Amy and Michelle Celebrate Becoming Committed Life Partners at The Barn at Valhalla in Chapel Hill

Amy and Michelle have been together over 20 years, starting as best friends back in junior high in Michigan. They share so many mutual enjoyments, but chief among them is a love of travel, particularly out in nature. Their careers have brought them south to our area and I was so pleased when they told me they would like to work with me to create a very special commitment ceremony. They wanted their celebration to be about their love for each other, for their very supportive family and friends, and their love of Nature. With a love as special as this one, you can bet they had some beautiful ideas to incorporate. This was to be a romantic, casual affair and that approach fit both of them perfectly.

They chose The Barn at Valhalla as their wedding location because it is so beautifully placed in nature. Rustic and easily accessible out Hwy 54 past Chapel Hill, it is a wonderfully serene location for a wedding. Quiet woods surround the barn and its adjacent pond, with all sorts of nature’s creatures scampering about. The Barn itself has a large deck that wraps around it and includes a long, wooden walkway through the woods out to another large deck with a great stone fireplace.

When the ceremony began, we all entered down the long walkway and took our places in front of the fireplace, followed by Amy and Michelle entering together.

There were some special moments during the ceremony and lots of happy, emotional tears were shed.

Amy’s sister was her Maid of Honor and Michelle’s brother was her Best Man. Our reader was Aeryc (“Eric”), the Best Man’s Life Partner. Aeryc offered a beautiful Apache Blessing.

Amy and Michelle each chose their own vows to read to each other before putting on their rings. The rings were engraved inside with the simple words, “Soul Mates.”

After the vows and the ring exchange came the Handfasting Ceremony, with a beautiful cord of symbols made by Amy and Michelle. They had placed all their hopes and dreams for their future into the cord before the ceremony. During the ring exchange we had a silent prayer and asked all the guests to send out their best wishes and prayers to Amy and Michelle. The loving energies of those prayers also went into the handfasting cord, making it an even more powerful symbol of love.

You can see in the photos above that the cord is hanging from my ceremony notebook. What you cannot see well is from what the cord was made;

blue ribbon for water

brown ribbon for earth

white ribbon for air

a tree for nature

a leaf for the changing seasons

a sea turtle for the ocean

2 petosky stones, the state stone of Michigan

a car for their love of travel

It was one of the loveliest handfasting cords I have ever seen. (If you enlarge this photo you can see the cord around their hands and hanging down.)

Right after the Handfasting, Amy and Michelle were pronounced officially committed Life Partners and someone got this shot right as they turned toward their guests. Look at that look on Michelle’s face!

Before the ceremony began, we noticed the sun was getting low but luckily we were able to get everything finished before it got dark. The Sun gifted us with a beautiful sunset that became part of the ceremony.

Back inside the Barn for refreshments, everyone was gearing up for one heck of a good party. This was a relationship whose wedding was a long time coming and all assembled were so happy to be there and sharing in such a special celebration.

Durham Catering provided the buffet and the food was just delicious. Here is the dessert table all set up.

A Family Tree done with fingerprints has become quite popular lately and this one was especially nice. With Amy and Michelle’s love of Nature and its spiritual side, it was a most fitting choice. Here are photos of the tree;

The Handfasting Cord is wrapped around the branches of the tree. You can now see all the elements Amy and Michelle wove into it that made it so special.

Here someone is adding their fingerprint (after dipping their finger into a paint pot). Other fingerprints have already been added.

And finally, after all the fingerprints have been added, Amy and Michelle’s wedding-ringed  hands are wrapped with their Handfasting Cord and placed on the tree. (I love this shot. It speaks volumes about who they are. Kudos to the photographer.)

Amy and Michelle, I wish you grand adventures roaming the world, walking and hiking through Nature, hand in hand, laughing all the way, enjoying life for all the joys it brings to those who love. May all your dreams come true for you in amazing, remarkable ways. Your rings say you are Soul Mates.

So Mote It Be.
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Through the Rabbit Hole with Fairuz and Connor

Imagine, if you will, that you are standing in a garden of roses, nestled in a quiet ravine, away from the hustle and bustle of Raleigh. And then imagine that you notice things are a bit different here... not quite right and yet still somehow familiar. You notice there is a different feel to the air; a feel of something about to happen... something really big. Like Alice, you have ventured into a rabbit hole and the world here is completely different, turned upside down and sideways. You have entered the world of Fairuz and Connor and you will never ever forget it.



This is a magical world of whimsy and fun, love of life, love of family, love of living life to the fullest - and having a heck of a time doing it.

Fairuz met Connor when he came to work at her parents’ family restaurant, Neomonde Baking Company. Connor was smitten with her right away but, poor guy, she just wasn’t interested. It took him forever, but eventually she did agree to go out with him and their relationship took off immediately from there. They learned they have the same unusual way of looking at the world, with many similar tastes, and they do indeed seem to be a perfect match.

