Lauren and Charles Wed at Duke Gardens Pergola!

Duke Gardens is a stunning setting for weddings. The leaves are just beginning to turn. This day, October 10, 2009, it was overcast and rain was right on the edge of us but we persisted and made it without a single raindrop!
Charles and Lauren asked their friend Mandy (in black) to direct their wedding. Since we did not have a rehearsal, I briefed her on the order of things before the ceremony. She got everyone lined up to come in after I cued the musicians to begin the processional music. Here she is ready to send in the father and mother of the bride, Tom and Cathie. Behind her are Stacy, the matron of honor, and our bride, Lauren. They are hidden behind the bushes so Charles cannot see Lauren until she makes her entrance because he, the best man, and I are in the back of the pergola. When the mother of the bride is seated, then the groom, best man and I come forth and down the steps to wait for the bride.

Now it's time for Tom and Lauren to make their grand entrance!

Tom transferred Lauren's hand to Charles at the bottom of the steps and then we all stepped up to the top of the stairs for the ceremony.

Erin and Kevin, friends of the couple, shared a reading of First Corinthians.

I made the pronouncement of marriage. We did not get a shot of the kiss but trust me, it happened!

Charles and Lauren, now married!

Here is their family gathered for the first of the photos.

Don't they look happy?!

Congratulations and best wishes to you, Lauren and Charles!

Arioso Strings provided our lovely music. David Oh plays the cello while Mary Page Block plays violin. Mary Page told me that she had 14 musicians playing weddings next weekend. Way to go! It is always a pleasure to work with Mary Page and her musicians.

Our photographer for this wedding was Linda Wallace of Linda Wallace Photography.

A Great Wedding for Adam and Kristina at Anderson Point Park!

Friday, October 9, 2009, was an Indian Summer day with temps in the mid eighties! Adam and Kristina chose the beautiful amphitheater at Anderson Point Park in East Raleigh just off 264, a little gem hidden away in a spacious park with woods and rolling hills of green. I did a wedding several years ago there but we had the wedding in the charming cottage on the property because of threatening rain. Everything ran rather late this Friday--chairs, guests, food--but it was no big deal because there was nothing else pressing on my calendar. We began the wedding at 3:20 with the escorting in of the mothers. Adam's mother, Lair, had just flown in from their ranch in Texas and had to fly right back after the wedding because there was no one else to look after the horses, dogs and cats. Adam's father, Nick, was already here as he was serving as the best man for his son. Cheryl, Kristina's mother, was escorted in by her son Jason.

Enter our Flower Girl, Natalie, with her shiny gold shoes. She is Kristina's niece.

Here is our beautiful, beaming bride! She is escorted in by her brother, Chuck. She is wearing a shimmering beigy-gold colored wedding dress. It was so pretty on her. Her bouquet was reflective of lovely fall colors.

So, here we are at the beginning of the ceremony with Aidan, Adam's son, age 4, sticking close to daddy. Adam had a brown jacket and shoes for him to wear but he refused. He was being pacified by a ziplock bag of Fruit Loops!

When it came time to do the Blessing of Aidan in the ceremony, I called his name and he turned and walked in between Kristina and Adam and looked up at me so I crouched down to his level. This is what I said to him: "Aidan, you are a very special part of the lives of all the people here today. Your daddy and Kristina want you to know how much they love you and how important you are in their relationship. They want you to know that there is nothing you can do or say that will stop them from loving you. The three of you, as a family, makes them happy every day." He listened very attentively then gave me a Fruit Loop!

Aidan finally got so bored with the ceremony that he gravitated toward his grandmother to hold him.

Here is a wide view of the ceremony site. It is a wonderful setting for a wedding. Adam and Kristina made "fall leaves" out of yellow, orange and red tissue paper and right before we began (because it was breezy) we scattered them in the aisle and it made a stunning color palette for the wedding. Note that Kristina's two sisters, Jessica and Rachel, are wearing dresses identical to Kristina's except that they are red and orange. Adam and his father were both dressed in brown suits and Nick had a red shirt on. Kristina told me that she had hoped that the leaves in the trees would have turned by the wedding but they were still green today.

