Memories Part 4: The Ceremony

Ahhh, the ceremony. The big moment.

We had an adorable trio of ringbearer/flowergirls. They were all pretty excited about their duties - until they saw the crowds. I obviously didn't get to see this moment (as a side note, it never occured to me that the bride doesn't get to see the processional. Its such a big momen in a wedding - and except for her part the bride misses it all. I wouldn't change that I suppose...but it was weird to think that I didn't actually see the processional that I had planned to carefully. Anyway...) but apparently the trio made it just a few feet down the aisle - before the ring bearer spotted his parents, and took a detour.

I think the girls made it the whole way....but I am not entirely sure.

The ceremony was lovely. My dad gave me away, obviously. My uncle read scripture. A good friend with a fabulous voice sang a hymn. Our pastor gave an amazing little sermon.
The bridesmaids and groomsmen looked lovely - filling out the front of the sanctuary like they were supposed to.

Everything was lovely.

A few of our expected guests were missing. My boss missed the wedding cause she had an emergency appendicitis two days before. And some friends missed the ceremony because there was really bad traffic. One friend said they arrived just in time for this:

The 'first kiss'. Technically it wasn't our first - our first was the day before. My desire, and Mon Amour was totally on board with it, was to only kiss my husband; so we hadn't kissed during the whole dating / engagement time. As the wedding date approached, however, we both decided a practice kiss before the actual ceremony might be good. People critique the first kiss at every wedding - and we didn't want to get terrible reviews. All reports after the wedding was that it was a lovely first kiss - not too long, not too short, and not terribly awkward. I even had a friend say that when they got married they wanted their husband to hold their face for the kiss too (see picture for said romantic hand gesture. ) That part was scripted....in attempts to avoid poor aim or the like. It worked - and was kinda romantic to boot!


Anyway - enough of that.
That's pretty much the ceremony in a nutshell.
Some of my favorite pictures from the wedding were taken right after the ceremony as the wedding party hid in a hallway in order to allow the guests to head to the reception.

I love all these pictures



Examining the rings.

The guys hadn't seen Mon Amour's ring yet. They were fascinated.

Me and my mom. And a water bottle :-) My wonderful last-minute-wedding-detail-manager did such a wonderful job keeping me hydrated. Water bottles just kept appearing in my hand.

Me and the sister.



Me and my dad.

Me and my grandfather.