Elizabeth and Dan Wed at the Pergola in Duke Gardens!

In contrast to the weather the previous weekend, the weather on Elizabeth and Dan's wedding day, April 23, 2011, was fantastic at Duke Gardens. It was slightly overcast making it the perfect lighting for their wedding pictures and comfortable for their many guests.

Ann, a friend and neighbor of Elizabeth's family, was our wedding director. She got everyone lined up and ready to go in from the bottom of the first tier of steps at the pergola. The grandparents and parents had entered and now it was time for the bridesmaids and groomsmen. When there are steps involved, it is always a good idea to have the groomsmen escorting the bridesmaids.

 

Dan's brother-in-law, Mike, and his wife, Amy (Dan's sister), and their daughter Chloe--our flower girl--enter last. To avoid Chloe, age 2, from being upset, we thought it best that her mommy and daddy escort her in. Note that she had discarded her shoes!! Dan's father Daniel served as his Best Man and Amy served as Elizabeth's Matron of Honor.

Our Father of the Bride, Jim, is taking his job very seriously here. Elizabeth's dress was so pretty and soft and she carried the train to avoid snagging it on the concrete walkway.

The "hand-off" of bride to groom is done and Jim waits for Elizabeth's train to clear before taking his seat. I like to have the groom step down to the ground level as the bride and her father are processing in. When Jim and Elizabeth stopped in front of Dan, I asked: "Jim, as Elizabeth's father, do you and her mother, Patricia, bless and support her as she comes to join in marriage to Daniel?" Of course he said "Yes, we do." Then Elizabeth gave her father a little kiss as he placed her hand into Dan's and the bride and groom then ascended the steps for the ceremony together, symbolic of taking their relationship to greater heights.

The pergola is such a gorgeous setting for weddings. Two weeks prior, the wisteria covering it was in full purple bloom which has a rather adverse side effect for weddings there as it attracts many bees to the pergola. This day there were only a few purple blooms remaining and I did not see a single bumblebee! 

Dan and Elizabeth are such a great couple. I got to know them quite well and loved working with them on their wonderful ceremony. We paid a very special surprise tribute to their parents whose marriages are intact and have stood the test of time.

 

 

Duke Gardens provides only 50 chairs and since there were more than 100 guests, most of them were standing for the ceremony. The ceremony was about 20 minutes. Dan and Elizabeth loved the wine and chocolate ceremony so we included that after they said their custom written vows to each other and exchanged rings. The wine represents the bitterness that life may bring and the chocolate the sweetness. Being married means that you accept both as part of your journey together.

 

 

And so they set off on their journey as husband and wife! 

 

Musicians Laura, Jake and Belinda from Arioso Strings provided their usual beautiful music for the guests prior to the beginning of the ceremony and for the processional and recessional. Always a pleasure working with these talented musicians!  Kristin and Sarah from KPO Photography were our photographers. I have worked many weddings with them in the past 12 years and they are great! Thanks, gals. 

 

Elizabeth and Dan, you are such a thoughtful and delightful couple and so dedicated to each other and your relationship. I know you will have a wonderful marriage! It was a joy working with you. Congratulations!

A Sweet Garden Wedding for Amy and Trent and Their Children!

Amy and Trent have been ready to get married for a long time but wanted to wait and have a "real" wedding with family and friends instead of a courthouse wedding. Amy ran across this blog and saw that I did small private weddings in my wedding garden so she gave me a call. She was so happy that it was affordable and they could get married much sooner than they hoped for! We settled on the date of Saturday April 23rd at 1:00 PM and they came by the morning before the tornado on April 16th to see the garden and loved it. I wrote a custom proposed ceremony for them to review and make any changes to. They wanted to definitely include their child together, Jayden, and Trent's children, Autumn Rain and Rivers David and I suggested the Family Unity Sand Ceremony. This is something I do whenever the couple have small children because it is so symbolic and the children actually have something to do during the ceremony and look forward to their part.