Adam and Kristina requested that the guests "shower them with the fall leaves" as they recessed out, and they did!
Kristina and Adam did not know what a big hit the leaves would be for the kids--an added bonus!

From left to right: Cheryl (mother of the bride), Aidan, Adam, Kristina, Lair (mother of the groom still in jeans because she did not have time to change), Nick (father of the groom and best man) and me.

This happy family of three, now married! Aidan is a little doll and we were so proud of how well he behaved himself! Still hanging on to that bag of Fruit Loops! Adam and Kristina, Aidan is a lucky little boy to have you as parents. I wish you all the happiness in the world.

Julius Carrasco provided us with wonderful wedding music. Julius is an accomplished classical/Flamenco guitarist. He brings his own sound system to weddings, just like I do! This time I supplied the battery for our power as there are no power outlets in the amphitheater. Thanks, Julius, your music was great.

Many thanks to Anna Lawson who directed this wedding for us. Anna and Adam and Kristina all work for the Washington-Duke Inn where I do so many weddings. In fact, I saw Anna there the next day at a wedding I was doing that evening.

Catherine and Tim Wed at Doubletree Suites!

"As autumn leaves turn their brilliant hue, two hearts will join and say I do." A quote from the wedding program for Tim and Catherine who were married on Sunday October 4th, 2009. It was a beautiful wedding. "Red weddings" are always so striking with the contrast of red and white. It was a beautiful day with a pleasant breeze and overcast skies which were perfect for good photos.

Here Tim and I enter and take our places followed by the Best Man and groomsmen.

Here comes our beautiful bride and her proud father. Catherine was so lovely in her gorgeous bridal gown as she floated down the aisle. I noticed Tim's eyes filling with tears as he watched her come toward him with her eyes locked on his.

Catherine and Tim created a lovely ceremony from my material that fit exactly what they wanted on their wedding day.

The happy couple, now married, making their way down the aisle!

We took photos down the way at the waterfall area. The background of the water and the woods make a stunning setting for pictures. Catherine and Tim, many congratulations!

I am not sure Catherine felt real comfortable being out in the middle on the slabs with the water rushing under them! But she was a good sport and I know our photographer got some fabulous shots.

Our Vendors:

Lenny Fritts of Touch of Class DJs was not only our DJ and provided music for both the ceremony and the reception and plugged my mic into his system, but he also was our wedding director. Lenny has been part of so many weddings, he knows precisely how the processional is to go. He is a Pro! Thanks, Lenny.

Amy Acosta, Events Manager, at Doubletree Suites was on hand at the rehearsal and the wedding to make sure everything flowed smoothly. The hotel caters weddings.

Our photographer was Janell Register of Reflections Photography. I know she got some great shots, especially at the waterfall. I am going to be checking her website out to see them.

The florist was Tre Bella in Durham. The floral arrangements on the arbor at the altar were gorgeous and so were the bouquets, boutonnieres, and flowers on the tables.

Their lovely wedding cake was by Simply Cakes. It was beautiful.

At Doubletree Suites the receptions are held in a huge tent next to the patio, deck and lake. It is heated and air-conditioned so it is always comfortable. The white with red touches made a striking setting for a festive wedding celebration.

A Wedding in the Round for Delaney and Jake at Snipes Farm Retreat in Chapel Hill!

Jake and Delaney met at the University of North Carolina 9 years ago but they live in Chicago now. Jake is originally from Laurinburg NC and is descended from the Lumbee Indians. Delaney was born in Tennessee and lived in NJ and her heritage is Christian and Jewish. Their wedding ceremony was a beautiful blending of all their heritages.

Snipes Farm Retreat in Chapel Hill fit Delaney and Jake's dream site for their wedding. It is an old dairy farm with barn and silo, now converted to a great casual party place out in the country. Here is our wedding director in the black dress, Lindsey Moyer, directing guests to the wedding ceremony area. The pooch is Jake and Delaney's sweet doggie, Stella, who was honored by a reading during the wedding entitled "Love is Like Owning a Dog." She was wearing a ring pillow on her collar but Jake's dad had the real rings. She was such a gentle dog and had the sweetest face.

