a small town wedding: husband and wife.

After the processional, mass began.  We had a full Catholic mass on our wedding day.  I know some people feel like a full mass is too long for their guests to sit, and I understand that.  But to us, the ceremony was the most important part of the wedding, and we didn't think an hour was too long to sit when we were vowing to spend the rest of our lives together. 

I was SO nervous during our ceremony.  I had butterflies all morning, but it really got out of control when I got to the front of the church.  It had nothing to do with being nervous to get married, I knew with all of my heart that I wanted to marry the man standing next to me.  It had more to do with my fear of standing up in front of a huge group of people, which I realize is ridiculous, but I couldn't help it!  Thankfully we had to kneel for a while at the beginning of the ceremony, so I don't think our guests noticed the fact that I was visibly shaking.  I just held on really tight to my groom's hand until the nerves calmed down a bit through all of the readings.

My friend Melissa read a passage from the Old Testament, Ruth 1:16 for the first reading.
"And Ruth said, Entreat me not to leave thee, and to return from following after thee, for whither thou goest, I will go; and where thou lodgest, I will lodge; thy people shall be my people, and thy God my God."

Adam's sister Megan read the New Testament reading, John 7:12.
"Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us."

I love this picture that was taken from the balcony.  You can see almost all of our guests that were at the ceremony.  The priest told us later that he had never performed a wedding ceremony with so many friends and family present!  I'm not sure if it's a small town thing, but for some reason a lot of people don't go to the actual wedding ceremony around here, instead they skip it and just come to the reception instead.  I was very grateful that so many of our guests didn't skip out on the ceremony and were actually there to support  us as we tied the knot.

Our priest read the gospel reading, John 15: 9-12.
"As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. If you keep my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have kept my Father’s commands and remain in his love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you."

Soon it was time to say our vows.
"I, Adam, take you, Holly, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part."

"I, Holly, take you, Adam, to be my husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death us do part."

The we exchanged rings.
"Holly, I give you this ring, as a sign of my love and fidelity. In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.".

"Adam, I give you this ring, as a sign of my love and fidelity.  In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.".

Our sisters, Angela and Lindsay, sang "The Prayer" by Celine Dion during the ceremony.

The priest gave the nuptial blessing.

We had Communion.

Received one last blessing from the priest...

and we were married!  My groom was given permission to kiss his bride.

We were husband and wife!

After the recessional, it was time to make it official.

My husband made me give him "knuckles" when we were finished.  Of course it was caught on camera, so I had to share it here.

We posed for one last picture with the priest before getting ready for portraits.

All images by Deborah Cull Photography

Previously in our wedding recaps:

Mascaras Get Married: The Beginning

Mascaras Get Married: Giving Gifts

Mascaras Get Married: Girls Get Ready

Mascaras Get Married: Guys Get Ready, and a Gift for the Groom
Mascaras Get Married: Becoming a Bride

Mascaras Get Married: Processionals and Pep Talks

a small town wedding: processionals and pep talks.

At 1:00 pm on Saturday, September 5th, 2009, our wedding had begun.  My grandma and grandpa started off the processional while an arrangement of "Canon in D" was playing on the piano.

Source: arrangement of Pachelbel's Canon in D Major by David Lanz

My soon-to-be husband then walked down the aisle alongside his parents.  

My mom and dad were up next

and then came our wedding party.  First down the aisle were Ryan and Angelie,

then Mike and Kiera,

Mike and Dana,

Matt and Anna,

Ryan and my matron of honor, Dona,

the best man, Mike, and my maid of honor (and sister) Dani,

and last but not least, my sister Gaby with our ringbearers Parker and Derek, and our flowergirl Aliyah.

While everyone was inside, I was outside seeing my dad for the first time.  It was a very emotional time for us both, and I will never forget that moment.

You see, my dad and I are very close.  He is my rock, and I am his.  One thing (of many) that my dad has always said to me, is to never depend on a man.  He's always wanted his daughters (all four of us) to be able to support ourselves.  To get a good education, be confident, strong, and independent so we would never need a man to get where we wanted in life.  So it was no surprise to me that as I was standing there in my wedding dress, waiting to walk down the aisle, he would whisper in my ear "I'll take you out of here right now if you don't want to go through with this".  Of course, I just laughed.  

