Our wedding was beautiful. Thank you to all who were there and who helped make it such a wonderful day.

And thank you to God, Who made it possible that we could meet, fall in love, and marry one another in His holy presence.


With this blog, we'll change it up a bit and post on occasion about our lives together and how things are going.

But as for now, the honeymoon is over, and we've begun our journey into married life. =)

In twelve days, 13 hours, and 35 minutes, I will walk down that aisle to see my darling standing in front of it, waiting to be united with me in holy matrimony. =)

It's so soon.

Our apartment is coming together. All of his things are all set up and looking good, and so we're just waiting for me to get all my things out of the dorms. I think for the last few days before I move out, I'll just have my computer and my necessities. I think I have a ton of stuff I need to throw out or something. (I'm a major pack-rat!)

If you want to see pictures of the apartment (it's been fixed up since then, and one of the rooms that's piled up with boxes is now cleared out, the kitchen looks a lot nicer, and we received new bedding stuff from our wedding showers that make me jealous that Derek gets to sleep on it every night. =) ), go here.

Again, I want to apologize to those who were not sent invitations to the wedding. We didn't mean to exclude you or forget you, but as you hopefully understand, we had to keep it a very small wedding. Thanks to those who've attended either one of our showers and who've let us know their love for us through words of encouragement or affirmation!

Well, with the next two weeks full of lots of last minute planning to do, this will probably be my last time updating as a single woman. =)

Next post: MARRIED LIFE!!

Well, tomorrow is our first Valentine's Day together. No Emo-tine's Day for either one of us this year (or every year after!).

Derek did very well for his first gift. He took me shopping Saturday, and he bought me this gorgeous dress to wear out to dinner next weekend. =)

I guess I could say my gift for him, since he'll get it as soon as he arrives here at school (it's Open Dorms tonight, so he'll be able to come upstairs and hang out). Mine was pathetic according to how much it cost and so forth--but I bought a 12 X 12 frame and a bunch of paper, stickers, and whatnot and wrote the lyrics of a song we both love (he told me one night that it reminded him of me--I almost cried, because it reminds me of him..).. and anyway, I made it really pretty-looking, and then I placed under one of the papers a sonogram of my heart that I had at a health department my mum used to work at (it was one of those "take your daughter to work" days, so one of the nurses was "educating" us).
I originally was going to give it to someone else... but now I know why I kept it.

I hope he likes it. It's not much, but it *is* symbolic of something much bigger.

Well, in other news, Derek started at Charter Communications today--it was a long day (as I just got off the phone with him), but I hope he likes it there. =)

Anyway, I better go downstairs for Open Dorms. You all have a Valentine's Day, and don't forget to check out our registries! The invitations have been mailed!

Hi everyone--it's been a while since either one of us has posted on this thing. Sorry about that. We've been rather busy, actually, both working a whole lot, and definitely looking forward to our off-day together tomorrow.

Not too much has happened since we last wrote, to be honest with you.

The guest list for the wedding is still being typed out--we've unfortunately had to revise it over and over again, just because it's a small wedding, and even the church has limited space (though I believe it's the perfect size for what I've pictured!).

Of course, I'm in Louisville once more, which is wonderful. Seeing Derek for the first time in weeks was amazing, and I'm so grateful to my parents for letting me come back early (if I had stayed to the time I was supposed to, I would still be up there now).
I wasn't allowed back in my dorm for a while though, so I stayed with Derek's family in Pendleton. I was glad to stay with them, and in a way, I really miss living with them.

I absolutely love his parents, and being just across the hall from Derek sort of made me feel at ease.. and I slept better at his house than I think I ever have, probably for that same reason. I guess I just felt safer knowing that when I woke up in the morning, he was only a couple doors away.

But it's ok. It's only two and a half months away before we can live together permanently... I look forward to sleeping next to him... he makes me feel safe. =)

But in other news (lol), we started our pre-marital counseling, and that's going very well. We're having our second session with his dad (who's performing the ceremony as well) tomorrow. We've enjoyed working on our "homework" for it together. Working on it today took up (no joke) 3 hours altogether, but a lot of it was talking about our childhood, past experiences, and the main focus of this past lesson--our similarities and differences.