Here Jake is being escorted in by his parents. Jake and Delaney wanted to have their guests in a circle around them. There were 3 rows of concentric circles of chairs. Seated in the Inner Circle were their family members and special friends instead of having attendants standing up with them. That made it easy for the three of us under the Chuppah to make a quarter turn every quarter section of the ceremony so all the guests got good views of the bride and groom. In the ceremony we included a Native American saying “Everything the power of the world does is done in a circle. The sky is round, and I have heard that the earth is round like a ball, and so are the stars. The wind in its greatest power whirls. Birds make their nests in circles. The sun comes forth and goes down again in a circle. Even the seasons form a great circle in their changing and always come back again to where they were. The life of a man or a woman is a circle from childhood to childhood, and so it is in everything where power moves.”

Delaney is escorted in by her mother and father and helped along by Lindsey.

Here Delaney and her parents enter the circle as the guests are standing in honor of the bride. (I noticed after the wedding that there was a note in the program Please Don't Stand for the entrance of Inner Circle, Groom and Bride, but I did not see it ahead of time and had the guests stand for the bride!)

The sun is shining right in Delaney's eyes while we stood facing this direction. She was glad when we turned. Did you notice the big rocks in the pots holding the poles of the Chuppah? Well, although the poles were embedded in concrete, it was not heavy enough to keep the Chuppah from blowing over. Having seen 4 good sized rocks on my way in, Lindsey and I enlisted the help of 4 strong young men to fetch those rocks to anchor the pots. Once these guys were involved, they took over making sure that Chuppah would not blow over and they were certainly successful. Thanks, you guys!

Jake is tall. The Chuppah is almost grazing the top of his head! This Chuppah was very special to this couple as the canopy incorporated needlework of her great grandmother.

Jake and Delaney drink wine together as part of the Jewish wedding tradition. L'Haim, may your cup of life run over!

Stella decided it was nap time during the ceremony but I believe she did pay attention during the reading dedicated to her.

I had to include this amazing photo filled with rainbow light!

Delaney is reading to Jake her personal statement to him from my book. All of us got a good laugh at her sense of humor about how they met. Jake's personal statement to Delaney included his singing to her a song he wrote for her. It was so romantic. I could almost hear the women all around us swooning!

I made the pronouncement of marriage, Jake stomped the glass, and after 9 years, Jake and Delaney are sooooo happy to be married, at last!

The sun is shining bright on this very special couple. Jake and Delaney, your wedding was terrific. I love your creativity and expressiveness. It was definitely a one-of-a-kind wedding. Congratulations to you both.

Who made this lovely cake? I forgot to find out.

This is the reception area inside the barn at Snipes Farm Retreat. (They don't have a website but you can call the owner, Roger Snipes, at 919-929-3454.) Delaney made the favors and each table was named for a city they either lived in or visited with a photo of them there and words explaining the significance. Delaney also made some of the most beautiful wedding programs I have ever seen. She is so talented and creative. She actually stamped a swatch of fabric with the design of a tree with the roots spelling out hers and Jake's full names. This was sewn onto the cover of each program. In addition to having the usual order of service and the names of parents, grandparents and Inner Circle friends, they made a crossword puzzle specific to their facts, like "the name of the Tarheel mascot, Chicago-style pizza, Jake's birthday month Scorpio, what's black, barks and bears the ring?" Inside each program was a handwritten name or word that was to match or "twin" with another name or word in another program, i. e. Peanut Butter and Jelly would match. The guests were to find their "twin." A wonderful touch and a fun mixer.

Many thanks to Lindsey Moyer of A Joyful Occasion, and her assistant, Suzanne Dale, for doing a super job organizing the guests and wedding party and directing the wedding.

