Carina wanted to take some pics with my Surf Betty cruiser so I brought her along for some shots.

 

 

This is where Jeff reveals to everyone that Carina found him on Google. Carina will say otherwise, and you can read her side of the story at the end of this post. Carina, I think I’m with Jeff on this one.

We snuck outside for a couple more shots while there was still some light out.

 

Jeff and Carina could barely keep straight faces all day long. So here’s a collection of a few of my favorites of their funny selves.

 

Now on to Carina & Jeff’s story. I asked Carina to send me a few details about where and how she did her wedding as eco-friendly as she could and to also include a short story about her & Jeff, and how they came to be. In Carina, style, she sent me her 5 page, writes-like-she-talks version of her entire story. It’s long but, it’s also very entertaining! Read what she wrote here:

“My own personal fairy tale…

I finished graduate school at the University of Michigan in August of 2009. I had never not been a student and the very vehicle by which I had defined myself had for the first time since age five had been stripped away from me. I had always been a student, and a good one at that. My solution? Move to England for 6 months and work as a social worker. I’d always wanted to travel and this would be a great opportunity to get both experience and travel. I did some stateside traveling before eventually moving back home with my parents in North Carolina. I worked several part time jobs during this time to save money for my big European adventure at the end of December. However, things got tough quickly. In addition to no longer being a student and feeling a bit lost in this big crazy world, things at home were not as I had left, and moving back proved to be emotionally challenging, to say the least. However, the real kicker didn’t come until the end of October. I’d been having severe paralyzing pain in my body on and off for about five years at that point. During my time in Michigan I had access to fabulous health care via my being a student and was given a diagnosis of an autoimmune disease that affects my joints. At the time, this seemed like such a relief after feeling like everyone thought I was crazy for the last five years. However, upon returning to North Carolina, I had an appointment with a rheumatologist to discuss this recent diagnosis further. What I learned on that very frightening day was that my disease was progressing and that my body was not responding to medicine up to that point. The alternative presented to me, was a daily shot to shut off my immune system so as to prevent my body from going completely paralyzed. This didn’t really fit into my short term international travel plans, nor did it really fit into my big life plan. I was not willing to settle for this and persuaded the doctor to enroll me in physical therapy and try the remaining two medicines that I had not yet tried. He explained that they had a 10-15% chance of working and a physical therapy appointment was scheduled for the following day.

With no where else to turn, I began running harder after the Lord than I ever have before. However, I felt very undesirable and unworthy of a relationship and for the first time ever, can honestly say that I “wasn’t looking.” However, my dad always told me that love is like a butterfly, as soon as you quit chasing it, the butterfly will land right in your hand. Props to pops, as always, he was right. I drove all the way back to Charlotte the day following my doctor’s appointment for physical therapy. I walked into the same office, in which the day before had crushed my spirits and dampened my mood. However, this time, instead of an older, middle aged doctor with bad news conducting my visit, a strapping young man came to the door and called out my name, “Carina Vinzant.” I’m not sure what happened in that moment, other than saying it was a God thing, but my spirit felt light and a wave of joy came over me. I laughed more during my physical therapy evaluation than I had in weeks! Jeff often says how surprised he was to be treating someone born in 84’ instead of someone who is of the age 84. I ran around for the next couple of weeks telling everyone how much I loved physical therapy and hinting to the fact that I might have a childish crush on my physical therapist. While we enjoyed our time together, our relationship remained professional. However, a series of events took place, one in which I say Jeff tried to kill me on the physical therapy table (he denies this), the other in which the first medicine left me in more pain than I had ever been in before. However, I switched to the second and final medicine that I was to try. To this day, this is referred to as “the magic blue pill.” (Not viagara!) I began feeling better than ever and during one of the therapy appointments Jeff and his co-workers were asking me the name of this new “magic blue pill.” I went home that evening and innocently looked for Jeff’s e-mail address on his work’s website. To much of my avail, it was not there. So, being the clever patient that I was, I decided to do a good search for his name, physical therapist. I was sure that his e-mail address would come up that way and I would shoot him a very professional e-mail simply telling him the name of the medicine. And yes, I could have just waited to tell him next week, but remember, I was that nerdy A+ student, it is more my nature to just be on top of assignments like this. Again, despite my efforts, no e-mail address was found. However, the link to his Facebook page did pop up. Jeff likes to refer to this whole stalking process as the fact that “She Googled-searched me.” I however, will adamantly dispute this claim until the day that I die and am standing firmly on the fact that I was simply trying to provide my physical therapist with the information that he asked for. One message led to another and Jeff quickly confronted me, explaining that we had crossed professional boundaries and that he would need to transfer me to the other physical therapist at the clinic. I understood, however, I still swear that Jeff was the best physical therapist I’ve ever had. Was it special attention or is he just that good? I suppose I’ll never know.

