{"id":1280,"date":"2023-06-22T16:43:00","date_gmt":"2023-06-22T20:43:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/?p=1280"},"modified":"2025-01-22T16:46:56","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T21:46:56","slug":"10-years-50-states-2-i-dos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/22\/10-years-50-states-2-i-dos\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Years, 50 States, 2 “I Do’s”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Magic. That’s what our wedding was. And it was probably because of how long we waited and how absolutely sure we were that this was the right step, right place and right time. We got engaged in October of 2020 and thought we would get married in September of 2021 in Hawaii. But we were wrong on both counts. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

2021 was the hardest year of our lives full of compounding losses, grief and heartbreak<\/a>. It took the entire year for me to get back to a place where I felt like myself. In late 2021, Russell had the brilliant idea to visit 2 out of the 3 remaining states we’d never been to (Kentucky, North Dakota) and get married in our final, 50th state: Alaska. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We decided to have a very micro wedding with our 7 closest friends serving as wedding party and witnesses (one of whom married us). On June 8th, we chose each other for life and the wilds of Alaska provided the most incredible backdrop. The unbridled scenery & energy served as fuel for the most magical days of our lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

10 years after meeting in the 2H office, we are married! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Our rings and the custom cuff links I gifted him engraved with Hazen and Otis’ faces<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ring warming & vow exchange<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Ring exchange<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Scottish hand fasting<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Flowerfetti using the dried petals of my bridal portrait bouquet from the previous year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Our chosen family<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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First dance to “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Champagne pop & toast<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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\"\"<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Magic. That’s what our wedding was. And it was probably because of how long we waited and how absolutely sure we were that this was the right step, right place and right time. We got engaged in October of 2020 and thought we would get married in September of 2021 in Hawaii. But we were… Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1287,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,3,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-reflecting","category-adventures","category-places"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/MelodyRussell06082023_510-Edit-489.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1280"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1300,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1280\/revisions\/1300"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.homesweetroam.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}