Christian Weddings — The Knot Community

Prayers Needed!

Purple&7 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 23:52:26 +0000

Hey ladies! I could really use some prayers right now. I'm super stressed out and I just don't know how I'm going to make it. FI still doesn't have a job even though he has had several interviews, I have no idea where we are going to live after the wedding, and I'm about to begin student teaching in a few weeks. My mom has been reminding me that I need to keep the faith, but I just don't know if I can do it anymore.

QOTD

Ash61612 — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 16:06:31 +0000

What is something you have done in your life that you are most proud of?

Favorite apps?

DramaGeek — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 07:35:23 +0000

I finally upgraded to a smart phone and I'm working on getting apps and things. I've got the basics covered - map, weight watchers, facebook, words with friends...you know, the important things ;-) Just curious what other apps and games you find useful or fun, especially if they're free!

What is the....

RebeccaJac — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 20:42:42 +0000

most rebelious thing you've ever done?

A new Job and Praise!

tinakling — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 17:29:26 +0000

Hello Ladies,
I would like y'all to join me in praising God, for all the amazing things he's done in my life recently.
So I got a job with the provincial government (more like the State government) of where I live, but it was a temporary postiion set to expire in March of this year. I was very satisfied with the position and had no concerns of whether my contract would be extended or not. But in November my supervisor emailed me another position that was being advertised on the government's website and so I applied for it. I had no hopes of getting that job, but I did get an interview for it and then, God through his gracious mercy has granted me this job. So i am starting this new position next week and it's at a higher level than where I'm at now, and it's also a permanent full-time position. More money and the benefits are still the same.

Secondly I was super stressed because there were conflicts between my family, my FI and I . But over christmas my fiance and I began our pre-marital counselling, we resolved most our issues, and we actually had a family dinner with my FI's entire immediate family at my house, and I'm glad to say that everything went very well. The 2 families coming together was a prayer request of mine, and so I'm so thankful that it happened and it was actually positive.
Wedding planning is coming along and God does not cease to amaze me.

http://www.theknot.com/?utm_source=ticker&utm_medium=HTML&utm_campaign=tickers" title="Wedding Ideas">http://global.theknot.com/tickers/tt12686f.aspx" alt="Wedding Countdown Ticker" border="0" />

Poll time!

mrandmrsbrist — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 21:54:15 +0000

Happy New Year! Here's a poll for ya. :)

What do you do for work? Are you also going to school?

What is something you think is pointless (but might not be pointless to others)?

What did you spend most of your time donig last night?

What is the 4th sentence in the 4th chapter of the book you're currently reading or one near you?

What are (or were) your wedding colors?

Do you remember your dreams?

Ash61612

mrandmrsbrist — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 01:37:26 +0000

Can we get a January weddings/prayer request thread stickied at the top? Thanks.

Weekly Recaps!

RyansBelovedBride — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:59:15 +0000

I thought this could be a fun thread to combat the Monday blahs.

Let's each recap the past week in five points. They can be events, themes or thoughts. Let's reflect a little and tell each other the highlights!

Winter Jam 2012

iamjoesgurl — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 05:28:56 +0000

We are in Raleigh and went to Winter Jam tonight. If you have a Winter Jam coming near you this spring, you have to go! It was great! Some of the artists there were for KING AND COUNTRY, Kari Jobe, NewSong, Peter Furler, Sanctus Real and Skillet! It was Joe's 42nd Skillet show (my 14th). Peter Furler was awesome. It was just like old Newsboys (Phil Joel was even there playing with him!)

We met for KING AND COUNTRY (Luke and Joel) after the show and got to talk to them for a few minutes (see pic below). It was great! They sing the song on the radio "Busted Heart (Hold On To Me)". They are brothers of Rebecca St. James. (Joel is VERY good looking - don't worry - Joe knows I think that!)

So if you can, go to the show when it comes to a city near you.

Stewardship Program

naomikb — Sun, 08 Jan 2012 23:45:14 +0000

Does your church run a formal stewardship program/campaign annually?

We started using Herb Miller's "New Consecration Sunday Stewarship Program" books. It's an interesting concept. The general premise is the emphasize what God is calling you to give (financially) to the church instead of what percentage of the church budget you are responsible for. The congregation is asked to pray about their financial giving and challenged to increase giving by 1% over last year's gifts, with the ultimate goal of tithing (Example - moving from donating 4% of your income to 5% of your income).

Anyone have experience with Herb Miller's program or another similar program? I've heard of various formats.

ochemjenn

RyansBelovedBride — Mon, 09 Jan 2012 09:43:31 +0000

Have we met in real life? I feel like I've seen you before, and I dismissed it as the "noticing people that look like people you know" phenomenon that happens when you seen a bunch of strangers... until I noticed you're in SC. Are you in the upstate?

Recommendations

Ash61612 — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 14:00:35 +0000

I have noticed the board has been slow and I wanted to see if anyone had suggestions on how to make the board more active. Games? Polls? Suggestions? Thanks ladies

RyansBelovedBride

drama1308 — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 21:42:34 +0000

Not to be nosey or anything, but I was reading your blog and saw that your FI lives in India. I'm just curious how you guys met. You've probably already shared but I must have missed it.