Now remember, I still had plans to go to England just a few months later. We went on some pretty fabulous first dates and smiled at each other at the physical therapy clinic. There is something magically sweet about knowing that you are dating the guy that the 93 year old woman is flirting with. If anyone else told your boyfriend that they’ve “never gotten such a good foot rub on a first day” there might be a problem, but I found it endearing. I got to meet his family over Thanksgiving as they come down to visit him every year from Canada. He got to spend my birthday with my family, and I was entrusted with watching his beloved dog when he went home for Christmas. I only had to call once to say she got out of the house. I did however wait to call until after we spent thirty minutes chasing her and finally rounded her up. Losing your boyfriend’s dog while he is out of the country probably doesn’t score many brownie points. However, better he know the truth then, as I have let the dog out accidentally about 20 times since. Oops.

We had one of those movie-like good byes at the airport. We said I love you for the first time as I boarded the plane, with no plans of seeing each other for the next six months. However, we should have known better. We talked every day on the phone and Skype since the day I left. Before I knew it, Jeff had purchased a plane ticket to fly out and see me at the beginning of April, the half waypoint. During that time we planned to travel to Paris, France and Aberdeen, Scotland, to see where his grandmother grew up. Much to my surprise, (ok, not really to my surprise at all. I knew it was coming, I just didn’t know when), he proposed to me in Paris (and no, not in front of the Eiffel tower). I mentioned prior to going to England that I had always wanted a garden, so Jeff worked diligently while I was gone making me the most beautiful garden. He took photos of the progression of the garden and made it into a book, complete with a story that had a beautiful diamond ring at the end, and was presented to me with a, “Will you marry me?” He designed the ring himself and had it custom made, the number of diamonds signifying the day that we meet. Yeah, he’s pretty awesome!!

So, I finished out my time in England while Jeff and my mom worked diligently on wedding plans. Upon my return from England there were six weeks before the big day. Hey, when you know you know… what’s the point in waiting?

Jeff also faces health issues due to some stomach problems. Thus, healthy eating and living is not just a good choice for us, it is an essential choice. I found over the years, and Jeff found while I was away, doubling as his health coach, that our bodies really do respond better to healthy foods and life choices and that we are able to considerably reduce the pain in them by doing this! This has become a way of life for us and we love gardening, recycling, organic anything, and eco-friendly ways of living. This was a passion of mine long before meeting Jeff, but it has been so wonderful to have him come right along side me and walk together in this endeavor. Thus, for our wedding, we decided to do “Eco-friendly, Couture.” I found a beautiful wedding dress while in England, affectionately referred to as “the bird dress.” It sadly, was probably not very eco friendly; however, I loved it and made the purchase. That is where the couture comes in. The rest, however, we aimed to make as eco-friendly, while still being stylish, as possible. We (ok, mainly my mom), spent months collecting used plates of different colors and patterns from various thrift stores, garage sales, etc… During this time, reusable cloth napkins of various materials, colors, and patterns were also collected to be tied with a piece of hemp and placed in the center of the plate. The goal was to have an array of funky, colored plates and napkins, none of which went together but that looked amazing when you put them all together. The intent post-wedding is to donate the plates to a charitable organization or families in need and to use the napkins to make a huge wedding quilt (or two) to remember our special day!!

However, before I get too far into the eco-friendly details of the wedding, I should note that one of my amazing bridesmaids threw me the most amazing eco-friendly shower, equipped with recycled/reused decorations from one of her showers (why let that stuff sit in the closet?), gifts wrapped in “go green reusable bags” or recycled material such as newspaper. Some of my gifts included homemade natural cleaners, handmade reusable bags, organic kitchen towels, eco-friendly light bulbs, and many other great things. For decorations for the rehearsal dinner we saved jars, all kinds of jars to use as vases (i.e. pickle jars, ketchup bottles, etc…) and filled them with rocks and flowers. A little raffia tied around the top and they were beautiful. We topped it off with a picture of Jeff and I on each table and it was perfection in the making.

