Old married folk

Sarah and I passed a significant milestone this past weekend: we spent our last Bed, Bath, and Beyond gift cards! We both thought this event meant that our marriage has reached a new point. While we might argue that we're still newly weds, we also realize that we've been married for over four months! Amazing how quickly time flies--especially with summer vacation, spending July in the pacific northwest in there too.

Tonight we're looking to play ultimate frisbee with some great folks from Temple/Liberti. They faithfully play every Tues, Thurs, and Sunday night. Last Thursday, Thomas and I went out to join them. Unfortunately, we were followed by dark thunderheads. Lightning flashed all around, our hair started to stand on end from static electricity...and we decided to call it quits before the game actually ever began. Hopefully tonight will be more successful.

Wedding announcement in paper

It's official: according to the Holland Sentinel, Sarah and I got hitched!

Official Michigan wedding reception

Sarah, my parents, and I finally decided on a date/time to have the Michigan version of our wedding reception. On Saturday, June 28 from 1-4PM, we'll have pictures, videos, snacks, and memories to share. Our De Boer parents are hosting it at their home in Holland. Please e-mail either of us if you will be attending. Love to see you there!

Memorial Day plans

Sarah and I will be flying into Grand Rapids Friday night. We'll be in the Holland area for the weekend to celebrate Jordan's high school graduation!!! The graduation ceremony will be Sunday afternoon, with his open house to follow. We'll fly back to Philly on Monday afternoon. We can't wait!!

We will also be returning to Holland at the end of June for two reasons. First, our dear friend Rebecca Marcus is marrying a wonderful man named John Brown. And second, we will have our Michigan wedding reception on June 28. If you're reading this, you're invited to attend! The event will be from 1-3PM at the De Boer house on 40th St. More to come on this soon...

Just married!

It's been over three weeks since I've posted to this blog. In that time, I've undergone a major life change: getting married to my girlfriend of three years, Sarah Elizabeth Gardner (now De Boer!). It was an incredible experience, filled with grace and blessing. For me to describe it would not do it justice. We're LOVING marriage so far, even finding shopping and organizing all of our stuff enjoyable together. Yep, we're certainly newly weds. So what?? =)

More engagement pictures

As promised, Sarah and I have more engagement pictures! Click here for a slideshow.


All pictures taken by roommate/groomsman/professional photographer/all-around super stud Seth Shimkonis.

Engagement picture

Seth took our engagement pictures last weekend. Here's our main one, with more to come this weekend:

Wedding update, part 2

Also, Sarah and I booked our honeymoon! We'll be going on a Caribbean cruise from Miami. It'll be my first cruise, which I'm pretty excited for. The ship's description proudly broadcasts all the buffets and varieties of food available 24 hours a day. If you know Sarah and I, you know we'll both enjoy that a great deal!

Wedding updates

Yesterday morning, Sarah and I drove out to King of Prussia and met with our photographer, Jeff Wojtaszek. My roommate Seth (who is also a photographer and will be in the wedding) recommended Jeff since they shoot a lot of weddings together. Sarah and I loved the work posted on his website--he seems to artistically capture emotion in candid shots. He cut us a deal with his rates, and Seth volunteered to shoot some pictures on his camera when he's not in the pictures. Looks like it'll work out well! We're pretty excited. =)

Another accomplishment was picking out the guys' tuxes at Men's Warehouse. Woo hoo!

We also secured Trinity Orthodox Presbyterian Church for our ceremony location. We met with Reverend George Cottenden and put down a deposit for the use of their facilities. Trinity is exactly 4 miles of the reception site with a classic sanctuary and ample parking. Several of our friends at Liberti mentioned Trinity when we said we were getting married in Horsham, and God seemed to close the doors to all the other churches we tried contacting. Trinity was prompt, flexible, and available...so it made our decision quite easy! We took some pictures, which are available here.


Here's a map from the church to our reception site:

View Larger Map

Wedding reception site

This afternoon, Sarah and I went hunting for a reception site, and we found it!!! One of the teachers at my school got married there recently, and she recommended it to us. The company is called Joseph's Catering, and they are located in Horsham, PA. They had about everything we wanted at a rock-bottom price. Horsham is a small suburb about 40 minutes outside of Philly.
Joseph's is located on the main street in town with a nice park (for outdoor wedding photos), eating options, hair salons, churches, grocery store, hotel, and other wedding necessities. We checked out a few places for rehearsal dinner and hotels for possible rates. Click here for the pictures we took today.

Ending break

Today is my last day of Christmas vacation. The past 2 1/2 weeks have gone by quickly, and they have been wonderful. I went to school this morning to start finishing up a few things before the kids come back tomorrow. Going into the building, unfortunately, wasn't the most energizing thing I've done this break.

Right now I'm watching Michigan play their final game of the season: the Capital One Bowl against Florida. Current Heisman Trophy winner and former homeschool Tim Tebow is the opposing quarterback, and Michigan doing an excellent job opposing them! Being able to take in a game like this with Sarah is pretty fun for me.

