The Long Haul: The Church Service

Ever since middle school, I knew that I wanted Bernie to sing at my wedding. He is just awesome. My dad ended up doing a HUGE addition/reno on Bernie & his wife Jan's house. I babysat and house sat for them a lot and when John and I got engaged this summer, one of the first things I did was ask if Bernie would sing at the wedding. He said yes and as a bonus, Jan would play piano! I didn't want the organ anyway, so this was perfect.

Our prelude consisted of several pieces, and ended with Bernie singing a song to catch everyone's attention. We used "Be Still and Know" (or.. "Sit Down and Shut Up").

Bernie and Jan were joined by my cousin Emma on violin for the preludes, processional and the recessional.

For the processional, we had our grandparents be seated beforehand- 3/4 of them are shaky & unstable and would rather just not have the fanfare. SO- first up in the processional were our moms. They were escorted by John's two brothers.

Next came the bridesmaids.

Tiffani

Crystal

My sister, Rebecca.

And, Maid of Honor Amanda.

And.. here we go!

The blessing/giving away.

John's mom doing her reading.

When we were in the back room before the service, we were takjing random group pictures and my mom said "Glasses or no glasses? No glasses- I don't have to read anything." She took them off and put them on the table.

We got into the church and as soon as my mom got up in the front to do her reading I remembered that she had decided on no glasses! She DID have to read something!! I saw her trying to figure out what to do- she tried stretching the Bible out, but her arms weren't long enough. Keira captured the exact moment that my mom turned to the bridesmaids and said "Umm Rebecca- could you go get my glasses?"

My sister had to go run to the back of the church and get my mom's glasses. All worked out though :)

The vows. Amanda & Justin joined us at the front to provide the rings.

Then after the vows, we decided to do a "Parent's Prayer". This was something I had wanted to do, but couldn't figure out how to incorporate it- until I ran across a post on WeddingBee.

Mrs.Cookie had done it perfectly. She found the text in a book from her Pastor. It was a way to honor our parents and get a blessing without our wedding being a transaction or something.

We had our parents gather around and our pastors used this text:

As Samantha & John's marriage brings together two family traditions and two different roots, it is their hope to plant a new family tree that will grow and flourish. Theirs is a personal choice and a decision for which they are responsible in undertaking. Yet their life is and will always be enriched with the support of the families from which each comes.

Will you Betty & Vince, and Anne & Bob, encourage Samantha & John in their marriage?

Parents: We Will

Do you celebrate with them the decision they have made to choose each other and will you continue to stand beside them with each passing year?

Parents: We will

Then we had our parents lay their hands on us and the pastor led a prayer to have our parents encourage and support us, etc.

Then.. we were pronounced! Sort of. We turned around & faced everyone and Harry never said anything about kissing the bride! So John and I stood there and then after a bit Harry said "John aren't you forgetting something?" Oops. So he kissed me. But we don't have a picture of this :( I'm assuming that Keira got caught off guard since Harry never said it! Even with all of the guest pictures, we still don't have a first kiss picture- this is pretty much the only thing that I wish went differently. Oh well.

After we kissed, Harry proclaimed us husband & wife. He was supposed to tap our backs to signal us to walk back down the aisle, but we never got a tap & we stood there like goobers.