little bitty girl

This Saturday, one of our favourite couples, Kevin and Adrienne got married at the family farm. The wedding planning over the summer had slowly become the stuff of legends. Kevin, who had spent most of his childhood at his family farm, had decided that he needed to "clean" up the woods. He practically spent all summer clearing felled trees (created by a very busy beaver that winter), making new nature trails, and building a gazebo near the pond where the ceremony would take place. Due to the heavy rains (damn you Ernesto) the ceremony was held under a big giant tent. Kev and Ad, who are naturally so laid back, never let this hindrance bother them and had a really great time.

The wedding was so uniquely them. The giant tent had beautiful little white lights draped over beams and spruce branches from the woods on the farm made up part of the decor. The gift was maple syrup candy shaped in maple leaves which were handmade using sap from the farm. It took them a ridiculous amount of time (over 400 hours) to make them. I know the effort it took since I had helped with watching the syrup boil for a measly 4 hours on the Easter weekend and it simply shows their tenacity and dedication to projects.

They had actually gotten officially married the day before at City Hall. Their celebration was preceeded with a native blessing from a family friend who is part Native. There was a smudging ceremony and when the couple exchanged their rings, they choose selected Native sayings that were relevant to them. Then the audience was asked to be silent and to share positive thoughts and prayers as they both quietly exchanged their personal vows to each other. Both were tearful, laughing and poignant as this was going on. One of my reasons for eloping was that I felt strongly that our personal vows to each other were so special and private. I didn't want or feel like it was necessary for everyone else to hear them. I thought the way Kev and Adrienne handled it was a really wonderful way to have an inclusive and yet somewhat private ceremony.

The formal part of the ceremony ended with the couple's speeches and once again both had their own twist to it. Kevin had decided to share a gist of his private vows to the audience with an off beat and off key song. Adrienne's look was one of mixed horror, love and joy. Adrienne surprised Kevin with a photo slideshow of the reasons why she loved him. It was really great and showed sides of them that I rarely see or have never seen. We also discovered that Kevin and Adrienne might be the Kevin Bacon connection of our group of friends. For example, we only recently discovered that they're good friends of our neighbours (who were also there at the wedding). At the wedding, Stef realized that one of Kevin's good friends, Mark, went to junior high with him. Mark's girlfriend and I used to work with each other when we were both in our early 20's. Isn't that the coolest thing?

It's kind of funny because during that Easter weekend, Mags, Adrienne and I realized that we had all met our boys the same summer. We had jokingly called it the summer of love. Now we're all married to our lovely boys. It's just really awesome that we get to share yet another wonderful part of our lives. I hope we all, as friends, get to make more great memories together.