Our Wedding: The Ceremony

"I Melissa, take you, Will, as a gift from God, to be my husband. Through tears and laughter, sickness and health, hardship and plenty, I will love you faithfully, constantly and prayerfully. As God as my witness, I give you this promise now and forever".

Our wedding ceremony was a dream come true. We held our ceremony at Dinwiddie Chapel on the Peace College campus, where I attended college when it was an all-girls school. One of our requirements at our school was to attend chapel every week. Over the course of three years while at Peace, I grew very fond of the chapel's charm, and have many memories that were created there. Which is one of the reason's why we decided to hold the ceremony at this location.

Having a ceremony that was both intimate and inviting was very important to Will and I. The venue allowed for both of those things to take place. The large windows brought in lot's of natural light and the organ when played sounded heavenly. Regarding the songs chosen for the day, we decided on the following:

Prelude (Air from Water Music by G.F. Handel)

Processional (For Grandmothers: Canon in D by Johann Pachelbel)

                       (For Bridesmaids: Jesu, Joy of Man’s Desiring by J.S. Bach)

                       (For Bride: Trumpet Voluntary in D by Jeremiah Clarke)

Recessional (Hornpipe from Water music by G.F. Handel)

Scripture is also very important to us and we wanted to have read something that showcased God’s intent for what a strong Christian marriage should look like. After narrowing down our choices, we selected Mark 10:6-9 and Colossians 3:12-17 to be read by one of our bridesmaids and groomsmen. For our homily, we asked our officiant, Tyler Jones  from Vintage Church to focus on Ephesians 5:21-33. I highly recommend these readings if your planning a wedding.

All in all, I can't tell you how amazing it felt to have all of our family and friends surrounding us that afternoon. At one point while we were praying, I looked out at everyone sitting in the pews and couldn't help but smile knowing that they were there for US. That was a powerful moment for me. I've never felt so much love then I did throughout the ceremony that day. It was magical and very moving.

If you missed yesterday's post, you can read it here! Tomorrow I'll be sharing our reception which is defiantly one you don't want to miss!