John Cade

On May17 at 4 p.m., I became a married man.

Meredith Herrmann (now CADE!) and I were married at St. George’s Episcopal Church in Belle Meade, an extremely nice area of Nashville, Tennessee. Episcopal weddings (and services, for that matter) are rich in tradition, and therefore are a bit longer than most weddings. However, with tradition comes meaningful rituals. And with meaningful rituals comes a side of faith that many of us protestants never get to be a part of - at least not in the same way. Liturgical services have much history and reasoning behind what takes place during them, and you can learn a great deal from talking to a priest (in my case, Meredith’s father) about them. Ever since I started dating Meredith, my faith has been challenged and incredibly strengthened as a result of finding new ways to worship God. It sounds odd in today’s average church; ‘reverting’ to old ways to learn new things. But it’s something that many of them should try.

The reception was at War Memorial Plaza on 6th Street in downtown Nashville. The venue was perfect; elegant and relaxing. Just big enough for a medium sized wedding like ours.

I’ve mentioned Meredith several times on my blog before, but I haven’t really gone into detail about what makes her so unique to me. It all starts with how…right she is. All of the time. SERIOUSLY! The whole ‘better half’ thing is TRUE. See guys, right now, you’re just the worst half (unless you aren’t meant to be married, of course) and have nothing to redeem yourself. For those of you that are meant to be married, calling your wife the ‘better’ half is an understatement. Because, as guys, we know we aren’t good to begin with. So it’s not just relative. She is great; you are not. Ha… But in all seriousness, Meredith is the cutest, most supportive, loving, beautiful, God loving woman I’ve ever met. There’s no one else like her! She compliments my procrastinating, naive way of life like no one else could. And that’s not a joke.

Getting married is fun. But the process of getting married is hard work! And I don’t mean planning a wedding, though that is extremely difficult as well. I’m more or less referring to the details behind, say, moving in together. I didn’t realize I would have to stand behind the sink for nearly an hour to wash all of the new dishes, silverware, coffee and tea potts, cutting boards and steak knives that we received as gifts. But I did. Cutting the cabinet liners to be a perfect fit for the dishes to sit on was tedious as well. I think you get the point. There’s a million details you don’t think about. That’s part of the fun though…the surprises of what it takes to get settled. Our house is still cluttered with empty boxes, out of place decorations, and makeshift furniture. It’ll be weeks before this place starts to look like a home. But ‘nesting’, as they call it, is one of the most fun aspects about getting married - at least to this point - 9 days in.

As with any relationship, part of getting married is taking on some baggage that your partner may have. Most people say baggage in the symbolic sense; in my case, however, I’m referring to the 8 huge plastic bins that are filled with every memory possible from the time she was born until we got married. I mean really - won’t you just remember the important stuff? That’s one of the things that makes Meredith so great though. She is very sentimental. It gives me quite a tough job (providing her with opportunities to be sentimental). But in reality you can never collect too many things that ‘take you back’. Nostalgia is a beautiful thing. And it’s something we’ll never be short on.

We went to Banff, Alberta and Calgary, Alberta (Canada, for those of you who are geographically challenged) for our honeymoon. We didn’t want to do the beach thing. Our take on it was that the beach is always an option on some level; splurging to go to the Canadian Rockies for 7 days is not! Fortunately we paid for all of it in cash, even after staying at the Fairmont Banff Springs Hotel. I’m pretty proud of us for that. There are plenty of financial obligations that need our attention, and creating another one was not on our list of fun things to do.

Thanks to everyone who came to the wedding and/or reception. It was a great time! I hope everyone got acclimated to the New Orleans second line - it went off without a hitch, and was one of my favorite parts of the night. We are also extremely thankful for all of the prayers, time, encouragement, and gifts that were given to us.

Well, I’m off to curl up with my wife in bed and get a little rest before going back to work tomorrow.