THE CEREMONY:

We tried to combine aspects from my Jewish, and Ed's Christian backgrounds for our ceremony.

1:15pm: As the guests were seated, we signed the ketubah with our family and wedding party present. Then my dad went off somewhere to check on something (I think there was a chuppah issue - it had set up easily on my parents' patio - but on the grass the supporting flowerpots were unstable and the breezes had knocked it over earlier. It was reinforced with stones, but our friends who had set it up were taking bets on when during the ceremony it would blow over! Luckily, it did stay up the whole time!)

When my dad returned and the processional began. Two of my friends, Anya & Jess, were playing the music (cello & clarinet). I'm not sure what the piece was (I left it up to them). It sounded lovely. My grandparents went first, and were seated. Our wedding party preceded us, and then we entered the arboretum escorted by our parents - and they all stood beside us at the chuppah. A long-time friend of my family, Jim, was the officiant. His greeting was wonderfully personal, touching, and also had a bit of humour.

After the greeting, each of our parents spoke. Ed's mother read a poem about, and presented us with, a family handkerchief, which was made into a baby bonnet. It was very touching, the poem was cute and funny, and it was a surprise for both of us. Ed's father read a biblical passage. My mother spoke about how they had tried to discourage us from having the ceremony at the Gardens initially due logistical problems, but Ed & my hearts were set on it as it was where we had one of our early dates. My mom concluded that she was very happy it had all worked out well for us, that it turned out to be a lovely day, with everyone there to enjoy it with us. My father said the jewish wedding blessings: the shechyanu (which gives thanks for us reaching this time/occasion), and a selection of the seven wedding blessings.

Then came the vows we had written. Ed's emotions were strong as he repeated the words… sometimes barely audibly, with tears streaming down his face. I'm not sure how I didn't completely lose it then. I loved saying every word and returning every promise to him. We exchanged rings, and concluded with "I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine", stated together.

Then a few moments passed as we attempted to find the glass to step on (it had been put off to the side). After a few words, we stepped on the glass together, and we kissed as the "mazel tov!"'s began. Jim pronounced us husband and wife… and then Ed looked at me, put his arms around me, and we kissed again!

We walked down the aisle to Ed's jazz friends, Sean & J, playing on sax and stand-up bass. We then continued walking out of the evergreen arboretum into other parts of the gardens, where we spent some time with just each other before going to the reception. We tried to find some of the spots we had visited during our date there 8.5 years before… and recalled many happy memories. We experienced such a range of emotions in these minutes together. This was one of the best times of the whole day for me, as we realized we were married, enjoyed the beautiful gardens around us, and stared into each other's eyes.

After a while we were preparing to leave, but many of our guests were still wandering the gardens (it was going to take a while to get all the cars down the single lane road). We walked passed our frisbee friends - who tossed us a frisbee! Ed & I threw the disc to each other a few times, and one of his throws was a bit ahead of me. I ran forward to catch it, stepping hard on the hem of my dress… and *tore* about 3 inches of the seam between the skirt and the bodice! "There are safety pins in the limo" I said. And then we tossed the frisbee back to our friends, and proceeded to walk hand-in-hand (with my other hand holding the front of my skirt up a bit higher now) through some more of the gardens. The lilacs smelled especially sweet.

Most of our guests had left by now, and we went to the limocoach - where my sister probably looked funny sticking out from under my skirts as she pinned the seam back together. The tear was unnoticeable. *:)