Photos

If you haven't had the chance to look through them already, here's a direct link to the professional photo galleries. I recommend checking out the Highlights gallery first, it is pared down to some of the best images of the day. The full gallery is there as well (all 432 photos of it!) if the highlights leave you hungry for more!

The galleries

We should be getting a disc soon of all the photos in the full gallery, though the additional effects included in the Hightlights will not be on the disc.

Back by Popular Demand

We have returned from our honeymoon vacation, relaxed, rested, and having had lots of fun! I can't wait to tell you all about it but thought I should resume our recaps where we left off: the ceremony.

The final "reading" of our ceremony was the closing message, read by Drew. This message was something Bill found while looking through a box of sermons by his late grandfather, the Reverend Albert G. Schofer. The text, hand-written on the back of a church program, goes as follows:

Nothing is easier than to say words.

Nothing is harder than to live them, day after day.

What you promise today must be renewed and redecided tomorrow- and each day that stretches out before you.

At the end of this ceremony, you will legally be man and wife but still you must decide each day that you want to be married.

All of us know that you are in love. But beyond the excitement and romance, what is love really? - caring about the welfare of your partner- not possessive- makes burdens lighter- joys stronger because you share them. It makes you stronger because you can reach out and be involved in life in ways you dared not risk alone. May you meet the day by day living as married people gladly. May God go with you.

This Just In ...

We interrupt your regularly scheduled blog-cast to announce that pro photos are up on Scott Cleveland's site!

Since I am blogging on an iPod from our honeymoon you are just going to have to get to his site through the vendor link in the left-hand column and I will post a pretty link here when we get back.

Xoxo!
Jen (and Bill)

Wedding Ceremony: Second Reading

Wedding Day; by Anonymous

Now comes the knitting, the tying, the entwining into one,
Mysterious involvement of two, whole separate people
Into something altogether strange and changing and lovely.
Nothing can ever be, we will never be the same again;
Not merged into each other irrevocably but rather
From now on we go the same way; in the same direction;
Agreeing not to leave each other lonely, or discouraged or behind,
I will do my best to keep my promises to you and keep you warm;
And we will make our wide bed beneath the bright and ragged quilt
Of all the yesterdays that make us who we are,
The strengths and frailties we bring to this marriage,
And we will be rich indeed.

Wedding Ceremony: First Reading

The Invitation, by Oriah Mountain Dreamer
It doesn't interest me what you do for a living.
I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your hearts longing.
It doesn't interest me how old you are.
I want to know if you will risk looking a fool for love,
for your dreams, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn't interest me what planets are square in your moon.
I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow,
if you have been opened by life's betrayals or have become shriveled and closed down from fear of further pain.
I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving, to hide it, fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own; if you can dance with wildness and let ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, be realistic, or to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn't interest me if the story you are telling me is true.
I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true yourself;
if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul.
I want to know if you can be faithful and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it is not pretty every day, and if you can source your life on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the moon in God’s presence.
It doesn't interest me to know where you live or how much money you have.
I want to know if you can get up after a night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done for the children.
It doesn't interest me who you know, or how you came here.
I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn't interest me where or what or with whom you have studied.
I want to know what sustains you from the inside when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself, and if you truly like the company you keep in empty moments.