Shannon Taylor Vannatter – Real Life Romance – Part 1 of 3

White Pearls should be releasing soon on Amazon and chritianbook.com, so I’m celebrating. Comment on any post dated July 11 – 15 for a chance to win. Deadline: July 16, 11:59 pm central time.

            In the busyness of life, raising a son, growing a church, and writing deadlines, my husband and I haven’t had much couple time lately. So I decided to steal him away for our anniversary. Twenty-four hours, just us including an overnight hotel stay. I thought I’d really outdone myself.
            Until a week later. My husband had invited several friends from his other job to come to church. He’d told me he was doing a short sermon and then we would watch a short DVD on relationships. I couldn’t figure out what was so great about this DVD that would draw people who normally don’t go to church.
            He also told me that he’d planned a guest speaker for the evening service, so he could take me out to dinner. We’d already had a romantic anniversary dinner and I thought it was odd that we had to skip church service to go out to dinner. Why not Saturday?
            His friends showed up for church, I greeted everyone as usual, and he began his short sermon. About halfway through the sermon, my parents, aunt, and two cousins arrived. I thought that was really odd. My family all still go to the church I grew up in and my parents do the music there. I thought they’d had some problem at church and come to ours.
            My husband’s sermon ended with our typical altar call. Several went forward as usual, leaving their petitions and praises at the altar.
            Then my husband hit play and came to sit beside me. Before I go on with the story, I have to say–I love sitting with my husband in church. It doesn’t happen very often since he’s the preacher.
            Back to the story, a love song by Journey, a group we listened to as teenagers, started playing–After All These Years. Our names scrolled across the screen, followed by our wedding pictures. I start blubbering. Hubby had thought of everything with a fresh box of tissue close by.
            As the song mentioned blessings we’ve shared, our son’s pictures popped up. Then it talked about the home we’ve built together and there was a picture of me in front of our house. I kept blubbering, especially when I saw the wedding picture of my father-in-law who officiated. He passed away a few years ago.
            The DVD ended and I thought it was over. I dabbed my face, tried to salvage my makeup, and find some composure. My sister-in-law who was my bridesmaid and a high school friend who was hubby’s best man walked up the aisle of the church. Hubby took my hand and we joined them there. A friend’s daughter brought me a bouquet.
            Hubby got down on one knee and told me he wasn’t renewing our vows. He was confirming them. He told me that he has loved me, honored me, and been faithful to me for the last twenty-seven years and will continue to do so. I blubbered the whole time. He slid an anniversary ring on my finger and kissed me. I’m blubbering as I write this.
            After the ceremony, hubby introduced his work friends since our church members didn’t know them.
            We had food afterward and one of our members made us a beautiful three tiered wedding cake modeled after pictures of the original. The original had two doves on top. This cake also had a white rose and white pearls in honor of my books. We had our picture taken feeding each other cake and with our hands on the bouquet prominently showing my new ring. And we got it all captured on video.
            Later, I learned that one of our church ladies recreated my bouquet from pictures of the original. The friends from his other job helped plan my special day. Our entire church had been in on it for two weeks. My sister-in-law had dug through wedding pictures and hubby’s best man missed a fishing trip to be there.
            I learned that hubby had taken off from the evening service because one of our church members told him he couldn’t renew his wedding vows and then preach that night. We didn’t end up going to dinner that night. We had our couple time the weekend before, so we took our son to see a movie and had family time instead.
            It was a perfect day. After all these years, I feel loved, treasured, honored, and thankful for the wonderful husband God provided for me. And like I need to step up my end of the romance.
Come back July 13 for my romantic destination tour.