a video clip

if you listen closely, you can hear danny choke up a bit...which really helped my tears, let me tell you.

sisters, sisters, there were never such devoted sisters

we wanted our sisters to play a role in our wedding. we decided early in our wedding planning that we'd love for them to do a reading as part of the ceremony. funny thing is that we forgot to ask them about it until about 2 weeks before the wedding...oops! luckily for us, they both agreed. we wanted them to pick their own reading b/c we wanted it to have a special meaning for them as well as for us.

my aunt captured a clip of part of my sisters's reading during the ceremony. she chose love by roy croft:



I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.

Perhaps that is what being a friend means, after all.


danny sister chose to read an excert from owl sight by mercedes lackey and larry dixon:




A joining is a partnership, not two people becoming one. Two minds cannot fuse, two souls cannot merge, two hearts cannot keep the same time. You are two who choose to walk the same path, to bridge the differences between you with love. You must remember and respect those differences, for they are part of what made you come to love in the first place. Love is patient, love is willing to compromise - love is willing to admit it is wrong. There will be hard times; you must face them side by side. There will be pain - but pain shared is pain halved, as joy shared is joy doubled.Now you will no longer fear the storm, for you find shelter in each other.

Now the winter cannot harm you, for you warm each other with love. Now the darkness holds no danger, for you will be the light to each other's path. Now you will defy despair, for you will bring hope to each other's heart. Where there were two paths, there is now one. May your days together be long upon the earth, and blessed with joy in each other.

coordinator extrodinaire

i'm so excited - my friend, cheryl, has agreed to forgo her role as wedding guest & take on the very important role of being our wedding coordinator. she's full of great local wedding info and ideas. i'm really happy to have someone that i trust in charge of my wedding day. it will definitely help relieve some stress on the day-of.

yay for cheryl!

and the wedding planning has begun

i can't believe we've already been engaged for 3 months now. even though time has passed, it still feels new, and in my mind i perpetually have a year before the wedding to plan...so it freaked me out a little when i got my email from theknot.com that told me i had 9 months to go...uh oh...

we have gotten a few major things off the list:

1. we have a date! september 13, 2008. that's pretty huge. we knew we wanted september...it was the month we started dating & the month we got engaged AND hopefully it will have started to cool off a bit and won't be 105 degrees in alabama. also, the 13th of june is danny's birthday, so i'm hoping that sharing the same number (13) will make it easy for him to remember.
2. we have a venue! monte sano lodge. it's in huntsville on top of the "mountain" where we go mountain biking. i think it really fits us. we're going to have both the ceremony and the reception there. the ceremony will be outside, and if it rains, there's space to have it inside. for the reception, i'm picturing it very open with people flowing inside and outside. the view from the bluff behind the lodge - which will be the backdrop for the ceremony - is gorgeous.
3. we have a photographer! allison jansen. i fell in love with her work long before we got engaged. i think she takes great pictures. she's a bit pricey, but i think she's worth it & after meeting with her, danny thought so too. her time at the wedding is unlimited, so she'll be with us all day. we're also going to do some engagement pictures with her at some point before the wedding.
4. we have maids & men! nat, yamini, amanda, scott, dave, & jimmy. danny and i each have 3 people standing with us, but what makes it really special is that they really cross both sides. the 3 men standing next to danny are just as much my best men & the ladies standing next to me are just as much danny's maids of honor. they are all 6 our best friends.
5. we have an officiant! mr. terry wayne. it was important to us that we have a relationship with whoever it was officiating over the wedding ceremony. i didn't want some random person that i had never met before playing such an important role in the wedding. wayne was really the obvious choice.

wow, that list made me feel some what accomplished. 5 things is pretty good, right? the next big thing on the list is finding a caterer.yamini and i are going to go to a bridal fair on saturday, so hopefully, we'll meet some potential candidates.