Darius and Katrina With A Holiday Wedding At The Morehead Manor in Durham

 Darius and Katrina introduced me to the lovely Morehead Manor near downtown Durham.  Their friend, Monica Edwards is the innkeeper.  And Meritage Music & Photography was their photographer for these wonderful pictures.    They were delighted to have the spiritual ceremony that they had always wanted and they gathered a wonderful group of professionals to bring their vision to life.

Sarah’s Creations Florist was their florist.  Their cake was created by Favor Desserts, 

 Intimate Affairs Catering & Event Planning catered their wedding lunch, and ClassyTransportation is responsible for that amazing car in the picture below.

Katrina entered into the foyer for the ceremony down a long curving staircase that isn't in the pictures.  I was standing in the small alcove that is just inside the front door and guests were seated in the foyer and just in the entrance to the rooms off the foyer.  It worked well.

Not a great picture of me, but it captured the sweetness of the attention and affection Katrina and Darius showed each other all through their ceremony, and in fact every time I met them.

 Darius and Katrina wrote their own vows that spoke much of what is in their hearts.  Everyone clapped and cheered when they kissed knowing that this was a love that was deep and full.  We were all delighted to share this special moment with them.

I love how they spared no attention to the details they wanted to make their day special.  This car, as I mentioned above is from Classy Transportation.

 I include this picture because it was a sweet moment for me.  We offered a prayer for Darius and Katrina and their marriage in the room where Katrina was dressing just before their ceremony.

Katrina and Darius were a joy to work with and get to know.  I send them much love and many blessings!

Christine and Christopher October 17th at Jones Chapel on Meredith Campus

I love it when a couple makes their wedding truly their own. And Christine and Christopher did just that. From our first meeting in January until their wedding date on October 17th, it was a delight to work with them. (Thanks first to Wake Forest Portraits for these wonderful pictures. It was a joy working with them.)

They had a very modern romance, meeting while living on two different coasts of the US, having long conversations on the phone and racking up the frequent flier miles as they determined that this was the person they each wanted to spend their life with. Then, joyfully, two years on the same coast as they deepened their love to this day of wedding.

Christine's father, Donald, walked her down the aisle, but only after a a formal entrance of very happy parents, wedding party and their flower girl and ring bearer (brother and sister), all in ivory and red with black formal attire for the men and the one Groom's Woman. Christine carried a beautiful antique prayer book holder in her hand containing a book of prayer and a copy of the Old Testament, accomplishing her 'something old' as well as something meaningful and memorable.














Jones Chapel on Meredith Campus is elegant and stunningly beautiful. Janet Cherry, a professor at Meredith College played 'The Forrest Gump Suite' on the piano as special guests, the groom, and I entered. Then she played 'Benediction' on the organ as the wedding party entered. 'Benediction,' written by John Stevens, was arranged especially for Christopher and Christine by Christopher's brother, Cameron. Christine and her father entered to Pachelbel's 'Canon in D,' wonderfully sonorous on that beautiful pipe organ.

Christopher's father, Mark was his Best Man, and Christine's mother, Catherine, was her Matron of Honor. At the beginning of the ceremony, one family member from each family lit a red candle in honor of the family members who could not be with them this day, but who were still with us in spirit and love. Then Christopher's mother Reneé read 'The Art of a Good Marriage" by Wilferd Arlan Peterson.

Christopher and Christine included a Celtic Handfasting as part of their ceremony. The sash they used was from Christine's family tartan of the clan McLeod from her mother's side. We tied it in the shape of infinity binding their hands together, and blessing their marriage forever as we spoke the beautiful and timeless words of the handfasting.





I then removed the sash acknowledging that while it's impossible for them to be physically tied together all their lives, they will wear rings to symbolically honor the physical and spiritual ties they made this day.

I had the wonderful privilege of offering the blessing, 'Go now to walk the ways of the world together, and may your days be good and long upon the earth' after which they recessed to the wonderful Hogwarts Hymn from the Harry Potter movies - a shared favorite, and part of what brought them together.


They added some playful touches as they began their celebrating. Vern Bullock of Classy Transportation drove them to the reception in this beautiful ivory Excalibur, perfect for this beautiful fall day. And since Christopher and Christine had their wedding at 11 am, they had the whole day to celebrate.


They held their reception at the wonderful 1705 Prime in Raleigh. This picture shows Christine's mother and Matron of Honor making her toast to the couple. I love 1705 Prime because it's intimate and has a wonderful oval dance floor, bordered on one arc by a beautiful gray stone wall.




It also has room for cake, this one created by Cinda's Creative Cakes. The cake decoration is modeled after Christopher and Christine's invitation, bearing their monogram and copying its delicate scroll work.

I could go on and on about the fullness of love on this day for Christine and Christopher. I'm delighted that in their careful planning they created a spaciousness for their love to flow and breathe and be celebrated by all who touched their day. I was grateful to be a part of it.

And it was wonderful to hear from Christine after they returned from their honeymoon and got their pictures back with this thank you: "First I wanted to thank you so much for the wonderful job you did with our ceremony. It was absolutely perfect. It was so nice to feel relaxed up there and really feel the intimacy with Christopher. You took your time and really let us enjoy it all. We got several compliments from guests on what a wonderful job you did. You were so nice, made it easy from the beginning to put together such an important ceremony and were a great help at the rehearsal and day of. Thank you so much. I will treasure our ceremony always."