Dana and Matt's Fabulous Wedding!

It has been many years since I had a wedding at the Governor's Club in Chapel Hill. It is a very beautiful campus and the day of the wedding, July 6th 2019, was bright and sunny and of course on the rather warm side. 

View of the lake and golf course from the terrace where the wedding ceremony was. 

Tre Bella Flowers furnished these urns filled with beautiful floral arrangements. 

Looking from the altar area to the club and terrace, you can see that a nice tent had been erected to provide shade from the sun. I really enjoyed working with Lisa Johnson with the club who was coordinating the ceremony and reception. She had everything under control.

The view from the back row of chairs. There were between 150 to 200 guests expected. 

This sign greeted guests in the lobby as they arrived for the wedding. 

Power 2 Party is the wedding band that would play at the reception. Their keyboardist, Alex, played for the ceremony procession and recession while James hooked my mic into their sound system to amplify my voice. Sound was perfect!  

Paying a visit to the groom and groomsmen and getting the witness signature on the marriage license too. 

Watching the guests arrive for the wedding. 

Once the guests were seated, the guys and I went around to a side terrace from which we would enter. 

Here we are waiting for our cue to enter. 

Our youngest guest!

While the groomsmen and I were taking out places, Matt escorted his mother, Rose, in then joined us. 

Mother of the bride, Debbie, was escorted in by Craig, father of the bride, and he returned to bring in the bride. Time for the bridesmaids to enter!

Laura entered with her daughter Cori, our flower girl, who then sat with her daddy during the ceremony. 

Then Aly entered, followed by our matron of honor, Kaitlyn, sister of the bride, for whom I officiated her wedding in 2017. (Here is a LINK to her wedding.) I invited everyone to stand for the bride and her dad who got to escort another daughter down the aisle! It was so good to see Kaitlyn and their  family again! Unfortunately Kaitlyn's husband, Cody, could not be at the wedding due to military service.

And so the ceremony began with a welcome to all then a prayer. 

I stepped out to tell our guests how Dana and Matt met and fell in love. It was in February 2017 in a bowling alley. It was not a planned meeting and Dana was not prepared to meet her future spouse that night! Funny moments in the story had everyone laughing.

Telling them what their partner told me in confidence what they love about each other and what they are looking forward to in marriage. Sweet and tender moment for both.

And a little laughter too! 

Some words on love and marriage and a welcome to the next chapter in their lives!

They made their vows to each other by answering "I will" to my questions to each of them.

I called for the rings and invited Matt to place the ring on Dana's finger as he said the words after me. 

Then Dana placed the ring on Matt's finger as she said the words after me. 

A closing blessing before the pronouncement of marriage. 

I placed my hand on theirs and declared that they are husband and wife. 

Their first married kiss! 

Introducing the newlywed couple to their family and friends! 

And out they go! 

Beaming! 

Matt and Dana! What a wonderful wedding. I loved it. It was fun and so sweet. I loved working with you both and know your marriage will be a grand adventure! I wish you the best always!

Professional Wedding Guild (PWG) Luncheon at the Sheraton Chapel Hill

This luncheon last Wednesday 2/24 was my first professional wedding outing since my surgery in January. The last PWG luncheon was in November and they don't have one in December. The January one was the day after my surgery. So, it was good to be back at one of these networking events. We met at the lovely Sheraton Chapel Hill. It has been remodeled and redecorated since I was there and it is beautiful and spacious. They can accommodate a large wedding reception of 400+ people! The photo above is of a section of the ballroom. The lovely table decor was by Andy Karras of A Special Event. The table linens were so pretty. That is harpist Marilyn Wienand standing behind the wedding cake by Buy the Pound which was delicious and was served by the baker, Sandra Timmons. I was so happy to get a slice of the middle layer which was chocolate pound cake--yum, one of my favorites!

I saw lots of wedding professionals as usual and it was great to see them again after a long break. We were entertained before lunch was served by Patrice Kaluza  of Sea Sound Studio Entertainment. Patrice is a wonderful vocalist but unfortunately she developed laryngitis the day before and was unable to sing for us.  Maybe next time?

Across the table from me are Julie McKay and Ashleigh Collins from The Carolina Inn. Ashleigh is new to the Inn and Julie was introducing her around. Standing behind them is Rev. Robin Renteria, close friend and colleague. Rev. Barbara Lodge and Rev. Phran Gaucher were there too.  See the pretty table linens Andy provided? The flowers were provided by Flowers by Gary.

Jim Shaw of Jim Shaw Photography and Brian McGuire of McSound Productions (DJ) were busy networking!

Our program this month was a panel of 4 brides and one mother of the bride for us to ask questions. It was quite interesting. One of the brides was Amanda Jones whose wedding I am officiating. They are from left to right: Chanel Francis, Amanda Jones, Cecilia Mackey, Jane Peppler, and Danet Bratton. Cecilia's wedding was last October and so she was able to answer questions from that perspective and what she might do differently. Jane is our mother of the bride whose daughter's wedding is in June. Jane comes to PWG luncheons because she is a musician who sometimes plays at weddings so she had an "inside" perspective. To the far left is our moderator and publisher of Perfect Wedding Guide, Gail Galloway, who had received questions from us ahead of time that she presented to the brides and mother. It was a great program and I am sure we all learned some valuable tips from these brides.

After the program Gail was discussing things with Dajuan Jones from In His Image Photography who took photos at the luncheon for PWG. They will be posted on the PWG website soon.

Well, it was a great experience today. To make it even more terrific, I won one of the door prizes--a nice bottle of Chardonnay from Bartending Unlimited. (Thank you, Contada!) Good to be back in the groove. Weddings for me start on March 7th, next weekend at Nicole and Steven's wedding at Caffe Luna. Watch for a post on their wedding!