This isn't a trick

It's definitely a treat though!

I have all of these cute pictures of our flower girl & I wanted to share them but didn't really know where to put them, so I'm sharing a few today.  

playing with the removable strap on my purse. trying to figure out how to use it as a jump rope, I'm sure.

no, I don't think I wanna go down that aisle. 

 

That last one always makes me giggle.  I think it also captures her spirit of curiosity.  She may not have been the surest bet, especially since my aunt had to walk her down the aisle, but I'm glad she was a part of our wedding.  

Stick with your decisions, brides.  If you want a little one you're close to be a part of your wedding party, by all means you should.  Don't let anyone talk you out of it.  Do go into it with a laid back mindset though.  If this little one does or doesn't make it down the aisle, it's not going to make or break your wedding.  If anything, you'll get cute pictures out of it.  

Until next time!

xoxo

PS...no one says your flower girl needs to wear a white dress.  She very well could be wearing an Easter dress you found on sale at Target!

We're married!!

Vows are a very important part of the ceremony.  Obviously.  From the very beginning, Richard told me he didn't want to repeat his vows, he wanted to say them from memory if he couldn't write his own.  Since we couldn't write our own, we memorized them.  I remember him walking around the apartment repeating them to himself.  We even had a post it on our bedroom wall with them written down so every time we went to leave the room, we'd see them.

So first we stated our intentions. (aka, have babies & raise them to be Catholic. Kidding! That's only one part of it.)  :)

Then comes the vows.  Richard went first and he did it perfectly.  Me?  I had a problem.

After Richard, I whispered to Father Manny saying, I don't think I can remember all of that.  So why are we all giggling in the photo above?  Because once he got me started, I remembered it all!  Also, it turns out that everybody heard me whisper that too.  It's funny but I kind of wish that nobody did.  Oh well.

 

After we exchanged vows, we gathered at the altar and prayed.  If you look at the picture above, you'll see my brother holding my bouquet.  Would you believe that I've looked at that picture quite a few times and didn't notice it until I included it in this post?  Love that I'm still discovering the amazingness in our wedding photos!

Then we went to pray to the Virgin Mary.  We decided to do this together instead of just me because two heads and prayers are better than one, right?  When we were walking back to hug our moms, I looked at my brother who was supposed to hand off 2 daisies to us.  He just looked at me and shook his head.  Ok...so we don't have flowers to give our moms but we still have our hugs.  

  
I thought it was cute that Richard's dad decided to get in on the hugging.  

We took our places back at the kneeler that we didn't use and we were presented!  St. Clement doesn't say "you may now kiss the bride." (Nor do they say "speak now or forever hold your piece"...which didn't calm my nightmares, unfortunately.)  I don't remember what Father Manny said but I know we were excited about it.  

 Best first kiss ever, if I do say so myself.  :)

And just like walking down the aisle, I don't remember seeing anyone as we were walking back up the aisle.  There are pictures that I look at and I say to myself "wow, I didn't know that they were at the ceremony!"  Really, nothing else existed but us.  I'm so lucky that we got to have such a wonderful ceremony.  For us, it was just perfect.


xoxo

 

Anything but typical

Well, unless we're talking about the music.  That was totally Catholic, totally typical.  Believe me, I didn't want but in the end, I don't remember hearing any music at all during walking down the aisle or walking back up the aisle.  So let's pretend there was a different song playing, the one that I had picked out since 2005: Finale B from Rent. I prefer the movie version but if you know it at all, you get a big hug from me!

So we left off where my mom was handed kleenex from Nicole as she started crying.  Somehow, she got it together as we walked through the doors.  

Let's be honest here.  All I saw was smiling heads.  I didn't know who exactly they were while looking at them but I knew they were smiling at me.  Close to about halfway down the aisle, I thought omg, look at Richard!  When I did, I didn't see any one of those smiling heads but him.  All I saw was him.  Mom, Dad...can we walk a little faster?  

Here's a fun point in our ceremony.  You know how the bride and groom hug her parents?  I hugged my dad first, then my mom.  And my mom wouldn't let go.

It's not because she didn't want me to get married or anything, she just said she didn't know what was happening to her, she was just overcome with emotion.  When she did let go and we made our way up to the kneeler (that we did not use, thanks to Richard!) our priest said "Welcome and thanks Mom for letting go."  

I handed my bouquet off to my little brother who placed it on the pew.  He wasn't going to hold that thing.  :)  

Our friends Tracy and Jillian read the readings and Fr. Manny read the gospel.  Before he began his homily, he waved us over to the pew in front of my parents.

As for his homily, I've never heard one so personal.  I still haven't.  During our last meeting with him, he asked us to write him a letter about why and how we knew the other was meant for us.  He referenced those and read out some of the things we said.  I don't remember much of it and I'm glad that it came from those letters that we still have.  I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

It's a really good thing when people are talking about your ceremony, people.  Among the comments I heard were that they loved our priest, how personal it was and that they were so happy to know that love like ours existed.  Those are pretty high compliments, don't you think?  Words cannot express how grateful I am that we had Fr. Manny as our officiant.


Coming up next...vows are exchanged & everyone hears me whisper something. :)

xoxo