Receiving our guests

We're finally settled into our New York digs, which means that it is time for the wedding recap to begin again. Who knew working a real job (that involves a lot of travel!) would be so crazy?


We made it to the end of the church, and proceeded to kiss some more.

Calvin was greeted as another brother by my youngest brother. (In a bit of homage to family, my brother is wearing my late grandfather's cufflinks.)

My parents were so happy

Calvin's 93 year old grandfather was able to attend

I don't think that anyone was happier than him.

Surprise!

Instead of using bubbles or birdseed, we bought about 200 pinwheels for our send-off.

The soloist in our ceremony helped pass out the pinwheels

The weather held up, so we were able to have our receiving line outside.
Hugs all around

Close up of the pinwheel

The wind was crazy that day

Pinwheel send-off

Our super-sweet ride

All photos courtesy (and copyright) of the amazing Ken Blaze
Previously on the Dahlia wedding recap:
The beginning
Getting ready
First Glance
To the Chapel
I Do

I Do

And then it was time for the ceremony.

First the moms:

Calvin's parents

My mom, escorted by my brothers

The bridal party:

Youngest brother Dahlia and Sister-in-law

Younger brother Dahlia and future sister-in-law

Maid of honor and best man- our two best friends in the world

Calvin is calm, cool and collected

The flower girl and ring bearer are getting ready to go

Walking down the aisle

Walking with my dad. Note that I'm looking around, instead of straight ahead. I was so taken by all of the friends and family that had joined us that I forgot to look at Calvin until I was pretty much all the way down the aisle.

Almost there...

The scene from the balcony

Lovely bridesmaids

The best man kept a hand on the ring bearer, who really was carrying our wedding bands.

Listening to the brief message from the minister

Vow action shot

Another vow action shot

After the exchange of rings

The congregation

We knew from the beginning that we wanted the service to be a worship service, which for us included offering communion to the church. At the minister's suggestion, we assisted in the serving, and asked my mother (who just graduated from seminary!) to also serve communion.

And then....



The kiss.

Shall we go?


We're married!

In the "privacy" of the back of the church...

We had to kiss a little more


Previously on the Dahlia wedding recap:
The beginning
Getting ready
First Glance
To the Chapel

*All pictures courtesy of the fabulous Ken Blaze.

Meeting with the minister

Tonight, Calvin and I are headed back to Cleveland. In addition to seeing our families and watching Indians baseball, we will be meeting tomorrow morning with our officiant, the minister of the church in which I grew up.

This is our first (of at least three) meetings with him before the wedding, and I honestly have no idea what to expect. I emailed the minister about it, and he said to bring any questions we might have. My main question, though, is what questions are we supposed to have?

Do you have any recommendations or tips as we go into this meeting? What was your first meeting with your officiant like?

It's October....

For some, that might conjure up images of leaves, apples and pumpkins. While those are maybe items 2, 3 and 4 that come to mind, the first thing I think of is baseball. I've always been a Tribe fan, but will also root for long-standing baseball teams that haven't won in decades. (If the Indians can't do it this year, I hope the Cubs will, even though it doesn't look good. This also means that I always root for the team playing against the Yankees.)

Jacobs Field (a.k.a "The Jake"). Picture found here.

Last night I gathered up the handful of other Indians fans in town, and we watched (and relished!) in the game together. Upon further reflection this morning, I remembered that Jacobs Field is available for special events. Calvin and I had briefly tossed around the idea of a ballpark wedding, and although both of us are big fans (Calvin even learned to walk at the old Cleveland Municipal Stadium!), it didn't feel completely like us.

That said, I did a little investigating about having weddings at The Jake. It turns out that not only does it host special events, but it has extremely complete wedding packages available here. The most basic package is for a ceremony over homeplate, pictures in the dugout and on homeplate and use of a scoreboard. The most elaborate package includes most everything anyone could think of, including a DJ, limo and the opportunity to throw out a ceremonial first pitch at a game!

Check out this 2006 wedding at Jacobs Field:



All images are from Cleveland.com.

goin' to the chapel

and we're gonna get maaarried.

In deciding where to hold the ceremony, we knew we wanted to get married in a church. We are both people of the Christian faith, and attend church where we live in Michigan. Our current church, which we love, was not an option, as the wedding is in Cleveland Since both of us grew up attending church, it was more a matter of whose church than scouting out beautiful churches in the area.

My mom is finishing up her last year in seminary, and will be ordained in June 2008. In planning our wedding, we talked with my mom about what she would want in regards to officiating. She said that she would prefer to just be the mother of the bride, and would like to be involved in the service, but not the one presiding over it. She is, however, excited about helping out with the design of the service, since we are looking for a real worship service, and worship planning is one of her greatest strengths.

Calvin's family switched churches when he was in college for a variety of reasons, so the church he grew up in was not really an option. That basically left us with two choices- the church I grew up in (and of which I am still a member), or the church his family now attends, which we have attended occasionally.

Conveniently, both churches are beautiful.

St. Peter's Episcopal


Church of the Saviour United Methodist


We ended up going with Church of the Saviour. Growing up, if I wasn't at school or home, I was at church. All the time. The organist will be the same person that accompanied the choir in which I sang in high school, and I remember thinking at various times how long that walk down the aisle would be when I get married. The minister is absolutely awesome, and is also one of my mom's mentors in her ordination process.

(Besides, I used to play hide and go seek in the dark in the church. Best activity EVER.)


Additionally, the family friends with whom I grew up (and consider to be my cousins, as they are more family than any extended family of mine) attend the church, and it is where I reconnect with people when I am in town. Like this week- I went to church on Sunday, saw a friend of mine, which led to getting together with people on Monday, which then led to lunches Tuesday and today.

I've always wondered how people decide on a ceremony site if they are not getting married in a house of worship familiar to the family. If you are getting married, how did you decide where to hold your ceremony?