Don't get me wrong, my dad LOVES Mr. Mascara.  He had considered him his only "son" for quite some time before the wedding.  But my dad wanted me to know that if I didn't want to go through with the wedding, for any reason at all, he'd be there to support me.  He'd come to my rescue if I needed to be saved at that moment.

Another thing about my dad is, he gets very emotional when it comes to his girls.  So when he started tearing up as we were standing there, I told him he needed to get it together.  I told him that I loved him, and that I'd always be his daughter.  Then I told him that we were going inside and walking down that aisle, and that I was going to marry my husband today.

And then, it was time.  The bridal processional started playing

Source: Vangelis' Hymne by The O'Neill Brothers

so we opened the door, headed inside, and walked down the aisle together to meet my groom.

My dad hugged his future son-in-law,

we stood there with our friends and family,

and joined hands to start the ceremony that we would leave as husband and wife.

All images by Deborah Cull Photography

Previously in our wedding recaps:

Mascaras Get Married: The Beginning

Mascaras Get Married: Giving Gifts

Mascaras Get Married: Girls Get Ready

Mascaras Get Married: Guys Get Ready, and a Gift for the Groom
Mascaras Get Married: Becoming a Bride

ceremony assistance...part two.

First of all, thank you so much for all of your suggestions in part one of this series! I listened to all of them, and there were a ton of options for beautiful processional songs. The results of the poll ended up with a tie between Prelude in C and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. So of course, the only logical choice for me was to not pick either of them... okay maybe it wasn't logical, but that is what happened.

My bridesmaid Anna plays the piano, and since we're having only a pianist for the ceremony, I figured I should get some options from her. She came up with a ton of choices, and I found two songs that I absolutely love!

Remember how I said I didn't want Canon in D as one of the processional pieces? Well...I changed my mind the second I heard this arrangement:

(source)

Yep, you can call me a hypocrit. The grandparents, parents, and the wedding party will be walking down to this arrangement of Canon in D.

I actually contemplated whether or not I should only play Canon in D and just time my entrance to one of the parts in which the music builds up in the song. After getting lots of opinions from family members, I've decided to add second song for the bridal entrance. That song will be Hymne by Vangelis.

(source)

Finally, the processional songs are selected! It was more difficult than it probably should have been to check that one off the list.

Next item on the agenda-- the song that our sisters will sing.

As I mentioned in my last music post, two of our sisters are talented singers. We really want them to sing a song during the ceremony. This will probably be used as the offertory song, while some other family members are bringing up the gifts. Ideally it would be something that is more on the traditional side; I think throwing a contemporary song into the Catholic ceremony while we're using classical music for all of the other songs might sound a little out of place. The only song that has come to my mind so far is Ave Maria.

(source)

While I think this song is beautiful, I'd like to hear a few more options before we select a song.

So hive, this is where you come in! Do you have any suggestions for traditional-ish songs that our sisters could sing? I'm looking forward to your recommendations... I need all the help I can get!

ceremony assistance...part one.

With the majority of the wedding plans so far, I've had a clear vision as to what we're going for. The ceremony music is one of the things that is a little fuzzy, to say the least. So who better to help me combat my indecisiveness than you, hive?

Let's start at the bridal processional, shall we? A lot of lovely brides-to-be have a specific song that they've been dreaming of walking down the aisle to since they were little girls. There is no such song in my mind. I have no clue what song I want to walk down the aisle to. I do, however, know a few songs I do not want to enter the church to, including Canon in D and the Wedding March (you know...dum dum da dum...that one). Nothing wrong with those songs, I've just been to a ton of weddings in my day and I'm looking for something a little outside the norm. I am getting married in the Catholic church though, so whatever songs I choose cannot be too far ourside of the norm. Also, we are having a pianist play at the ceremony, so I need songs that don't need other instruments to sound right. So what are the options?

