"We do!"
And so it begins. On September 21, 2007 Justin and I exchanged seaside vows at sunset. Our friend, Gordon Ryan presided over the ceremony, while our family members looked on as witnesses. Though the entire ceremony was meaningful and memorable, there are a few highlights that stand out to me as uniquely “us.”
1) As I mentioned above, we had a family wedding. We wanted our ceremony to be more intimate and it was important to us that everyone present was able to both see and hear us as well as feel connected to our moment. And so, we chose to have our parents, sisters and grandparents and two incredibly close friends (one who performed the ceremony) present.
2) Since we’d planned an outdoor ceremony, we knew it would not be possible to have the traditional unity candle. As an alternative, we decided to unite with “unity sand.” What this meant for us was taking sand from Cape Hatteras (where my family vacations in the summer) and Cape Cod (where his family vacationed) and pouring this sand together into a glass vessel that now sits in our living room. The moment where we poured the sands together was memorable for multiple reasons. On my end, pouring that sand was a way for me to include my grandmother (Meme) into the ceremony. After she passed away, my family scattered her ashes on the beach and in the ocean at Cape Hatteras. Secondly, the moment was memorable because it was… less than graceful. As we began pouring the sand, we quickly realized that the two containers we’d selected to pour the sand into our “vessel” were too large and therefore, competed for space above the “unity” vessel we were pouring the sand into. What resulted was actually quite humorous because, as the wind picked up, about 1/3 of the sand ended up all over Heather (Justin’s sister). She tried to be really polite about it, but when 1 cup of sand is being poured down your dress… it’s hard not to squirm. :) Here’s a shot of the scene at that moment…
Sarah (left) and Heather (right) quickly learned to hold the vessel at arms length and lean back to avoid the sand storm!
3) About 2 weeks before our wedding Justin and I began to design the programs that we’d hand out at the ceremony. Yes, it was a family wedding with 13 people present. However, we felt it was important to provide an “agenda” for the guests, and we also wanted to include a word of thanks to the 13 people present. Putting together the physical program was a labor of love, and I have to admit, other than developing some of the text, Justin is truly owed all of the credit for their existence.
Justin's grandmother holds one of the programs during the ceremony.
