Wedding Blog

Funny that the wedding ceremony is so often a side note in the wedding-planning process. It’s easy to get caught up in menus and floral arrangements and invitation wording, and forget the part that actually gets you married!

But as it turned out (and perhaps not surprisingly), our ceremony was the most memorable and meaningful part of our day.

My father served as officiant. I ran out of time at the end of our planning process and never got to make programs, so not everyone knew our officiant’s secret identity. But a few guests mentioned that they suspected as much, from the proud way Dad looked at me….

I have a health condition that makes it difficult to stand for more than a few minutes (POTS — postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome), so I was worried about making it through the ceremony. Just in case, our attendants pulled up a couple of chairs and we sat through Dad’s short speech.

In his speech, he told the story of an Ojibwa wedding tradition. According to Dad (and paraphrased badly by me), at the start of the wedding ceremony, the bride and groom paddled their canoes from opposite sides of a lake to meet in the middle. The separate shores represented the separate lives they led before, and the two families from which they came.

After the wedding ceremony, the newly married couple paddled off together side by side. Significantly, the bride did not leave her canoe to join his canoe, nor he to join hers. Because when you marry, you do not give up your individual identity, nor the family and personal heritage that came before. Rather, you join up together as partners and companions, traveling life’s journey side by side….

After the ceremony and ring exchange, it was time for the first kiss. This photo always gives me the giggles because of the way I’m grabbing Mr. T’s head. “C’mon, handsome, and give me a SMOOCH!”

And finally, my favorite moment of the day. After the smooch, my father presented us as the newly married couple. The crowd stood and applauded. And the applause was THUNDEROUS! There was hooting and whistling. It seemed to go on and on. The joy in the room was overwhelming.

This photo cracks me up too, because the expression on my face shows so exactly how I felt at the moment: “OMG, we really pulled this wedding thing off!!!”

Greatest feeling in the world, my friends.

(photos by Punam Bean)