A Life Full of Laughter: At The Altar

H-Dad and I arrived at the altar, and our ceremony began.

Friends, we are gathered together in the sight of God to witness and bless the joining together of Mr. Hyena and Miss Hyena in Christian marriage. ...

Miss Hyena, will you have Mr. Hyena to be your husband, to live together in holy marriage? Will you love him, comfort him, honor and keep him, in sickness and in health, and forsaking all others, be faithful to him as long as you both shall live?


I will!

Mr. Hyena repeated the words to declare his intent, then H-Dad delivered his line, gave me away and took his seat next to Mom Hyena.

Before we continued with the ceremony, Pastor Jason lifted up a prayer.

The Lord be with you. And also with you.  Let us pray.

God of all peoples, you are the true light illuminating everyone. You show us the way, the truth and the life. You love us even when we are disobedient. You sustain us with your Holy Spirit. We rejoice in your life in the midst of our lives. We praise you for your presence with us, and especially in this act of solemn covenant; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

I was really distracted in the first few minutes of our ceremony. I was trying so hard not to have a panic attack with everyone watching me. I tried to keep myself as calm as possible, but you can tell in our wedding video how hard I was trying to breathe deeply and relax. I put my head on Mr. Hyena's shoulder, and he held onto me to make sure I wasn't going to pass out.

SIL Hyena came up to deliver our Scripture reading, Philippians 4:4-9. This verse has been near and dear to my heart for several years. I call it my "stop sign" verse, and I always go back to it when I'm feeling anxious or nervous, so it was absolutely perfect in that moment.

Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything is excellent or praiseworthy — think about such things. Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me — put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you.

Jason delivered a short marriage address, noting that Mr. Hyena should continue to be a calming presence to me, and I should continue to be uplifting to Mr. Hyena. Then, it was time to recite our vows.

In the name of God, I, Mr. Hyena, take you, Miss Hyena, to be my wife, to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, until we are parted by death. This is my solemn vow.

With those words, any nervousness I had been feeling completely evaporated. Mr. Hyena started to get teary while he said his vows, and I whispered to him, "You can do it." Then it was my turn to repeat those vows, which I did grinning ear to ear.

We had been told that after we repeated those vows, we were officially married and the rest of the ceremony is just details. As soon as I had finished repeating the vows, Jason said more things but I don't know what they were, because I immediately grinned at Mr. Hyena and whispered, "WE'RE MARRIED!"

We exchanged rings...

Mr. Hyena, I give you this ring as a sign of my vow, and with all that I am and all that I have, I honor you; in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Mr. Hyena and I had wanted to include communion in lieu of a unity candle or other unity ceremony. Jason blessed the bread and wine, and invited the congregation to come forward to receive the sacrament. Then he handed me the bread, and gave the cup to Mr. Hyena.

The two of us serving communion together as our first act as a married couple was one of my favorite parts of the ceremony.

It gave us a chance to see many of our guests before the reception, and I loved being able to serve beside my husband (!!!).

This was the only place we had something go wrong in the whole ceremony. As communion was winding down, Jason came up to the front, and I made the — incorrect — assumption that he wanted me to give him back the loaf of bread so we could wrap up the ceremony. So I handed him the loaf, and he looked confused. "I wanted to receive," he said, and the reality dawned on me. So I snatched the bread back and broke off a piece of it for him. Our guests got a good laugh!

With that, the ceremony was almost over.

Are you including communion or any type of unity ceremony in your wedding?

all photos by Danny Boyle Photography

Previously on A Life Full of Laughter:

• "The One Where We Get Practice Married"

• "The One Where The Girls Put On Their Faces"

• "The One With The Beautiful Words"

• "The One Where The Dudes Get Sexy"

• "The One With The Big White Dress"

• "The One Where We Smize"

• "The One Where We Don't See Each Other"

• "The One With All The Walking"

A Life Full of Laughter: Let's Take A Walk

Just a few short minutes after our non-first look, the time had come! We were getting married NOW!

Pastor Jason came to pray with the women, then went to the groom's area to pray with them.

The girls and I got lined up for the processional around the corner. The guys were all going to walk to the altar together with Pastor Jason, but my bridesmaids would walk right before me.

Right as this picture was taken, Hyena Sis realized that my bustle had never been let out, so she scrambled to get it untied. But there was a knot, and it was stuck! The processional music was beginning and our families were starting to walk. Both Hyena Sis and H-Dad were trying to get this knot untied, and I hissed, "Leave it! It's not important! I don't care if it doesn't get un-bustled! It's time to go!"

Mr. Hyena was ready to marry me!

The groomsmen were up at the altar, ready to go.

Grandma and Grandpa Hyena kicked off the processional.

Pretty much everyone in the processional stopped at the altar to give Mr. Hyena a hug.

