Where to start with this ... well, the place to start and end is giving thanks to God that he placed Julia into my life. Below that we start and finish with Julia, we joke all the time, "did you think a year prior you would be married?". I always think about this and say, "no, BUT I am not surprised in the least bit". For those of you who do not know, I have known Julia for several years but no romantic relationship was ever thought of between the two of us, we were both in different parts of life, for good reason, that did not allow us to mold so well together. One week after having that fire lite at the EliteFTS Sports Performance Summit, she came down to surprise me and by the end of the weekend, I knew I would eventually marry her. Through Gods sovereignty, many things happened in my life from a career standpoint that changed my mind set on moving. I had no reason to stay in my current place of work nor residence as it was a dead end and all signs pointed to pursuing Julia and stepping out on faith to make a new job work while dive bombing into a parental position for two young kids.
Over the next 6 months I living in the basement of Julia's parent's house as they graciously allowed me to stay and accommodated my situation very well. The hardest part of this was leaving Julia and the kids at night and the kids not understanding why they probably still don't, they just know I get to have a permanent sleepover and check on them before bed every night now, lol. Before I even left Tennessee I had an engagement ring being made. This move was for nothing more than to marry that woman and start our life together as strength coaches in the Midwest. The timing was perfect and I decided to propose August 4th, 2018 at the EliteFTS Learn To Train X. Yes, it was meat headish to do but neither one of us would have it any other way. EliteFTS and Dave Tate is a large supporter in both of our lives and has been prior to this moment, not just in a training sense, he has mentored both of us in a different aspect of our lives so it was the perfect time and place.
I did not want a long engagement because frankly, that makes no sense to me if you are getting ready to marry someone why make it take forever unless you are dead set on having EVERYONE in your family all sync up and commit to a time they are all available. We both knew many would not be able to attend due to when we wanted to get married, which was before the end of the year, November 16th to be exact, so only 3 months after getting engaged. That was something we both decided we were ok on, it got a little hectic later on as many more people could not show up than we anticipated but at the end of the day, we knew there was a chance it was not going to happen. Regardless, after a few mishaps with the wedding venue and pricing, along with last-minute dropouts, we were able to provide a HUGE celebration for roughly 91 people ranging from family members to gym family from my old facility down in TN and my new facility I train out of up here in IN. No seriously, they were like family, enough that they all had their own tables, yes there were THREE tables of just gym rats at our wedding. To put this into perspective we only had 11 tables total, lol.
We decided to do first look pictures before the wedding and it was COLD, I felt so bad for my beautiful wife as she fought the cold to take pictures. We were skeptical but our amazing friend Brittany Bell of Bridge_Films made the weather and landscape around us so perfect it is beyond words! Shameless plug, that girl has a gift and if you need a wedding photographer I HIGHLY suggest her, she is based out of Memphis, TN. After the pictures, my heart rate got higher and higher waiting to see my wife walk down the aisle towards me. After another 80 heart-pounding minutes, I got to take the hand of my wife away from her father who I embraced wit a huge hug for all he did for me. Both Mr. and Mrs. Kaufamn (mom and dad) both joked how I wont be walking in at 9:30 every night as an alarm to go to bed, lol.
The ceremony was perfect, it was gospel-centered and the message by our pastor was very well received. Our vows were written to each other and I, of course, got all choked up. Julia lightened the mood a little with her as she threw some jokes in there, mine were not as "playful" as I am an emotional guy and literally forgot to "try and be funny". After the ceremony, the guests had Polaroid cameras to take pictures and share their mood with us before dinner and we got nothing but compliments on the food, drinks, and dessert. Outside of the marriage, the best part of that evening was the hysterical and heart filled toasts that my new brothers and sisters gave along with my best man. They all made me tear up form laughter and emotion. It was a wonderful day with a lot of love present from all over the States and we both would not have had it any other way. To keep this like every other blog post I will finish with a workout style outline describing the ceremony, lol.
Warm-ups: drink (bourbon) and get dressed
corrective movements in cold: first look pictures
warm up sets: more bourbon and watching everyone walk in
Main movement: ceremony and vows
Secondary movement: cocktails, dinner (soup salad, and cranberry chicken)
Accessories: Donut cake and more alcohol
Cool down: Dancing (doesn't make sense I know)
Recovery: Bow chica bow wow, the rest of the weekend
Julia, as you sit across from me right now, I love you and eager to share life experiences with you and the kids!