Sunday, March 27, 2011 at 8:49PM In this picture, at a wedding taking place at the Chequessett http://www.cycc.net/ Yacht Club Boathouse Beach, the bride is looking over her shoulder, as a bit of a rogue tide sweeps in. Unflappable, she shrugs her shoulders and announces to the crowd,
" Oh well, I'm wasn't planning on ever wearing this dress again."
Sunday, March 20, 2011 at 9:46AM I'll let this image in oil by Mary Moquin, a local artist showing at Addison Gallery in Orleans,
speak for itself.
Saturday, March 12, 2011 at 7:26PM Today I met with a couple to plan their June wedding ceremony. Towards the end of our visit the groom said that he wanted "a short, but meaningful ceremony with a theme."
The word, 'theme' is from German 'thema' meaning 'what is laid down.' As in foundation? What is the ground on which this relationship rests? What is the re-occurring or identifying thread of the story? If this couple's love story had a theme song what would it be? As I worked on their ceremony I found myself humming the Paul McCartney song, "The long and winding road that leads to your door." The poetry of Wendell Berry and the last line of John O'Donohue's 'Blessing for Marriage' also came to mind,
"May love bring you home to each other."
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 hope I get it right.
(Someday I'll share the time I didn't get it right, well not down to the finest tuned details. You know what some writers say:Pesky facts should never get in the way of a good story. But not every couple wants their ceremony to become a work of historical fiction. There were several other factors that threw me off my game that fateful day, such as a raging sinus infection, the oppressive heat and then the thunderous rain cloud that unleashed a downpour just as the "I do's" were being said." A day best left to silence it turns out. But I'll wait until I am completely booked to share that story in more detail. It is a story that could readily be themed,
The Return of Mr. Bean.
Sunday, March 6, 2011 at 11:01AM The first wedding I offiated was on a bluff overlooking Cape Cod Bay in October of 2000. Newly ordained and nervous I never-the-less presented myself as just that; nervous and new to this officiating biz. As fate would have it the couple, Kathy and Pete, were creative and casual from somewhat eccentric and very forgiving families. In fact, I became the sea of calm in the midst of some pre-ceremony chaos when the father of the bride was having too much fun gabbing with the guests. As the sky darkened and rain threatened he returned from where the bridal party was gathered, after several attempts to secure his daughter he gave up saying, "Im not going back in there. Don't send me back in there." His wife took him by the arm and finally the harpist began to play and the bridal party processed in. Kathy was a sensational bride, naturally elegant and Pete, so attractive made even more so by his obvious love for Kathy.
They really got each other and I got them and they got me. (And some years later they begot Eli, their adorable son.)
Look for an officiant that gets you. Who gets what you want, who gets who you are to each other.
"To have and to hold' couples sometimes ask me what that means. I know it when I see it. Couples who truly get each other despite their faults and foibles or sometimes because of them.
