Walk the Line: Our Wedding Ceremony

After we finished our bridal party photos and cooled off inside for a few minutes, it was time to head over to the ceremony site. Luckily, we were staying on a guest house on the venue property all weekend, so we only had a short drive over from the house to the Rose Pavilion. In nicer weather, we would have just walked, but since it was so warm, we decided to take air conditioned vehicles.

Our day-of coordinator, Shelley, had done a wonderful job making sure all of the decorations were placed perfectly.

This plate was a gift from one of the hostesses at my bridal shower. I absolutely love it.

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Our DIY programs were ready for the taking by our guests. I think they enjoyed them!

Our Jewish wedding canopy was ready. The posts came from trees on Mr. HW’s parent’s land and the cloth that was draped over the top belonged to my great-great-grandmother.

Yet again, I was totally over-the-moon happy with the floral arrangements.

The guests were getting seated.

And the bridal party spent a little time in the conference room on the property near our ceremony site. Again, it was so hot outside, we needed the A/C to keep our make-up from melting off! I’m so glad our guests had those program fans to keep them cool.

We headed back outside once the time started getting closer.

Then we began to get in our places for the ceremony!

My dad walked my mom down the aisle at the beginning of the processional.

Mr. HW and our officiant

We had each groomsmen escort a bridesmaid both down the aisle and back up at the end.

Our junior bridesmaid was nursing a broken ankle!

Our ring bearer did a perfect job of escorting our wonderful flower girls down the aisle. The little girls were so precious!

Once the rest of the bridal party had gone down the aisle, I had to wait for my dad to trek back to pick me up so we could walk together. I was completely alone for about a minute or two, soaking everything in. It was totally surreal.

And then it was time to head down the aisle with my dad!

I’m so glad my dad was there to walk with me. I was feeling extra emotional, so I gave him an unplanned hug before he went to join my mom at their seats.

And then we had our very brief ceremony! Mr. HW and I were not interested in having anything long or drawn out for our ceremony. We wanted it to be meaningful, but quick and to-the-point. And it was! I think the whole ceremony was about 5 minutes long.

I’m really thankful for that, because due to the random extreme heat wave that day, my poor groom was sweating profusely in his restrictive tuxedo. That explains why his facial expressions during most of our ceremony looked like this:

He was a good sport. But, poor guy!

Before we knew it, it was time to exchange rings.

And Mr. HW did the Jewish tradition of stepping on the glass.

Yay!

Zombie bride:

We’re married!

And then we flew down the aisle.

Immediately after the ceremony, we enjoyed a little photo shoot in all of our newly married bliss. But first, Mr. HW lost the jacket.

We joined our bridal party again and made sure to take care of some legal business:

Signing the marriage license

At this time, we had hoped to have our extended families join us for a few formal photos. Due to some kind of miscommunication, they weren’t notified and were already enjoying themselves at the reception before we had returned from our little couple’s photo shoot. So we snapped a few more with our bridal party and parents.

Once my dress was bustled up, I was ready to party. Mr. HW was equally as antsy. He was ready to celebrate!