The Ceremony

All of us were standing in the back of church, including our Mom and Mary's new in-laws. Well, all minus Tim. At 20 after Tim sang "Untitled Hymn" (aka Come to Jesus) up in the front of church. That song can get me most anytime, but as we're standing there and I'm hearing Tim sing and I'm looking at Mary and thinking how it's all changing today, I start welling up. I look away, but I can't help it. The other girls are asking if I'm okay and then Mary starts welling up too. (Here I am choking back the tears just thinking about it as I type this!) We sent our younger sister for tissues-we had left ours in the pews not thinking I wouldn't even be able to make it to the ceremony! Once I made it through the song I composed myself.

Then it was time to seat the mothers, I gave Mary one last hug and then we all lined up. We all went down the aisle and when I got up front and turned around I see my little Eli escorting the flower girl like the big boy that he's becoming. He's grown up so much-he wasn't embarassed or shy or anything, I was very proud of him. She came and stood between me and my cousin and Eli went and stood with Tim.

Then came the bride and groom. They came together as a couple to the alter of God to exchange marriage vows. Father made a big deal out of that since most times the bride is "given away" but he really stressed how neither of them is a gift or a prize, but two individuals making the choice before God to commit their lives to each other. It was very special-and sentimental for me since that's what Tim and I did too. You know, great minds and all that.

The ceremony went beautifully. Father used a lot of latin and incense, which I'm not used to but it was nice. Us girls sat in the first full pew with half a pew in front of us so when we kneeled I had to use a portable kneeler, which was fine, but the hard part was I didn't have the pew in front of me to lean on and it sure seemed like communion took forever! Later one of my Grandmas said, "Well you're not Catholic, you didn't have to kneel!" Which I know, but I felt like I should for Mary, so I did. After communion they went over in front of the statue of Mary, which I'm not entirely clear on why, but they were right in front of me and I didn't need a flash so I snapped this of them, I thought it was precious.

The mass didn't seem to take long (except for when I was kneeling) but it was about an hour and twenty minutes. After Father introduced the new couple and they walked out in the mist of clapping and cheering, we sent the flower girl down the aisle and I was trying to get the guys attention so they would send Eli. They didn't take my hints, but when Tim saw her walking down the aisle, he told Eli to run and catch up to her. So he sprinted out to her, which made everyone laugh, and then joined right in with her and walked her down. I wish I could have gotten a picture of that, it was too cute!

No one tripped, no rings dropped, everything went very smoothly, which made me so happy for the both of them. Right toward the end of mass I heard Simon (sitting with Tim's parents) yell out "Eli!" It made me chuckle. There were a lot of little children and remarkably not much crying at all. My best friend commented on that several times.

Since mass took so long we had to move quickly on the pictures afterwards since they had an afternoon mass to get ready for shortly after the wedding. We did some family pictures inside and then did all of the wedding party ones outside in a garden. I'm excited to see what they turn out like, I think they'll be beautiful.

As they got done with the wedding party we all headed to a bar close to the reception to wait for the bride and groom. Then they showed up and we all had a drink and then headed over to the hall so we could be announced to "get the party started!"