our wedding: the ceremony

after a morning and early afternoon of getting ready, it was finally time to get to gettin married!

Ben and I carefully picked out the music for each second of the day, so if you'd like to listen to our ceremony playlist while you look at the pictures, feel free:

"Generator^First Floor" by the Freelance Whales was what the bridal party all walked down to.

I came down the aisle to "All of My Days" by Alexi Murdoch. 

and when all was said and done, Ben and I walked back up the aisle to "You Make My Dreams Come True" by Hall and Oates.

this was our ceremony: 

we got married in a town park, so the ceremony space was a blank slate. I'd seen the door idea on some wedding blog, so Ben took my incoherent, fragmented ideas and made them into something real. ditto for our trellis. I loved building our day ourselves.

when the bridesmaids pulled up behind the doors, the groomsmen [and Ben & his dad, who married us] went to join them. when everyone was all set, two of my cousins opened the doors for them.

then it was my turn!

my sweet Ben, watching me come down the aisle. 

I didn't look anywhere besides right at Ben as I was walking towards him, and I love having that memory of seeing only him. 

 we didn't have the traditional giving away, so Dad and Ben shook hands and Dad improvised with "she's all yours". 
these are my two favorite guys.

we had our parents come up and pray with us to start the ceremony. 

then it was vow reading time.

we wrote our vows together, read those at the ceremony, and then exchanged rings. 

and then we were MARRIED!!!

I LOVE these pictures.

from start to finish, it was so surreal. in total, our ceremony lasted probably seven minutes, which was exactly what we wanted. we had the important to us parts [the prayers, the vows, the rings], and then we wanted to get to partying! so that it what we did.

and that'll be on the blog tomorrow!