Our Wedding: Part 2 - The Ceremony

Ah, our wedding ceremony. Short, sweet... and a complete blurr. This was the time we stood up before everyone we love most in the world; the time we vowed to love, respect and stand by each other for the rest of our lives; the time we officially became husband and wife; oh, and the time a year of planning, anticipation and excitement finally came to be. All of that comes rushing at you at once!

We were so utterly overwhelmed and nervous that we didn't hear half of what our officiant was saying. I kept taking deep breathe after deep breathe, simultaneously trying not to cry and to stop my entire body from shaking like a leaf. Mike had a similar internal dialogue questioning how to hold his hands and telling him to look at my dress without it looking like he's staring at my boobs. Hahaha!

Hey, even if we weren't completely present, at least we were on the same page, right? And, I know I said it was a complete blurr, but that's not entirely true. There were a few favourite moments that stood out for us both, moments that we'll never forget and make us teary to this day.

Our officiant was Reverend Deborah Coleman. She was recommended to us by a friend and one of the reasons we chose her was because she was very flexible with the wording of the ceremony. We spent a lot of time carefully picking and choosing the words to reflect exactly what our relationship and this marriage mean to us. It's a shame all the words ran into one another for us that day, but at least we know that everyone else heard what we wanted them to hear.

One of our favourite moments from the ceremony was when she asked all of our guests if they supported our marriage and they gave a resounding "We do!" I think we both almost lost it right then and there.

Another moment I will never forget was my Aunt Jane's reading. We chose a passage from Captain Corelli's Mondolin by Louis de Bernieres and she delivered it beautifully. This time, I heard every word.

“Love is a temporary madness; it erupts like volcanoes and then subsides. And when it subsides you have to make a decision. You have to work out whether your roots have so entwined together that it is inconceivable that you should ever part. Because this is what love is. Love is not breathlessness, it is not excitement, it is not the promulgation of eternal passion. That is just being in love, which any fool can do. Love itself is what is left over when being in love has burned away, and this is both an art and a fortunate accident. Those who truly love have roots that grow toward each other underground, and when all the pretty blossoms have fallen from their branches, they find that they are one tree and not two.”

The kiss. So good, we did it twice.

We didn't have a wedding party, so we asked my mother and Mike's father to be our witnesses. In retrospect, this was a lovely way to signify the merging of families.

I love this shot of my mom and Mike laughing. Everyone was just so gosh darn happy!

There was a lot of laughing!

"Ladies and Gentlemen, it is my great pleasure to present Erin & Michael

to you for the first time as husband and wife!"

One other thing that was special to us about our ceremony was the music. Again, this is something we spent a lot of time choosing. We both love music and we wanted each song to not only reflect our taste, but, like everything else about our wedding, speak to us as a couple. This is not an easy task -- there was a point when Mike was going through every single song in our collection!

I'm so glad we put the effort in, though, because I loved hearing those songs that day and every time we've heard them since. We had one song, now we have five. That is something.

Processional: "Holocene" by Bon Iver (percussion instrumental cover by Evan Chapman)

Signing Register: "Eyes on the Prize" by M. Ward
Recessional: "Hallelujah I Love Her So" by Ray Charles