Ian and Alex Marry on a Gorgeous Day at The Raleigh Rose Garden

 It was a treat to meet and marry Alex and Ian.  We met over email and since I was in Spain we began planning long distance.  And, since they were going to Spain on their honeymoon, to Barcelona, in fact where we were, I could get a map of the city for them.  They're a delightful couple who love traveling and so we have even more in common.    Thanks to photographer Michael Moss for these fabulous pictures, Sally Oakley for all her planning expertise, which was key since their venue closed on them almost at the last minute and they had to find somewhere else.  Sally ensured that all went well!  Thanks to musicians Autumn Brand & Kaitlin Grady for their beautiful string accompaniment for the ceremony, and thanks to The English Garden for their stunning floral arrangements.

Ian and Alex bonded first over food, especially Ian cooking a wonderful vegetarian meal for Alex on their second date.  They quickly became best friends who cherish each day together, traveling around the world, and sharing their time together. They are grateful to have found one another and are able to be themselves and dream of another day together. They look forward to the days ahead of growing closer to one another and going on any adventure that may come their way. 

 The lyrics to Dave Matthew's song, 'Loving Wings' had special meaning for them so their friend, Lindsey, read them as part of the ceremony. 

So I give to you my everything 

You've given me these loving wings 

Angels have all gathered 'round 

To hear me sing my love out loud. 

Your lightly love lifted me away 

Out of a darkness cold and gray 

Now I work beneath the midday sun 

My cool blue water you have come. 

So I give to you my everything 

You've given me these loving wings 

Angels have all gathered 'round 

To hear me sing my love out loud. 

So take your place here next to me 

And I'll take my place there next to thee 

And no matter how far we may roam 

It's by your side I'll make my home. 

So I give to you my everything 

You've given me these loving wings 

Angels have all gathered 'round 

To hear me sing my love out loud.

The garden was in full bloom.  This fit the fullness in everyone's hearts.  They're a dedicated, fun and well matched couple who will have lots of shared adventures, perhaps the best of all will be their marriage.  I wish them both a lifetime of joyful years together.

Goeff and Liz and Champagne at The Raleigh Rose Garden

The very warm evening of June 19th, Geoff and Liz married at The Raleigh Rose Garden.  They wisely scheduled their wedding for 7PM and then had their reception under a large tent at the other end of the Rose Garden.  I loved how cool they dressed and how easy they made it for themselves.  They're a couple very much in love with each other, their beautiful daughter, Samantha, and their families.  It made it a very joyful occasion.

They put the small house at the end of the garden to good use with champagne and cold water ready for guests.  Their ceremony included a champagne toast at end end so we wanted everyone to be prepared.

The Rose Garden looked magnificent.  Everything was in bloom.  

The Snyder Trio, always elegant, professional and playing to perfection was a joy to work with.  They played 'Midsummer Nights Dream' for the seating of the families, 'Pachelbel's Canon in D' for the attendants entrance and 'Kiss of Life' for the bride's entrance.  

Liz and Geoff met on a friend's back porch and they've been together ever since.  They love the expression 'Every pot has it's lid,' because Liz feels that she has found the lid for her pot in Geoff.  They're a perfect fit.  As part of the ceremony I had the honor to read love poetry written by Geoff's grandfather to his grandmother.  It's lovely still.

The picture below is Liz's father signing the marriage license after the ceremony.

Thank you so much to Jerry Reed Photography for these fabulous photographs.  He was so kind in sharing them with me and us.  Lake Boone Florist was Liz and Geoff's florist, Not Just Cakes created their cake, The 'Q' Shack did their catering and Davis Messina Band was their band for their reception.  It's always nice to be able to laud such wonderful wedding professionals!


Geoff and Liz are easy and warm and loving people who cherished having their friends and family with them to share their love.  Theirs was a simple, loving, sentimental wedding.  Just what they wanted.  I wish them all the best!

