Kelly and Terrell Wed at the Barn at Valhalla in Chapel Hill!

Kelly and Terrell were so thrilled that they could write their own wedding ceremony! They certainly made it their own and it was not like any wedding ceremony their 200 guests had ever experienced. I was so impressed that their wedding was so carefully planned and seems like they thought of everything. They even had 9 cakes, one for each year they had been together. The cakes were made by Kimberly Bloomfield, a good friend of theirs, who is with Cake Dreams by Sally. Each cake was uniquely different both in appearance and flavor. Their wedding programs were very attractive and different. They had a page of funny quotations from "Somebody's Getting Married" in The Muppets Take Manhattan, a page of thanks to their family and friends, a page of the wedding party and a page of the order of the ceremony, and two pages of "fun facts" about their wedding, their lives and their cat, and a poem by ee cummings. They even had a photobooth at the reception. This was the first wedding I have done at the Barn at Valhalla. It is a large property with the main building with tent beside it for the overflow of guests, large deck, lake, gazebo, sweatlodge frame, and a scuppernong arbor (which I raided after the rehearsal--I grew up on scuppernongs and love them!). It is a great place for a large informal wedding with lots of room and--no road noise! Matthew Kanon , guitarist, provided the ceremony music. It was good to work with Matthew again. Sara and Mel of Whitebox Weddings Photography covered the event.

After the long processional from the barn to the field by the lake where the guests were sitting on a sloping hillside, we began the wedding with a ring warming ceremony in which the rings were passed along from guest to guest during the ceremony to be infused with their blessings for Kelly and Terrell. Then there was a group reading by the entire wedding party in which each one read a verse from "I Like You" by Sandol Stoddard Warburg. They had each practiced saying their part with a dramatic flair and they were all so funny. We had a blessing of the hands of the couple and moved on into the vows which they had written to each other and read from my book where they were printed facing them. By that time the rings had been passed around and it was time for them to put them on each other's finger. By the way, the couple made their rings for each other of Palladium when visiting California this past summer. How special! I made the pronouncement, they shared their first kiss as husband and wife, and after I introduced them to their guests, they scampered up the aisle to a spot below the deck where all the guests then gathered for a large group shot taken from the deck. A popular thing this year! Then the guests went back to the ceremony site and fetched the chairs to use for the reception. I am sure a wonderful time was had at the reception which was catered by Cooper's Barbecue--yummy! Marty and I had to dash right off to get to my next wedding in Cary before the football game let out! We made it! Kelly and Terrell--you pulled off such a special and grand wedding! I hope I can be of service to you in the future!