• Posted 11/23/03

Steve's garb was made by Susan Johnston of Sew Knightly (also available at sewknightly[at]yahoo.com). All of the garb of the women of the bridal party and the boys was made by Aubrey, Brigit, and Betty (Aubrey's Mom). There's a few planning sketches you can look at here, here, and here.

Saturday's Nuptual Mass began approximately on time (nothing suprising for those of us who have become accustomed to "Aubrey Standard Time"), and thank goodness. Before, all was stress and chaos (Dan, Chris, and I hid outside for the most part) - but it somehow all came together for an exquisitely beautiful ceremony in the chapel at IC. Because it was a Mass, few pictures were taken during the Mass (and we don't have copies of those yet), but it was videotaped (thanks!). Perhaps because of the odd lighting in the reception hall, not all of those pictures turned out either... but really, that and the cake topper making a break for freedom were the only snags in the day. Being a guilty fan of America's Funniest Home Videos, I know for certain that things could have gone much, much worse. Instead, they went much, much better than any of us really expected they could. Here is a copy of the program from the wedding. Here are some of the pictures from the reception.

Sunday's renewal of vows ran into a slightly different snag in the morning - we had extra tickets and donuts left over! The tickets (and donuts, for that matter) wouldn't be any good after that day, so we got to give away over 70 tickets, and (literally) dozens of donuts! Although it might seem a waste, both Aubrey and I have always been fond of the hobbit custom of giving gifts at parties rather than recieving them (if you don't know what I'm talking about, go read The Fellowship of the Ring again!), so it was a really great thing for us. Again, chaos reigned beforehand (as you'll see in some of these pictures), but things gelled once again, and things went wonderfully. The minister was wonderful (when he got to "let him speak now or forever hold your peace", he added "Oh, and you're a bit late..." and remarked that "Between a Catholic priest and a Protestant minister, I figure nothing's coming between these two!"). Bob Ford provided music during the service and at the reception, later joined by Wenches A Wailing. The weather was perfect - in fact, the cloaks we'd hurried to make (thanks Betty!) due to the cold weather the week before had broken, and the sky was a magnificent blue. You can read the text of the vows here. The bride was radiant. The groom, well, at least he didn't stink. :) Rather than hire a professional photographer, we handed out disposable cameras to everyone, so there's lots of pictures of this event - roughly separated into the following categories: Preparations The Processions The Ceremony Recession and Recieving Line The Reception Various pictures of the Faire Pictures the Kids Took You'll see what I mean by that last category.