Of course, the main problem we found with the chapter was that it seemed like with all the questions we were to answer, it assumed that we either didn't know each other very well or that we were constantly at each other's throats because we're so different and such.

To be honest, I'm so glad he's different. I'm so glad he's not like me... lol
We've gotten to know each other incredibly well since September 28th (when he asked me on our first date *smile smile*), and with the days he spent living with my family in Maryland and I spent living with his family, we've spent some time living together already (..wow that sounds bad. No one take me out of context on that one. lol), and I know his weird habits and the little things that the book assumed bothered me or him (like him not making the bed, which we laughed about, because I made his bed when I stayed with them).

So really, I can't wait to marry him. I can't even begin to describe how much I'm looking forward to spending the rest of my life with him. I want to be Mrs. Rucker.. I thank God so much for sending Derek to me. He's more than I could have ever asked for or dreamed of, and therefore, God proves again that He goes over and above what we can hope for or imagine.

Well, I better go. I have other blogs to update and other things to do--including sleeping. =)

(By the way, don't forget to check out our registries at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond!)

Well, everyone, it's 2006... the year my sweet and wonderful Derek and I get married.

We're so excited!! *YAY*!!

Plus, I'm coming home to Louisville early! One of my parents' Christmas presents to me was a little white envelope with an email confirmation print-out of my flight change from leaving January 21st to January 3rd--which is less than 2 days away!!

Come Tuesday morning, I'll be able to see my darling Derek again. =)

We're looking forward to the next 3 months (and counting) of wedding planning, classes together, and moving our stuff into our new apartment, which Derek'll live in by himself until I move in after our honeymoon. =)

We're incredibly happy together, and just thinking that in 3 months, he'll be my husband makes me even more happier and looking forward even more to spending the rest of my life with him. =)

Here are some recent pictures of Derek and I when he spent the week with us in Maryland. He met my parents and my younger brothers, and we had a wonderful week together.

Now, we miss each other very much, but we'll see each other January 21st. =)

Well, our first semester at Boyce has come to a close, we've finished taking finals and we're spending the next couple of months (until the end of January) class-free.

However, we do still have worries as time gets closer. We'd ask that you all would pray for us as we have tons of planning and preparation to do before the big day.

Next Wednesday, Derek is flying to my parents' house with me and my older brother. He'll stay a week with us, so he can get to know the family and such. It'll be his first time meeting my parents. We're excited, but I'm sure he's nervous. =)

Anyway, Derek and I took a one day road trip yesterday to my aunt's house, which is a few hours away (she just recently moved to Kentucky), and she gave us tons of furniture and things we would need for our house. After loading and unloading everything, we realized that we have pretty much everything we need for our apartment--which is such a blessing. Of course, that means that we probably won't need a lot of the stuff on our registries (we're going to start one at both Target and Wal-mart when we find the time).. so hopefully, we'll get monetary gifts instead. We may even have to change around what's in our registry.

But anyway, we'll hopefully update soon enough. Thanks for reading, and keep us in prayer!

God bless!

Hello everyone, this is Derek. Just wanted to let you know that we registered at Bed, Bath, and Beyond today. Follow the link to check the registry. Thank you and God Bless!

After talking a bit with our parents and other family members, we've changed the date to Saturday, April 1st, which means that we have *thinks* 145 days left and counting!!

We've also decided that since it will most likely be at Derek's dad's church, Covington Baptist, the wedding will be smaller than we had thought--invitation only.

We hate to do that, but there's really no way around it. We don't mean to hurt feelings, and we're planning our guest list very carefully. When we go to visit my parents during Winter Break, we'll have much more planning to do then.

Other than that, Derek and I have been very happy the past month or so (actually, it's been exactly 39 days *smiles*), and I told him last night that I would never want to be with anyone else.

God has blessed us enormously these past 39 days together. I can't thank Him enough for finally sending "the one" to me. =)

This is Derek and Markie's Wedding Weblog.

We thought it would be a lot easier to make a blog together instead of typing about wedding plans and such on our own separate sites. =)

Thanks for visiting. We'll be sure to post some news later!