Monumental Love: The Rite of Marriage

After the readings, it was time to get down to the business of actually getting married.  None of this was personalized at all, but I love how traditional and simple our promises to each other were.  I've put in most of the ceremony text here, in case it can help another bride - and just so you can get a better idea of all that went on during this part of the mass.

Father Philip: My dear friends, you have come together in this church tonight, so that the lord may seal and strengthen your love in the pretense of the church's minister in this community. 

Jesus abundantly blesses your love. He has already consecrated you in baptism, and now He enriches and strengthens you by a special sacrament so that you may assume the duties of marriage in mutual and lasting fidelity. 

STATEMENT OF INTENTIONS
Now in the presence of this church, I ask you to state your intentions: 

All photos by Eau Claire Photographics

I love how Sphinx looked at me at this part to make sure we were both supposed to respond together. Yes, dear.

Monumental Love: Liturgy of the Word

In order to make our nuptial mass helpful to any other Catholic brides, I'll be including our readings, song choices, and some of the prayers.  And in order to make all of that manageable to write and read, I'll be splitting our ceremony up into three posts.  Today, I've got the liturgy of the word to share with you, which includes the scripture readings and the priest's homily.

After we had all taken our place at the altar, Father Philip started us off with a few welcoming statements and a prayer.

All photos by Eau Claire Photographics.

Of course, within the Catholic church, couples are limited in choosing their readings, but we carefully considered the options, and I think the ones that we chose made for a beautiful and well-rounded set of passages.

Monumental Love: My "Damn Regal" Bridal Entrance

Finally, it was time for my walk down the aisle.  Standing behind those doors, all thoughts concerning falling flat on my face or walking too fast or carrying my bouquet too high went out the window.  It wasn't really nerves, but obviously there was a definite excitement.  Either way, I don't really remember all what was running through my head here, so we'll mainly rely on the pictures with a couple of necessary explanations.  Time saving tip: there's a video of this at the end, and you could just jump ahead and watch that (although a key part is missing).  If you're just here for the pictures, here's the music to go along because that's pretty important too.  

Sphinx waiting for those doors to open. |All photos by Eau Claire Photographics|

Monumental Love: Processional into Position

As the girls and I were waiting in the back of the church, our guests started filtering into the pews of St. Francis of Assisi.  I had given a few songs to the organist to play during this time (Momma P requested "Sunrise, Sunset" from Fiddler on the Roof, and they were fine with playing it, even though it was a secular song).  I have no confirmation that these songs did play, but let's say they did. 

|All photos by Eau Claire Photographics|

Monumental Love: We Arrive...In Style

Alright, Hive, this first part is going to be tough and a little bit embarrassing.  But let's take the Band-Aid approach...deep breathe and pull.

Momma P, you were right and I was wrong.

Whew...she's never gonna let me live that down. For the record, she didn't think we needed to do a mashed potato bar and that's the menu item that has received the most raves since sooo...we're basically even.

What was Momma P so right about?  A police escort!

|Photos by Eau Claire Photographics unless otherwise indicated|

Monumental Love: (Photo) Walk Like an Egyptian

(Oh come on, I had to fit the song in here somehow)

Our photographer Sandra requested that we find a few minutes for a bride and groom "photo walk" during the portrait time.  I'd been scratching my head trying to figure out a perfect place to take some gorgeous New Orleans pictures, but I never expected to get such a lovely set of couples photos by using a random street near our venue.  Sure, we don't have any famous NOLA landmarks in the shots, but we obviously received a ton of pictures I was pleased with and we didn't have to run all around town to get them.  Seriously, there are a ton of pictures in this post.  I swear I tried to narrow it down, but certain little looks and smiles and kisses just make all of these photos so special.  I'll keep the commentary down to a minimum today, and just let the awesome photos do all the talking.  Be prepared for an onslaught of Pyramid faces, y'all.

 | All photos by Eau Claire Photographics |

Monumental Love: Friends, Family, and Formality

After our first look, we met up with the family and bridal party downstairs in my parents' room. Here's where a bit of stress crept back into the day: we didn't know where to go from here.  We did the family and bridal party formal pictures all together, so I felt it was only right to keep them all grouped together here.

Such a sweet picture of my parents while we figured out a game plan.|All photos by Eau Claire Photographics