We’ve been married now for just over two week, so I suppose it’s about time we let everyone know how it all went.

In short, the wedding and all the fixings went very well. The last week before the ceremony saw the usual amounts of business associated with such events, coupled with the fact that we would both leave Colorado soon thereafter, so all details concerning packing and earthly possessions were dealt with in the midst of the final bouts of wedding preparation. We were joined a few days beforehand by Renee’s family, as well as couple of our friends, who did a lot to help us with last minute shopping, picking-up, and decorating. As the big day approached, we were surely ready to finally get to the actual business of getting married.

We had a small ceremony of immediate family and a few friends (numbering about 30 in all) at Boulder Valley Christian Church on a snowy Friday evening on the 7th of December. Our friend, and student ministry pastor of the church, Matt Carlson officiated over a candle-lit ceremony enclosed by a semi-circle of our closest in the glass foyer of the church, which would have lent a beautiful view of the Rocky Mountains during the day. The ceremony was about 20-30 minutes and was followed by an intimate dinner in an adjacent room. We were both very happy with how everything turned out.

The next evening, we made our way slowly across icy highways towards the airport for an early morning flight that Sunday on US Airways. Unfortunately, our flight was delayed due to an unexpected TSA search on account of a razor found on board, so we missed our connection in Phoenix, arriving in Los Angeles slightly later than planned, which was no problem, although we were without our baggage (When asked, US Airways promised our baggage late that evening from the next flight that Sunday afternoon. When it didn’t arrive, subsequent phone calls and long hold-periods helped us to learn that the airline wasn’t really sure where our baggage was or when we would get it. Repeatedly, we told them it would be in Phoenix, at which they would respond that it would be on the next flight; finally, we were able to have one of their operators actually call the airports in question and put out an alert. We received everything in tact that Tuesday. We’ve lost baggage numerous times, but never without such a lack of information about its actual location; turns out, US Airways has one of the worst records in permanently lost baggage. But God was looking out for us, and all went well…).

We spent a joyful, sunny week in California, completely blessed with a honeymoon we would not have been able to afford on our own. Our friend Candice spent the past few months in collaboration with her church in Camarillo, California, and they were able to give us the gift of a wonderful one-week stay in a three story house right on the beach in Ventura. Someone from her church even bought us tickets to Disneyland; the rest of the week, we did little to nothing, except hang out and enjoy the sunshine (we left Denver at 1 degree Farenheit and arrived in a week full of sixties and seventies and endless clear skies!).

In any case, pictures will speak louder than words. We’ve been able to download pictures from our time in California, as well as the reception we had here in Pennsylvania a couple days ago for Renee’s family and friends. We’re going to hold off on uploading those to the website until we have photos from the wedding as well. Rest assured, however, that we will notify everyone when those pictures are available on our website for your viewing pleasure. That will hopefully be next week.

We arrived in Pennsylvania this past Monday after an overnight flight from LA. We will be here until the 30th of December, spending Christmas with Renee’s family, as well as taking care of paperwork details such as name changes and banking.

We’re looking forward to getting back into our work in Northern Ireland next month (actually, just over a week!). God has been so good to us and blessed us with an incredible amount of comfort and rest in this time. We’re certainly using our time over Christmas to reflect on that… we can’t express how thankful we are to everyone in our extended community and especially to Him, who makes this marriage adventure so sweet and worthwhile.

Please, take this time over the next week not just to pump numbers into the economy, but to really reflect on the incarnation of Christ – the salvation, the blessing, the suffering, and the calling that is grafted into our lives as a result of His life and death amongst us. This is a time for excitement that our God has come and is coming the be in the midst of us all.

God bless,

Mikael & Renee

Update (15/01): Pictures are now available in the Wedding and Honeymoon photo gallery. Thanks!