April 23rd turned out to be a beautiful day. It was a bit overcast which is good for pictures as you can see. The colors are really saturated and my garden was lush with green and the lilac bush was in full bloom in the background. The lovely fragrance bathed us all in a heavenly scent. Amy's parents were able to be with us but Trent's were in Florida and could not be with us.

Their friends, Ashley and Nicholas, were maid of honor and best man. Autumn was our flower girl. Both Amy and Trent had tears of happiness rolling down their cheeks as we began the ceremony!

Here Amy and Trent pour in their two different colors of sand making two layers.The colors represent their individuality which is not lost but are combined to make something even more beautiful.

Autumn poured her purple sand next.

Rivers poured in his yellow sand.

Jayden, age two, needed some help from Mom and Dad to pour his pretty turquoise sand.

Amy and Trent then blended the remainder of their sand on top of the children's sand. What fantastic symbolism. The words go like this: "Now today, we witness the marriage of not only two individuals, but also that of a family who has been so fortunate to find one another, to enjoy one another and to love one another, now and always."

 

 

Autumn was really happy to see her dad and Amy tie the knot and exchange their wedding rings.

 

 

What a happy day! Congratulations, Amy and Trent, Autumn, Rivers and Jayden! You are one terrific family and I could tell you were brimming over with love and happiness. 

Veronica and Sterling Elope to Raleigh to Marry In Kayelily's Wedding Garden!

Veronica called me on Friday April 15th to see if I had time to marry her and Sterling the following day of April 16, 2011 while they were on a business trip to Raleigh from Fayetteville. I told her I could squeeze her in at 7 PM on Saturday or sometime Sunday afternoon. She chose Saturday and they had already gotten their marriage license. So, I got the details I needed, gave them directions to my home and wrote a lovely elopement ceremony for them.I recruited my roadie, Marty, and my good friend Jae to be present as witnesses and we were all set!

Earlier that day the weather was extremely adverse with tornadoes. Fortunately there was no damage to the wedding garden, only a few green leaves scattered on the patio.

They said their vows and exchanged rings.

Then they kissed and hugged. I could tell they were so happy to finally be married. Veronica told me that they had decided to elope and have a big celebration sometime later rather than spend a lot of money and time planning a formal wedding, especially since this was the second marriage for both. They wanted to know of a romantic place to celebrate over dinner so we sent them to Heron's at The Umstead Hotel and Spa.

Veronica and Sterling, congratulations! I wish you all the best life has to offer and we hope you had a very romantic dinner at Heron's!

Renee and Dan Celebrate their Wedding at Heron's at The Umstead!

I met Renee and Dan for the first time when I arrived for their wedding on April 16, 2011 at The Umstead Hotel and Spa. They had arranged to have their small private family wedding in the hotel's elegant restaurant, Heron's, one of the most prestigious restaurants in the whole state. Above is the entrance to the restaurant with the elegant floral arrangements which abound in the hotel.

While we were waiting for 5:30 to arrive to go inside Heron's, their photographer, Viji Sathy, was taking pictures of the children and we are watching her. Both Renee and Dan have been married before and between them they have 5 children, all between the ages of 5 and 11. The children are all great buddies and I could feel their excitement about their mom and dad getting married!

The sand ceremony was ready! Lots of pretty colors of sand to layer together signifying the unity of this newly joined family.

 This is the private room for the wedding. We are getting ready to take our places and begin.

The children were their only attendants. The boys were in blue, the girls in pink with beautiful bouquets.

 I got to hold the girls' bouquets while they poured their sand. And this is what it all looked like when they finished pouring. It almost overflowed and the lid did not fit anymore. They will have to pour off a little of the sand at the top!

The children had a good laugh when Dan had trouble getting the ring on Renee's finger but he finally succeeded.

 Cheering going on for the newlywed couple, mom and dad!

 

It had finally stopped raining and it was time to go out on the upper terrace for some photos of the whole family including Dan's mother, Maureen, and Renee's parents, Mary and Glenn. What a happy family! The children are officially brothers and sisters!

Renee and Dan, you have a lovely and busy life ahead of you! Enjoy your children and each other. I wish you all the happiness in the world.