Ok, so back to the wedding, for table decorations/guest gifts we used small plantable pots (biodegradable), filled the bottom with raffia, and placed two tulip bulbs in them. With a piece of raffia tied around them, they made the perfect table decorations and all the guests were very excited about planting their tulip bulbs. The goal was to allow people to understand Jeff and I better through our wedding, but also to share some of the things we value and care about with him in hopes that it might inspire others to honor God, their bodies, and the environment in their every day living. The invitations that we sent out were, while a bit expensive, very cool. We found plantable seeded invitations and recycled banana fiber paper for our programs (very cheap at Office Max). For our welcome baskets for the hotels, we used a large biodegradable planter and seeded tissue paper, filling the planters with homemade cookies and other small goodies. For our big exit, we used these AMAZING biodegradable lanterns that I found while I was in England from Wishes in the Sky. They were a HUGE hit! People loved them and I have to say, they were very beautiful. We had reports from a lady working at our reception venue, The Garden Café, that her husband reported seeing them from their house, four miles away! Ok, I’m all over the board here I know, but there are so many amazing wedding memories to share. I could tell about the horse and buggy ride – very eco-friendly, but maybe not so animal friendly! I could also share about the many wonderful purchases that I found on Etsy and of course, were all handmade! My garter, necklace, earrings and our guest book all came from that wonderful site!! Our guest book was made from an old hardback book and covered in vintage recycled wall-paper. It was perfect. We loved it! Our door-men received gifts of aluminum eco-friendly water bottles, bandanas for hiking and biodegradable washcloths, the flower girls received recycled paper notebooks, reusable bags, handmade bracelets from a local artist, and organic chap stick. The bridal party all received handmade earrings from a local artist, handmade make-up bags from a local artist in England, organic chap stick, and a few other goodies. While not eco-friendly per say, Jeff was very excited about his groomsmen gifts: golf towel and golf balls, one in a fancy clear case, all with Carina & Jeff, August 15, 2009 written on them. The towels also had “Father of the bride” “Groomsmen” etc… written on them. Everyone really liked those as well. For the day of my wedding a local designer made a few flowers (not real) to put in my hair – they were absolutely beautiful. The make-up used was mineral based, and a local alterations lady, M. Johnson of Butterfly Alterations, altered my dress. The flower girls and the ring bearer went down the aisle barefoot (so cute). The biggest highlight of the day seemed to be our precious 2 year old ring bearer. He had on a pair of overalls lent to us by a lady I saw at a wedding and told her I wanted her son’s outfit for my wedding. Without even knowing me she told me to contact her before the wedding and she would be happy to let us use them. Borrowing is a great way to save money! So, down the aisle our ring bearer went, no shirt, no shoes, just a khaki and white-stripped pair of linen overalls. Precious! He totally stole the show! One of the highlights for us was having the Gold Hill Missionary Baptist Church Choir sing at our wedding. There really is nothing like having an amazing choir/live music such as theirs. What a blessing! Of course, because we are so passionate about this, we took things a step further and made sure that we registered for lots of organic linens, soy based products, and bamboo/eco friendly kitchen supplies. Our wedding was truly memorable and most important to us, we feel like our guests were able to leave knowing just a little bit more about Jeff and Carina Deguire. Our prayerful hope is that each guest was inspired by something they saw or heard and will now do their part to respect God’s beautiful earth!

We didn’t just stop at the wedding!! Jeff found an amazing eco-friendly resort in St. John, U.S. Virgin Island. While the flight there kills our entire carbon footprint, we’d say it was a flight well taken. We flew into St. Thomas and took a ferry boat to St. John, an island mainly comprised of natural parks. From there we took a taxi to Maho Bay where we were greeted with the most awesome honeymoon experience ever. No a/c, all raised building so as not to disturb the ground, vegan meals (don’t worry meat eaters, not all of them), and on ground recycling (there are recycle bins next to every trash can and they do on site glass blowing with the recycled glass)… Not to mention beautiful ocean views, white sandy beaches and the clearest water you have ever seen. Just don’t forget your flashlight. We spent many nights holding on to handrails guessing how to navigate back to our Cottage. While we could have stayed in a super eco-friendly tent, we opted to splurge for our honeymoon and go with the eco-friendly cottage. While a flashlight is still needed, and a/c is still no where to be found, we did have our own personal bathroom, solar powered shower, and propane cooking stove. Not to mention the fact that our cottage was awesomely made out of mainly eco-friendly, recycled materials. The whole experience was pretty amazing. We got to go on a sunset sail, eat some yummy island food, swim, snorkel, kayak, etc… We would highly recommend this place!! (Except to Caroline and any other people who might not like bugs… we had a cute little family of lizards sleeping in our cottage with us) and these little birdies dined with us every morning! Happy honeymooning!!

And that is the very long winded, very detailed, yet pretty awesome story of us!”