Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Wedding Ceremony & Dress Fitting

So yesterday I had my first real dress fitting!! :D The last time I went to see my dressmaker, all we were working with was a muslin blueprint of my upper dress/body. This time I had a whole dress!! Squee! Of course I don't have pictures because I forgot my camera. DOH. My mom was there, and she took pictures though! So when when she gets them developed, I'll have pictures for you all.  You know, I was really really scared she was never going to see my dress about two months ago now.  I just cannot get over how  lucky I am to still have her!! So lucky. It was so nice to have her there. For her to see my dress, that she's buying for me ! Squee! I'm so spoiled. And so so very grateful!

It's so so so pretty!! I can't get over how lovely it is! I still don't now what to do about a necklace. It definitely needs to be small, there just isn't a lot of real estate for it frankly. I'm kinda thinking I might not wear a necklace at all! I love my dress, I feel like a queen in it! The train is just the perfect length! The lacing in the back, and the gathering, oh my goodness, so amazing! Sorry for teasing. Porn soon. Really. And I did decide on laces for my wedding sneakers - red if I can find them, black if not. Oh, the colour of my dress. I'd forgotten just how stunning the silk I bought it!

Okay, enough gushing.

Wedding ceremony. *sigh* I'm trying to write/Frankenstein my own. It's so not easy! The other day I added a piece that is very me, and suits both Chris' and my sense of humour. Reading it today, I feel like it doesn't fit with the general mood. I don't want to cut it out, it's too perfectly us, but I'm not entirely sure how to change the mood elsewhere to fit.

I kinda want to share it with you all. On the hopes you'll tell me what you think. I love Chris, and he's really easy going about most wedding stuff, which can be great, I get what I want!  But sometimes not so helpful when I don't know what I want.  So I'm hoping some of my friends who indulge me enough to read once in awhile, will read and help. :)

So, this is what I have so far:

__________________________________

Welcome
It is my pleasure and my privilege to be with you today. My name is Nice Lady, a Humanist Officiant.

Welcome Melissa, Christopher, and all of you here today to witness and to celebrate their happiness in the joining of their lives. You are the people who mean the most to them and each of you have played a special part in the shaping of their lives. The support you bring to them today gives further meaning and depth to the vows they are about to make to each other.

We would also like to recognize those unable to be here, and those no longer with us, whose love and guidance has added to the richness of their lives.

Today Christopher and Melissa make formal and legal what has already been created between them. Theirs is a partnership freely chosen, and founded on friendship, trust, and respect; a partnership that encourages not only self-expression, understanding and the development of wisdom through the sharing of knowledge, but also an enthusiasm for living. It is based on the belief that each is equally important.

Reading
I would like to invite Dad Awesomesause, father of the groom, to recite a reading chosen by the bride.

Let me not to the marriage of true minds
Admit impediments. Love is not love
Which alters when it alteration finds,
Or bends with the remover to remove:
O no! it is an ever-fixed mark
That looks on tempests and is never shaken;
It is the star to every wandering bark,
Whose worth's unknown, although his height be taken.
Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks
Within his bending sickle's compass come:
Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,
But bears it out even to the edge of doom.
If this be error and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved.

                                   Sonnet 116, William Shakespeare


Question/Charge
Melissa and Christopher, you have come now to affirm the union that already exists between you. Do you give yourselves freely to each other with honour and a sense of dedication? We do.

To Guests
Do you who are present here bestow your blessings on their marriage? We do.

Vow Reading???

Vows
The vows through which you accept each other as partners have no hidden power within them; they are merely words. Nothing is easier than saying words, and nothing harder than living them day by day. What you promise today must be renewed and reaffirmed tomorrow, and the next day, and the day after that. At the end of this ceremony, legally, you will be husband and wife, but you must still decide, each day that stretches out before you, that you want to be married. It is your continuing commitment to each other and conviction in your vows that give them meaning.

I invite you now to join hands as you repeat your vows.

In the presence of our family and friends, I, Christopher Awesomesause, take you Melissa Honeybee, to be my [lawfully] wedded wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and respect you, as long as we both shall live. OR till death do us part???

In the presence of our family and friends, I, Melissa Honeybee, take you Christopher Awesomesause, to be my [lawfully] wedded husband, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love, honor and respect you, as long as we both shall live.
Exchange of Rings
Love, tuw wuv, is a teapot, but we wear rings since they are easier to get on our fingers. Love is a teapot, love is a circle, a square, a polygram - love is what you make of it. And here today, Christopher and Melissa vow to make their love the lasting kind. Their love will keep them safe and warm through whatever storms life throws at them, just like a good teapot would.

Now, as you place this ring on Melissa/Christoper's finger, please repeat after me:

With this ring I thee wed.

Pronouncement
Inasmuch as Christopher and Melissa have grown in the knowledge and love of one another, because they have agreed in their desire to go forward in life together, seeking an even richer, deeper relationship, and because they have pledged themselves to meet sorrow and joy as one family, I now pronounce them husband and wife.

Will you seal your vows with a kiss?

Reading(this is dependent on FH finding a reading he likes/and if this is even a good spot for one)
I would like to invite Uncle Honeybee, uncle of the bride, to recite a reading chosen by the groom.

Sign Register
Melissa and Christopher, will you join me with your witnesses BridesBestGirl [No MOH] and Dad Awesomesause to sign the marriage documents.

Presentation of Record of Marriage
By the power vested in me by the Province of Ontario and Humanist Association of Canada, I now pronounce your marriage official and legal. Congratulations.

Closing
Ladies and Gentlemen: I have the pleasure of introducing to you, for the very first time, Mr. & Mrs. Awesomesause. Come froward and join them in congratulations.

__________________________________

So what do y'all think?? Is there anything glaring that I'm missing?? Where is/are good spots in the ceremony to include readings??? I know the first reading is fine, but where to put the second? And possible third?? Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

2 comments:

Lorysa said...

I think that the whole thing sounds wonderful!

Melissa Wood (née Hazelton) said...

aw, yay! Thanks Lorysa!