Recap: The Ceremony

It's around one, two days before the wedding, and I'm sitting in my parents living room staring at a computer screen. In front of me is an absolute jumble of meaningful sentiments I want to say to David in our vows. I had tried a few drafts. On draft 1, I was definitely trying to hard to sound smart and funny. It seemed disingenuous. Or hokey. Yes, I'd say it was somehow both gag-inducingly sappy and incredibly fake sounding all at once. So, scrap that. Draft 2? Well, draft 2 would have taken up half the ceremony.

So here I was with draft number 3. And what did I do? I scrapped the whole thing. Select, right-click, cut. I started from square one, and you know what? It was pretty good. It was waaay easier than I was making it. I was trying to tell a whole story! What I needed to do was make a promise. And that's exactly what I did. =)

Now, let's jump ahead to June 10th around 6:30...or something. I didn't have anything that told time and I was too busy vibrating off the floor to ask anybody. All of our wedding party was lined up with me ready to go down the aisle except David, who was already in the front of the church. I had so much adrenaline coursing through me that I could hardly form a coherent thought. I remember talking to my sister a lot....not sure what I said though...I'm sure I was just constantly repeating myself. People started filing in and my dad was suddenly there to take my arm.

The music changed to "Till There Was You" and the doors swung open. I didn't cry (although David was crying, which ALMOST made me cry) but I did get a weird tick that I tend to get when I'm on stage: I smile SO big my bottom lip trembles like crazy! That's okay, I figured that would happen.

I had both sets of parents stand up and "give their blessing and support" instead of just having mine "give me away" because I'm like that, lol.

My father moving my blusher back

My mother fixing said blusher because dad left it crumply in the back, hehe.

Our Unity Ceremony

Now, as part of our ceremony we did a variation of hand-fasting. In the most traditional sense, the ancient Celts would have everyone present at the wedding tie a cord around the couples' hands. Now, we had a big, big guest list so this was not an option, hehe. Instead, we had everyone in our wedding party tie a ribbon around our hands and then had our parents tie a larger ribbon around the others. For those that are curious, here's what our minister said:

"To the friends and family of this couple, you are an important part of David and Erin’s lives. Their interactions are colored by your thought and words.  You have a responsibility to one another and to this couple to be supportive, understanding, and honest.  On this day of their marriage I charge you to temper all of your dealings with love. To symbolize the support you give this union, and the accountability you will provide to this vow, we will now have a knot tying ceremony."

 

When our parents got up there at the end to tie all the ribbons together, my mother calmly explained that they didn't actually have the final ribbon to tie them all together, so they were just gonna fake it! C'est la vie! When they had finished faking the ribbon tie, the minister said:

"Up until this moment you have been separate in thought, word and deed. But, as your hands are tied together, so shall your lives become intertwined. May this 'Love Knot' always be a reminder of the binding together of two hands, two hearts, and two souls into one, for all the days of your lives."

As I mentioned in my earlier post, I had my friend and wedding party member sing during this ceremony. She and our accompanist, Will, put together a beautiful arrangement of "Always" that didn't leave a dry eye in the house.

All-in-all, the ceremony was absolutely fabulous. I can't tell you all the details because it's a bit foggy in my mind; but I can tell you that I felt like I was on top of the world for that half hour. It was almost surreal as I stood up there holding David's hands. In fact, I couldn't really think of anything else. Just big happy balloon letters in my head that spelled out IT'S REALLY HAPPENING!