weddings vows and the like

Josh and I attended a last minute wedding for a friend last night. Last minute in that they could only invite a specific number of people, once a couple family members couldn't attend we got bumped up! I'm glad that we were able to go. Sarah and Andy's venue was gorgeous! A place called "Tre Bella" in Mesa, very modern, classic gothic.

They too wrote their own vows and it made me tear up a little. Reminded me that I was able to customize our ceremony and that nobody from our families were there to hear the words we said. Yes, it was intimate and romantic that way, but still I'd like for others to know what was in our ceremony.

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We are here to celebrate love. Love organizes our large and sometimes unpredictable world. It is that which enshrines and ennobles our human experience. It is the basis for the peace of family, and the peace of the peoples of the earth. The greatest gift bestowed upon humans is the gift of love freely given between two persons.

The poet Rumi said, “Two lovers do not meet somewhere in time, they are in each other all along.”

In marriage, two people turn to each other in search of a greater fulfillment than either can achieve alone. Marriage is risking who we are for the sake of who we can be. Only in giving of ourselves fully in this commitment to one another, can the process of growth take place. Two among us, who have stood apart, come together now, to declare their love and to be united in marriage. 

Meg and Josh are here to express their understanding of love and marriage as they stand on the threshold of this great adventure. 

They believe that marriage is a journey, chosen by two human beings, based on mutual love and respect that allows an individual to grow more powerfully and more beautifully then if each walked alone. It is the maturing of love, freely given and gladly returned and is both ordinary and extraordinary, because it is about everyday living.

SONNET LXIX

By Pablo Neruda

Maybe nothingness is to be without your presence,

without you moving, slicing the moon

like a blue flower, without you walking

later through the fog and the cobbles,

without the light you carry in your hand,

golden, which maybe others will not see,

which maybe no one knew was growing

like the red beginnings of a rose.

In short, without your presence: without your coming

suddenly, incitingly, to know my life,

gust of a rosebush, wheat of wind:

since then I am because you are,

since then you are, I am, we are,

and through love I will be, you will be, we'll be.

Exchange of Rings

The wedding ring by its shape is a symbol of eternity, without beginning or end, and signifies the unending nature of this commitment. 

The elements from which these jewels were formed are as ancient as the stars, as mysterious as the moonlight, and as bright as your new bond. Wear these rings as a sign of your love for one another and as a reminder of the commitment you made here today.

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And now for my vows:

Josh,

There is a story about soul mates in The Symposium by Plato. It states that humans originally consisted of four arms, four legs, and a single head made of two faces,
but Zeus feared their power and split them all in half, 

condemning them to spend their lives 

searching for the other half to complete them.

Soul mates used to be such a foreign concept to me. One of my most cherished quotes is “Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same.”

I never knew the true meaning of that quote until the day that I met you.  
Your eyes met mine for that first time and instantly I was home.
Nothing that happened to me before that day matters because we are all that counts, 

but yet everything matters because it shaped the path of our meeting.

Josh, you are my missing puzzle piece.  
You fixed the ache that I didn’t even know I had.

Our life is the stuff of corny fairy tales. Never have I been happier.
We honestly make this look easy, and that’s because it is.

I live for waking up and brushing that one curl off of your face while you’re still sleeping. For the look you give me when you’re pretending to be upset but you’re really just concerned. How our hands fit together perfectly like they were made for each other; 

and your contagious laughter and smile that just lights me up from the inside. 

We have so much in store. I want us to travel and discover the world. 

I can’t wait to bring our first child home and be completely clueless together. 

Thank you for being my other half, for absolutely everything that you are;
my biggest fan, my shoulder to cry on, my dartboard when I’m upset
and the first person I want to tell my greatest news.

Josh, there is no time limit on my love, it is infinite.
Please let me spend the rest of my life being that other half for you.

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There ya go folks. Just a little slice of our day...now to wipe my tears since that made me weepy all over again...

Cheers, Meg

The Elopement.

About 6 weeks ago an idea was born. A plan, a surprise, some could even say a LIE.

I (Meg) was out at dinner on a Friday night with close friends Jeff and Erin. There had been an idea in my mind driving home that day, so I shot it past them to see what they thought.

Me: Sooo…I think I have an idea.
(Erin sits up straight and gives me a curious look)
Erin: Yesss???
Me: Well mine and Josh’s anniversary is in two weeks…so what if I decided to give him a wedding as a present? In Sedona?
(Moment of silence whilst Erin squeals with glee.)

