"You're Sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod' Weddings

   First Encounter Beach Eastham -Weddings on Cape Cod Bay

Alex and Kate Share a kiss at Chatham Bars Inn

If you spend an evening you'll want to stay
Watching the moonlight on Cape Cod Bay
You're sure to fall in love with old Cape Cod 
 

So many of the couples that choose to marry on Cape Cod have some connection to this beautiful place.

Some of them are lucky to call Cape Cod home like Kristin ande Greg in the photo above. They married a year ago at the Red Jacket Resort in Yarmouth

This Cape Cod Wedding Celebrant and her husband are blessed to live in Brewster where we have one blinking traffic light in the whole town. Things  haven't changed much since Patti Page sang about quaint little villages, winding roads,lobster stew and the moonlight over Cape Cod Bay- spend an evening you'll want to stay. Jiri and Iveta came all the way from Prague in the Czech Republic  to wed at Crosby Beach in Brewster.

Twenty- five years ago my husband, David and I, did just that. We spent our honeymoon evenings on Cape Cod Bay and years later we decided to stay. 

This past year I received a call from a darling bride, Heather Shea,  who asked if I was available on June 16th to preside over her 'Bloomsday' ceremony in P-town. I was and she was excited that I knew what Bloomsday was. It turned out that her fiance had done his dissertation on James Joyce’s Ulysses. She went on to say that the wedding was being held at her parents inn. We were both blown away when she said that it was the Watermark Inn- that is where my husband and I honeymooned in June of 1988.

Now I have to back -up for you who are scratching their heads about the Bloomsday comment. For you who aren't James Joyce fans, suffice it to say, I had a great time writing and reading in my Irish brogue, 

a stream- of- consciousness poem for Heather and Michael.

                                                          A Bit  Bloomsday:June 16th, 2012 

 With this little bit of history I ‘d like to formally welcome Mike Bryne and Heather Shea  to this Bloomsday wedding celebration day with this beautiful bride and her brilliant groom as they make fast the ties that bind. We find ourselves gathered here at the Watermark Inn, the summer dwelling place of the Family Shea, and imagine a time before, miles away, on another distant shore, a red-haired lad listened to a siren song on an Island Long. As far off but on the same coast east a  flaxen haired beauty fair wandered the beaches of Cape Cod Bay cheeks blushed with salt –spray and the scent of rosa ragosa, beach plum lipped, hair tipped with white gold from sea and sun ,  Even as wee ones the call of the tides the shifting sands of time and fate were drawing them closer unbeknownst to either of them their paths would indeed cross on yet another island  of Manhattan and lead them here to this moment in time

 and they, like so many lucky couples, would be led to wed on Old Cape Cod and someday they too, may spend an evening and want to stay.

The Vows

The wedding ceremony is built around the cornerstone of the vows. A promise to be faithful to the one you choose above all the rest. The one to whom you give your word. 

 The Meaning of Marriage: Wendell Berry

The meaning of marriage begins with the giving of words. We cannot join ourselves to one another without giving our word. And this must be an unconditional giving, for joining ourselves to one another, we join ourselves to the unknown…you do not know the road; you have committed your life to a way.

Cape Cod Weddings-What's with the Soulful?-Huppahs,Thresholds and Archways

  

"Under the Huppah- a symbolic act of intimacy that demonstrates the couple's intention to create a new home and new life."  from the New Jewish Wedding, a book by Anita Diamant.

  This wedding shelter made from birch branches and adorned with white hydrangeas with a carpet of peach rose petals, provided a sacred space for Evan and Sarah to say, " I do."

They wed in September at The Poppy'  Popponnessett Inn on Cape South Beach.

What's with the Soulful?

As this Cape Cod Wedding Officiant /Celebrant /Interfaith minister winds down her 2012 season (slowly for I am happy to say I have two weddings at Chatham Bars Inn coming up in December) I want  to thank all the wonderful couples who gave me the pleasure of presiding over their weddings this year.

 It has been a truly delightful wedding season and I wish everyone of you the very best of love! I will be traveling abroad from November 5th -19th so I wanted to take time to voice my appreciation.

As the inquiries for 2013 begin, I thought I'd like to share with you the genesis of the name, Soulful Wedding Ceremonies. I am an ordained Interfaith Minister. I don't adhere to any one religion although I respect and honor all faith traditions. I was raised Irish Catholic and Celtic Spirituality is a part of my 'practice.' I truly love God but think God is actually too big and has too hilarious a sense of humor, to be contained in any one religion. Meher Baba summed up it up best when he wrote, "God is Love and Love must Love."

'Soulful' is not a religious word to me. Actually growing up near Detroit and dancing to '60s Motown Sound may have more bearing on my concept of soul then any CCD class ever did. Soul to me  is felt deeply but acts without pretense. Soul has a great sense of the humor and humanity. Soul knows how to have a good time. Knows how to stand on ceremony without being stodgy.

Enough of that for now I  had a couple who gave me feedback that the name might scare off some deliciously unchurchy couples. Rest assured you are safe with me. Now, let's look at some wedding shelters, archways and chuppahs all sacred thresholds for your wedding day.  This first do it yourself bedoin beach wedding shelter which was way out on Ballston Beach in Truro.This "Just the Two of Us" wedding was  colorful, simply soulful and sweet.

