It’s a Love Story

So this ⬇️ happened! 💍 Our youngest daughter, Mackenzie, just married the love ❤️ of her life, Kobe, on December 10. She is now officially Mrs Keller!

Mackenzie entered this life as “our surprise” baby 👶🏻 nearly 25 years ago and has never stopped surprising or amazing us in one way or the other since then. She planned every single detail of her and Kobe’s amazing wedding, from the beginning to the end, and it was simply beautiful! 💐 I started to cry when I caught the first glimpse of Harold and Mackenzie walking down the path toward the wedding aisle. My heart was full.

Just minutes earlier my eyes filled with tears but it was for a different reason. I was sitting and holding our youngest granddaughter, Remi, while waiting to line up for the ceremony, and she pooped through her diaper onto my pink dress! 😳 Her daddy quickly scooped her up and I ran to the bathroom and scrubbed my dress in the sink as tears filled my eyes. While I’m normally as cool as a cucumber, my nerves were a little shaken at this point. Earlier in the day I had reminded Mackenzie about the timeline for our dressing room photo and it made her nervous and that was the last thing I wanted to do. So now as tears filled my eyes as I was frantically scrubbing my dress in the bathroom sink, asking God to calm my nerves. So as my nerves settled down, my dress which was soaking wet but clean, was partially dried thanks to a bunch of paper towels and the Texas sun. My dress was just a little damp as I walked down the aisle escorted by our grandson, Colby.

The wedding started at 4:30 p.m. and the weather was amazing, especially for an outdoor Texas wedding in December. The temps were in the low 80’s and the winds were light, whereas just a couple of days before the temps were in the 50’s! 🥶 Earlier in the day the winds were much stronger which gave us a little cause for concern, but our fears were relieved when they died down just as the wedding began. Mackenzie planned the timing of the ceremony to begin at 4:30 p.m. to coincide with the expected sunset. The bridal party photos were taken as the sunset 🌅 breathtakingly in the background.

The reception hall was beautifully decorated and I believe it was exactly as she wanted it to be. Mackenzie designed a workbook complete with photos and various timelines for each vendor, which made the wedding coordinator’s job much easier. The wedding coordinator and I had worked together on setting up the reception hall earlier in the day. Hudson and Livia helped the night before by setting out the charger plates on each table. The wedding coordinator, Kyndal, was so sweet! She did a fantastic job of making sure everything looked beautiful and things went as planned. She was prepared for everything and even had Tide pens and wipes during my dress emergency!

The reception was a great mix of fun, 🕺🏻dancing, (some craziness 😜 too) and many many sweet moments!

Harold tried to interrupt Kobe from getting the garter! Marty wrestled Harold away! The lights were dim but I’m pretty sure Kobe’s face was bright red when he got the garter, and as if that was funny enough, Hudson caught the garter as all of the eligible bachelors fell over themselves trying to get away from it! 😂

I loved the toasts by the Best Man, Chris Elston, the Maid of Honor, Raquel Blades, and our daughter Megan. They each spoke from their heart.

I loved seeing Mackenzie and Harold’s father/daughter dance, her mother/son dance with Hudson, which brought more tears to my eyes, Kobe’s mother/son dance, and Mackenzie and Kobe’s first dance as man and wife.

The DJ 🎤 did a fantastic job, and played a variety of hand-picked music that Mackenzie put together for him. I so enjoyed dancing with everyone, especially my grandkids, Harold, my crazy dancing son-in-law Marty, and even my non-crazy, non-dancing son-in-law John!

The food was really good 😋 and was totally Texas ⭐️ barbecue beef brisket, chicken breast, smoked sausage, homemade mashed potatoes, mac n’ cheese, bread roll, and salad.

The cake 🎂 was beautiful! It was homemade by Kobe’s Aunt, Cindy Hennessy, and the yummiest homemade pies in the world were brought in from the Hico Koffie Kup by Kobe’s parents, Brandon and Nikki! The Keller’s are a wonderful family and we are blessed to know that Mackenzie and Hudson have been welcomed into it.

While I’m normally the one going around taking pics at events, I didn’t get to do that as much as I would have liked to have done so I’m thankful for some borrowed pics from others who took them! The first two pics here are from the wedding 📸 photographer. They’re so good! I can hardly wait to see all of their photos and will add them as they becomes available.

We’re blessed times three to have Kobe as our son-in-law, Hudson’s step-dad and Mackenzie’s husband. He’s a fine young man of integrity, a Christian, a fireman, a skilled leather craftsman, and also an answer to prayer. 🙏🏻

While I’ve prayed for each of our daughters and the their future husbands since they were all young, my prayers were all fairly generic, asking God for a nice young man and the perfect spouse for them. But, around 5 years ago I sensed I needed more specifics on what to pray for Mackenzie. We talked about it and she said she wanted someone who was cute, country, and Christian. (Kobe exactly!) So that’s what I began praying for specifically. I started a daily prayer calendar on my iPhone to remind me of who to pray for on specific days. I listed the 14th of each month to pray for “Mackenzie’s future husband.” I’ve officially edited the 14th to “Kobe 🙏🏻”

As a Christian I’ve seen and experienced God do some amazing things in my lifetime. He often answers prayers but in ways we would not have imagined. The love story between Mackenzie and Kobe is one of them. I believe He orchestrated Mackenzie and Kobe’s first meeting in 2016, where they took a selfie together in downtown Ft Worth. Kobe captioned the photo, “Me and the future wife.”

While they were initially just friends who “just happened to meet” in 2016 and sent a few texts afterwards, nothing really came of it until 2020 when they began texting again and then dating, and now, well now….“It’s a Love Story!” 🎶 ❤️💍

God 🙌🏻 is sovereign.

He answers prayers in His perfect timing.

His ways are everlasting.

He creates love stories.

He is the Author of Love. ✝️

So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him. 1 John 4:16