That’s where it began. But I decided,
JOSH. MUST. NOT. KNOW.
I wanted the ultimate surprise, I didn’t even want him to know we were going to go out of town. It was perfect, he didn’t even know that I had asked for the day off a couple of months before. But Jeff and Erin had to help me, I needed partners in crime. There was no way I was going to pull this off on my own. We decided that he would not even get to know until the morning of the wedding.

And so the planning started. I only had two weeks to get this put together, and without the groom even knowing! I had 2 emotions going through me. Stress, I think I wanted to throw up on a daily basis, though that was pretty much from paranoia that Josh would find out what was going on. And excitement/anticipation, I wanted Josh to know so badly what was going to happen, but the want to surprise him was greater!

Here’s what I needed to get done: DRESS, flowers, cake, pick out Josh’s suit, groom’s gift, headpiece, shoes, rings, officiate, photographer, dinner/reception, hotel reservation…PHEW.

I will always say that our marriage started in deception. Ha ha! Lying was a must in those 2 weeks. I had to be vague and pretend like I didn’t care about our anniversary whenever Josh tried to talk about it. When I finally realized that not wanting to do anything to celebrate 3 years together was going to be thought of as suspicious, I had to make up a story. I then told him that I wanted to take the day off of work and that we should do pottery and a movie then some dinner. A sigh of relief was exhaled when that seemed to satisfy his anniversary curiosity.

Deception continued as I went to talk to a cake person, had a couple dress fittings (that’s a story all in itself!), and emailed with people in Sedona who would help pull this special day off.

FINAL PLAN: Josh would get home Monday night at about 8:30. That’s when I tell him that I already have a bag packed, he needs to finish his, and we need to drive up to Sedona to celebrate a day off for our anniversary. I would tell him that Jeff and Erin are watching our animals. Then in the morning Jeff and Erin would knock on the door and surprise Josh, then we tell him that we are going to apply for our marriage license that day and get married!

MONDAY | 04.11.2011

Things always come up at that last minute. As Josh works all day long, I have to get out of work early to do my last dress fitting (a day before the ceremony, eek!). Then because of issues with that, I needed to figure out a way to pack my dress without Josh seeing it. I’m a bundle of nerves as I attempt to pack our bags. Attention level is ZERO, I can’t seem to concentrate on anything.

Josh gets home. He’s excited because he was able to surprise me with flowers sent to my work. Ironic since he has no idea that surprise that is in store for him. I tell him to go pack his bag and his jaw.hits.the.floor. Could not see that coming! Relief hits me as I realize that he can’t know about the wedding if he had no idea we were even going out of town.

On the drive up it’s quiet, we’ve been listening to the I-Pod and talking to pass the time.

JOSH: (in a funny voice) So I bet Jeff and Erin are going to meet us in Sedona and we’re going to get married, huh? Heh.
(my head does the slow “exorcist” turn and my jaw drops)
ME: Noooooo…that’s silly…they’re watching our animals…
(turn away Meg, avoid eye contact!)
Which btw, our good friends Kat and Sean were actually watching the animals, thanks again guys!

TUESDAY | 04.12.2011

Today’s the day! Josh takes a quick shower before breakfast and I sneakily text Erin to make sure that they are super careful about coming to the Bed and Breakfast.

The best part about Bed and Breakfast? The gourmet breakfasts are always to die for. As we go to the main hall to eat I have to be as vague as possible about the activities for the day. Vague = we are going to a group activity in Camp Verde and meeting the rest of the group at 9.30 to shuttle together. Technically none of that was a lie.

After breakfast we walk the grounds, including the Labyrinth. Josh is all excited to look at it, but has no clue that this is where our ceremony is going to be.

At this point, Josh is antsy to get the day started and find out where we are going. I try to be as nonchalant as possible as I wait for Jeff and Erin to show up, but it gets harder. I send a plea text when Josh takes a bathroom break. “Please get here, he’s getting impatient, can’t hold him off much longer!”

Little do I know that this is going on:

Jeff and Erin try to find us!

Now that the cat is out of the bag, we are off to the courthouse!

Going into the courthouse, next to the Yavapai Detention Facility and the Out of Africa animal park!

Grabbing the necessary forms. WARNING: One unsavory word.

We finally get to sign our marriage license!

My nerves are finally starting to calm down, and being the good Maid of Honor, Erin gives us a little liquid courage in the form of Sangria. (in front of the courthouse no less!)

Before we can start to get ready for the ceremony we all need some lunch in our bellies. Don’t ask us why we thought some “vegan” food would be enough protein, etc. to keep us full until dinner afterwards.

Our juice that the “waitress” told us would be the best thing we’ve ever drank. Yeah, not so much.