So back to the rabbit hole.

Fairuz and Connor are big Tim Burton fans and decided to create an Alice in Wonderland themed wedding. With a nod to Mr. Burton’s movie version in their color scheme of red, white and black, they still included the old traditional drawings from the original book by Lewis Carroll and the Disney animated movie. Pretty much the whole cast of characters is here - not to mention the characters of Fairuz and Connor and their bridal party. It was a fun day, a great party and a wedding to remember. I can honestly say I have never seen an Alice in Wonderland wedding before. What fun!

The ceremony took place in the Raleigh Little Theater Rose Garden. This was a perfect setting, filled with hundreds of roses. With red and white roses figuring so prominently in the Alice story, you will see this particular detail throughout the upcoming photos.

When I arrived, the Mad Hatter was already there, greeting guests, overseeing the final arrangements and looking rather spiffy, too, if I might add. Check out the detail in Connor’s top hat. Johnny Depp would be proud.

His groomsmen included a lady groomsman and they were all appropriately attired in their black tuxes and, in the case of Lady Groomsman, a snazzy black dress.

It all started for Alice with a rabbit with a stopwatch and what a great way for Fairuz to include this important detail.

It was important to Fairuz and Connor that we honor all the religions and beliefs of their families and guests, which was quite an extensive list that also included Pagans. The ceremony was written with this in mind and Fairuz’s family priest, Father Kamil, said a beautiful prayer in Arabic about dedicating our lives to God, from Abraham on down, and how we are all a Family. We also included a Unity Candle ceremony and a very elaborate handfasting ceremony that involved 5 cords being wrapped around the couple’s hands. Each cord represented a promise they were making to each other as a vow and when all the vows were made, I tied the cords under their clasped hands with a prayer. It was the first time I had ever performed this type of handfasting and the symbolism was truly beautiful. They kept the tied cords as a keepsake for their home to remind them always of the promises they made to each other that day.

Here are some photos of the handfasting ceremony and of the tied cords sitting on the Unity Candle table after the wedding.

Connor’s spirit animal is the wolf and they found online an amazing ring of wolves kissing. It was so perfect for them that they chose it for their wedding rings. Everyone was most impressed with those rings. Notice Fairuz’ red and black nail polish as well. The complete attention to detail was phenomenal in their planning.

The photographers for the event were Leigh Moose and Jeri Hernandez of Side Yard Studios Photography. A few of their photos have come out so far and I can’t wait to see them all when they are finally online. Some are used here and you can tell which are theirs by their watermark. (Update 6/26/11 - they now have a great slideshow up with some amazing photos that show how fun this wedding was on so many levels. Here’s the link. Enjoy!)

The reception was held in downtown Raleigh at The Stockroom at 230. I had never been to this location before and what a fun place it is. With an intimate, urban feel, it could be adapted for almost any decorating scheme and it lent itself perfectly to the Alice in Wonderland design.

When you entered the building, signs of warning were placed before you. Should you dare to go further?

Even the elevator had a sign!

Once you reached Wonderland, all was lost. Wonderland had you in her grasp.

 Fairuz and Connor had even found a china tea set with the original Alice in Wonderland artwork on it and those pieces were used for the Bride and Groom’s table, with the teapot later doubling as a vase for Fairuz’s bouquet. They looked great set upon the black and white checkered tablecloth with red rose petals strewn about.

 Shutter Booth  was there and had set up a photo booth for the guests - complete with their own set of mad hats - and the guests were having a great time taking advantage of this fun addition. Everyone was getting into the spirit of the day.

Fairuz and Connor made their grand entrance after all the guests had arrived. The lovely bride had changed from her birdcage veil and white bolero jacket that she had worn for the wedding into a very stylish, red, mad hatter hat of her own and a red bolero jacket. What an entrance they made!

As they were introduced, they went immediately to the dance floor and began their first dance as husband and wife. No sedate slow dance here! The energy level of the room increased a hundred fold as they started to dance.

These notes were attached to the guest favors, inviting the guests to have a tea-rrific time. By all accounts, they definitely did!

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Others on hand to help make Wonderland a wonder;

Wedding planner - Courtney Scholl of Parties by Bash
Caterer - Neomonde Baking Company
Ceremony Musicians / String Trio - David Oh on Cello, Lisa Malcolm and Eric McCracken on violins
Cupcakes - Gigi’s Cupcakes
Wedding Cake - made by Connor’s mom
Flowers - Fallon’s Flowers
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Fairuz and Connor, your wedding was truly one of a kind and it matched your happy, one of a kind personalities. Thanks so much for allowing me to be a part of all the love, fun and celebration. I know you are going to go through life with smiles on your faces and adventure in your hearts.