Wedding Ceremony

It was four o'clock in the afternoon on the twenty-fifth of July. It was time for our wedding ceremony to officially begin. I was sitting upstairs in the bridal room and moved to the stairs in the balcony with my girls. I watched them as they walked off to process into the church. The choir began singing "Love Divine, All Loves Excelling" as I knew that was the song for the family to take their seats. I was sitting up there in the staircase all alone and I began to then feel the nerves and the rush of emotion. I almost started losing it. I felt my eyes tear up and thought, "Wow, this day is here!" Then shortly after, the choir began singing the Georgian Wedding Hymn, which I knew was the song for the bridesmaids were to process in to. I walked down the stairs and I was alone in the narthex with my wedding planner and her assistants. They closed the doors and then I heard the "Flower Duet" being sung by my incredibly talented friends, Dee and Stacy. The doors flew open and there was everyone. I processed in and saw the love of my life down the end of that aisle, waiting there for me.

Our wedding ceremony was a traditional Orthodox Christian ceremony with some modern touches to it. It was led by my godfather, Fr. James Early. The ceremony lasted around forty-five minutes, and it is rich with tradition and symbolism. I knew most of our guests would be unfamiliar with the church and the ceremony, so I made service books with the text of the service and the explanation of everything going on, so they would feel included and a part of the service. If you would like to learn a little more about the marriage ceremony, this is a pretty good explanation. You can find the text of the service here. After the actual marriage ceremony, Father James spoke for a few minutes about the symbolism and the intent of marriage. His short homily was wonderful and many of our guests really enjoyed and were touched by what he had to say.

Needless to say, we did not have the ceremony filmed. That is my only regret out of the whole wedding planning process. I wish we would have hired a videographer. I know you don't really watch your wedding video much, but it would have been nice to have it. Fortunately, there are some wonderful pictures of the ceremony. Hope you enjoy the pictures!





Candles, Bible, and Chalice before the ceremony 


Calla Lillies at the front of the church



Greg's brother Russ escorting Grammy

Greg's brother Josh escorting Grandmother

Greg escorting his mother, Mary

My dad escorting my stepmom, Olga

My brother Colin escorting my mom

Our moms lighting the unity candle

Greg waiting...

Dee

Cami

Alexis

Caitlin

Katie 

Anne

Christine and Catherine

Our sponsors, Katie and Jerry

Stacy and Dee singing "The Flower Duet" for my entrance

My grand entrance

The church

Together!

Our awesome choir! I'm a lucky gal to have such talented friends.

Most of them were folks I sing with in the Houston Symphony Chorus 

View from the balcony. I guess we had a lot of people there!

James snapping a pic with his Blackberry ;)

Me and Katie

Greg and Jerry

Bridesmaids and Groomsmen

Being crowned by Father James

Steve reading the Epistle

Taking our first steps together as husband and wife (Dance of Isaiah)

Yay! Kiss!

Leaving the church

Yay! We're married!

Everything went perfectly in the ceremony. We had a wonderful turnout of people and it was very moving. I hope that these pictures did it justice!

Next blog: Portraits!