I took a bit of a break from posting wedding photos because I didn't want people to get too tired of looking at them. But, I still have a bunch I want to share so I thought I'd post a few more. These ones are on our actual ceremony - sorry this post is a bit long, hope you don't get bored.
I thought long and hard about what we were going to include in our wedding ceremony. I read a bunch of books on ceremonies and traditions and readings, etc. I really wanted the ceremony to reflect hubs and me - to really illustrate (mainly to us) what we wanted to bring to our marriage. I didn't want just a plain, traditional ceremony because already we weren't plain and traditional - we were two people from two very different countries and two very different cultures. That alone meant our ceremony had to reflect our cultures.
To include Honduran culture, I wanted to have an
arras ceremony. Now, you'd think that all I'd have to do is ask hubs about this. I came across it on another blog about a girl who also married a Honduran. So, I ask hubs about the ceremony, what it included, what it meant, etc. What was his response? He'd never heard of it. Figures. He couldn't seem to recall any Honduran wedding traditions. He insists there aren't any.
I decide to forge ahead with the
arras ceremony anyway and do some investigation (and some creative thinking...). What I ended up finding was that the
arras ceremony is sort of like saying, "What's mine is yours, and what's yours is mine." There were MANY other interpretations, the majority were like a dowry kind of thing, but it was my wedding so I chose my own interpretation, and I like the "mine is yours" idea.
Here's some photos:
{the coins sitting on top of the bag}
{hubs pouring the coins into my hands}
{hubs saying his arras vows}
We also had two readings - one from the Book of Ruth in the Bible and the other from The Prophet by Kahlil Kibran.
My mom did the one from the Book of Ruth. I really liked this reading because of the specific part where is says "your people shall be my people". I felt that resonated with our bi-cultural, bi-country union. Here's the entire reading:
And Ruth said, "Entreat me not to leave you or to return from following you; for where you go I will go and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people and your God my God; where you die I will die and there will I be buried. May the lord do so to me and more also if even death parts me from you.
And here's my beautiful Mom:
And my aunt read from The Prophet. What was best about this is my aunt had given The Prophet to my mom as a birthday present for her 16th birthday while they were traveling through Europe together as young adults. I had this EXACT book and had read from it for as long as I can remember. So, it was nice to have my aunt read from the book she had given my mom. I also really like the emphasis on joining together in marriage but not loosing yourself in the marriage. For an independent girl like myself, this is important. Here's the reading:
Then Almitra spoke again and said, And what of Marriage, Master?
And he answered saying:
You were born together, and together you shall be forevermore.
You shall be together when the white wings of death scatter your days.
Ay, you shall be together even in the silent memory of God.
But let there be spaces in your togetherness,
And let the winds of the heavens dance between you.
Love one another, but make not a bond of love:
Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.
Fill each others cup but drink not from one cup.
Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.
Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,
Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.
Give your hearts, but not into each others keeping.
For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.
And stand together yet not too near together:
For the pillars of the temple stand apart,
And the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each others shadow.
And here's my beautiful Aunt:
And, the last thing we did was "Jumping the Broom". I came across this in my wedding research and LOVED it. My mom made the broom from maple twigs she found in the yard, then as people arrived at the church they tied ribbons on it to decorate it. At the end of the ceremony, once we had kissed, my good friend Brenda placed the broom in front of us, hubs and I held hands, and JUMPED over the broom on our way out of the church. It symbolized us jumping into our new life together and starting our life clean and free (swept clean from the broom, of course).
Here's a photo of us jumping:
And if you're wondering what that white thing is in my hubs's mouth - IT'S GUM!!! Yes, my hubs chomped on gum during our wedding. How formal, right??
