A Wedding in the Round for Delaney and Jake at Snipes Farm Retreat in Chapel Hill!

Jake and Delaney met at the University of North Carolina 9 years ago but they live in Chicago now. Jake is originally from Laurinburg NC and is descended from the Lumbee Indians. Delaney was born in Tennessee and lived in NJ and her heritage is Christian and Jewish. Their wedding ceremony was a beautiful blending of all their heritages.

Snipes Farm Retreat in Chapel Hill fit Delaney and Jake's dream site for their wedding. It is an old dairy farm with barn and silo, now converted to a great casual party place out in the country. Here is our wedding director in the black dress, Lindsey Moyer, directing guests to the wedding ceremony area. The pooch is Jake and Delaney's sweet doggie, Stella, who was honored by a reading during the wedding entitled "Love is Like Owning a Dog." She was wearing a ring pillow on her collar but Jake's dad had the real rings. She was such a gentle dog and had the sweetest face.

Here Jake is being escorted in by his parents. Jake and Delaney wanted to have their guests in a circle around them. There were 3 rows of concentric circles of chairs. Seated in the Inner Circle were their family members and special friends instead of having attendants standing up with them. That made it easy for the three of us under the Chuppah to make a quarter turn every quarter section of the ceremony so all the guests got good views of the bride and groom. In the ceremony we included a Native American saying “Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are the stars. The wind in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man or a woman is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”

Delaney is escorted in by her mother and father and helped along by Lindsey.

Here Delaney and her parents enter the circle as the guests are standing in honor of the bride. (I noticed after the wedding that there was a note in the program Please Don't Stand for the entrance of Inner Circle, Groom and Bride, but I did not see it ahead of time and had the guests stand for the bride!)

The sun is shining right in Delaney's eyes while we stood facing this direction. She was glad when we turned. Did you notice the big rocks in the pots holding the poles of the Chuppah? Well, although the poles were embedded in concrete, it was not heavy enough to keep the Chuppah from blowing over. Having seen 4 good sized rocks on my way in, Lindsey and I enlisted the help of 4 strong young men to fetch those rocks to anchor the pots. Once these guys were involved, they took over making sure that Chuppah would not blow over and they were certainly successful. Thanks, you guys!

Jake is tall. The Chuppah is almost grazing the top of his head! This Chuppah was very special to this couple as the canopy incorporated needlework of her great grandmother.

Jake and Delaney drink wine together as part of the Jewish wedding tradition. L'Haim, may your cup of life run over!

Stella decided it was nap time during the ceremony but I believe she did pay attention during the reading dedicated to her.

I had to include this amazing photo filled with rainbow light!

Delaney is reading to Jake her personal statement to him from my book. All of us got a good laugh at her sense of humor about how they met. Jake's personal statement to Delaney included his singing to her a song he wrote for her. It was so romantic. I could almost hear the women all around us swooning!

I made the pronouncement of marriage, Jake stomped the glass, and after 9 years, Jake and Delaney are sooooo happy to be married, at last!

The sun is shining bright on this very special couple. Jake and Delaney, your wedding was terrific. I love your creativity and expressiveness. It was definitely a one-of-a-kind wedding. Congratulations to you both.

Who made this lovely cake? I forgot to find out.

This is the reception area inside the barn at Snipes Farm Retreat. (They don't have a website but you can call the owner, Roger Snipes, at 919-929-3454.) Delaney made the favors and each table was named for a city they either lived in or visited with a photo of them there and words explaining the significance. Delaney also made some of the most beautiful wedding programs I have ever seen. She is so talented and creative. She actually stamped a swatch of fabric with the design of a tree with the roots spelling out hers and Jake's full names. This was sewn onto the cover of each program. In addition to having the usual order of service and the names of parents, grandparents and Inner Circle friends, they made a crossword puzzle specific to their facts, like "the name of the Tarheel mascot, Chicago-style pizza, Jake's birthday month Scorpio, what's black, barks and bears the ring?" Inside each program was a handwritten name or word that was to match or "twin" with another name or word in another program, i. e. Peanut Butter and Jelly would match. The guests were to find their "twin." A wonderful touch and a fun mixer.

Many thanks to Lindsey Moyer of A Joyful Occasion, and her assistant, Suzanne Dale, for doing a super job organizing the guests and wedding party and directing the wedding.

I want to thank Jonathan C. Ward, Native American flutist, who played original flute music for the processional. It was so beautiful, so much so that I bought one of his CDs. He also brought his sound board so that all I had to do was plug in my ear mic and the handheld mic I brought for our reader. The website address www.jonathancward.com on his card does not work but his phone number is (910) 474-8189 and if you google him, you can watch his U-tube. Forbes Boyle, guitarist and singer and one of the Inner Circle Friends, played and sang for the entrance of the Inner Circle Family and Friends and Groom and Bride.

James Bowman of James Bowman Photography was our photographer. The photos on this blog, however, were taken with my point and shoot digital camera by my friend and "roadie," Marty.