Clare and Carter's Wonderful Wedding at the Rand-Bryan House!!

Clare and Carter are such a fabulous couple! They took my Marriage 101 course and honed their communication and conflict resolution skills. I am confident that their marriage will be a grand success with much happiness and satisfaction! 

Their wedding day was May 5th, 2019 at the Rand-Bryan House in Garner. It was a beautiful day to start out with but right before the wedding a quick storm with a lot of wind blew in but was over in a matter of minutes then the sun came out again.

The tables were all set for delicious BBQ by Long Leaf Swine and were crowded together into a side room while we did the ceremony in the main room.

Our couple with their beloved fur companion, Penny! Our photographer for the wedding was Keith Marwitz. Our wedding planner/director was Becca Taylor with C&D Events. Becca is the best and I love working with her!!

Our wonderful DJ was Ross Merle. Ross and I have worked at weddings together for 20 years and it was good to be together again. He is fabulous and I can always count on fabulous sound for the ceremony! 

I am doing a sound check with Ross here to make sure every guest can hear the wonderful and funny words of Clare and Carter's ceremony! The florals for this wedding were by Pine State Flowers.

I like to find a quiet place to review the ceremony script ahead of time. 

The guests have arrived and are seated in the ceremony space ready to get this couple married! 

One of our younger guests is ready for the ceremony to begin too! 

Carter escorted his parents in and joined me and his groomsmen, John and Brian, already up front. Then our bridesmaid Cameron entered followed by Kaitlyn, our maid of honor, pictured above. 

It is time for Clare and her father, Guy, and her mother, Leslie, to enter down the aisle. 

I invited the guests to stand for the bride and her parents. 

Clare and Carter turned and faced each other, ready to get married, at last! 

I told the guests how important they are to Clare and Carter and thanked them for being there. 

Then I asked their parents to stand for the Parents' Blessing which is a sweet surprise for them. 

I told them how thankful Clare and Carter were for all the love and care they had given them all their lives. Then I asked each set of parents for their blessings for this marriage.

Now the really fun part of the ceremony--telling the guests the story of how Carter and Clare met and fell in love, and their journey to the wedding day.

I included what attracted them to each other in the beginning and here is where the laughter comes in. 

Their paths crossed in Greensboro in a chemistry class. When Carter first met Clare she was wearing red cowboy boots and a cheetah print top. He thought this was a fascinating, yet somewhat strange combination. This outfit coupled with her incredibly cute short haircut was very intriguing. After their first meeting he couldn’t get over how cute she was, and used this as the main descriptor as he kept John (best man) informed about their first few interactions.

Clare thought Carter was HOT. He was exactly her type--thin, dark haired, and dressed like he was always ready for a hike. As she got to know him, she discovered he had a great sense of humor, was a deep thinker and clearly passionate about doing good in the world. She loved that he never seemed flustered and was always ready to have a good time. 

Their first date was an impromptu dinner at a nearby Chipotle after a lab session when Clare declared she was starving hoping Carter would take the hint. Carter was nervous about asking her out on a real date, afraid she was not interested in him. He finally asked her out to a movie but she had to work so they rescheduled for a walk together and it was then that they shared their first kiss.  

After that their relationship became fast and furious. Then it became long distance when Clare returned to school in Winston-Salem and Carter started a job in Raleigh. But the relationship survived and grew even stronger.

Clare is listening to me tell her what Carter told me in confidence about her--what he loves about her, why he wants to marry her and what he is looking forward to in marriage.

Carter's turn to hear what Clare told me about him! 

They exchanged their vows of marriage. 

Time for the exchange of rings. 

Carter places the ring on Clare's finger as he repeats words after me. 

Then Clare said the same to Carter as she placed the ring on his finger. 

Following a closing blessing I placed my hand on theirs and pronounced them married!!

Sealed with a kiss! 

That sweet "after-kiss" moment as reality is sinking in! 

Celebrate! Clare wasted no time in raising her hands to rejoice! The camera caught Carter starting to do the same! 

Kaitlyn handed Clare the bouquet and I announced them to their guests who applauded and cheered! 

And away they go into their new married life!!

