Michaela and Josh's Beautiful Interfaith Wedding!

Mary Page Block who founded and operates Arioso Strings referred Michaela and Josh to me. Michaela's parents are neighbors of hers in Cary. Mary sat down with the couple in the Spring of 2010 and went through this blog to choose their venue and other wedding  vendors. I am really delighted that brides and grooms use this blog as a resource! I met with Michaela and Josh in May of 2010 to plan this wedding to take place on July 30, 2011. Michaela and Josh chose the beautiful Renaissance Hotel in North Hills. All the weddings I have done there have been done in the long narrow end of the ballroom. Michaela and Josh were expecting more guests than that could accommodate so they chose the wider configuration as shown below by opening up an additional segment of the ballroom: It is huge! 

The photo above shows the long narrow configuration for a wedding I did there on New Year's Eve. 

See how spacious this area is?

 

There was plenty of room for the Arioso Strings Trio headed up by May Page Block and our vocalists.

Valeri and Megan are relatives of Michaela and came down from Ohio to sing in the wedding. They sang "Hosea" which was sung at Michaela's parents' wedding. It was beautiful. I don't know which is which but the young lady on the left is also the mother of our flower girl, Lulani.

Josh is of Jewish heritage and Michaela was brought up Christian. They wanted to blend the two faiths in their wedding ceremony. We included the Chuppah under which we stood for the ceremony. Josh and Michaela constructed this lovely Chuppah and Michaela made the canopy covering the top of it. We had two prayers, the Wine and Seven Blessing Ceremony, scripture readings, and the breaking of the glass.

Behind the partition the band, Shine, was warming up when we arrived to set up my microphones. We also found the cupcake wedding cake by Cakes for a Cause.

Fresh Affairs did the lovely florals. Their theme was sunflowers. 

So, here we are standing around while the last guests took their seats. On the right is Josh's grandpa, Murray, who canted the first of the seven blessings in Hebrew. Josh and I are already in line and behind us are his best man, Justin, and his brothers, Dan and Adam.

Here come the bridesmaids: Anna, the maid of honor, is on the left and Michaela's sisters, Kateri and Lizzie, are on the right.

Okay....we are ready to go. Our director, Terry, a friend of Michaela's family, served as our wedding director and cued us in. In the front of the line are Grandpa Murray who graciously escorted in Michaela's Grandmother, Anne. Our ring bearer is Jacob, son of Josh's aunt and uncle.

Once the wedding party got inside, it was time for the bride and her parents and our flower girls to get in line to enter. Lulani did a great job walking down the aisle by herself and standing with the bridesmaids.

Terry is waiting for Lulani to make it all the way down the aisle before sending the bride and her parents, Denis and Connie.

 

And there they go! I was so delighted to see that Michaela had found a white carpet runner for the wedding. That is about the only type of runner that will work on carpet. It did tend to move a little bit with the nap of the carpet but it was not dangerous or wrinkled.

 

Michaela and Josh live in Atlanta. They met at Emory from where they did their undergraduate work. Josh is a teacher at a private school and Michaela is a speech therapist for the public school system. Theirs is a wonderful love story and I had the pleasure or sharing it with their guests during the ceremony.

These photos are really grainy. The room was darkened and the zoom feature left a lot of quality to be desired!

After the pronouncement, Josh stomped the glass breaking it the first time, we all shouted "Mazeltov," and then they kissed. Sorry, don't have a picture of the kiss! You can see David Teeter with Story Photographers zeroing in on the scene. Ashley Stephenson with Story Photographers was on the other side getting more good shots.

They were beaming as they recessed out into their new marriage!

Michaela and Josh, congratulations on your marriage and your wonderful wedding! Your hard work and diligent planning sure paid off. I wish you the best always!

Allyson and Graham Have a Fabulous Winter Wedding!

Allyson and Graham came to see me on January 18, 2009 and hired me to officiate their wedding on January 2, 2010 at the Unitarian Universalist Fellowship sanctuary on Wade Avenue in Raleigh. At that time, I had no idea how resourceful this young couple would be in creating their dream wedding. But, I found out at their wedding that they did a lot of very careful planning to make their wedding affordable. As Allyson told me herself, it was a DIY wedding! Brian, Allyson's father, told me that she has been a take charge, innovative person since she was a little girl.

Their reception was held at the Royal Banquet on Hillsborough Street across from the Meredith College campus. Marty and I stopped by there before the wedding to get a photo of the wedding cake the bride's mother made. It is a lovely space. We talked to Callie who was in charge of this event for Carla Towns, the Events Coordinator. The caterer furnished the dishes and silverware but Allyson purchased the linens and she and her friends and family set up the tables the night before. Her caterer was Visions Catering of Thomasville NC. I asked Graham how they came to use a caterer that far away. He told me that Allyson expanded her search beyond the Triangle and found Visions and there was no charge for travel within 200 miles and their prices were right.

Allyson's mother, Becca Lipscomb, is a cake baker. She owns the business Cakes for a Cause.  They donate part of every cake purchase either to fund research for childhood cancer or to  your charity. What a wonderful and generous enterprise! This is a lovely cake and I bet it tasted fabulous. It is missing its cake topper which was with the groom over at the church. The cake topper which I never did get to see is a replica of their two dogs!

Here you can see photos of the couple and their Labrador retriever, Huckleberry Finn, and their beagle, Bailey.  

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I was most impressed with their centerpieces! Allyson found these beautiful tall vases herself and filled them with the crystal pebbles. The florist, Madelyn's Flower Shop, from Nashville NC, topped them off with white mums. They were stunning! Good job sleuthing out your vendors, Allyson.

 

The attendants, groom and I are in place waiting for the entrance of the bride and her parents.

Here they come!

The sanctuary of the Unitarian Church is such a beautiful contemporary setting. The acoustics are amazing! Bo, the person in charge of the sound system there, was helpful in getting my microphone plugged into their system and the sound was perfect. The couple saved money by using CD music for the prelude and burned a special CD of the processional and recessional music and it worked very nicely!

The ceremony was sweet and simple, just the way they wanted it. They found a great reading I had not heard before that fit their beliefs and feelings about love and marriage. It is titled: "When a Man and a Woman are in Love" and the author is unknown. They read their vows to each other from my book and after the exchange of rings, I pronounced them husband and wife. They really took to heart my homework assignment to practice kissing and smoothly executed a great kiss!  Sorry that I don't have a photo of that but our professional photographer, Penny Noell, surely does. Penny is a friend of the family and was wonderful to work with.

Let me tell you the story of Allyson's beautiful wedding gown! She fell in love with it when she tried it on almost two years ago at David's Bridal. But her family found another dress they liked better and she liked it as well and bought it. But, she could not stop thinking about that first dress. Later on she saw it on eBay in her size in perfect condition and bought it for a song! So, she sold the first dress she bought on a preowned wedding dress site and came out ahead. How is that for resourcefulness! The dress was perfect for Allyson. It was made for her figure and not only that, it was soft and comfortable and did not wrinkle when she sat down. A dream come true!

Allyson and Graham, you are young but you have known each other for years and have carefully thought out your decisions. I know you are going to have a wonderful and satisfying marriage! All the best to you! And hopefully I will see you again soon because Allyson's grandparents have been married almost 50 years and told me they were thinking of doing a Renewal of Vows ceremony! Just call me!