The only two songs I've found that I like enough to use for the bridal processional are:

Prelude in C (Major)

(source)

and Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

(source)

I really really really like Prelude in C for some reason, but I worry that it will be sort of anticlimatic if I use Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring before it for the wedding party processional . It just doesn't seem to have enough "oomph" if you know what I mean. But I really really like it.

I feel like Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring is the safe one of the two choices for the bridal processional. It's pretty and I really do like it, but it feels a little more "norm" to me.

The other issue I am questioning is whether to have an instrumental song like the two above, or to have one or two of our sisters sing a song for the processional instead. My cousin's wife walked down the aisle to her friend singing Ave Maria, and it was absolutely beautiful! If we went this route, I am clueless as to which song to have them sing to!

So I ask you, knowledgeable brides (and grooms)-to-be, which song do you think I should walk down the aisle to?

a. Prelude in C (Major)

b. Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring

c. Instrumental song, but those are both horrible choices! I will share a much better song for with you in the comments!

d. Have sisters sing, I will recommend a song in the comments!

non-wedding weekend.

This weekend, the fiance and I will not be doing anything wedding related! That's right, it's the first non-wedding weekend we've had, probably since we've been engaged. Instead of obsessing over the perfect shade of purple, we'll be visiting with friends on the other side of the lake and drinking some delicious beer. Oh yeah, and trying to keep warm since we'll be outside all day. Gotta love Michigan and their love of beer and outdoor festivals in the middle of winter.

I'll leave you with another cute reading, found on A Practical Wedding:

From I LIKE YOU--Sandol Stoddard Warburg

And I like you because when I am feeling sad, you don't always cheer me up right away. Sometimes it is better to be sad.
You can't stand the others being so googly and gaggly every single minute.
You want to think about things.
It takes time.

I like you because if I am mad at you, then you are mad at me too.
It's awful when the other person isn't. Phooey.
They are so nice and hoo-hoo you could just about punch them in the nose.

I like you because if I think I am going to throw up, then you are really sorry.
You don't just pretend you are busy looking at the birdies and all that.
You say, "maybe it was something you ate."
You say, "same thing happened to me one time."
And the same thing did.

If you find two four-leaf clovers, you give me one.
If I find four, I give you two.
If we only find three, we keep on looking.

Sometimes we have good luck and sometimes we don't.

If I break my arm and if you break your arm too, then it is fun to have a broken arm.
I tell you about mine; you tell me about yours.
We are both sorry.
We write our names and draw pictures.
We show everybody and they wish they had a broken arm too.

Have a great weekend everyone!

pretty programs.

I thought I was finished blogging for the night but these programs from Style Me Pretty are just too pretty not to post. Letterpressed programs? I can only dream. But I can add some ribbon.

Programs by Bella Figura via SMP. Photo by The Time Photography.

ceremony thoughts.

Not having the ceremony planned yet is stressing me out. A lot. Luckily, I'm going to our little Italian church in MI next weekend to figure it out.

Note to self: Take pictures of the inside of the church while you are there to figure out what is needed in terms of decorations and flowers.

On a related topic, I came across this reading tonight on With This Ring, I Thee Obsess. I'm doubt we're allowed to do any readings at our wedding that aren't written in the Bible, but I thought I'd pass it along to those of you who can choose whatever readings you would like...

An excerpt of What Are You Doing the Rest Of Your Life?, by Alan Bergman and Marilyn Bergman.

I want to see your face in every kind of light
In fields of dawn and forests of the night
And when you stand before the candles on a cake
Oh, let me be the one to hear the silent wish you make
What are you doing the rest of your life?
North and South and East and West of your life
I have only one request of your life
That you spend it all with me

Does anyone have any other suggestions for readings? Any help would be much appreciated.

one down, two to go.

I hope everyone had a nice V-day weekend! I spent my Valentine's day celebrating with friends and family. My cousin and his gorgeous bride were married in the Detroit area on Saturday. It was a beautiful wedding and lots of fun! He's the first of three in our family that are currently engaged. Two more weddings to go! His sister is getting married in fall 2010 and has asked me to help plan her outdoor wedding. Of course I accepted and have created a folder of pictures on my computer just for her! This arch would be a perfect backdrop for her to be married in front of, don't you think?

Photo via Elizabeth Anne Designs.