Tuesday, January 8, 2013

Vow Time

I love Cannon in D, but I hate cliche wedding music, so AnnMarie and Sam played a song by Yanni for the first part of the procession.  To Take... To Hold. Here's a video if you would like to listen to it.  You can stare at the cover of his piano book for 4 minutes.  If you'll notice, there is a lot of I and Me talk during this bit.  Chris wasn't going to be terribly helpful in this area.  I picked out the church music, we chose the readings together, it was a lengthy process.  First we crossed off everything that sounded too heterosexual good, homosexual bad.  Then I crossed off everything that had women being subservient to their husbands.  Then we had a few options for each thing.  I crossed off the cliches, then we were left with some interesting choices. Verses below.  All Photos by Angie Gaul at milestoneimages.us

Jason walking Mima down the aisle.

David walking Nanny down the aisle.
When my mom saw this picture she said "She looks like death warmed over."
Which I suppose was true, Nanny passed away four months after this photo was taken.
She was already living with my parents and having strokes at this point.
Nanny made it to all three of her granddaughters' weddings and saw her first great-grandchild be born. 
That was all she wanted, and we're so glad she got it.

In a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony both the bride and groom walk down the aisle flanked by their parents.
We did it this way at Jaclyn's, Elise's, and my wedding.
Nancy thought it sounded cool and went with it.
Bruce looks thrilled as usual.

My Lib and Brendan

Tim & Hannah (so pretty!)

Jim & Morgan

Dan & Jaclyn

Andy & Elise

I walked down the aisle to Magnificat as done by John Michael Talbot.
You can hear a really folky version of it here.
We don't really do it like that, but you get the jist.  
It was sung by the wonderful Christine Solimeno, a friend from the Folk Group.

I wish women had more cause to wear a train.  It really shouldn't have to be a once in a lifetime thing.



My Godparents did the first reading from the Old Testament.  My sister and I chose the same first reading which was the same first reading my parents did.  I really love it, especially the end, and who doesn't love comparing people to animals via Bible readings? They alternated verses, very cool.

Song of Songs 2:8-10, 14, 16a; 8:6-7a

Hark! my lover–here he comes
     springing across the mountains,
     leaping across the hills.
My lover is like a gazelle
     or a young stag.
Here he stands behind our wall,
     gazing through the windows,
     peering through the lattices.
My lover speaks; he says to me,
     “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!

“O my dove in the clefts of the rock,
     in the secret recesses of the cliff,
Let me see you,
     let me hear your voice,
For your voice is sweet,
     and you are lovely.”

My lover belongs to me and I to him.

He says to me:

“Set me as a seal on your heart,
     as a seal on your arm;
For stern as death is love,
     relentless as the nether world is devotion;
     its flames are a blazing fire.
Deep waters cannot quench love,
     nor floods sweep it away.

Stern as death is love.  My favorite line




Andrew, Chris, John, and Matt singing the Psalm - This is the Day
Elise also used this psalm at her and Jason's wedding.
Don't mess with a good thing.

Chris' Uncle Bill did the second reading.
Romans 8:31b-35; 37-39

Brothers and sisters:
If God is for us, who can be against us?
He did not spare his own Son
     but handed him over for us all,
     how will he not also give us everything else along with him?
Who will bring a charge against God’s chosen ones?
It is God who acquits us.
Who will condemn?
It is Christ Jesus who died, rather, was raised,
     who also is at the right hand of God,
     who indeed intercedes for us.
What will separate us from the love of Christ?
Will anguish, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
     or nakedness, or peril, or the sword?

No, in all these things, we conquer overwhelmingly
     through him who loved us.
For I am convinced that neither death, nor life,
     nor angels, nor principalities,
     nor present things, nor future things,
     nor powers, nor height, nor depth,
     nor any other creature will be able to separate us
     from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Bill put on his big lawyer voice and banged that thing out.
Quick and straight to the point.




My husband is so handsome


My sister did me a solid by quietly blowing air onto the back of my neck throughout the entire ceremony.
Chris was terrified.
I looked over at him and whispered, "you look nice," wondering if I could get a compliment out of him.
He looked at me with a solemn face and replied, "There is a microphone up my ass right now."
There is a reason I married this man, ladies and gentleman.

