one big check mark

this weekend in addition to finding a bridesmaid dress for my future sister-in-law's wedding mike and i finally met with our tent/rental company (insert tears of frustration about having to shell out thousands of dollars for a stupid tent) and our officiant.

as it should be, meeting Julie (said officiant) made it all feel so so real. more real than bringing home the dress and more real than dropping off the save the dates, in such a good way. as we drove up to maine super early saturday morning i read some of the options for blessings, readings, prayers, and ring ceremonies she had sent us out loud to mike. there was something really sweet about reading a portion and knowing that mike loved it just as much as i did, or pausing to talk about which friends would be perfect to read something we had just heard, it just filled me with such warm rich love and excitement.

our officiant expelled positive energy and we're both so excited to have our marriage in her hands. in the midst of the stressful organizational and budgetary tasks and fun decorating tasks that we have been spending a lot of our planning time and energy dealing with, it was really grounding to spend some time focusing on what we want to say about our love and the life we are going to spend together.

something i really like about Julie is that she gave us sheets and sheets of options for every single part of the ceremony. some super traditional, some not so traditional, some short and to the point and some really poetic. she even included this excerpt from the velveteen rabbit:

“What is real?” asked the velveteen rabbit one day, when he and the toy skin horse were lying side by side in the nursery. “Real isn’t how you’re made.” said the toy skin horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When someone really loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with but really loves you, then you become real.” “Does it hurt?’ asked the rabbit. “Sometimes,” said the skin horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are real you don’t mind being hurt.” “Does it happen all at once, like being wound up?” he asked, “Or bit by bit?” “It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the skin horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or have to be carefully kept. Once you are real, you can’t become unreal again.”

I think it's kinda great and has really got us thinking out of the box about some of the readings we might want to include. since we are both film buffs - having met in film school - we're even thinking movie quotes. Have you guys started choosing readings? Are you going traditional? I'd love to hear what you have decided to include!