When we originally booked the Day Block for our reception site, we planned on having the ceremony there as well. In the end we decided we preferred to get married in a church, and were able to rent Pilgrim Lutheran Church for the day. It was the perfect intimate setting and I am so glad we made that change. We spent a lot of time talking about how to make the ceremony meaningful for us and our guests, and it turned out perfectly. Our old Pastor from Connecticut flew in to perform the ceremony, which made the entire thing even more meaningful.
My bridesmaids and I walked down the isle to Piano Guy’s instrumental version of A Thousand Years. I always think the processional song seems so short since it is only played when the bride walks down the isle, so I was looking for something that could be played the entire time and had a great climax. One of my favorite moments of the day is standing with my dad before the door opened. We lined the isle with lots of candles (in jars so my dress didn’t start on fire) and we used the concept of the unity candle to have all guests light a candle during the ceremony- starting with Ed and I who then lit our mother’s candles- and it proceeded down the church until everyone had a lit candle, which symbolized their commitment to supporting us in our marriage. Two of our good friends played and sang throughout the rest of our ceremony, and we also wrote our own vows. This was something that I spent far too much time worrying about, but in the end it was well worth the effort.
We had pom-poms handed out as people were leaving the church, and then walked through the pom pom ‘shower’ as we left the church. Looking back, I still can’t believe how much fun it was, and feel so incredibly blessed to have so many people share in this memory with us.
{all images by Juxtaphotos}
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