Steve and Emmy and Just Their Kids, and Odie Their Dog

Emmy and I communicated only by phone and email so it was a special treat to meet Steve, Emmy and their children and dog, Odie, at The Raleigh Rose Garden on their wedding day, June 11th at 10am. The only other two in our small group were Thad, their photographer, a friend of Emmy's from her work and a professional photographer, and his wife who generously helped from the background.

We gathered in a small circle in a sunny and rosy spot - just us with Odie carrying in the ring in a small bag around his neck. I loved the intimacy of it and it fit them.

We created a unique ceremony honoring the joining of these two special families: Emmy with her two daughters and Steve with his one son.



Special to their wedding was the 'Wedding Prayer' by Robert Lewis Stevenson which goes: 'Lord, behold our family here assembled. We thank you for this place in which we dwell, for the love that unites us, for the peace accorded us this day, for the hope with which we expect the morrow, for the health, the work, the food, and the bright skies that make our lives delightful; for our friends in all parts of the earth. Amen.'

They each wrote vows to the children that were sweet and personal and then presented small tokens of family to each child and which fit each child.

This is a family already, in spirit, love for each other, and in joy at the love of their parents. There was much laughter after the ceremony.


and some great additional kisses by Steve and Emmy. I came home on that Thursday morning as they went on to lunch and celebration. I loved being a part of their lives at this special time and seeing the devotion, love, respect, and sense of joy each member of that combined family have for each other. What a treat!

Kelly and Todd and a Rose Filled Wedding

October 17th was a chilly day, and it had rained for several days before that, making an outdoor wedding not a guaranteed success. But it was important that Kelly and Todd be married in the Raleigh Rose Garden and it was only after the ceremony that I totally understood why. Roses speak to this couple.

And the heavens conspired to make the day magical. It was overcast up to the very moment before Kelly entered the ceremony. Then the sun shone, but only until the end of the ceremony when it tucked back behind a cloud. But during the ceremony it lit up the sky, Kelly's and Todd's faces, and the roses.

We can thank Meg Daniels of The Photography of Meg Daniels for these wonderful pictures, and for capturing the day so beautifully.

And a special thanks to Gina Beatty Martinez of the Raleigh Little Theater Rose Garden for all the logistics of ensuring the garden was ready for Kelly and Todd and their wedding.

Todd and Kelly met at the MBA program at NC-State three years ago and they both felt the touch of fate or the Divine in the meeting. They wanted to stress their appreciation of each other in their ceremony and the joy in their shared love. They described it as a positive loop of energy and appreciation. Roses were an excellent symbol of that feeling of being gifted by our Beloved in our life.

They had a guest offer a reading called 'Dedication to My Wife' by T. S. Eliot that ends with ' No peevish winter wind shall chill, No sullen tropic sun shall wither, The roses in the rose-garden which is ours and ours only', they exchanged roses as the first gift upon their marriage, and they gave the roses to their mothers after the ceremony.

Kelly's bouquet of roses was made by the florist Fallon's Flowers on Wake Forest and they were a lush bouquet of, you guessed it, roses. The continuity of the theme was lovely and seamless.

Arioso Strings provided the elegant music safely ensconced in the gazebo again the cold and damp. The bride entered to the Air from Suite #3 by Bach, and the couple recessed to the Largo from Xerxes by Handel.

They left in a white stretch limousine provided by A Formal Affair, LLC and driven by Paul Copplestone (1-888-753-6653) for their reception and much celebrating.

Many years ago I presided at a wedding at Ayr Mount in Hillsborough for which the groom's Aunt Peggy wrote a special poem, 'Marriage Grove.' I kept this poem with Aunt Peggy's permission and Todd and Kelly chose it for their ceremony:

yesterday
you played at love
wildly growing into separateness
but not today

today you step into this
someday grove
of saplings sprung beside the founding tree
an array of your life hopes and dreams
with God wielding influence as a spade
separating your want from weed
while with passionate interest
you water each seed

this is the challenge
for weather changes

give yourself to shade the other
or warm each other
become deeply rooted
urging toward what unknown Sun
unafraid of growth
sustained by its apportioned Grace
embracing this rocky
dynamic place.

I wish Kelly and Todd much joy as they cultivate the garden of their marriage.