Sarah heard back from her professor today regarding our wedding date. We had hoped for her to get a day or two off...but she offered Sarah TWO WEEKS off--the week before and the week after!!! Praise God! So, now we'll just have to see how much time I can get off from Spruce Hill...

Wedding date

We've decided on a wedding date: April 12. Sarah's brother Jonathon is in the air force, and he will be deployed from the end of April until September in Qatar. After pestering his boss and his boss' boss, he learned that he cannot get leave for a summer wedding, so we had to bump up the date to April. Yes, that means we might be a little busier than normal, but it also means that the stress of wedding designing simply will not have time to set in. We'll just have to go with what we can do! While I return to school on Wednesday, Sarah still has the rest of the week off from rotations, which means she'll be scouting out reception and ceremony locations. Today she found her bridesmaid dresses online (still waiting on measurements before she orders them), and she ordered her wedding gown from eBay. I'm not allowed to see it, but I hear that it's beautiful. Praise God for His assistance in the process so far!

Wedding website

It's official! Sarah and I have our wedding website up and running. Nope, we still don't know when or where we're getting married, but we're getting there. Visit http://sarahandericwedding.blogspot.com for updates (you can sign up for free e-mail updates, too). I'll try to keep most wedding info on that website...however, if I get super excited about something, I'll make sure to post it here too.

We're engaged!!!

Yep, we sure are. This morning, I asked Sarah Elizabeth Gardner to marry me, and she said yes! (the exact quote, through a clenched hug, was “of course I will marry you!”) More details, pictures, videos, websites and plans to come. But for now, we’re reveling in the excitement. After all, we now know the who, what, and why...how much harder can the when, where, and how be?

Tony and Christen's wedding

This weekend I had the joyful experience of being part of the marriage of Anthony John Bordenkircher to Christen Joelle Conner. They are well on their way to Belize at the moment, and their wedding was beautiful. They met at Hope and have been dating for four years (Tony went to New Zeeland, Christen went Greece and Africa, and they broke up for a bit in there too). Their wedding seemed natural, as if it were the next step in their relationship. They know each other so well and love each other dearly. Both sets of parents were tremendously supportive and excited to see them marry. Truly, a beautiful day.


One of the elements Tony and Christen included to make their wedding personal to them was to make wedding favors out of recycled paper and daisy seeds! It was all part of their wedding theme of new beginnings. On the favors, they encouraged guests to plant their paper and start a "new beginning of your own". They also had the guys wearing a baby pink color for their tux vests. My personal favorite might have been the banner they had at the end of the receiving line after the reception. Instead of running through a finish line, they ran through a starting line of their marriage and into the car for their honeymoon. What a joyful celebration! Brian DePotty was a great MC/DJ for the wedding, using neat dances such as the snowball and two-line dances to get people up and participating. I wished Sarah was there, but there were some great guys to keep me company.

On a side note, I caught the garter belt! I had managed to snag the one at John and Kelly Hile's wedding two summers ago, so I'm hoping that this one does the trick. =)

The bachelor (party)

Some people have a certain stigma associated with a bachelor party. It's unfortunate that marriage is associated with a prison and you've gotta be free one last night before you're in chains forever. Despite some of my good friends being married, they still have time for me--both with their wives and one-on-one. My experience has found that a bachelor party is simply an excuse for the groom-to-be and his best friends to hang out together. Such was the case with Tony's bachelor party this past Thursday. We had a great time together, and while I can't break the code of secrecy and tell you all about what we did, I can reveal a few pictures:

Walter and Lydia's big day

It was an honor and a privilege to be part of the bridal party for Walter Nelson and Lydia Riddell's wedding this past weekend. The two of them are beautiful together, and they truly are better together than apart. Sarah and I have shared many memories with them on double dates, relationship conversations, long distance empathy, and our fond times together in Holland, Michigan. The wedding itself was beautiful; fortunately I was able to hold off on my tears until after my reading was over. Lydia sang along with "Lord, you have my heart", as she walked down the aisle. It was clear they wanted their wedding to be a worship service, and I certainly felt grateful to God for how He worked in their relationship! I'm excited for where He's going to take them in the future, too.


Although I didn't know any of the other groomsmen well before the wedding, we had a grand time with each other this past weekend. Rich, Jeff, Prabu, and I were an ecletic blend of guys, but we blended well. At breakfast the day of the wedding, Walter pointed out that of the 8 guys eating breakfast together, each one was from a different state! (Michigan, Maryland, Ohio, New York, Utah, Pennsylvania, Florida, Virginia, in case you were wondering). That fact epitomizes to me how diverse the friends of Walter and Lydia are.




Another highlight from the wedding for me was sharing the experience with my beautiful girlfriend, Sarah. Since we were both in the wedding party, we got to be involved in everything together. It was great to share the joy and discuss it all with each other. Life is just more fun with her!



Our weekend in Holland was pretty busy, but not busy enough for us to miss a delicious flank steak birthday dinner for me on our deck! Spring is on the way!!!