Deacon Rich read the Gospel: John 2:1-11


There was a wedding in Cana in Galilee,
     and the mother of Jesus was there.
Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.
When the wine ran short,
     the mother of Jesus said to him,
     “They have no wine.”
And Jesus said to her,
     “Woman, how does your concern affect me?
My hour has not yet come.”
His mother said to the servers,
     “Do whatever he tells you.”
Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings,
     each holding twenty to thirty gallons.
Jesus told them,
     “Fill the jars with water.”
So they filled them to the brim.
Then he told them,
     “Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter.”
So they took it.
And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine,
     without knowing where it came from
     (although the servants who had drawn the water knew),
     the headwaiter called the bridegroom and said to him,
     “Everyone serves good wine first,
     and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one;
     but you have kept the good wine until now.”
Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee
     and so revealed his glory,
     and his disciples began to believe in him.

We obviously chose this reading because Jesus knows his wine.


Chris' Uncle Doug read the Prayer of the Faithful.
We chose this text, again for the mention of wine and friends:

The response is “Lord, hear our prayer.”
For leaders of Church and state 
for heads of institutions, 
for heads of homes and households . . . 
that they will lead us and guide us 
in the search for God and the good life, 
in the search for peace and joy, 
in the search for love among us— 
let us pray to the Lord. 
For all married people: 
for those who married yesterday, 
for the new couple Julianne and Christopher, married today, 
for those who will marry tomorrow . . . 
that they may savor 
the joy of being together, 
warm love, and children, 
a long life, wine, and friends, 
and a new day, every day— 
let us pray to the Lord. 
For all young single people 
who look forward to a vocation 
full of life and full of love— 
let us pray to the Lord. 


Mama and Dad holding hands.  I love hand holding pictures.

See how the program folds out from both sides.
Just like the letters from Pride and Prejudice.
The font on all of our wedding paper was called Jane Austen ;)

In a Catholic ceremony you can't write your own vows.
Our vows read:
I Julianne, take you Christopher to be my husband.
I promise to be true to you in good times and in bad, in sickness and in health.
I will love you and honor you, all the days of my life.
And vice versa.
Finally!

Husband and Wife motherfuckers!
Now let's do some shots!


This is the first time Chris cracked a real smile.
His worst nightmare is speaking in front of people or being on stage like this.
I was proud of him for getting his vows out without crapping his pants.
We walked out to Annie's Song by John Denver.
It was not only my parent's wedding song, but Chris' parents' wedding song.
Jaclyn walked down the aisle to a string quartet playing it at her wedding, so we walked out to it with my friend Joe singing it.
The Switch played it at the reception and everyone got up to dance.
You should all know this, but I'll give you a video anyway.

Finally into the limo to have some boos!

Well!  That was the important part!  More tomorrow!

Pre-Ceremony

We headed down in the elevator and to the waiting limos outside.  Another ridiculously expensive part of the wedding was the transportation.  The ceremony and reception venues were about an hour apart from each other.  My family was afraid that people wouldn't end up coming because they would be afraid of bad weather for driving not only up to New York in the first place, for those out of town, but around the Island during the day, so we rented not only a limo bus for the bridal party and a limo for the elderly, but a large bus to take people from the church to the reception and back to the hotel afterwards.  Nothing is cheap in New York.  A lot of people are offering shuttles for the weddings now, and I have to admit, it really makes things so much easier and less stressful.  Once you have all the crap booked that is.  We spent an awful lot of time looking at maps and discussing the distances between the three points and how long we thought it would take to get there.  As it was, the bus full of guests ended up at the reception hall early, over a half hour before the cocktail hour was scheduled to start and they were all milling around the lobby while we were trying to take bridal party pictures.  Ah well.  We managed, but I could see several of our bridal party people getting antsy with so many people closing in on them.
Top three photos stolen from Kristen's facebook, the rest by Angie Gaul at milestoneimages.us

Cynthia dubbed this picture "HBIC" for "Head Bitch in Charge."
I told you it was difficult to sit.
I was flopping around like a beached dolphin in that thing.

Wedding Drama 4: My brother felt like he was dying pretty much the entire day.
He's usually in pain from skeletal problems and on a bunch of things for that, but this was exceptionally bad.
He toughed it out and put on a brave face for me, but the day he got home to Seattle he went to the emergency room and was checked into the hospital.  Poor guy.

Someone caught Ashley holding my basket o' programs.

Mama helping me navigate the elevator.

Our lovely programs, inspired by letters from the Kiera Knightly version of Pride and Prejudice.
Many thanks to Elise's superior crafting skills.
We sealed these shut in our hotel room the day before.

