Our Wedding: Part 4

“I now pronounce you Husband and Wife.”

You may kiss the bride!

Our pastor made the announcement and I couldn’t believe it was over!  This was it.  We did it.  I was so excited that after we turned around to face the congregation I wanted to just march right out of there.  Adam tugged my hand and we waited for the cue of the music.  Our dramatic musical march out (to one of the Olympic theme songs) started and we headed out of the sanctuary.  On the way out I finally got to see the faces of some of our family and friends in the pews.  I even got to wave to Adam’s grandma who was viewing the ceremony through FaceTime due to health problems.

Hey Grandma!

 

We did it!

We walked out to the lobby and just hugged each other.  It was the realization that we did it.  It was both climactic and anticlimactic at the same time.  A rush of emotions met with, ‘well that’s that.’  An interesting combination for sure.  I did feel a lot of relief.  The hard part was over.  I wasn’t feeling super well physically prior to the ceremony and I was feeling thrilled at this point.

Marching back in to greet everyone.

Adam and I almost immediately went back in to greet our guests.  It was the perfect way to say hi to everyone.  We wanted to ensure that we got to say hi to all in attendance.  I’ve been to a wedding where I never had the chance to say hi to my friends and it was a bit sad.  Everyone knows you can’t really chat forever, but a few words are always nice.  We hugged and greeted everyone before heading up to the altar to sign the official paperwork. My sister and Adam’s brother came with us as we signed the license.  That was that!  We were married!

Making it Official.

We made our way to the family room where everyone was enjoying a quick cookie before heading out to the reception.  Our wedding coordinator made the announcement and we made our way through the tunnel of our friends and family.  Our indoor, winter version of the send-off.

What goes together better than winter and bubbles?

We made our way quickly to our janky bus to realize it was SNOWING.  More than just our lovely dusting – it was definitely starting to really come down.  We decided to cut out any possibility of making any stops along the way for pictures or drinks.

We made our way straight to the reception and popped some champagne on the way.  It was perfect.  Our flower girls had been working VERY hard on some art work during their downtime and gave it to us.  Talk about the most adorable thing ever.  I put them on our bulletin board at home, they are just so cute.

 

We finally arrived at the reception venue (the snow really delayed us).  The beautiful thing about our janky bus is that we had a ton of space.  Katie ended up tying my bustle right in the bus.  Talk about efficient.  We made our way inside in the heavy snow and were whisked upstairs away from the reception room.

All of the ladies went immediately to the bathroom to refresh ourselves.  My sister fixed my hair and I reapplied a bit of my make-up.  I also took my anti-halo eye drops (a side-effect from a failed eye surgery a few years ago).  I was READY!  We made our way back into the little lobby, it was just about time…or so we thought.  The coordinator at the reception site came to us and let us know that we only had about half of our guests there.  Apparently the snow was causing a little bit of an issue.  Did we want to wait or proceed according to our carefully planned timeline?  We decided to wait 15 minutes and see where we were at.  Honestly it was a bit relaxing having some downtime to just be.  Eventually though we decided we wanted to just go ahead, we only had our band until 11 and we wanted to feed people who were on time.  With the decision made, we went downstairs.

Standing at the door to our reception it was such a strange feeling realizing we were here.  We were married and this was our reception.  Total shock.

Our Wedding: Part 3

Life is crazy folks!  New job, new city, new name, new husband, new, LOTs of excitement and change blah blah blah.  Hoping things calm down soon and I can get in a new routine and in the swing of things. (Umm…at this point, I think I actually have forgotten how to work out…gah!) In the meantime…until I get my life in order, more wedding fun!

Check out: Part 1 or Part 2

The Ceremony

The music had started.  We were lined up and ready to go.  This was it.  I was getting married.  I could feel the emotion starting to flood my body, that and adrenaline.

Don’t cry, don’t cry!

My nerves started to subside and in place I felt calm.  Kind of eerie calm.  The kind of calm you feel when you’re getting ready to marry your best friend.  I couldn’t wait to see Adam.  I couldn’t wait to stand next to him.  I couldn’t wait to enjoy our ceremony together.  All I had to do was see him.

I saw my sister start to make her way down the aisle and I just about lost it then and there.  This was real life!!  She looked beautiful as she made her way down the aisle.  Next up: the absolutely adorable flower girls.  And right before me: our 3 year old ring bearer.  To be perfectly honest I didn’t expect him to make it down the aisle.  But to my shock and delight he trotted right on down the aisle with an adorable purpose in his step.

Adam walking his parents to their seats.

The girls were ADORABLE.

The doors were closed.  Wow.  Deep breath.  This was it.  My Dad and  I made our way up to the doors.  I repeated to myself, “Walk slowly.  Walk slowly.”  The aisle was extremely short and my Mom would hurt us if we didn’t slow down and soak up the moment.

