Sunday, January 14, 2024 at 12:10PM 
Dear All,
Weddings remind us, to say to ourselves.
What a Wonderful World!
Sing it Satchmo
"I see trees of green, red roses too......"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VqhCQZaH4Vs
A Rainy night in Soho and Harvest Moon came up too. Playing with music.
Saturday, March 4, 2023 at 12:40PM 
"We don't want anything trendy in our wedding ceremony." In a recent meeting with a couple getting married on Cape Cod, they made this request. This was not a problem for me. I haven't a clue what is trending when it comes to a nuptial rituals. But it did make me curious so I googled it.
There I discovered websites for ceremony experts who promise to banish "dull and boring" weddings. This set off alarm rather than wedding bells. Not that I endorse ennui for your ceremony. I can assure you, lackluster is not in my palette. But including novelty for novelty sake, detracts from the true meaning of marriage. Like the setting you have chosen, my sense of ceremony, tends toward classic Cape Cod charm.
But the most important quality you bring to your wedding is the trust and love you share. In a world awash with sensational insincerity, this giving your word to each other is beyond exciting; it's miraculous. It's a testimony to faith and the power of love.
'Love is patient, love is kind' yes, but it is also, as Meher Baba puts it.
Pure love is
matchless in majesty;
has no parallel in power
and there is no darkness it cannot dispel
Let's tap into that, shall we! Far from dull, is the spark of Divine Love ignited by your love and celebrated at your wedding. Let's get to it and spread some illumination around!
Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 12:41PM
Inclusive and expansive, these are the types of readings I like to include in ceremonies. On a questionnaire I use to get the know the couple, I ask them what qualities they most appreciate in each other. I ask them to send their responses, separately so they hear the words for the first time at the wedding ceremony. This reading flows from there.
OPENING PRAYER/READING:
First reading:
The Hope of Love
Author Unknown
“Our hope for you is this:
That you will always remember the qualities
that attracted you to each other when you first met
and how you felt as your feelings of attraction
turned into respect, admiration and finally love.
That you will work hard to turn your feelings of love
into acts of love so that nothing and no one can divide you.
That you will always have kind and loving hearts
that are quick to ask for forgiveness when you are wrong
as well as to forgive when your partner is wrong.
That your love might grow to hear all things,
believe all things, and hope for all things, endure all things;
and that your love increases and overflows,
beyond anything you can yet imagine.”
This also pairs well with the reading of 'Love is patient; love is kind...' for as Wendell Berry says in his poem,
How to be a Poet, " Patience joins time with eternity" and a sense of humor really helps.
,
Tuesday, January 17, 2023 at 1:36PM Going through my documents looking for photographers I came across a PDF saying I had been choosen as one of the Couple's Choice Awards 2020. Made me happy to know but what I do not know is to how to upload the actual award. So thank you and again Happy New Year!
Couples_Choice_Awards_2020_Press_Release copy.pdf
Saturday, January 14, 2023 at 11:20AM I just read that Hannah at Grace Ceremonies is devoting more time to writing. She officiated at a wedding for friends of my son and we have referred to each other. A kindred spirit.
The energy of creating is strong right now. Some of my own longing is for creative expression. Writing ceremonies has always been a creative endeavor. As I tell couples I have templates but no cookie cutter boilerplates for my ceremonies. Your unique combination, the setting and the words you say about each other, the way you are with one another, sets the tone for me. Poems and readings come to mind as I get to know the couple sometimes very intuitively.
I have this niggling need to expand and expound on a variety of subjects. I have this idea encapsulated by the expression Save Cursive One Letter at a TIme. As Julia Cameron, the author of the Artist Way, encourages creative expression she instructs those of us who love to write to use pen and paper or even pencil so erusure is possible. But here I am writing on a blog but I will spend at least an hour each day putting a favorite pen to pretty paper in one of three journals. And send off a letter or two to my various pen-pals. So old school rusticated.