I may not agree with the church on any of their controversial opinions, but I love my parish.
I grew up there, went to mass there every Sunday, directed the Folk Group, and met great friends.
I was very thankful that Chris gave me that one and agreed to have the ceremony in my home church.
We had to get married in a church to have a Catholic ceremony since Chris is a baptized Christian.  
If it was going to be a church anyway, I'm so incredibly happy it got to be mine.

It was around 50 degrees that day.  Pretty damn good for January in New York.
I am always hot so I didn't need a jacket.
I kept all the girls in the limo frozen because I insisted the air conditioner be on.
Sorry, but the bride chooses the temperature.
No one likes a sweaty bride.

It was really a tight fit once we picked up Chris and Andy for the way to the reception.

Andy giving Chris the required "if you want to make a run for it I can sneak you out the back door" speech.

We arrived early so we hid in the choir loft.
I didn't want to do a "reveal" and see Chris before the ceremony for pictures.
I wanted to do it the traditional way, so we hid.
It was warm in there so the girls fanned me with sheet music.

Joe, my friend from Folk Group, on guitar.

Christine on the drum, AnnMarie on piano, and Sam on flute.

Pretty pretty.

The necessary green angels.

It Takes a Village

After we had a quick PC rehearsal the night before, my girls helped me check that my wedding dress fit.  I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep unless I knew I could get the thing on.  At my last fitting, it hadn't closed, like at all.  I flipped out about it, but I also didn't stop eating and drinking things, so it was my own bad.  At the fitting I wasn't wearing any scary knickers, and my girls promised they would get the thing on me, come hell or high water, so we gave it a dry run.  It took all five available bridesmaids to get me into that mother fucker.  It was rough, but we made it happen.  I could get a little sleep and not hate myself for enjoying my rehearsal dinner, and cake, and wine.  I wore even tighter spanks the next day.  I explained my anxiety to Angie and she made sure that all photos of me getting in to my dress were not horrifying.  I made the guy videographer wait outside until I had that fucker on.  
All photos by Angie Gaul at milestoneimages.us

I don't really know why we had this around.
I think Amanda and Chris had given it to Elise as a late present for something.
But when  you pressed its paw it sang soft kitty.
We had a good time with it.

The moment of truth.  There was a wonder woman bra sewn into my dress.
It was ridiculously tight and we had to put it as tight as possible to get the dress to close.
When I took the dress off at the end of the night I breathed a huge sigh of relief
The dress was so tight I could barely sit down, slightly embarrassing during the ceremony, let me tell you, especially since I was trying to avoid showing my shoes since they were nothing special and didn't even match anything.  
My abs hurt for about 3 days afterwards.

I love these photos.
I have a similar one of Elise powdering my nose at Jaclyn's wedding.

Another one of my favorite photos from the wedding.
I intend to sell my dress, but I'm keeping the veil.
It was beautiful and not too out there, something someone else might want to wear one day.

It actually took all six girls to get me in the dress this time.
Jaclyn isn't visible, but she is holding my veil up in the air.

The flowers were perfect.
Inexpensive, fresh, beautiful, and on time.

The dress originally had an ugly flower on the hip.
I cut it off and replaced it with this vintage pin I found on the internet
Helpful tip: Vintage = old
It was beautiful and I still have it, but it did break off my dress at some point during the reception

When we were just about ready we realized we forgot a crochet hook to help close the buttons.

Elise did a lot of them with her nubby Hufflepuff thumbs.
My dad did the rest even with his arthritic hands, with the help of a plastic knife we had left over from the breakfast bagels.  

Braces (or Putting Your Suspenders On)

Meanwhile, the men are off in another room getting all fancied up.  I am in cell phone contact with Andy to time when the photographer is switching between the two rooms.  All photos by Angie Gaul at milestoneimages.us

Jason and Dan are wearing the socks Elise gave the men at her wedding.
As Dan says, "sock garters get you laid twice."

The crabby cuff links I gave Chris as a wedding gift.

Chris maintains that this is the worst haircut he has ever had.
This is what happens when you get your hair cut at supercuts all the time, but Chris refuses to spend any money on getting his hair cut.
He has actually not gotten his hair cut anywhere since our wedding.
I have been cutting my husband's hair for this entire first year of marriage.

Our best man, Andy.

Patrick and Brendan, looking super excited.

My dad helping my brother with his buttons.

Tim and Chris being adorable.

 
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