The second archway just resounds with anticipation nestled at low tide on Chequessett Neck.

Lots of sky and the Nantucket Sound meet at Chatham Bars Inn Boathouse where Laura and Chris wed beneath a simple white trellis.

 The last photo is of the wedding arch featured on my website. The bride's family built that arch over the course of the summer from driftwood on the bayside beach where Kathleen and Ben were wed in September 2010.

These thresholds are just a small sample of the wedding archs, chuppahs, trellises that serve as holy shelters set out in the natural world. As John O'Donohue says "To be Natural is to be Holy."

Update on Friday, October 26, 2012 at 10:02AM by Soulful Wedding Ceremonies

For Marriage by John O’Donohue

 From to Bless the Space Between Us

 As spring unfolds the dream of earth,

May you bring each others hearts to birth.

As the ocean finds calm in view of land,

May you love the gaze of each other’s mind.

As the wind arises free and wild,

May nothing negative control your lives.

As kindly as moonlight might search the dark,

So gentle may you be when light grows scarce. 

 As surprised as the silence that music opens,

May your words for each other be touched with reverence.

As warmly as the air draws in the light,

May you welcome each other’s every gift.

 As elegant as dream absorbing the night,

May sleep find you clear of anger and hurt.

As twilight harvest all the day’s color,

May love bring you home to each other.

Interview with Lynn Holmgrin on Full Circle, the Minter&Richter BLog

* Minter & Richter offers FREE “Spa” Treatments for your wedding band for life! Contact us for more details!

Soulful By the Sea: A Cape Cod Wedding Officiant Shares Her Inspiration

Posted by Lynn on Jun 11, 2012 in blog | 0 comments

“For love keeps the stars in the firmament and imposes rhythm on the ocean tide. Each of us was created of it, and I suspect each of us was created for it.” Maya Angelou

Rev. Kathleen Geagan of Soulful Weddings

MR: You’re a wedding officiant on Cape Cod. No pressure there! What do you do when the sun refuses to appear and the winds are whipping across the sand flats?!

KG: You hope that the couple has a back- up shelter plan but if not, you keep a sense of humor and carry on. I’ve been in a downpour only once and we did just that. The couple really wanted to marry out in the elements. I’m pretty cool about it, but I don’t do lightning.

MR: What led you to take on this special role?

KG: I was hooked after my first wedding for Pete and Kathy in October of 2000. After being ordained as an interfaith minister I was also working as a chaplain. Two years ago I went full time into the wedding presider role. It is a wonderful gift to meet people in love and share this momentous time in their lives. I love to write poetry and enjoy a good love story, so weaving these elements into a ceremony makes it an enjoyable creative process.

“I believe it’s my job to listen for the theme; to sense the thematic thread, to perceive in the story what is being laid down, like a good guitar riff and I hope I get it right.”

MR: I love the above sentiment – pulled from your Soulful Weddings blog. Does meeting a couple for the first time feel a little bit like a first date? How does the process work?

KG: Definitely, it does feel like a bit of a first date. Most first meetings are like that, we get to know each other, it can be a bit awkward at first. Most couples are relieved to realize that I’m not a ‘officious’ officiant. If we can’t meet in person we can talk on the phone, communicate by e-mail. I use a wedding questionnaire that helps with getting information about the couple and what they want in their ceremony. It is a creative process that evolves as we get to know each other. Some couples just want to turn it all over, others like to have more input. I let them lead but take over when I see stress levels rising. (Years as a psych nurse help in reading people.)

MR: Can you share a few of your favorite wedding/love/marriage quotes?

KG: “True love is unconquerable and irresistible. It goes on gathering power and spreading itself until it transforms everyone it touches.” ~ Meher Baba

“For love keeps the stars in the firmament and imposes rhythm on the ocean tide. Each of us was created of it, and I suspect each of us was created for it.” ~ Maya Angelou

MR: You perform many ceremonies on the public beaches of Cape Cod. Any interesting stories about odd spectators (sea specimen, tourists?)

KG: I’ve had some great ones- a tourist who stood behind me snapping pictures over the hedge. I wasn’t even aware of her but the bride kept looking over my head with a look of concern on her face.I’ve also had couples who elope then become friendly with the people at the B and B where they are staying or folks they met on the beach that day. They end up with an impromptu wedding party and guests. Once I did a wedding in Hyannisport and I had some young Kennedy children on a trampoline jumping up and down to get a look at the wedding. The bride loved that at her wedding the Kennedy clan’s youngest were her wedding’s paparazzi.

MR: What is your advice for couples hoping to have the ceremony go as comfortably and smoothly as possible?

KG: Nourish each others’ sense of humor, keep communicating, have a rehearsal and or a point person who likes to be in charge and knows all the players. Don’t burden yourself with the onus of creating your own ceremony from scratch. Find an officiant you trust and turn things over so you can focus on the essential vow and promise you are about to make to the one you chose above all the rest. Have fun, don’t expect everything to go perfectly. Perfect weddings are boring.

Thank you, Kathleen

A Graceful Wedding in July at CBI - Chatham Bars Inn

Laura and Chris said their "I do's" beneath the arbor at Chatham Bars Inn's Boathouse.

 Photos by Stacy Hedman.