Adelae + Joe | Eclectic Coffeehouse Wedding

A chic, boho style wedding with quaint coffee shop vibes on the plains of the Lonestar State. An international love story with Christ as the architect and the attentive care of Our Lady of Victory.

After meeting at a young adult event hosted by the Capuchin friars in Washington, D.C., Adelae and Joe dated long distance for a couple months, with marathon Skype calls and Joe driving from Toronto to Baltimore to take Adelae on dates.

But after a few months of dating, it became clear that God was calling them out of the relationship and to go their separate ways. Adelae needed to go on a healing journey after having been very wounded from a prior dating relationship.

The hardest decision was to say goodbye, but they did so leaving no expectations for a future relationship in order to honor one another's heart and leave each other in freedom.

They seemingly closed that chapter, losing touch soon after.

From the Bride:

Later that summer after discerning to end our relationship, Joe wrote and recorded an album named "Love Is." In the Fall, I moved down to TX to respond to a call to work in ministry.

Within weeks of taking the job in a suburban Catholic parish in Dallas, I learned that Joe had booked a stop on his album release tour in my new parish community.

Unaware that I had moved to Dallas, Joe had avoided MD altogether when booking his shows to help guard our hearts.

Unbeknownst to either of us, our paths crossed a year later in a state that neither of us called home.

On Pentecost Sunday, I attended Joe’s concert. Of the more than 50 tour dates Joe had scheduled, there were only three free days.

Though Joe had tried over and over again to book the date after his Dallas concert, he never could. We came to find out that the Lord had a plan for it.

We spent that free day following the concert together. By the end of the day, we were dating once more. And three months later, we were engaged.

Joe's immigration visa was approved only three weeks before our wedding day, which means we only finalized all the details three weeks before our actual wedding date.

Invitations went out, the venue and vendors were solidified, and flights were booked merely weeks before because nothing was certain before!

The visa only allowed 90 days for us to get married. He arrived in town in Dallas a week and a half before the big day.

We were married on a Sunday, so our wedding Mass took place between Sunday Masses at the parish. We chose to do our photos before our wedding at the Dallas Arboretum.

Joe and I chose to process into the Church together, as a sign of our free-will choice before the Lord to enter into this covenant with Him and one another. Since my dad didn't walk me down the aisle, he escorted me to Joe for our first look.

Immediately after our first look, Joe's brother gave us a blessing as we embarked on the day together.

During our dating and engagement season, we had begun to notice key saints that we felt drawn to and felt their prayerful support over our journey together. We incorporated these saints into a personalized Litany of the Saints that was prayed right before we exchanged vows.

Our marriage vows were received by Joe's brother, who is a diocesan priest in Canada. His brother, Fr. Francis, gifted us a beautiful crucifix that we placed our right hands on to say our vows.

The crucifix now hangs over our bed as a sign to us of our fidelity and the source from where our love stems.

Joe, his uncle, and his brother worked together to build a couple's prayer kneeler, which Joe brought down when he immigrated. The kneeler was the place we received the Eucharist together for the first time as husband and wife.

Today, that prayer kneeler is a formidable part of our family prayer life, where we pray with our son every night.

My pastor and spiritual director gifted us with a gold chalice as a wedding gift. This chalice was used for the first time during our nuptial liturgy.

The gold chalice remains in our home and is used as a blessing cup for special occasions; namely, it was used once more during the baptismal Mass of our son.

Since our wedding day was a Marian feast day, we felt led to consecrate our marriage to Our Lady. We did a 33-day consecration preparation and prayed our consecration prayer to Our Lady of the Rosary during the Marian dedication after Communion.

For our reception, we rented out a local coffee house that was special to us. It was near the international airport, where we had many reunions during our dating and engagement season.

We would often find ourselves frequenting this coffee shop to catch-up after time apart, dream about the future, and enjoy a coffee. We became friends with the owners and the baristas, and they were the ones that put on our celebration. (Some even attended our wedding Mass!)

We are avid coffee enthusiasts; so not only was the cafe itself special to us, but coffee was something we appreciated together—so it seemed fitting.

Joe and I chose an eclectic spread: a taco food truck (fitting for yummy TexMex), a popsicle bar, a charcuterie spread, and coffees on tap—all of our favorite foods thrown together.

Our first dance song was written and recorded by Joe, titled "Rib to My Heart." (It can be found on Spotify, iTunes, etc.)

The title was inspired by a reflection on how Eve is formed from the rib of Adam and how she is meant to protect his heart just as the rib would.

The lyric, "I'll be your shoulder," was inspired by a reflection on the shoulder wound Christ received from carrying the cross. St. Simon of Cyrene came alongside to shoulder the cross and help bear the burden—so spouses do for one another in bearing one another's sufferings and coming alongside each other to walk through the pain.

Our wedding felt like such a day of victory and triumph! After a 13-month immigration process that was four times longer than estimated, and the third planned wedding date, we walked into our nuptial Mass feeling absolutely surrounded by the grace that had moved mountains, demolishing obstacles for us to be together.

There wasn't a moment's second guess that this was the Lord's plan for our life and our union. And Our Lady's mantle was all around us.

Our visa was approved while our family was praying the novena to Our Lady Undoer of Knots (to untie the knots of our immigration application process); our clearance to schedule his immigration interview took place the week of the Assumption, after we'd prayed for her intercession during the Assumption Novena; the first immigration interview date available was on the Feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary; and Joe was approved that day for his visa.

Joe received his visa in the mail on the Feast of Our Lady of Ransom, giving him permission to cross the border. (We joke that Our Lady helped ransom him from Canada.)