guest post diaries: Courtney

while i, as the new Mrs. Quigley, am away on my honeymoon and vacation and such, i asked a few of my favorite blogger friends if they'd fill in for me. they're here for a few weeks, talking about big changes in their lives, whether it be marriage related or not. enjoy! and girls, thanks again!

hi friends! this is courtney from vintch. i am so, so honored to be writing in jackie’s sweet space while she’s off getting hitched and honeymooned.

i got married four years ago to the first and only boy i ever kissed. it was a whirlwind of humidity, big bands, swing dancing and one gorgeous trumpet dress. i thought long and hard about my favorite part of it all and came to this conclusion: it was the moment on the steps outside the church. when the exit song was dwindling and the guests were busy clamoring and piling out of the tiny sanctuary.

he picked me up and spun me around. on the very same stoop where i sat with my vacation bible study all those years. where i walked in with my parents and my grandparents, my sunday skirts grazing my bony knees. he spun me around and the august sunshine hit my cheek and i remember looking down thinking, this is my marriage. starting now. this is my marriage.

and the funny thing is, the photographer must have been close and all my family and friends had cameras, and he held me in the air for what seemed like a lifetime, but no one snapped a picture of it. i’m not even sure if he remembers doing it.

but it happened. i know it happened as surely as i know that this man of mine wears a different white undershirt every blessed day of the week and my laundry pile will never be small. i know it like i know he will come home with a dirty blue collar in the evenings and gather me in his arms and kiss me square on the mouth, right in the open of the living room, in front of our humiliated pup. i am as sure of it as i am that the sun will never rise without his side of the bed matted down, worn with sleep. with rests and dreams of his day. of our days. our yesterdays and our somedays. our one day that the earth stood still and let two high school sweethearts twirl under a steeple. how golden these days are.

xoxo jackie! hope you're having the time of your life! but the real fun starts after the honeymoon. day-in, day-out love is such a joy.