This is Josh and Bre Curtas, a devout Christian couple, minutes before their wedding ceremony, now living in Virginia. Josh wanted to be sure they started their marriage off right, so without seeing the bride before the ceremony, they sat around the corner from one another, held hands and prayed.
Photographer Kimberly Burke snapped this photo of Bre and Josh holding hands and praying before their wedding in August 2012. Burke told HuffPost Weddings that the photo went viral back in January when Bre wrote a blog post about it.
Hear her share the experience:
When I walked down the aisle in my white dress, I looked straight into the eyes of the man that had laid himself down to protect and honor the wife that God had given him.
When his eyes first caught mine he looked into the face of the woman that had waited for him, the woman that would support him and love him for the rest of His life, through good times and bad yet secretly hoping to catch a glimpse of him. In my excited state I was the first to speak,"Right around the corner sat my soon to be husband, I so was nervous he might see me
"Hi sweetie! We're getting married today!" "I know baby and I want to pray with you before we do."
There we sat around the corner hand in hand, and together we bowed our heads. People were rushing about; the wedding coordinator directing people here and there, the photographers snapping photos and the bridal party enjoying each others company.
Yet in that moment, in the quietness of our hearts and minds, my husband and I were alone in the presence of our Savior, Jesus Christ.
My husband prayed that God would bless our marriage, that through thick or thin together we would never lose hope in one another. That instead of focusing on each others imperfections we would always rely on Christ's perfection. That we would wake up every day and chose to love one another not through our own strength but by the power of Christ's perfect love.
With our hands clenched tightly to one another together we said "Amen", both with shaky voice and just like that I was whisked away to blot the tears off my face and put on my veil.
After my bridesmaids, mother, mother-in-law and every other girl in the room had finished zipping, curling, tucking and blushing me up I looked in the mirror. There I stood wearing my pure white wedding dress, ready to walk down the aisle to my Prince Charming.
See, he is not only my Prince Charming because of his incredibly handsome looks, or wonderful humor, or the fact that we have so much in common. He is my Prince Charming because he helped me protect the most precious gift that I owned, my purity.
Soon after we had started dating I nervously told my Prince that I was a virgin and planned to be until the night of my wedding; to which he replied he would have it no other way.
Throughout our dating relationship and engagement we constantly fought, what at times felt like a losing battle. We fought temptation with prayer, scripture and accountability. I had friends checking up on me if they knew we were together late at night and he regularly met with other Godly men to pray for strength.
At times, especially as the wedding grew closer, we thought we were attempting to do the impossible.
"Why are we doing this?" I would ask in my weakness, and he would remind me, that it's because God had told us too.
"I can't do it, I can't... this is too hard!" he would confess to me and I would pray for his strength.
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