Matthew West "Strong Enough"

Ash61612 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 01:36:22 +0000

This is a song that is been stuck in my head for a couple days now. It's probably one of my favorite songs at the moment. I have been listening to a lot more Christian music lately. I can see a definite change on my attitude when I listen to Christian music.

What are some other songs and/or artists that are your favorite?

Pre-marital

ravenray — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 18:37:55 +0000

Hi ladies. So FI and I start pre-marital counseling tonight. I am so nervous! I was really looking forward to it until we set a time. Then I got so nervous I felt sick. Reassure me? I know I am being silly but I can't help it :/

Updated Prayer Request (PIP)

Ash61612 — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 02:24:47 +0000

As many of you know, my brother has been deployed in Iraq for several months.

With all the hustle and bustle of Christmas and New Years, I failed to post this sooner. I am happy to report that my brother ended his deployment the end of June and had his homecoming on 12/22. I wanted to share some pictures with y'all and thank everyone for their prayers during his deployment.

His plane getting ready to land

Back on US soil!

Troops all lined up

Hug from Maci, kiss from mom

Proud dad with his baby girl

My brother, my niece and I

Pastor/Counseling Issues

ashs217 — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 15:45:24 +0000

We spoke with a pastor at our church in August (right after we got engaged) to figure out which pastor could marry us and what counseling would be needed. We completed a counseling test thing right away, but now it is January and we have yet to begin counseling, and we still don't know which pastor will marry us/if any even will. Our wedding is in July, and I am just wondering if I should keep waiting on this church that we have been going to, or if we should begin looking elsewhere. Thanks!

Random question: Quickie marriages

agape1cor813 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 03:34:16 +0000

(I want to preface this by saying I'm not trying to nitpick other people's choices or be judgemental, I'm just trying to see if this is some kind of new "normal" or not.)
So, I can count five people I went to high school with (we are all in our mid-20s) who got married and divorced in less than a year. (And those are just the people I know about, there could be a lot more than that.) I find it so bizarre and sad.
Has anyone else seen anything like this among their peers? Or is what I'm seeing just strange and really outside the norm?

It happened - the stress finally hit us (a little long)

2012FutureMrsB — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 04:45:57 +0000

So far, wedding planning has been fun and positive, with only a few hiccups. I've heard about brides getting burned out and I've even given advice to others, but didn't think it would happend to me. Wrong! Today, something happened. I'm not sure what exactly, but I think everything just has been building and it just slammed both FI and I in the face. We both felt it today.

We're down to 5 months and still have sooo much to plan, we have a super tight budget so decision-making is difficult, and FI is dealing with some groomsmen issues b/c 1 is having a baby the week of the wedding, and 3 have another major event going on the day before and they live out of state, so getting here ontime will be a challenge (and it's too late to change the date - we debated that).

So my FI was getting very stressed about his groomsmen and I was getting stressed over the money issue and the fact that our guest list has climbed to 200 again (after cutting it back to 165!) and . . . . well, I'm sure you guys know the feeling. So today, wedding planning became NOT fun anymore. I was in tears. FI came over after work and we talked about it - turns out he had cried earlier today too, which is not normal for him. We realized that we had to make some difficult decisions. We had two options: (1) borrow money and go into debt (which we agreed not to do in the beginning), or (2) cut the guest list again, just do finger foods instead of a full meal, and cut the DJ/dancing. It was one of the hardest things we had to do, but we decided to make the cuts.

We worked on the guest list and this time, we got it down to 140. We're going to do an afternoon ceremony followed by fingerfoods and fellowship. We'll definitely use the church fellowship hall, not a separate venue, to save on costs.
We might still have a first dance or something b/c we can play music from the sound system, but we may or may not be able to do a full dance floor.

I feel a lot better b/c the burden of possible debt and all the extra details that comes with added guests, has been lifted, but it was very hard to cut some of our guests b/c we have a lot of friends and family. In the end, our closest friends/family will be there and we can afford it. Cutting the list was one of the hardest things we had to do, but I'm thankful that the Lord gave us the strength to work together as a team and get it done. Now we can sleep peacefully, thank you Lord!

ebay

iamjoesgurl — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 02:58:21 +0000

I was looking for an update card for my parents' GPS tonight on ebay and found some that seemed pretty cheap compared to what you'd pay in a store. Then I started thinking about other things that are bought new on ebay (like Coach purses for example). How do you think these stores/sellers can sell things so much more cheaply than prices in the stores? Do you think there are a lot of stolen goods out there on ebay?

NWR- Book suggestions

MelissaC315 — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 02:31:50 +0000

Hey ladies! So I got a Barnes and Noble gift card for Christmas (yippee!) and I want to use it to buy books to read for fun for once instead of my usual school books. I've noticed that we seem to have a lot of readers in this group and everyone seemed to have great suggestions in the past (can't find the posts though!). I was wondering if you ladies had any suggestions for me for a great book to read that you loved (Christian/spiritual or not). I'm open to anything! Thanks!!

