Darcey and Paul Wed at Doubletree Suites in Durham!

The Doubletree has a fabulous tent just outside the hotel near the ceremony site overlooking the lake. It is beautifully appointed with billowy ceilings complete with chandeliers and air conditioning! Yea! The day was hot with temps in the 90s so it was a welcome space for the guests after the ceremony. Garret Lamm was our DJ and I enjoyed working with him again. He was doing this wedding for Lenny Fritts of Touch of Class DJs while Lenny was busy at another wedding in Durham. Garrett placed a speaker outside the tent facing the guests and I plugged my receiver and wireless mike into his system, did a sound check and we were ready to go!

I did not actually meet Darcey and Paul until about 30 minutes before their wedding started on July 25, 2009 at Doubletree Suites! How can that be, you may ask. Well, here's the story. The friend of the couple who had gotten ordained on line in order to officiate their ceremony found out the day before the wedding, that he had to be hospitalized for stent placement on the wedding day! (I sure hope he is doing well and sorry that he had to miss this lovely wedding.)

So, they were frantically searching for a minister to officiate. Amy Acosta, the events planner for Doubletree, gave them my name and Paul called me right away. I was so happy that I was available to officiate their 4:00 wedding before my other wedding at 6:00. So, the day was saved. Thanks, Amy!

Here comes our beautiful bride and her proud papa! (Jim Colman, their photographer, was not missing a shot of the action! I was delighted to see Jim there. We had done a wedding together the night before. Jim has been a photographer for over 20 years but is new to the wedding photography business. He sure is getting around fast! Check out his website. It is impressive. )

The photo of the wedding above is by Jim Colman (Thanks, Jim).

Paul emailed me the script for the ceremony their friend had put together from wedding ceremony examples on the Internet but it was only about 3 minutes long. In order for a ceremony to have substance and meaning and for the guests to feel like they have witnessed a wedding, I feel the ceremony should be no less than 15 minutes. So, I wrote a beautiful 15 minute ceremony for them incorporating the vows and sand ceremony they had already decided on with their friend and emailed it to them. They told me they really liked the ceremony.

The happy couple, now married, hurried down the aisle to get into the cool tent!

Here we are inside the hotel taking photos instead of at the customary place by the waterfall outside. The hotel has some nice areas for this and we were all comfortably cool.

Check out their beautiful wedding cake! In my haste to get to the next wedding I forgot to ask who baked it for them. Maybe they will let me know so I can credit that very artistic person.

Paul and Darcey, if I can ever help you out again, please call on me! Congratulations on your marriage!