At last, it was time to party. Well, almost time. We wrapped up the ‘formal’ pictures in the church and headed down to the parish hall for lunch with our immediate family and out of state folks. The lunch was smaller and intimate and gave us some extra time with our families to love and honor them. After lunch we had a bit of time so we snuck off with the photographers for some shots around the grounds of the church. At one point one of the guys who is like another father to me (who also happened to be the other half of our mentor couple) came outside and offered us his stick of chapstick since he figured we needed it by then 😉
More people gathered for the brownie and champagne reception as we waited in the hallway to make our ‘grand’ entrance. We were introduced for the first public time (other than the end of Mass) as husband and wife – what a joy to hear our names together in such a way! We made our way out to the dance floor for our first dance: “Set Me As A Seal” by Matt Maher and Jenny Pixler. I joked that our wedding day was really an ode to Matt Maher since we also had “Love Has Come”, “Communion (Remembrance Song)”, and “Come To The Water” by Matt Maher during our wedding Mass. We swayed around the dance floor, in awe of the joy and love that surrounded us.
After our first dance it was time for the “Daddy Daughter” dance, something my Dad and I had been practicing for. The staff at work had found this video of Stephen Colbert’s liturgical dance…so we did our own rendition of it. I think the video speaks for itself:
We also did a more ‘traditional’ dance to “Daddy, Dance With Me” by Krystal Keith and one or both of us may have been crying the entire time. Good thing for the laughter beforehand! Then Anthony danced with his mom as I looked on, thinking about how incredible it was that I had a husband now. The toasts came, we laughed, we cried, we smiled and we rejoiced. We clinked our beautiful toasting flutes and tried (and failed) to be fancy and link our arms while drinking. We cut the brownies and didn’t totally shove them in each other’s faces. Thinking back, we really only ever got that one glass of champagne and that one bite of brownie the whole day – it all flew by so quickly! The dancing resumed and much fun was had by all. Its harder to write about this section of the day because it all seems like things that everyone does at every wedding. The songs were picked by us (no DJ needed since the hall as a sound system we plugged into and my brother acted as Master of Ceremonies!). My brother and I had a dance that was just for us so we could show off our crazy swing moves, we danced a traditional Lebanese dance called the dubkeh (Anthony is Lebanese), we rocked the Cupid Shuffle and Chicken Danced like it was our job.
We paused the dancing so Anthony could wash my feet (in the place of the garter toss). It was so meaningful and touching. My brother read the passage from Scripture when Jesus washes the feet of the apostles, Anthony washed my feet (and boy did that cool water feel good on my tired feet!), and “The Marriage Prayer” by John and Josee Waller played in the background. It was more profound and touching than words can say.
I tossed the bouquet to “Settlin'” by Sugarland – the song I played as I got ready for dates, including my first date with Anthony. Call me crazy, but I’m wayyy over “All The Single Ladies” so I refused to have it.
I also danced the ‘dollar dance’ wherein folks pay to dance with me for a minute or two. It was a great chance to dance with some of the men I respect most in my life (and make a little cash to spend on the honeymoon)!
We ‘wrapped up’ the day with our last dance: “Annie’s Song” by John Denver. That song was actually a top contender for our first dance, but “Set Me As A Seal” beat it out, so we chose it for our last song. It was also the first song that Anthony’s parents danced to at their wedding. We started out alone on the dance floor and then our parents (who both have a love for John Denver) joined us on the dance floor before we exited.
We went to a nearby park with the photographers for a few more pictures on a perfect Colorado day. Not too cool, not to hot, and no rain to be found. We walked around the park feeling like celebrities as people cheered and congratulated us. Of course, the photographers following us made us feel even more like celebrities!
After all of the pictures, we drove to our home as a double rainbow illuminated the sky.
It was the perfect day.