In the Midst of a Tornado, Heather and Nathan Create an Unforgettable Wedding Day!

I first met Heather and Nathan almost exactly a year ago. They were planning their wedding for April 16, 2011 at the JC Raulston Arboretum in Raleigh. They had been together for 4 years at that point and had been blessed with the birth of their son, Riley, in 2009 and wanted to celebrate their loving commitment to each other with a wedding ceremony and fun reception for their friends and family. So, we started planning. Little did we know that their wedding day would also be the day a tornado went through downtown Raleigh! We had our rehearsal the day before at the White Garden. It was a beautiful day but the forecast was ominous for the next day. At 10 AM Saturday morning Heather called to say that they had wisely decided to go with Plan B and have the wedding ceremony at their reception site of the Holiday Inn Brownstone on Hillsborough Street in downtown Raleigh. It was a very wise decision. The Holiday Inn staff got busy setting up the room next to the reception room for the wedding and were still putting up flowers when we arrived.

When Marty and I arrived about 2:15 that afternoon, it was starting to rain a little. Our ceremony musician, Lindsay Skipper with Elegant Violin had set up and was running through the music. She is very talented and very clever. She brought with her an amplifier into which she plugged her iPod with piano accompaniment. So when she played her violin with the recorded music, it sounded very rich and full. I set up my portable sound system on the other side of the room and did a sound check.

Then it was time to begin. The bridesmaids were lined up behind me, ready to go. Nathan and his groomsmen followed me down the aisle.

Behind the bridesmaids, Kim, friend of the couple, was in charge of getting the cute little flower girls down the aisle.

Time for our beautiful bride who was escorted in by her mother. Both fathers of the couple have passed away.

Judith lifted the veil from Heather's face then placed her hand into Nathan's as they turned to face each other.

I walked around to help pull the veil toward the back so that the guests (and our photographer) could see Heather's face during the ceremony.

And so we began. Heather and Nathan's ceremony was quite varied and filled with sweet moments, especially when they read a poem to their son, Riley.

Of course their story was fun and the guests enjoyed hearing about how they met and some of their adventures together. There was one part that I thought was clever. Since Nathan had not dated much when they met at the school where he was a first year kindergarten teacher and she a first year school counselor, they jokingly used the term b.i.t. which means "boyfriend in training" for Nathan. Apparently he was a good student and learned fast though!

They really liked the symbolism of the handfasting ceremony and here I am wrapping the handfasting cord around their joined left hands. The more loops, the stronger the bond.

 

They wrote their own vows and read them to each other as they exchanged rings.

 

To symbolize their family unity and include their son in the ceremony, they did the sand ceremony. Riley was too young to participate physically but they poured his sand in with theirs making many pretty layers of colored sand.

Heather wanted to honor her Jewish heritage so she included the glass breaking and the Seven Blessings from the Jewish wedding traditions in the wedding. You cannot see it in this photo but I have just put the glass to be broken at Nathan's feet and told him not to stomp it yet! I have to make the pronouncement first, then the stomp, the guests shout "Mazeltov" then they kiss.

 It's done! They are married!  (We had no idea what was brewing outside at this point!)

This is Derrick Bryant, our photographer, with One Vision Photography. His plans for getting beautiful shots of Heather and Nathan at the arboretum just did not pan out! Could not even go outside the hotel so he had to settle for the lobby and an upstairs conference lobby. He had a second shooter with him and I know the two of them got some great shots despite the circumstances!

While the guests went to the reception, the newlyweds, their wedding party, Riley and his babysitter, Eric, and Marty and I went upstairs to the lobby for photos. Eric is opening the goody bag which is his reward for being quiet during the wedding ceremony!

I think we are all in a bit of a shock as we had just learned that a tornado was expected to touch down in 20 minutes, at the moment Marty snapped this photo. Wow, are we ever glad to be in a safe building on the lower level. Heather and Nathan, I know you won't ever forget your wedding day, and I won't either! It turned out beautifully despite the adverse weather, just as you two have weathered your own challenges. You have the love and you have the endurance to make your marriage a grand success and full of peace, love and joy!