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About the ceremony...
The ceremony was amazing. Of course we used the standard Book of Common Prayer service; I think the service is pretty much perfect as it is written. It's not overly sentimental or trite, and keeps the focus on, you know, God.
My friend Jon the amazing singer (of Hookslide fame - they're opening for the Village People in August!) sang Ubi Caritas a cappella for the processional, which was just gorgeous.
Here we are coming down the aisle. We walked in together, after being out front greeting people as they arrived. I decided I'd rather be active than hiding out in a room and trying to stay calm, and this worked really well for us.
The first reading, by Dennis' mother, was good old 1 Corinthians - I swear that we really did choose it deliberately, and weren't just going for the Wedding Greatest Hits. The fact that the words have been put onto every tacky thing the Wedding Industrial Complex can produce does not change the fact that Paul's letter contains capital-T Truth about love as we have experienced it.
Then Jon sang Psalm 67 (Anglican chant) which was beautiful, and Leigh read from the Song of Solomon. I love that first passage, because it touches on the more playful and carefree side of love, the way that it makes you see everything that's new and lovely.
The whole congregation sang Amazing Grace. I have no idea if that was even an appropriate song, but it's one of my favorites and grace WILL lead me home, so there. That was right before the Gospel reading, which was from Matthew, the "let your light shine" passage. TheRev gave a wonderful homily, which I totally can't remember, except that I cried. I'm looking forward to seeing the video for that. My head was off in the clouds for a lot of the day, and I kept trying to pull myself down and Be Present.
I was as cool as a cucumber during the vows and ring exchange. Ok, as cool as a cucumber strapped to the outside of the space shuttle during re-entry. As seen here, I had trouble holding it together.
(note: the color of my dress is a bit funky in these pictures because of the lighting in the church; scroll down for better dress pictures)
I love this shot - hey, we're married!
After that came the prayers, read by SassyPriest, which included an out-of-place Lord's Prayer (the rubric about skipping it if you're doing communion appears after the prayer, so we just went right into it) and the specific marriage prayers, which didn't make me cry - ok, maybe a little. Then came the blessing (major tears by now), and then the Peace.
At which point, a hug frenzy broke out.
SassyPriest celebrated the eucharist; she has an incredible voice and when she sings the eucharistic prayer, people get goosebumps. Seriously.
During communion, Jon and Ryan, along with two other friends, sang a Taize chant:
I loved it. I'd sent the music to Jon not long before the wedding (yes, I left planning the music to the last minute, because church music intimidates me, ok?) and he said that he needed two more voices. Before I even had a chance to freak out about this and wonder where I would find two more singers, my friend Kathy called. She sings with our worship band, so I immediately realized that I should ask her. One female voice! Then I only needed a male voice...and five minutes later, Peter, our music director, walked through the door, and I had my quartet. It was, as we say around here, a God Thing.
After the end of the ceremony, we had everyone meet out in front of the church, and the photographer got on a ladder and took a photo of everyone.
I wanted to get everyone into a human pyramid afterwards, but no one would volunteer to be the bottom layer. Sigh.
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