"All week I felt the calm and easy certainty that we were in God's hands..." despite the unexpected setbacks prior to the celebration, shared Lopez.
Though it took twenty years for Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck to be man and wife, it's proof that some things are meant to be. On August 20, 2022, Lopez and Affleck exchanged vows with their friends and family bearing witness to the union, on the grounds of Affleck's 87-acre compound outside Savannah, Georgia.
Lopez, in her latest newsletter, offered a peek into the events that unfurled during her big day, from the moment she walked down the "aisle that would lead me toward the rest of my life," according to PEOPLE.
"When he saw me appear at the top of the stairs that moment it both made absolute sense while seeming still impossibly hard to believe, like the best dream, where all you want is never to awaken," she wrote. "I would have had many of the same thoughts probably had I not been focusing so hard on not tripping over my dress, but when I got close enough to see his face, it made the same wonderful sense to me."
"Some old wounds were healed that day and the weight of the past finally lifted off our shoulders. Full-circle — and not at all the way we planned it. Better," added Lopez.
The singer then shared a quote from Affleck's 2016 movie Live By Night that resonated with her. This quote was also something that Affleck included in his speech at the reception! "This is heaven. Right Here. We're in it now." She explained, "That is one of my favorite lines that Ben wrote from a movie he directed called Live By Night. He also said it the night of our wedding reception in his speech, and I thought...how perfect."
As beautiful as the whole wedding was, it wasn't without problems, as she further revealed in the newsletter, that the couple faced a few "unexpected setbacks" prior to the celebration, per PEOPLE.
"It had rained at sunset every day that week. Everyone was worried about the heat, the aptly named 'love bugs,' the details, would the guests all arrive on time, etc. — not to mention the thunder and lightning that arrived almost on cue each day at the exact time the ceremony was supposed to start that Saturday," she wrote.
"Oh, and all of us caught a stomach bug and were recuperating 'til late in the week, that, and along with a few other unexpected setbacks, had all the makings of a doozie of a wedding weekend."
Affleck's mom, Christopher Anne Boldt, had to also be taken to a local hospital to be treated, after reportedly injuring her leg the day before the ceremony. However, Lopez said that the weekend ended up being "better" than they had initially planned. "The truth is, I never had one doubt," she wrote in her newsletter. "All week I felt the calm and easy certainty that we were in God's hands..."
"At six forty-five, Saturday, August twentieth, the sun broke free and cast its rays like little diamonds dancing across the river behind the makeshift altar in our backyard," Lopez continued.
"The sky was clear blue, and distant clouds of pure white held fast in the sky. As the sun set behind the live oaks draped in Spanish moss, a warm breeze swept over the lawn where our closest family and friends sat, and, at long last, I started my walk down the stairs that would become the aisle that would lead me toward the rest of my life."
Lopez and Affleck originally dated from 2002 to 2004 and were all set to marry, but they called off their wedding last moment. However, they rekindled their romance in 2021 and announced their engagement in April 2022. The couple tied the knot at A Little White Wedding Chapel in Las Vegas during an intimate midnight ceremony in July 2022, before hosting this lavish wedding for their close ones.
References:
https://people.com/movies/jennifer-lopez-reveals-photos-from-georgia-wedding-ben-affleck/
Cover Image Source: Getty Images | Photo by Vittorio Zunino Celotto