I am a practicing Catholic so the ceremony part of the wedding day was very important to me. I currently split my time between 2 different churches (one that was walking distance from where I used to live and one that is walking distance from our current home in south Minneapolis). We decided to get married at Our Lady of Lourdes, the church close to downtown Minneapolis, as it's a gorgeous, historic church in a beautiful area of the city. Oh and it's a French-themed church with lots of fleur de lis so it was the perfect church for a Francophile like me to get married in! Plus since we had a lot of out-of-town guests, we wanted to pick a location that was easy to get to and didn't require renting a car. The church and ceremony were about 3 blocks apart and about a mile from our hotel blocks.
The ceremony gave us a chance to incorporate more family into the wedding. 2 of my nephews handed out the programs.
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| Kolin (10) and Matthew (9) |
My friend that designed our invitations also designed our programs. I love the scripted font that we used on all of our paper-products for the wedding. It's swoon-worthy!
Our photographers did a good job of getting pictures of some of our guests - especially my nieces and nephews!
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| Evie waiting for the wedding to start! |
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| Evie (3), Charlie (almost 6), and Anna (5) |
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| Andrew (11) and James (12) |
We didn't have any songs during our wedding as the church is particular about wedding music, so instead my good friend Heather sang "How Beautiful" after the seating of the mothers. I hid in the entryway at the back of the church so I could listen to this beautiful song. Besides having my good friend sing, my 2 aunts played piano (one played the processional/recessional, the other accompanied my friend during How Beautiful and the psalm that was sung between readings). I'm lucky to have so many musical family members and friends.
After "How Beautiful," it was time for the bridal party procession!
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| My handsome groom |
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| My older sister Emily and Phil's college friend Luke |
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| My younger sister Abby and Phil's high school friend Dave |
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| Waiting for his bride! |
I love the look on my mom's face in this photo! My parents were VERY excited that I was marrying Phil, and my mom especially knows how long I've waited to find my life partner. So there were lots of happy tears on her part during the wedding weekend.
The one time I came *close* to crying was when I hugged my dad at the end of the aisle. I am so surprised that I didn't cry on my wedding day as I have certainly cried at others - but I felt such joy and excitement that day!
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| You can see the fleur de lis on the altar and carpet in this picture! |
My God-son/nephew James did the first and second readings and he did such an amazing job!!
Then it was time for the sermon, which I really liked (well, maybe except the part where he mentioned that we were an older couple but that he hoped we'd still be able to have a family - LOL! My east coast friends were confused as to why he considered us old - but we really are OLD for a first marriage by Midwest standards (most of my friends my ages are done having kids!) so I don't hold it against the priest for making that comment!)
Then it was time for the vows! We had 2 priests at our wedding (long story) but they split the duties nicely. The priest for this parish preached and did the nuptial blessing at the end and the other priest (from the parish by our house) did the vows.
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| I loved my long train! |
The ceremony went by so quickly (for me at least). It was about 40 minutes, which is about average for a church wedding (we did not have communion/full mass - it would have been closer to 90 minutes had we had mass).
After the wedding ceremony we headed back to sign the marriage license and make it official for the state of Minnesota! I had never signed my name with my new last name! My younger sister said she couldn't believe I hadn't practiced! It's going to take awhile to get used to signing with my new last name!
I'd been wearing a ring for 5 months at this point, but it's a new experience for Phil, hence the goofy expression in this photo! I'll share photos of the rings in my details post. Phil chose to have his dad's wedding ring re-sized. I love that there is meaning and significance behind his ring.
The newly married couple with our 2 priests! Phil joked during his speech that if we had a 3rd priest, maybe the weather would have been nicer that day. LOL.
After that we headed down to the basement so my sister and good friend Courtney (wife of Luke, one of best men) got to work on the bustle. From the look on Phil's face below, you get a sense for how long it took/how complicated it was!
Courtney came with me to my last dress fitting appointment to learn how to do the bustle. She took pictures and a video to make sure she would figure it out! It was not an easy task!!
Success!!
After that we were ready to walk to our reception, but took some time to take pictures on the way, which are some of my favorite from the day - I'll share them in the next post!
11 comments:
The church is gorgeous and it was such the perfect location for y'all!!! I enjoyed watching everyone arrive and having the opportunity to meet your family! Bustles can definitely be a challenge! I'm glad she had a video I bet that helped tremendously!!! I'm still trying to figure out what to do for the unity, if we're going to do the unity part. Your friend sang gorgeously!!! I loved every part of your ceremony so much!!!
It was a very beautiful ceremony and I did feel great joy as I know how deeply you have dreamed of this day! It feels good to have you "married" and to Phil!
Love this! Whenever a catholic friend gets married i ask them ahead of time if they are doing full mass, i like the significance, but i also like to be warned before i sit down.
So fun to relive the ceremony again! I think you are looking at us in that walking down the aisle pic ;)
Lol about the priest calling you old- I was definitely in the shocked group about that, but I have heard worse at weddings ha ha
What a lovely, meaningful ceremony - and how special to have so many loved ones involved in the ceremony. I can't believe the priest's age comment - but you know, that Catholic emphasis on family! You knew they were going to mention kids!
These pictures are gorgeous and you are just a stunning bride! Also, I can't believe how big your nephews are (especially the older ones)! So crazy to realize how long I've been following your blog because I remember when they were little!
The comment on you and Phil being an older couple is so interesting to me! I can understand the shock from your out-of-town guests, haha, maybe because I wouldn't think a priest would call you guys out like that!
Gorgeous church, and gorgeous bride! This post is great, and it's so nice that your photographer captured so many candid photos of the kids.
Most of my friends are in their mid-thirties, and have only started having kids in the past couple years. A lot are pregnant with their second right now, and a couple with their first. I get what the priest(s) was saying, but you've got time :-)
Loved this post!! Seriously so fun to relive that day. The church you got married in was soooo beautiful! I also didn't know that about Phil having his dad's wedding ring resized, I think that is so special and meaningful - love that!
Lisa, I love each and every photo. It truly tells a wonderful story of your wedding day. And boy, did you ever look the beautiful bride! Fabulous dress and hair, handsome groom, glorious smiles. I'm glad you didn't cry (bad for the make-up!) but I know your heart was very full indeed!
Your dress and veil are gorgeous. Isn't that funny about not crying when you expect to? I was the same way. I was sure I would cry (I balled through my brother's wedding and I was up front with the bridesmaids - gah), but was all smiles on our day.
I'm clearly coming here LONG after the event, but was it How Beautiful by Twila Paris? If so, that's the song I walked down the aisle to back in 2009! Talk about a crazy coincidence.
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