Here's the church, here's the steeple

Look inside and see all the decorations!  (Anyone else remember that little saying and accompanying motions that were a staple in my childhood Sunday School classes?)

Before the beginning of Advent, the committee that I chair at our church was responsible for decorating the sanctuary.  With the beautiful, clean lines and the serene green paint, we had an easy job.  Everyone pitched in to provide decorations and manpower.  I even brought the wine and cheese for a little snack break!

There are 5 large windows on each side of the church (on the lower level).  The arches are colored glass are already decorative, so we just spruced them with bay leave wreaths on every other window and then candles in every window.  The candles are covered with a hurricane and we added fresh cut magnolia branches from a member's yard.

Here's a close up of one window.  It was so simple, but gave just the right amount of warmth.  At the front of the sanctuary, one of the more creative ladies filled urns with wild berries, holly and other greenery.  Unfortunately the lighting was not very good, but in person, these arrangements looked organic and fresh!

I was particularly invested in the decorating since it will all be up through our wedding.  I love that the remnants of my favorite season will flavor the decorations at our wedding.  We freshened all the greenery this week by replacing the magnolia leaves with some evergreen trimmings and the front arrangements with rosemary bushes.  The additions to the decor that we will be making are a plethora of candles on the ledges of the choir loft and those romantic feather wreaths on the pews.

(Photo sent to me by Ms. Planner)

Ms. Planner finished 12 of them and we loved them so much, we decided to shoot for 12 more!  As you can see from the picture above, there is no center aisle at our church.  To accommodate using both aisles, we thought it'd be nice if we could decorate them both equally.

Mmmm - candlight, romance, feathers, my future Mr. Palindrome waiting at the end of the aisle.  Just a few short weeks until I see the vision come to life!

Is anyone else using holiday decorations in their decoration scheme?

Pew Sprucing

I adore the inside of our church. The walls are a soothing green and the dark wood pews maintain a very elegant atmosphere. It's a reverantly decorated church, yet very comforting. To me, it feels like home. Since the church will still be decorated for Christmas on our wedding day, we haven't planned much in the way of other decorations. In fact, I had let it fall off of my radar after I finished the Unity Candles.

Then my coordinator, Miss P, emailed me and casually mentioned these bad boys from Victorian Petals at the end of her note:

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Be still my beating heart!  The feathers!  The romance!  Me gusta.  Her idea was to hang them on the pews as the finishing touch to the ceremony decor.  I was all over it.  Then she emailed me and said she thought we could DIY!  She found some materials on Save-on-Crafts (the place I bought my Bridal Illusion Tulle as well):

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And then, she offered to make them herself since I have so many other projects on my plate!  I {heart} Miss P!  I ordered the supplies and had materials sent directly to her (enough to make 12 of them).  I love how we can work together like this.  I toss ideas to her and she helps me make the dream a reality.  Or in this case, she found an awesome idea and is taking the lead on executing it.  With all of the other stresses in my life right now, knowing that she's thinking of the details that I'm not, really takes a weight off of me.

Are you decorating your ceremony space in a significant way?  What elements from the space itself are you keeping in your decor?

PS - Save-on-Crafts also had this baby in their online catalog for $2.99!  Unfortunately it wasn't available at the time I purchased my supplies.

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The story of Ruth

I'm blogging live from our new house as we finish a long day of painting and house projects. Being here is solidying the very real move that I am going to make to live with the future Mr. Palindrome after we're married. I'll leave my old city and embrace the new.

This reality has reminded me a lot of the the words that Ruth spoke in the Old Testament. They are a favorite at weddings. Mrs. Cheese used them, and they've been suggested on several wedding websites. They're beautiful and the bond described is so representative of the marriage relationship.

The words, however, were not about a marriage relationship at all. The short story is that Naomi, her husband and her two sons moved to a new town to find food during a famine. Naomi's husband dies and her sons marry two local women, one of them Ruth. Then the sons die. Naomi cannot support herself and tells her daughters-in-law to go back to their families and remarry. One sister-in-law goes back, but Ruth says to Naomi:

"Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me."

The story of Ruth, of course, doesn't end here. After this heartbreaking chapter, the heartwarming chapter ensues. Ruth supports her mother-in-law by collecting the bits of barley that were left by the harvesters.

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The owner of the field, Boaz, heard about what Ruth was doing for Naomi and he set her up with the best fields, he ordered the men not to touch her, and he let her drink whenever she was thirsty. This is unheard of for a landowner to show this kind of kindness to a servant. Naomi calls him their "kinsman redeemer." Eventually, Boaz and Ruth marry - it's a Cinderella story of sorts, the servant marrying the prince.

The Bible doesn't say whether they're in love or not, but they have a son who is in the lineage of King David, who is in the lineage for Jesus. I think it's a beautiful story of how God can take a hopeless situation and work it out for the good. The widows during that time were basically left to a life of begging and marriage was their only chance at redemption and status. The story illustrates the Christian faith's overarching belief in redemption.

Even though the passage is not about marriage, I will be saying these words on our wedding day as my mother said them on hers. I am glad to share that heritage of faith with her and to take this weighty vow. I'm also happy to incorporate this symbolism of our faith into the ceremony.

Are you planning to (or did you) use Ruth's words in your ceremony? What drew you to her vow?

*Note: For those interested in the entire book of Ruth (which is quite short) it can be read here. The wikipedia entry also has some interesting notes, especially from the Jewish perspective.

Going to the Chapel

Though I firmly believe that God is present everywhere, and I was quite happy with my thoughts on a small intimate wedding ceremony on the beach, planning my ceremony at our church has quickly becomes one of my favorite aspects of our wedding.

I am one of those poor pathetic girls who has visited churches since I've been dating the future Mr. Palindrome, and I would think to myself, "This would be a lovely backdrop for wedding pictures." Hello! This is a house of the Lord! Not a prop for my wedding!

I'm glad to say that this church means a lot more to me than my previous shallow thoughts. This church is the church where Jason and I first visited together. This church is the church where we decided to go together. This church is the church where we became members together, had our pre-engagement counseling done, have served in the nursery, and have prepared food for the congregation. This church is full of the "my people" that Ruth talks about in her pledge: "Your people will be my people, and your God, my God."

I wasn't able to find many pictures of Trinity Presbyterian Church in Norfolk - the building that houses "my people" :) - but the brick exterior and the ivory columns are indeed going to provide for lovely architectural details in the pictures.

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But more so, I'm glad that it's going to provide us with the spirital love and support and that we'll need as the Palindromes become one.

Hehehehehe, become one. That's a whole other post!

Was the ceremony location important to you? Was it for religious reasons? Sentimental reasons? Other?