The music began: Prelude in C by Bach.  The moment I had played in my head over and over and over again was happening.  The piano was calming as my eyes met Adam’s.  My Dad and I started tentatively walking down the aisle.  SO many people, I could feel and see them in my periphery.  My eyes stayed locked on Adam’s.  I wanted to soak up this moment, holding his eyes in mine.  We made our way down the aisle with a smile on my face and tears in my eyes (and maybe face?).  Thank goodness for that blusher veil!

It’s time!

My handsome groom!

Dad and I finally reached the altar.  The church was incredibly silent as our pastor said her first words.  My Dad lifted my veil, gave me a kiss, and placed my hand in Adam’s.

Let the waterworks begin.

I could feel the tears streaming down my face.  I was never more relieved to be facing away from the pews.  We planned our ceremony meticulously, and first up had a few dear friends do a couple readings.  My future sister in law read the poem “I carry your heart” by ee cummings.  It was incredibly touching and at one point she choked up, whispering a soft ‘I’m sorry.’  Honestly I credit this moment with saving my emotion.  Her unexpected emotion made me chuckle, and helped me sort of get myself together.  The rest of the ceremony was lovely and very touching.  Honestly it was just perfect.  Here’s our ceremony in a nut shell:

• Seating of the families – Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring (Bach)
• Wedding Party Porcessional – Canon in D (Pachelbel)
• Bridal Processional – Prelude in C Major (Bach)
• Welcome & Statement of Purpose
• Scripture Reading – 1 Corinthians, 1-8
• Responsorial Psalm – Blessed Are Those Who Love You
• Poem Reading – i carry your heart with me (cummings)
• Wedding Message
• Declaration of Consent
• Affirmation of Family & Friends
• Marriage Vows
• Exchanging of the Rings
• Lighting of the Unity Candle – Make You Feel My Love (Dylan)
• Blessing & Benediction – Go Ye Now in Peace (Eilers)
• Prounouncement & Recessional – Bugler’s Dream (Arnaud)

A dear friend doing one of our readings.

You may now kiss the bride!

HOORAY! We did it!

ADAM! WE’RE MARRIED!

Happy. Pure happy.

My favorite highlights of the ceremony:

Vows

I loved that we ended up doing traditional vows.  Honestly as  an incredibly emotional person even in rehearsal I was struggling to speak.  I couldn’t believe how hard it was to choke out my vows (I honestly had somehow forgotten that I needed to say stuff).  Saying the words that millions have said before me was pretty powerful. We initially were a bit sad that we didn’t write our own vows, but it ended up working perfectly for us.

Adam saying his vows.

Family Advice

One section we added into our ceremony that was a bit unique was something we called “family advice”.  We asked all of our Aunts/Uncles/Grandparents (on both sides) to share their best marriage advice.  It was optional, and we asked those who wanted to participate to email my Uncle their thoughts (50 words or less).  My Uncle gathered all of the advice, added a little intro and closer and gave the most wonderful ‘reading’ of sorts at the wedding.  We loved hearing from all of our family members, it was really special. Having my Uncle share it in one concise reading made it efficient, without losing the meaning.

Uncle E sharing the family advice.

Music

Adam and I both love music.  And conveniently enough we have a lot of talented friends that we could incorporate into the ceremony.  We had the most lovely music in our ceremony from all the singing to my friend playing the flute, it was just perfect.  We got so many comments on the caliber of singing in our ceremony, one of the perks of having friends who can sing! :)

Lovely friends singing!

Dismissal

We knew we wanted a way to greet all of our guests after the ceremony, but thought a receiving line would be a bit cumbersome for us.  Our solution was to dismiss our guests ourselves after the ceremony.  It was so smooth and allowed us to say hello to everyone.  It took about 15 minutes, but gave us a chance to say hi and hug everyone.  The beauty of the dismissal is that everyone is watching you (waiting themselves to be released), so they don’t talk long.  With the whole congregation watching people typically just say congrats or other quick well wishes, instead of a conversation.  Instantly we could greet everyone, but didn’t have to take 30-45 minutes for a receiving line.  Efficiency at it’s best.  I LOVED getting to see everyone  right after the ceremony.

Heading back in to do some dismissing!

The Cookie Bar

Because we knew there would be a little bit of a wait while we dismissed guests, we had a cookie bar in the family room!  It was perfect – it allowed guests an initial chance to mingle while waiting for us to finish dismissing.  We put the Moms in charge of making the delicious cookies, which was fantastic.  It gave people a chance to eat a little something before heading over to the reception as well.  Once we finished dismissing the last guest we made our way to the family room for a bubbly send-off and went straight to the reception!

Yay! We’re married!

It’s reception time!