Jessica and Stefan marry amid roses in full bloom!

Today, June 1st, the Raleigh Rose Garden was in full bloom for the wedding of Jessica and Stefan, and it was hot as blue blazes with temps near 100! Can you see the sweat on all of us? The roses were so high that you could barely see the wedding over them from the side of the garden. It is a magical place and Jessica was a beautiful bride as she was escorted down the aisle by her father. The young flower girl eventually made it down the aisle...with some coaxing from her mother who was directing the wedding. See the photo of her and her brother in the tree in the back of the garden after the wedding! They were glad it was all over and could play a bit. After the wedding the guests were invited to go cool off at the reception at Caffe Luna, one of my favorite restaurants and wedding sites.

In the ceremony we did a sweet parents' blessing that brought tears to all. A friend of Stefan's family presented a reading in Spanish which was translated into English for us all to enjoy. Stefan grew up in Mexico and Jessica in Canada and met in NC. The bridesmaids wore lovely yellow ("canary") dresses. Yellow is not a color I see very often in weddings these days and they looked so pretty with the background of multi-colored roses. The tent you see in the pictures was provided for the musicians--Arioso Strings. They are always superb and managed to overcome the heat of the day. Ellen, the photographer had so many wonderful choices for pictures with the garden so abloom. I thank my "roadie" Marty for getting the great photos you see here. We all thank Penny, Stefan's mother, for her hard work in getting all the details and hard work done to make this lovely wedding happen.