Katy and Duane’s Wedding Bash
June 27, 2010
I have been friends with Katy for over 17 years and having her ask me to perform her wedding was an honor. In a quaint neighborhood in Venice, California I married Katy and Duane.
The cake was beautiful and you can tell by their daughter, Macy, that the cake was scrumptious.
Many happy years to Katy and Duane!
Zen Oasis for Jaime & Jeffrey
June 26, 2010
In the heart of Downtown Los Angeles, at a zen-like oasis that replicates an ancient garden in Tokyo, Jaime and Jeffrey were married.
This of course was at the Kyoto Grand Hotel and Gardens. Lush gardens with towering bamboo, flowering foliage, and waterfalls trickle into calm pools.
Congratulations to Jaime and Jeffrey!
Claudia and Victor take it to the Sky Room
June 25, 2010
It’s pure bliss here at the Sky Room Chapel in Long Beach, California, where Claudia and Victor were married.
The Wedding Rehearsal
June 25, 2010
Before any words are spoken, the wedding party must take part in the processional. Everyone is lined up and the music starts. The wedding is about to begin. You are cued to start walking. Are you prepared? What happens next depends on if a rehearsal took place.
A wedding rehearsal is a great way to ensure the wedding party knows what to expect. The entire rehearsal can be done in a matter of 30 minutes or less. It is a matter of having everyones attention and practicing the processional and recessional.
I have found that by putting everyone in their places at the altar first, they will have a better idea how to get there during the processional. So we start by doing the recessional followed by the processional.
I quickly did a search on Google for ‘wedding rehearsal’ and the like, and I found there was not a single document that had a visual of the typical layout of a wedding ceremony and basic information on the processional and recessional together.
A visual is a great tool for knowing where everyone is supposed to be and having information on the processional and recessional is vital to making the ceremony spectacular.
Since I couldn’t find a tool, I designed one and I hope that you find this useful for you as well. It’s free and available to download by clicking here.
Customer Service
June 21, 2010
I recently finished reading Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose by Tony Hsieh, and am surprised by how many business don’t provide a level of customer service that screams, “WOW!”
As a Wedding Officiant I do my best to meet my clients needs and exceed their expectations. This means I proudly serve the bride and groom. I schedule consultations around their schedule. I return phone calls and emails within hours, and always the same day.
In the state of California, couples need a notarized document in order to obtain an official record of marriage. I could charge them $10 for the notarization, but feel that nickel-and-diming clients is not in the best interest of either of us.
Customer Service should be about saying, “Yes!”
Seven Blessings
June 3, 2010
Seven Blessings 1
LOVE
Both light and shadow
Are the dance of Love.
Love has no cause;
Lover and Loving are inseparable
And timeless.
Every moment is made glorious
By the light of Love.
-Reconstruction of “The Meaning of Love” by Rumi
COMMUNITY
A human being is a part of a whole, called by us “the universe”, a part limited in time and space. We experience ourselves, our thoughts and feelings as something separated from our fellow men and women… a delusion of our consciousness. Our task must be to free ourselves from this delusion by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty.
-Reconstruction of a quote by Albert Einstein
PEACE
Peace is the beauty of life. It is sunshine. It is the smile of a child, the love of a mother, the joy of a father, the togetherness of a family. It is the advancement of man, the victory of a just cause, the triumph of truth. Peace is the generous, tranquil contribution of all to the good of all. Peace is all of these and more.
-Menachem Begin and Oscar Romero
JOY
The sharing of joy, whether physical, emotional, psychic, or intellectual, forms a bridge between us and others which can be the basis for understanding much of what we do not share, and lessens the threat of our differences. We must discover the joy of each other, the joy of challenge, the joy of growth, and above all, the joy of Love.
-Reconstruction of quotes by Mitsugi Saotome and Audre Lorde
FRIENDSHIP
Your friend is your needs answered.
He is your field which you sow with love and reap with thanksgiving.
Let your best be for your friend.
Seek him always with hours to live,
For it is his to fill your need, but not your emptiness.
Let there be no purpose in friendship save the deepening of the spirit.
And in the sweetness of friendship let there be laughter, and sharing of pleasures,
For in the dew of little things the heart finds its morning and is refreshed.
-Reconstruction of Friendship IXX by Khalil Gibran
ABUNDANCE
This marriage be wine and halvah, honey dissolving
In milk
This marriage be the leaves and fruit of the date tree
This marriage be women laughing together for days
On end
This marriage, beauty
This marriage, a moon in light blue sky
This marriage, this silence fully mixed with spirit.
-Rumi
CREATION
O our Mother the Earth,
O our Father the Sky.
Weave our bright blanket of life;
May the warp be the white light of morning,
May the weft be the red light of evening,
May the fringes be the falling rain,
May the border be the standing rainbow.
Thus weave for us our bright blanket of life,
That we may walk fittingly where birds sing,
That we may walk fittingly where the grass is green.
-Native American Poem