Clare and Carter! What a fabulous wedding! I loved every minute of it and I loved getting to know you better. I have no doubt you are basking in wedded bliss and still celebrating your marriage! I wish you the best always.

Shelly and Jeff Get Married at the Cardinal Club!

August 31, 2013 was the lovely wedding day of Shelly and Jeff at the Cardinal Club in the Wells Fargo building that used to be Wachovia. They held the ceremony on the 28th floor in the area in front of floor to ceiling windows overlooking downtown Raleigh at the foot of the beautiful spiral staircase that leads up to the mezzanine level. Quite elegant and unique. When Dave and I arrived we greeted Jeff who was ready to get the show on the road and met his son Matthew and set up my sound system. Yikes, my battery was running low and the back up battery also proved to be low. Thankfully I carry back ups for my back up! So we were fine and now I have a new pack of batteries ready for the next wedding!

Then it was upstairs to find the lovely cake by Cinda's Creative Cakes. Gorgeous as usual!

The English Garden provided the very colorful floral arrangements. Purple was the predominant color scheme.

When it was time to start, my dear friend and colleague, Ross Merle our DJ, directed the processional. Ross is like that, ready to jump in and do whatever is needed. We did not have a rehearsal and I knew I could count on him to help with the ceremony. He is a wonderful DJ too--his main job at weddings--but I can always count on him to do whatever needs doing! His lovely wife, Alice, played the piano for the ceremony and cocktail hour. Sorry Dave did not get a picture of her. Dave is not as "well trained" as my usual assistant, Marty, who was on vacation!! But I am so grateful he would come with me and take pictures for this blog. Matthew and I entered first followed by Jeff who escorted in his mother, Marcella. Waiting in the wings is Shelly's mother, Barbara, escorted in by her son, Chip.

We are waiting for the bridesmaids and the bride here. There was a long pause and I never did find out why.

Ross is giving some kind of instruction here to Caitlin, Jeff's daughter, and Kim, Shelly's friend and Maid of Honor.

They each entered and it was time for the bride and her dad, Bill. 

Shelly is just beaming! 

We began with a warm welcome to everyone, paid tribute to their parents, remembered those who were with us in spirit, and then recognized Jeff's children, Matthew and Caitlin, who stood up with their father. Shelly and Jeff's kids made sweet vows to each other and I think a few tears slipped out at that point.  

Shelly and Jeff discovered each other on line 4 years ago when for her birthday Shelly thought she would try something new to mark the milestone. She joined eHarmony. Shelly, being a woman of confidence and unwillingness to settle for less than she wanted, specifically stated that the man of her dreams would have to learn to love her dogs. Jeff, having been on the site for a while and had not found the woman of his dreams, spotted Shelly's profile among his "matches" and thought that since she was pretty, sounded intelligent and sincere he would check her out--dogs or no dogs! Jeff was Shelly's third date through the matching service and the only one to make it to a second date which was very memorable--rollerblading at Lake Pine in Apex followed by dinner at Jeff's house. It is a funny story and a bit long to tell here (the room was filled with laughter as I told it during the ceremony!) but I will just say that Shelly was new to rollerblading and had not mastered the ability to stop. Despite making a plan just in case she needed to stop, somehow Shelly got ahead of Jeff and he watched in helpless terror as she crashed at Dead Man's Curve and thankfully only ended up with a few bruises and a black eye giving him the opportunity to display his home nursing skills as well as his cooking skills. Needless to say, they bonded and have been together ever since, traveling the world together, buying a house together, and Jeff admitted that he really has come to love Shelly's two dogs, Simon and Sally.

They made their promises to each other by reading them from my book. 

Then they exchanged their rings. 

At last, the pronouncement of marriage! 

Jeff really laid that kiss on Shelly! 

Enjoying the first moments of wedding bliss and taking in the cheers of their friends and family! 

Ahhh.....I can see the happiness on their faces and the relaxation pour over them now that the deed is done and it was time to party!

Shelly and Jeff, you are both resilient and resourceful and I know you are going to enjoy wedded bliss and easily overcome any obstacles that life throws your way. As I said at the ceremony "We pray your love increases and overflows beyond anything you can yet imagine!"

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