Marlena & Owen's Wedding

Before I start, let me just express how much my heart is gushing over this wedding. I just want to run outside and repeat how in love I am like Buddy from Elf. I would totally add a gif but this is not the place and this isn’t about me, it’s about my lovely friends Marlena & Owen. My old high school classmates. They have been together for what feels like forever. Since sophomore year of high school. But it runs even farther back to when they first met in 7th grade.

“One day I’m going to date him,” Marlena told her friends. To her it probably just felt like a silly crush that she giggled about with her friends, never imagining that one she’d not only date him, but marry him. Never could she have thought that on May 13th, 2018 she and Owen would be exchanging wedding vows. Giving each a promise to share a lifetime together.

I remember vividly seeing the two nearly always together around campus. Owen had always been involved with JROTC and after high school he decided to enlist in the U.S. Marine Corps. Marlena enrolled in LSU. Owen eventually became stationed in North Carolina which meant Marlena and Owen would face their toughest challenge in enduring the hardships of a long distance relationship along with periods of deployment along the way. To say their relationship was hard would be an understatement. Surely some days were grueling. Having someone so far is aching, having someone deploy for months at a time with no contact is arduous. But love helps us to be patient, it brings us to hope, it makes us endure.

After 6 long years, four years of distance and hardship, they finally said their “I do’s.”

Their wedding took place on a family member’s private estate. And it was the most beautiful outdoor scenery imaginable. (Seriously, I need to buy a house there.) We were able to have the most perfect husband and wife sunset portraits. I cannot express enough how happy I am for Marlena and Owen. It was an absolute pleasure to serve them on their wedding day.

I’d like thank Owen for serving, you make your wife and country proud. And I’d like to congratulate both Marlena and Owen for finally tying the knot!

May God bless you two on your new journey!