March, 2018 | AlexM Photography

So if you have spent anytime on my blog you kinda know the formula…

Talk about how much I love the wedding location. (The Hilton Rockwall Lakefront was perfect.)

Maybe mention how smooth the guys were.

Perhaps a nod to how much I love tiny humans. (Especially if the flower girl is the groom’s daughter.)

And humor. Jokes are always great, as in… True story, Linda anchored herself by holding on to her two pregnant bridesmaids… because you know… nothing says immovable object like two women great with child.

Yeah… that formula does not work here. Because Linda & Joseph have a story that breaks the formula.

This is their second time getting married to each other.

Here they are back in the day when they were married for the first time.

BOOM! I just broke your brain right?!

These two met as teenagers and were married a few years later. He had enrolled in the Marines, and they started their life together on the base. Soon after September 11th, he was deployed to Afghanistan, Iraq, and more countries than most of us can name. When he returned, Joseph said he came back “a different person”. And rather than confiding in her, he felt like he couldn’t talk to her about any of it.

A short while later, they decided to get a divorce due to infidelity on his part.

Engaged at 18, married at 20, divorced at 25.

Now right then and there, these two have lived through enough heartache and struggles that would break most of us. But this is not where their story ends.

After the divorce, they went their separate ways and started dating other people.
Joseph met someone and they soon became pregnant with that adorable flower girl you saw earlier.

When Joseph talks about this time in his life, he is crystal clear on what the problem was–Him.
“I was not looking at relationships in a biblical sense. I was not saved, and I was just looking out for myself.”

Linda and Joseph had stayed in touch, and a mutual friend mentioned to him that maybe God was bringing them back together. As improbable as this seemed, this is actually what started to happen. Little by little, with a lot of work and intentionality on both their parts, “and through God’s grace,” Joseph added, they had restored their relationship and made the commitment to circle back around to marriage. This time with God being at the center of it.

Back to 2018…

When you are in a room full of men praying for a marriage that is happening again despite war, isolation, adultery, and divorce…

You pause.
You breathe deeply.
You thank God for his grace.

When they went to take communion, they realized someone did not fill the cup. (I gave Joseph a hard time about this later.)
“Jesus knows we took communion in our heart,” he said. (Fair point.)

Of course they took time out to wash each other’s feet. This is something I’ve had many couples do throughout the years. The beautiful thing about these two doing this, is they KNOW how hard marriage can be. They have seen the toll it can take. They have experienced first hand the destruction selfishness can cause. So for them, this was not an act of symbolism, but a tangible commitment to serve one another.

We had a little downtime before we headed to the reception, which always leads to great candids: chill bridesmaids, pack-mule groomsmen, Joseph offering another foot washing, and selfie fun.

“Having her through all the struggles and trials, it led me to know that’s God’s grace is perfect. Regardless of whatever sins you have in your life, God’s grace is sufficient.”