Reflections...The Ceremony

So our laptop has officially died. We're not sure what's wrong with it, but it keeps freezing and even after reinstalling Windows, no joy. So not only have we lost everything on the hard drive {thank goodness for Dropbox which will recover the majority of stuff}, I lost all my draft posts in Windows Live Writer :(

So I'm writing this from another computer, but the good news is I can continue recaps and today we're picking up at the Ceremony.

For Mr E and I, the Ceremony was the most important aspect of the day for us. I know a lot of people focus on the reception and food etc, but for us we really wanted people to be blessed by our service.

We met with our Reverend to go through the ceremony a weeks prior and he was super flexible with what we wanted to do and how many songs we wanted to include! Whilst we didn't organise ourselves to write own vows, we were able to shape the ceremony how we wanted it.

Our readings came from:

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12
Two are better than one,
because they have a good return for their work:

¹⁰ If one falls down,
his friend can help him up.
But pity the man who falls
and has no one to help him up!

¹¹ Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm.
But how can one keep warm alone?

¹² Though one may be overpowered,
two can defend themselves.
A cord of three strands is not quickly broken.

1 Cor 13 and Songs of Solomon 8:6-7 and they were read by Mr E's Aunt and my good friend, Buki.

Worship and songs were really important to us and we had my best friend SB leading worship, which was amazing. She had a team of backing vocalists and band who were so good and the worship was beautiful.



We said our vows and exchanged our rings…    

Then had our first communion together…

 

We were then prayed for by the Elders…

We sang some more and then we danced our way out…

My only regret about the Ceremony was that due to my lateness, we didn't get to sing all the songs we had planned and the address had to be done at the reception.

Apart from that we really, really enjoyed the service and I think our parents did too!

Mr E’s parents… 

My parents…    

Our Programs…


I created the programs for our Ceremony myself using a mixture of Photoshop and Publisher, with an inclusion of our monogram. I literally pulled an all-nighter the week of the wedding to get them completed. Mr E couldn't understand why I wanted to do them so badly and why I didn't delegate the task, but I wanted the Programs* to be a reflection of us and personalised, so I HAD to do them! My dad printed them and they turned out great!

TIP: Let your Ceremony be a reflection of you. If you want songs, have songs. If you don't want readings, don't have readings. Just do what you feel is right.

Next up...Reception!

{*I will do another post showing the inside of them, once I can find the file in Dropbox!}