Hunger Games

RebeccaJac — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 01:37:44 +0000

Anyone else read/reading them?! I started the first one yesterday and will probably finish tonight. Such a page turner!

Christmas Traditions Poll

iamjoesgurl — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 21:45:26 +0000

I've been thinking a lot about our family Christmas traditions this year since I haven't been with my family and thought I would do a poll.

1. What is one family tradition that you wouldn't want to miss?

2. What is one family tradition of your FI/DH's family that you'd like to miss?

3. What is one family tradition of either your family or FI/DH's family that you will probably carry on with your own family?

4. Is there anything that your family does differently than FI/DH's family that bothers you (i.e. you wish they would do it your way)?

Happy New Year!

iamjoesgurl — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 03:24:58 +0000

When I was single, I always went out somewhere for New Year's with my friends. We would usually go to a party with dancing/food but one year we did a First Night (I just about froze and we never did that again).

Now that I'm married, things are much different. I believe I will stay up to watch the ball drop but as I type this, Joe is on the floor taking a nap (he's been sleeping for about 2 1/2 hours now) and I'm not sure he is going to wake up by midnight.

I hope you all have a Happy New Year's Eve and that some of you are out on the town having fun with your BFs/FIs/DHs.

Any predictions for 2012?

Please do not mention children

toothpastechica — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 21:23:01 +0000

I have been at SO many christian weddings lately where people, either the 'officiant' or people making toasts have made comments about how 'great a mother she will be' or how they 'are excited for grandchildren' or 'next step is kids'. It really annoys me that people assume that the next step has to be kids....not that i never want kids, but i dont want thinking about future children as a part of my wedding day. Can you ask people without coming off as ornery to not say anything about a future of children? Is it really too much to ask that the focus be on the commitment Fi and i are making to EACHOTHER on our wedding instead of merely acknowledging that its now culturally acceptable to have children?

Rings

RyansBelovedBride — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 15:03:49 +0000

So I thought I'd do a fun post on rings, because I was realizing how differently people actually do this. So what kind of rings did you get/are you getting? Are you wearing an engagement ring and wedding band or just one or the other? Are you and FI both having rings? Did you go for a bridal set (engagement ring and wedding ring that math), a set of wedding bands (yours and his) or nothing matching? Did you guys do anything for him during engagement? (Like my sister got her now-husband an 'engagement watch'.) And of course, what style do you like?

So tell us what you did, or want to do. Pictures are fine, but not required. Have fun and... go!

Cake Advice and Help PLEASE!!

KaitlinRich — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 00:39:55 +0000

I am desperately wanting to have several cheesecakes in the place of a standard cake. I had looked into purchasing some from the Cheesecake Factory as I can get a variety that taste AMAZING! However, upon contacting the company that produces them I was told that I cannot get the standard size without being pre-sliced. I am really worried that by having it pre-sliced it would look bad in pictures. Does anyone know of someplace I can order a whole cheesecake that has a comparable taste? Or maybe how to arrange it or something? (BTW I have tried to arrange cheesecakes and it is very difficult to get them to meet completely).

Thank you so so much for your help and time!

Hi everyone!

GJones27 — Wed, 28 Dec 2011 15:59:26 +0000

I haven't been on this board since August due to law school, but I just wanted to drop by a note to say hi.

I hope all is well with you all! I'm loving married life -- it's so nice to come home in the afternoon from school and see my hubby! He loves it too. It was a little difficult at first learning how to live with each other, but after a couple of months, it becme much, much easier.

The first year of law school was a bit brutal... not as difficult as they say it is, but it was a lot of work. I literally had no social life and spent nearly every waking hour studying. It was a bit isolating, but at least I had my hubby at home who was also studying which helped make it easier. I also missed the ability to focus on spirituality while in law school. As an undergrad I had all these opportunities to reflect on life and take courses like philosophy and theology. In law school, I also didn't have the opportunity to make friends with anyone, including people who shared my values like faith. I've been in a new city, so I definitely missed all my church friends back where I was living. I'm hoping once I get passed the difficult first year (my job prospects completely depend on first year grades), I'll be able to connect with people more.

Anyways, I hope all you married ladies are enjoying married life! I also hope all you engaged ladies are having fun with the wedding planning process. For those of you who I'm Facebook friends with, I enjoy seeing your status updates. Thanks again for all your support earlier this year as I planned my own wedding. You girls are the best. :-)

hi ladiess!!!

amongthelilies25 — Tue, 27 Dec 2011 03:40:27 +0000

hello everyone!!! i just wanted to pop in and say hello! i am like never ever on here! hehe. i totally thought that i would be on everyday like i was when i was planning my big day.... but i havnt been that great. :(

Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and have fun to everyone who is still planning!!! :)

-Monica

Resolution?

RebeccaJac — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 18:10:59 +0000

Anyone making one?