Nana Hyena

SIL Hyena

MIL Hyena

FIL Hyena

(I wasn't kidding!)

Mom Hyena

Then the music changed. "Bless the Broken Road" started playing, and the bridesmaids began walking down the aisle. (Instead of hugging Mr. Hyena, the girls all opted to high-five him.) Our church coordinator shut the sanctuary doors and H-Dad and I got positioned behind them. The doors opened and it was time to walk down the aisle.

I saw Mr. Hyena standing up at the altar waiting for me. We were finally — after six years of dating, four years of long distance, a year and a half of wedding planning — finally getting married.

all photos by Danny Boyle Photography

Previously on A Life Full of Laughter:

• "The One Where We Get Practice Married"

• "The One Where The Girls Put On Their Faces"

• "The One With The Beautiful Words"

• "The One Where The Dudes Get Sexy"

• "The One With The Big White Dress"

• "The One Where We Smize"

• "The One Where We Don't See Each Other"

I Heart Pianos

I've just GOT to share some music I discovered! The contract with our church specifies that our ceremony music should be fitting of a Christian worship ceremony, and we needed some kind of pre-ceremony music. We're not planning to hire ceremony musicians, so our music will be done through our church's sound system.

While planning Bridesmaid A's wedding, I discovered *clouds parting in the sky* the Vitamin String Quartet. VSQ is a group of musicians who cover current pop/rock songs using only string instruments, and they're faaaabulous.

VSQ's cover of Paramore's "Hallelujah," which I want to play as a "Everybody pay attention, we're about to start the wedding" song!

I love VSQ, but Mr. Hyena isn't such a fan (I probably went a little too nuts before A's wedding). Also, I don't think they have covers of religious songs. I didn't know where to start looking for instrumental Christian covers, so I went over to Pandora and started a Vitamin String Quartet channel. Along the way, a few religious instrumental songs popped up, and I jotted down the artists' names so I could look them up on iTunes later.

And that, dear friends, is how I discovered this magic:

And this too:

I am so in love with piano music. I put together some mock ceremony playlists heavily featuring misters David Nevue and Jim Brickman, followed by the awesome Paramore cover and ending with "our song" — Rascal Flatts' "Bless the Broken Road" — which we're using as the processional (this is the live version, we're using the CD version):

You guys, I love it! And yes, we only have one song for the processional. As you can see, it's about four minutes long, and our church's aisle is ... about 20 feet tops. Everyone can just walk down in the same song, and I'll walk in when it gets to the dramatic musical interlude. :)

For the recessional, this is what Mr. Hyena wants:

Boys. :) I'm giving him this one. He hasn't asked for much. But I'm making him ask our pastor if he'll allow us to use it.

What music are you using for your ceremony?

United as One

I have no real attachment to the unity candle tradition. I think my main problem with it is that I don't want to use something once at the wedding, and then have store it - having never used it again - and feeling guilty every time I want to toss it.

So I went searching for alternatives to the unity candle.

• Sand ceremony - Each family has its own color of sand, and the bride and groom each pour their family's sand into a new container, symbolizing the blending of their families. Doesn't really solve my storing-it issues, though.

(source)

• Rose ceremony - The couple is supposed to give each other one red rosebud as their first gifts to each other as husband and wife, as a way of saying "I love you," and recognizing their new titles. This can also be used as a way to honor the mothers, giving each of them a rose as a thank-you for a job well done (raising you, of course).
• Wine Box (or "Love Letter") ceremony - The couple writes a love letter to their partner, telling them all the reasons they love each other, and are sealed up so the other person can't be sneaky and read it ahead of time (^^). During the ceremony, the two letters are put into a box along with a nice bottle of wine and two glasses. The maid of honor and best man nail the box shut. If the marriage is ever in serious trouble, the couple is to open the box, drink the bottle of wine together, and read the love letters before making any decisions. If the relationship never comes to such a point, then the box is opened on an anniversary way in the future (like, the 25th, or 50th or whatever). This is something I actually wouldn't mind storing long-term.
• Handfasting - A member of your wedding party or your officiant ties your wrists together with a rope, cord, etc. to symbolize the couple being bound to each other. I liked this idea a lot, but upon doing further research, I found out this was originally a pagan tradition, and I had a feeling that wasn't going to go over too well...
• Ring Warming - The wedding rings are passed around for the guests to pray over and bless, while "warming" them with their hands.

On top of these, I've seen a lot of couples taking communion at their weddings, and I really like that idea. I'm not sure if that's a tradition in Protestant weddings, as I've only been to one where they did that (and then only the couple took it, not the guests), but all the Catholic weddings I've been to involved the Eucharist (another name for communion).

Are there any that I'm missing? What unity traditions are you using for your ceremony?