I want to thank Jonathan C. Ward, Native American flutist, who played original flute music for the processional. It was so beautiful, so much so that I bought one of his CDs. He also brought his sound board so that all I had to do was plug in my ear mic and the handheld mic I brought for our reader. The website address www.jonathancward.com on his card does not work but his phone number is (910) 474-8189 and if you google him, you can watch his U-tube. Forbes Boyle, guitarist and singer and one of the Inner Circle Friends, played and sang for the entrance of the Inner Circle Family and Friends and Groom and Bride.

James Bowman of James Bowman Photography was our photographer. The photos on this blog, however, were taken with my point and shoot digital camera by my friend and "roadie," Marty.

Eric and Lauren Have a Wonderful Wedding on the Family Farm in Chapel HIll!

Eric and Lauren met with me in April of 2008 to plan their wedding for May of 2009. Their venue was The Matthews House. When the economy tanked earlier this year, Eric and Lauren, being a frugal and considerate couple, decided to scale down their wedding plans and move the venue to Eric's family farm in Chapel Hill. The date was changed to October 3, 2009. So, when I saw them at the rehearsal on 10/2, it had been 18 months since we had met!

Our flower girls are Katie and Izzy, daughters of friends of Lauren's family. We did not know if they would make it down the aisle or not because at the rehearsal, they were very shy. Something must have happened overnight because they made it all the way down and they even remembered to sprinkle the petals!

Here comes the bride! The aisle was unfortunately covered with gravel, guaranteed to chew up the delicate train of Lauren's beautiful bridal gown. So, after attempts to get a runner to stay down, we gave up and Megan, the Matron of Honor, did the honors of carrying the bride's train as Lauren entered with her father. If you look closely you will see that the bridesmaids wore purple dresses with bright orange high heels and carried bright orange bouquets. The effect was very pretty.

Our bride and groom are really quite talented. As part of the ceremony, a song that they had written together was performed by Eric's sisters, Rachel and Rebeka and their friend, Catherine Jones. The beautiful music written by Eric and played on the keyboard by Yuri Broze, featured lyrics written by Lauren adapted from Kahlil Gibran's The Prophet. It was simply stunning and I was so glad when the guests broke out into applause because I wanted to applaud them as well. It was quite moving. Tears were streaming down Lauren's cheeks and the hankie I carry for just that reason came in handy.

The couple also chose to have a family sand ceremony in which their parents poured in sand from the Mississippi River at St. Louis where Eric grew up and sand from the shore of New Jersey where Lauren grew up. This sand represented the couples heritage and foundation. Then Eric and Lauren poured in sand representing the two of them.

The couple and wedding party departed the ceremony to go take photos while the guests were invited to enjoy a cocktail hour on the lawn.

Finally Eric and Lauren are happily married! The change of venue and date all worked out for the best and they had a fun celebration with their guests. Their ceremony was at 1:45 and I hear that the party was still going strong at 7:30!

Eric and Lauren, I wish you a very happy marriage and may all your dreams come true!

Here is the reception tent in the back yard. It was huge!

See the dance floor and all the tables and the bandstand?

The band is getting set up and the lanterns make the tent so festive.

Pretty table arrangements and attractive place cards.

This was a beautiful cake. It was made gluten-free. The smaller cake (not pictured) was dairy-free. It was baked by Aggie Stachura who used to bake wedding cakes for Whole Foods when they sold wedding cakes.

Karen Harmych of From This Moment was our wedding planner and director. Karen is wonderful. Eric and Lauren contacted me a couple of months before the wedding feeling too stressed about pulling everything together for their wedding. They needed help organizing all the vendors and creating a time line. I recommended they contact Karen whom I have worked with many times before. She knows how to pull those loose ends together and get everything handled. She did it again for Eric and Lauren. Thanks, Karen.

Gregory Lewis of Catering by Design, catered the reception as arranged by Karen, and there were some additional dishes from Neomonde Mediterranean Deli. I tasted a phyllo pastry cup filled with chicken, mango and cilantro that Greg made and let me tell you it was delicious!

The videography and photography were done by good friendsof the couple who are not in the wedding business in NC. The band was also a group of friends of the bride and groom.