What a great New Jersey wedding Ceremony!

How fun is this!  I think the teeny tiny letters would make just the most amazing “datesaves”!  Too small for an invitation perhaps, but just write (ha ha) for a heads up.

The beautiful poetry ribbon would be just great for your favors, for tying up your napkins, or wrapping your bouquet.

Lea is also a cool and creative wedding maven, just like your truly!  (Shameless self promotion alert….) Her site has very cool ideas and projects, and it will be a great diversion from figuring out who is going to sit at what table.

Lea’s consulting service provides you with a full hour of hearty discussion and brainstorming about what particular ideas make sense for you in all your uniqueness. She will follow up the conversation with a list of ideas she thinks you might like to incorporate into your wedding. The ideas might be for the invitations, ceremony, rings, food, party favors, etc.. We can focus on whatever aspect you’d like. The consultation can take place over the phone or in a local café if you live in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Just away!  My web gurus have been tweaking, polishing and beautifying our blog and website (and part of that is keeping me AWAY from it!!!) but I have a lot of great resources, wonderful vendors and a couple of cool weddings to post. But today? First day of fall and so gorgeous?  Nah, I’m outside!

I’ll see ya in a couple of days! By then, maybe I will have figured out how to  use this blog for good instead of evil!

Deborah and Vashun’s wedding was an intimate affair, taking place in the beautiful Hudon Valley. The ceremony took place on the front yard of Deborah’s aunt, and what an amazing setting it was, with perfect French Blue sky and a light breeze. We couldn’t have ordered better weather!

As part of their ceremony, they included a wine sharing, speaking to the harvest and the transformation that happens when time combines with fruit; a fitting metaphor for a relationship that has evolved and grown rich with time!

All the best to you! (more…)

It seems especially appropriate, on this anniversary date of the tragedy of 9/11, to discuss how we might remember those who were dear to us. Many of my couples have lost friends and family members and feel that they want to call them to mind during their ceremonies.

This should always be done with the utmost in sensitivity and grace. Very often I will include a moment of silence, introduced by a very short reading. My favorite is a quote from playwrite Welly Yang, from his play, “Finding Home”":

“We are all a culmination of the people that came before us, and we’re here to finish the dreams they left unfinished. “
We include in our thoughts this evening, those who could not be here with us, and know that they are with us in spirit. Let us take a moment of silent meditation to remember them with fondness. We know they all rejoice with us

This is usually followed by 20-30 seconds of silence.

Other couples have lit candles as they approached the ceremony space; left a seat open in the front row with a rose on it, or had photos at the reception. One of my grooms had his dad’s fishing hat on the greeting table, holding the fans that were the couple’s favors. Many of my brides have worn pieces of heirloom jewelry from their mothers or grandmothers, and I will usually mention those things in the context of the ceremony.

Great care should be taken when including these memorial touches; if the loss is very recent or still very painful, this might not be an appropriate time to pay respects. This is something to discuss with your New Jersey wedding officiant, who can write a gracious and fitting tribute into your ceremony.

How great would it be if we could tone our legs and core without going to the gym? If just by walking from here to there all day long,we could get a decent workout? It would be very cool.

That’s where these funny looking foot babies come in. Shape up shoes And they ARE funny looking, but you will feel them working as soon as you put them on. I have a pair in purple (of course) and a pair in black (basic black, of course) and I live in them. (No I don’t do ceremonies in them, and even though they come in white, I don’t recommend walking down the aisle in them…..you’ll be wobbly enough without them!

But they are a lot of fun, they don’t cost a fortune, and you can think of it as multi tasking!

One of my wonderful Labor day New Jersey Wedding Ceremonies (smooth, eh?) took place on the ancestral property of the bride, amid her family’s lush and verdant late summer gardens. The flowers and trees were in glorious full bloom, and many of the guests eschewed the formal seating to enjoy the ceremony seated on the grass.

During the ceremony, we spoke of the generations of love and care that were silently witnessed by the perrenials her grandmother had planted and the bountiful vegetable garden that her grandfather tends every day. It gave us a beautiful metaphor to speak of the cycles of life, and how important marriage is within the history of a couple, a family and a community.

As a send off, each guest received a bag of home grown tomatoes! What a personal and meaningful tribute, not only to the family homestead, but the Charles, her grandfather, who so lovingly takes care of a myriad of heirloom vegetables.

Almost nothing is as meaningful as looking at a wedding with an eye towards this type of family history and family future. When you start to look at your own plans, take some time to revisit your family’s significant traditions and memories. You will find a rich source of inspiration for both your ceremony and reception.