How about some impromptu hula hooping? How could we NOT?!

Now it’s time to go our separate ways and get ready. Being at least semi traditional, I don’t want Josh to see me until the ceremony. No peeking mister!

Of course, being a photographer myself, I can’t resist getting my own snapshots of what I like to call “the little bits”.

CEREMONY

I am the first to arrive at the Labyrinth, waiting for Josh. It’s the photographer’s idea to blindfold him before he gets his “First Look”.

I’m so excited for him to see me! He has NO IDEA what my dress looks like, and it’s completely different than the direction I had thought I would go in.

The blindfold comes off and his grin is all I need to see. I feel like the most beautiful girl in all the world :]

We’re ready to start…Josh and I walk down “the aisle” together as the Labyrinth symbolizes our path in life together.

I got to choose our ceremony wording and I can see that I made the perfect choice, Josh and I can’t help but get teary and grin at each other.

Of course, then we get to our written vows and I don’t even get Josh’s name out before I start bawling! It seems to take me FOREVER to say them because I can’t stop crying.

Time for the hand fasting part of the ceremony. It’s an ancient (Celtic) tradition that ties the bridal couple together. Essentially it’s where the phrase “tied the knot” came from. We are pledging to intertwine our lives together.

And now the ring exchange! I’m so nervous I can barely get Josh’s onto his finger. Good thing he tried it on earlier and it fit perfectly or else I would have freaked out!

You may now kiss your bride!

And now I know how each of my bridal couples feel when the ceremony is over. PHOTO OP TIME! We just smile and do whatever she tells us to do :]

The venue surprises us with a bottle of champagne! As if we weren’t giddy enough as it was…But we drink with enthusiasm and sign our copy of the license for the officiate to send in the mail.

No rest for the bride and groom! Back to portraits!

We hug and thank our photographer for helping us catch the fun spirit we wanted to show! She seriously rocked, cracked us up. But now we have to get to our dinner reservation. Fancy schmancy, but we’re all ready to jump back into our jeans.

 

I start the phone calls, at the restaurant, with my own mother. I shocked her, to say the least!

 

Dinner was delicious but we were anxious to get to the cake! This was Josh’s last surprise, he had no idea what it looked like. AWESOME = our cake

Sadly, our day has to come to an end and we must say goodbye to our Best Man and Maid of Honor. They have to drive back to Phoenix and take care of our animals! There was a last minute decision to stay another night for us, so we need someone to check on them.

Yeah, not that I don’t love my new husband. But I’m not sure I trust him not to throw me in…

 

WEDNESDAY | 04.13.2011

Our first day as husband and wife! Decide to spend our “honeymoon day” in Sedona just being lazy.

Before we leave our Bed and Breakfast we walk around the property and take some photos, now that we actually have time!

We mull around the various shops trying to find the perfect thing to buy as a remembrance gift to ourselves. It’s always a tradition to get something on our vacations so that we always remember that particular trip, and this time is no different.

But that makes us hungry, so we stop for some lunch at our favorite tavern in Sedona. They have the best salads! And what would a honeymoon be without a mixed drink?

 

Alas, at some point we do need to go home. We say goodbye to beautiful Sedona, AZ and start the long drive home. Thankfully there’s not a ton of traffic!

We get a nice surprise when we get home and realize that Sean and Kat decorated the house! Sweet!
(these decorations are still up, I can’t bring myself to take them down!)

All in in all, it was PERFECT. I wouldn’t change one bit, not even letting Josh know about it. That’s what made most of it special, the fact that I got to tailor everything to us, and that I got to give that to him.

Also, the fact that he can never beat me with surprises now. EVER.

Thanks to everybody who helped me make this happen.
Jeff and Erin for being my partners in crime and dealing with my neurotic phone calls in trying to get everything done. Thank you two for helping me most of all keep this secret. Sean and Kat for helping watch our animals, thank you for spending your time doing that and for the decorations. It was truly something I didn’t expect and we were touched.

Officate: Margaret Van Damme of Van Damme Weddings
Venue: The Lodge at Sedona
Photographer: Pamela Duffy Photos
Cake: SLiCE Cake Designs
Dress: David’s Bridal (HUGE Thank you to the alternations ladies at the Ahwatukee location. They were able to make my dress dream come true in less than 2 weeks, without complaint! They were angels!)

We love you all and I am glad that now you have been able to read and see our amazing wedding story! It was a fun ride…

Cheers,
Meg aka Mrs. Ross :]

ps. If you want to keep in touch with Josh & I and you are not on Facebook our joint email is:
lewisross13@q.com