Ceremony Part III

The beautiful Baby's Breath Bouquets.

Marriage Address
Jon: If you ask most couples who have a strong and abiding love what they like most about their partners, they will usually say that they don’t have to pretend to be anything other than what they are.  They are able to express themselves without fear of being judged or rejected.  There is room in the relationship for both of them to be unique individuals.  They are free to surrender to the possibility of profound intimacy – to be known and loved without condition.

I know that this love is what brought you both here today at this beautiful ceremony.  However, no ceremony can create your marriage.  Only you can do that through love, patience, dedication and perseverance.  Through talking and listening and trying to understand.  Through helping and supporting and believing in each other.  Through learning to forgive, learning to respect and appreciate your differences.  Through learning to make the important things matter and to let go of the rest.  

One of our guests reading the program.

Even though this ceremony does not create your marriage, what this ceremony can do is to witness and affirm the choice you have made to begin a new life today as husband and wife.

Reading II: An Apache Blessing
Jon: I would now like to invite Kamille to share an Apache blessing with us.

Kamille, a college friend of mine.

[Kamille reads the following]

Now you will feel no rain, for each of you will be shelter for the other.  Now you will feel no cold, for each of you will be warmth to the other.  Now there will be no loneliness, for each of you will be companion to the other.  Now you are two persons, but there is only one life before you.  May beauty surround you both in the journey ahead and through all the years.  May happiness be your companion and your days together be good and long upon the earth.  Treat yourselves and each other with respect, and remind yourselves often of what brought you together.  Give the highest priority to the tenderness, gentleness and kindness that your connection deserves.  When frustration, difficulties and fear assail your relationship, as they threaten all relationships at one time or another, remember to focus on what is right between you, not only the part which seems wrong.  In this way, you can ride out the storms when clouds hide the face of the sun in your lives - remembering that even if you lose sight of it for a moment, the sun is still there.  And if each of you takes responsibility for the quality of your life together, it will be marked by abundance and delight.

To be continued!

Photos courtesy of Howie Hartman of Double H Media.

Miss something?  Catch up here:
We arrive in Pennsylvania

We begin setting up

We stock the bar (and skip a rehearsal)

We have dinner and play games at our "Rehearsal" Dinner

We eat R2D2 and open presents at our "Rehearsal" Dinner

We bask in the glow of our paper lantern triumph

We finish setting up the tent

Wedding Day Details: The Favors

Wedding Day Details: The Set-Up 

Wedding Day Details: The Rings

Wedding Day Details: The Chair Signs

Wedding Day Details: Odds & Ends

The Girls Get Glamorous

Philip Gets Gorgeous 

Closeup: The Ladies 

Closeup: The Guys 

Closeup: The Bridal Portraits

Our First Look 

Pre-Ceremony Photos

More Photos of Us

Our Mini-Rehearsal

Partial Family Portraits

Wedding Party Photos at the Ceremony Site

Even More Photos at the Ceremony Site 

Grandparents, Parents, and Wedding Party Walk Down the Aisle

The Bridal Entrance... 

Ceremony Part I 

Ceremony Part II

I bit the bullet...

And finally ordered the envelopes for the invitations (and a few other items).  It hurt me quite a bit to do so because envelopes are expensive!  Well, the envelopes I wanted were expensive.  

See, I wanted ivory inner envelopes (easy peasy) with navy outer envelopes (not so easy).  Since my pocketfolds are 5" x 7", I needed A7 inner envelopes and A8 or A9 outer envelopes.  I searched and searched and searched.

I was going to buy the ivory inner envelopes and the RSVP (A2) envelopes off Amazon.com.  And I found the navy colored envelopes for a fairly reasonable price on www.envelopemall.com. However, when it came to shipping, it was slightly outrageous.  One box of envelopes was going to cost almost $15 to ship!  That's almost what I'm paying for the envelopes!  

Change of plan.  If I order more boxes of envelopes at the same time, the shipping only goes up a buck or two.  So, I ordered the navy outer envelopes, the ivory inner envelopes, the RSVP envelopes, the thank you card envelopes, and the program envelopes all at the same time.  The shipping still only ended up being just over $15.  

Here's what I ordered:

Stardream "Euro Flap" 5-3/4 x 8-3/4" (A9) Envelope 100 Pack - Outer Envelopes

Carnival 5-1/4 x 7-1/4", (A7) Envelope 100 Pack - Inner Envelopes & Thank You Card Envelopes

Carnival 4-3/8 x 5-3/4", (A2) Envelope 100 Pack - RSVP Envelopes

Carnival 4-1/8 x 9-1/2", (No 10 Sq. Flap) Envelope 100 Pack - Program Envelopes

And, with that, I feel slightly nauseous about the amount spent on all things paper for this wedding.  Ugh.  At least I should be done with the invitations by this time next week.  With fingers crossed that is.  Hopefully the envelopes won't take long to arrive!  Then I can get them out of my house and not have to think about how much they cost!  ;)

Programs

I've toyed with a bunch of different ideas for programs.  I was originally going to go with the simple tri-fold program.  

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It would be really simple.  I could design and print them myself.  No cutting or hassles.  But, I thought it just looked too plain.   

I saw the fans/paddles and liked them.

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But, I just didn't think they fit the idea I was going for.  

Then I found the layered look.  I really liked it.  It kind of went with the them from our pocketfolds (layers of information).  

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I really like the way they look.  They're cute and elegant.  However, when I did a mock-up of them, I realized just what a pain in the rear they were going to be.  I've got enough on my plate right now.  I don't want to add a complicated program to that list.  

So, I've been going back and forth and trying to figure out what I should do.  I started doing image searches of trifold programs.  First, I came across this one:

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I thought it looked really cute (plus, it's in navy!).  I liked the idea, and the layers.  I still wasn't completely sold, though.  So, I kept looking.

Then, I came across this:

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Of course, this isn't actually a program; it's an invitation suite.  But, it came up during my search for "trifold wedding programs."  I almost skipped right over it.  But, then I thought, why not use envelopes for the programs?  I really fell for the idea.  I could do a relatively plain trifold program, but then put it in a snazzy envelope with maybe some ribbon around it (like the photo above with the ribbon and layers).  

I have found some places online with navy #10 envelopes for fairly cheap.  Ribbon is relatively inexpensive as well.  And, I know that I can just order brochures from Vistaprint for the programs.  I can just wait for a good freebie sale (right now they have 25 brochures free, but I'd like to wait a bit to see if I can get a better deal... I know sometimes they have 50 or more free!).  Then I can just pay for shipping.  

So, there you have it.  I can cross one more thing off of my to-do list for the month (decide on a program design).