"Official" Pics - or - Fun in the Crick

Here are the "official" meaning posed, wedding party pictures.  Including a whole lot of screwing around in the crick.  And the first dance.

Click here to see the album.

Get This Party Started!

First Order of Business!!

Kosher wines for our Jewish guests

Fancypants exclusive Saki brought in from Manhattan just for our redneck wedding.

The Kiss!

"You may Kiss the bride."

I think the above picture is my favorite of all the wedding photos.

The Blessing

“Chris and Amanda, may you know great love together, and may you live in the desire to attain that blissful state in which each may win more richly because of the other. May you strengthen one another in all sorrow, share with one another in all gladness, and be companions to each other in times of the silent and unspoken.

“May your home help to make the world more homelike; and should you be lost in a maze of circumstance, may there be for you both a way back to the tenderness and beauty of a life together. Wherever you may be placed by changing fortune, may you be united not in word or outward form alone, but by the presence in your hearts of an ever deepening love.

“May the benedictions that rest on those who truly love rest on you, and fill you with love’s grace, both now and always.”

The Marriage License

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We chose to incorporate the signing of the marriage license into the ceremony for a few reasons. We wanted to emphasize the gravity and completeness of the commitment we were making in an additional way. We wanted to recognize all the dimensions of our marriage, spiritual, emotional, and legal. Also, I never understood the idea of signing either before vows are taken or after a couple is pronounced husband and wife (or husband and husband, or wife and wife, as the case may be).

So my dad built us a beautiful table that matched the arch on which to sign, and we bought a lovely white feather pen.

(My uncle Bill with the table my dad built)

Both items got rained on.

But the Best Man, Dan, graciously ran out into the downpour again to retrieve the pen.

(For all the things it might look like, this is Chris shaking the water out of the quill after Dan ran out and got it)

And we made it legal.

Rev. Nurya

Chris

Me

Dan

And Mandy

The Rings

“What symbol do you offer as a pledge for the fulfillment of these vows?”

____________________

Picking out our rings was an amusing debacle. We made a number of trips to the Diamond District, and we scoured the internet, emailing images of rings back and forth. We didn’t have a whole lot of money to spend, but we both had very specific things in mind.

I wanted something featuring leaves or vines, something with a nature feel to it. He wanted a dark metal with the Gregory crest laser etched into it. We ended up going through Wedding Ring Originals (www.weddingrings.com) on Lex. I tried on about a dozen different “leafy” rings, and settled on the simplest one (it’s funny, at the time, I found all the others too flashy, but now I’m thinking I might have this one added on to in a few years, lol). It is absolutely beautiful.

Chris didn’t have it quite so easy. He found the perfect True Tungsten ring, but the etching technology that was within our price range was not nearly the quality we were looking for. I’m hoping to get him an etched ring for some future anniversary. But he loves the ring the way it is; it has an amazing shine to it. I had our names, wedding date, and “Always” (per the Bon Jovi song) engraved inside.
_____________________



“The circle of the ring speaks of love freely given: it has no beginning and it has no end. The circle of the ring declares the unity and the oneness of your two lives, which shall contain your devotion beyond every journey, that you may always return again to your togetherness.”




“I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness. With all that I am, and all that I have, I join my life with yours.”






“I give you this ring as a sign of my love and faithfulness. With all that I am, and all that I have, I join my life with yours.”



(And on my right hand you’ll see my engagement ring. I couldn’t settle on just one style, so I wear them on opposite hands)

Vows

26 May 09

Chris and I wrote our own vows. For obvious reasons, we both considered the vows to be the most important part of the whole ceremony. They were/are extremely personal and important to us (not that either of us finished writing them more than a day before the ceremony). When we said them, we said them to each other, and we meant every word.

Part way through saying our vows someone, ahem, said loudly, “We can’t hear you.”

To which Rev Nurya responded, “They’re not talking to you.”

This has been repeated to me more than anything else as guests’ favorite part of the wedding.

We’ve been considering putting the vows up here, and we will continue to consider it. For now, though, they’ll remain just between us. That is, until one of us gets around to typing them all out. They’re currently handwritten and living in our memory book, where they have been since the wedding.

The Ceremony

Prelude

Music: “White Wedding” by Billy Idol, “Going to the Chapel” by The Crystals

Processional

“Time After Time” Instrumental by Cyndi Lauper and Sarah McLaughlin

“Bridal Chorus” by Wagner

Of course, all the music got scrapped because of the monsoon.

Opening Words

Dearly beloved, we are gathered here to unite this man and this woman in the ‘bonds of marriage, a source of joy to those who enter into it and of great good for our common life. Solemn words and symbolic acts are but the outward sign of what is here meant; for a true marriage is a union of lives, established in respect, love, and devotion; a dedication of each to the other, and of both to the wider community of which their lives are a part.

Charge to the Couple

• Chris and Amanda, the covenant which you are about to make with each other is meant to be a beautiful and sacred expression of your love. As you pledge your vows, and commit your lives to each other, we ask that you do so in all seriousness, and yet with a deep sense of joy; with the deep conviction that you are committing yourselves to a dynamic growing relationship of trust, mutual support, and caring love. Remember, then, that your decision this day is your act of faith in one another. Your faith must not be a vain hope in what the other will do or will not do, might

  

  become or not become. Yours must be that deeper faith that you each will be acceptable in the other's eyes despite the changes of the years and the assaults of the world. Such faith requires that you honor yourself as well as attend to the needs of the other. Such faith requires that you learn to listen before you speak. Such faith requires that you each be open to that divine spark within you, and be willing to be guided by the grace of its light. Your pledge to one another is a devotion in freedom, and not a license to control. Your covenant will endure the trials of time only as you keep to that sacred integrity.

Making the Cake

Chris made our wedding cake. It was a 6 tiered, 6 flavored cheesecake with graham cracker crust and decorated with fondant with a beautiful ivy motif in dark green.

At least, that was the idea.

Chris and I spent hours in the kitchen at Rockford Freshman Center the night before the rehearsal making the cake.

It took a lot longer than we expected, and was absolutely exhausting. We did get the opportunity at one point to wander off into the school to - explore, which took the edge off, and eventually we got all the cakes into the big fridges to set.

Sadly, in the end, the cakes didn't set up in time to come out of the pans, so only one of them got to wear the gorgeous fondant wraps that Chris made, but they were delicious nonetheless! And trying to make our own 6 tier wedding cheesecake was certainly an adventure.

GALLONS of cheesecake batter

Molding and painting fondant we'd never use . . .

This is one of the only pictures we ended up having of the cake cutting. Someone has one of the actual decorated portion of the cake, but I don't know where it went . . .