Kristin and Jeffrey Marry in a Sweet Family Ceremony at Second Empire!

Kristin and Jeffrey were planning a wedding on October 13, 2012 at the Second Empire historic restaurant in Raleigh where I do many small weddings. It is a very elegant and comfortable venue for an intimate wedding. Kristin contacted me in July to see if I was available and happily I was. I met with them in August and we started planning their ceremony. They wanted to include Kristin's two daughters, Claire and Elena, in the ceremony so we incorporated a Family Unity Sand Ceremony so they girls could actively participate. The big day arrived and it was a gorgeous fall day, perfect for their wedding. Photographing their wedding was Caroline of carolinezphotography. I have not worked with Caroline before so it was a great chance to meet her and exchange cards. From her website I see she does nice work. As a disclaimer, the photographs in this blog, however, were taken by my assistant, Marty, with my point and shoot digital camera and not Caroline! I know  her professional photos are much superior to these. I just like to tell the story on the blog!

They arranged for the ceremony to be in the East Parlor of the main floor. The reception was in the adjoining room all set up for the celebration.

Kristin and her daughters await the signal to enter after Jeffrey and I took our places.

Here Jeffrey is telling the girls how much he loves them and how happy he is that they officially become a family today.

He gave each of them a pretty pink pearl bracelet as a symbol of the special day.

We continued on with the ceremony but the girls became a bit shy and gathered behind Kristin and Jeffrey!

We paid tribute to their parents, Edna, Jeffrey's mother who traveled here from Michigan, and Don and Michaelyn, Kristin's parents who traveled from Maryland to be with us. Then Jeffrey and Kristin made their vows and exchanged rings.

They all poured their sand together symbolizing their new family created today.

 I think the girls are glad that ceremony is over with! 

Kristin and Jeffrey, congratulations! What a beautiful family you all make. Thank you for making me a part of this special day uniting you all!