Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Wedding Day: Part 2 (The Ceremony)

I remember standing outside the doors of the sanctuary, arm and arm with my dad.  It felt surreal this moment was finally here; the day little girls dream about for their whole lives...the day we have put SO much time, effort, and money into for the past 7 months. The coordinators opened both doors simultaneously reavealing the beautiful sanctuary, which was filled with all of our friends and family (I think there was over 400 in there).  Low lighting, candles, and the wedding march playing in the background- so traditional.  I remember thinking I needed to walk slowly.

  I don't really like being the center of attention, so I made sure to just focus on Jonathan.  I figured he'd probably cry, but he didn't.  Neither one of us did & I was REALLY glad.  Of course they'd be happy tears, but I really wanted my face to show the JOY I was feeling at this moment.  Plus, I look hideous when I cry.

  When I arrived at the end of the aisle I took my mom a rose that the florist snuck into my bouquet.  (It acutally broke off earlier & we taped it together- ghetto! ha! it's the thought that counts, right?)  I hugged my dad and joined hands with Jonathan.  I felt like I smiled the entire ceremony.  Acutally, looking at a "snippet" the videographer sent us, I did have a smile on pretty much the whole time.  Wanna see what I'm talking about? Check it out here...
http://www.mydeo.com/videorequest.asp?XID=10078&CID=309479

I LOVED what Robby did with the ceremony.  The vows, the scriptures he used, and how he talked about family  and marriage according to the Bible.  I've had people tell me the sand ceremony was their favorite part because that's how marriage really is- trying different things, figuring out what works and what doesn't, laughing, playing, spilling the sand.

 I chose the sand because it's actually a tradition from Jewish weddings that symbolizes two families uniting.  The son and daughter would combine their father's sand during the wedding ceremony.  The couple was instructed that if they ever decided to divorce, they'd have to pick out their grains of sand - an impossible task- which reiterates that marriage is a convenant made before God and is not to be broken.  I thought that was so cool and I just loved it.  And of course the sand is something you can always keep to remind you of that covenant.

MY favorite part of the ceremony was when Robby asked everyone to lift their hands toward us during prayer.  I asked for that specifically, and I am so glad I did because it was extremely powerful.

I can't wait to see the video of all of this!

He told Jonathan not to mess up the kiss, and announced to the church we'd been practicing thsi part.
I remember that I didn't notice ANYONE or ANYTHING during the ceremony until he pronounced us husband and wife and we walked back down the aisle to- surprise- the wedding march!  I noticed one of the groomsmen's girlfriends and a few of my students.  Random, I know.  :) Jonathan and I ran to the back room where my bridesmaids and I stayed before the ceremony and we took our pictures on the back deck.

 Both of our families and the bridal party met us out there.  We also did our family pictures in the sanctuary (very quickly) and headed to the limo awaiting us in front of the church. 

The girls bustled my dress, we had a few minutes of chaos, and then we piled 17 deep into the stretch Hummer.  It was a little tighter fit than I expected. 

 
 
 
Off to the reception...

2 comments:

kharner said...

Aww....the post isn't showing up! ;(

Danielle Phillips said...

Funny story...we did the sand at our wedding to and the wedding planner misplaced it after the wedding so we have always said we get a redo but in all seriousness we are actually going to redo it once the kiddos are big enough to add their sand to the family!