done in all my life.
{ One Month to Go! }
Today marks the last 30 days of my life as a “Jack”…
I have mixed emotions about this but they are easily forgotten when my future husband makes comments like this:
(Last weekend at my cousin’s wedding, as we sit down for dinner)
Me: “Hey, won’t it be so crazy when we go to these things and my name card will say ‘Joanna Harris’ on it instead of ‘Joanna Jack’?”
Fiancé: “I can’t wait until it does. I’m looking forward to it.”
Swoon.
{ Traveling from Miss to Mrs. }
This past Saturday was a day I will never forget. The last and final event before the wedding was my Seattle Bridal Shower. My mom and her friend, Nancy, flew up for the occasion and we had a ball together the whole weekend. When the three of us walked into my future in-laws home, whom hosted the shower, we were blown away. There are few moments in life that truly take your breath away and this was most certainly one of them.
The theme was “Traveling from Miss to Mrs”. It was so clever and so appropriate for Z and I. The room had a traveling photo album of all the places we’ve lived and visited, landmarks of our relationship.
Each place was paired with food that represented that location. Punta Cana had a Caribeean salad, plantain chips, and carrot slaw salad. San Diego had a taco bar and Seattle was bagels and lox. Santorini, Greece had lamb meatballs with tzatziki sauce and Greek salad cucumber bites. Lastly, New York ,our new home come January 2016, had homemade NY cheesecake pops made special by my future mother-in-law and sister-in-law. I was completely blown away by the thoughtful and creative concept. It was like nothing I had ever seen!
The photo booth tied perfectly into the theme. A postcard cut out with “Traveling from Miss to Mrs” and a custom stamp with our names and wedding date. SO many awesome photos but here are a few to share!
It couldn’t have been a more beautiful day either. Seattle is embracing fall and the cool, crisp air coupled with sunny blue skies made a perfect backdrop for the day. After eating and breaking into several bottles of champagne (of course) the presents began. Each guest wrote down their favorite memory of Z and I and I was to draw those memories out of a basket, read the memory aloud, and the person who wrote it was the next gift I opened. It was such a clever and fun way to open the gifts (which can admittedly be a very boring task for the guests) and to keep everyone engaged. It was such a fun walk down memory lane! Those memories are all going to be arranged as the border to this gorgeous, large photo frame of one of our engagement photos for us to have for always. Every moment of this day was so carefully thought out and planned…I felt humbled and honored to be loved by such an incredible room of women.
The icing on the cake was my groom who arrived towards the end of the party to socialize and thank everyone for helping to celebrate me and us. He is such an awesome man, my Z. It was a great way to end the party and all the guests loved getting to see him, too!
I am so glad my mom was there to share all the moments. We were both so overwhelmed with how much work and love went into the planning and the execution of the party. My mom said that as a the mother of the bride, it was so special for her to see her daughter’s extended Seattle family and friends love her daughter so much. Plus since this was one of the few wedding planning tasks she wasn’t directly involved with she could sit back and take it all in. As a result, she said it really hit her, “you’re getting married!” For me, I was in awe of this life I had created for myself in the Northwest and how grateful I am for the special women in my life. Lucky doesn’t even begin to cover it.
Thank you to Dorothy, Renee, Alyssa, Erica, and Malia for creating such an incredible day. I will never forget it as long as I live. And thank you to all the women who came to celebrate and “shower” me with love. I am so grateful for each of you!
{ 49 days }
We are inching closer and closer to that 30 day countdown before our wedding. I can’t believe how fast this year has flown by; the reality of a wedding in our very near future is more exciting than words can say. I’m nostalgic with memories from years past and that fateful day when we met.
We’ve come so far, my love, and only a little ways left to go before our adventure as Mr. and Mrs. begins.
Note to self: Inhale the weight of this precious time and let it all soak in. Exhale the joy and gratitude for this life we’ve created together.
happily ever harris 