See the Beauty in the Ordinary: autumn wedding

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An Autumn Wedding: Blessings and Bouquets

The beginning of a new family is a momentous and holy event. What great joy there is when two people who love each other choose to make promises and take vows. And not just for the happy couple. As family and friends gather around the mystery, the beauty, the hope all shine bright. Their presence at the wedding is their blessing. But sometimes the blessings are spoken, as well. At the rehearsal dinner preceding the wedding, guests were asked to share a blessing or a Scripture if they so desired. We share some of them now with you along with photographs of the bridal and table bouquets.

The Bride loves sunflowers.

From the bride's aunt and uncle:

As you begin your new life together, invite God to be your partner.

May He be above you to watch over you, beneath you to support you,
in front of you to show you the way, close beside you to be your friend,
and within you to make you able for all things, and to reward your faithfulness with the joy and peace,

which the world cannot give nor take away.

Through Jesus Christ our Lord, to whom be the glory now and forever.

Love and Blessings

The bouquets included dried grasses plucked from the groom's grandfather's pasture, wheat from the bride's uncle's farm, dried statice from my garden and of course, a variety of sunflowers, leaves, seedpods and other vegetation both dried and silk from Hobby Lobby.

A Puritan Prayer from the Pastor
“Oh, God of Love, you have established marriage for the welfare and happiness of mankind. Yours was the plan and only with You can we work it out with joy. You have said that it is not good for man to be alone, I will make a helpmate for him. Now our joys are doubled since the happiness of one in the happiness of the other. Our burdens are now halved. When we share them, we divide the load.

Dear Father, we would ask that you would bless Jesse. Bless him as a provider of nourishment and raiment and sustain him in all the expectations and pressures of his battle for bread. May his strength be her protection, his character be her boast and her pride and may he so live that she will find in him the haven for which the heart of a woman truly longs.

And dear Heavenly Father, we would ask you to bless Jessica. Give her tenderness that will make her great, a deep sense of understanding and a great faith in You. Give her inner beauty of soul that never fades. That eternal youth that is found in holding fast the things that never age.
Teach them that marriage is not living merely for each other. It is two uniting and joining hands to serve You. Give them a great spiritual purpose in life. May they seek the kingdom of God and Your righteousness and the other things shall certainly be added unto them. Loving You best they shall love each other the more and faithful unto You, faithful unto each other they will be.

May they not expect that perfection of each other that belongs alone to You. May they minimize each other’s weaknesses, be swift to praise and magnify each other’s points of comeliness and strength and see each other through a lover’s kind and patient eyes. Now make such assignments to them on the scroll of Your will as will bless them and develop their characters as they walk together. Give them a little something to forgive every day that that they may grow in the grace of longsuffering. Give them enough tears to keep them tender, enough hurts to keep them human, enough failures to keep their hands clenched tightly in Yours and enough success to make them sure they walk with God. May they never take each other’s love for granted but always experience that breathless wonder that exclaims “out of all this world, you have chosen me.”

When life is done and the sun is setting may they be found then as now, hand in hand still thanking God for each other. May they serve You happily, faithfully together until at last one shall lay the other into the arms of Jesus. This we ask through Jesus Christ, the great Lover of our souls. Amen.”

The serene setting of the wedding. Yes, the guests sat at tables for both the wedding and reception.

From the groom's mother:
Once you were two, separate, apart
But what God has joined together is united in the heart.
Years of joy and laughter mixed with a tear or two,
These are the cherished gifts that I pray for you.

May your treasures be many, but especially these three:
Your commitment, your love and your time on your knees.
May you cling fast to Jesus as you cling to each other
On balmy days or in stormy weather.

May you bask in the warmth of acceptance and grace
As you grow and you flourish in your home's sacred place.
May you welcome the future with arms open wide
Your companion, your lover, your friend by your side.

From the groom's father
God has blessed me with a wonderful Christian woman and with three great Christian sons. For many moons we have prayed God would bring you two together as only He could. Now may He bless you both as God has graciously blessed us! May we always praise God for His grace and mercy.

Mason jars held bouquets with grasses and silver artemesia plucked from the groom's grandfather's pasture, statice from my garden and some silk flowers and leaves.

Scripture from the groom's grandparents:

We want to bless you with the Apostle Paul's prayer in Colossians 1:9-10. "For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you and asking God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through spiritual wisdom and understanding. And we pray this in order that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God."

Each table held two bouquets, one or two candles in Mason jars and a jar of something to snack on.

Scripture from the bride's grandparents:

Words to live by: "He who pursues righteousness and love finds life, prosperity and honor." Proverbs 21:21
Good advice! "Better to live on a corner of the roof than share a house with a quarrelsome wife." Proverbs 21:9

Scripture from the bride's friend
"Therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, put on tender mercies, kindness, humility, meekness, longsuffering, bearing with one another and forgiving one another, if anyone has a complaint against another, even as Christ forgave you, so you also must do. But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful." Colossians 3:12-15

Bridesmaid's bouquets placed on the table made a lovely centerpiece

From the groom's aunt, uncle and cousin
God bless Jess and Jess
With a happy marriage free of stress.

God bless Jess and Jess
With lots of kids to make a mess.

God bless Jess and Jess
With love and joy and peace and rest.

God bless Jess and Jess
And when the sin let them confess.

God bless Jess and Jess
With things we cannot even guess.

God bless Jess and Jess
'Cause we think they're the very best!

All photographs were taken by Monica Warren
Want to read more about our Autumn wedding? Click here.

The Bride Loves Sunflowers: Boutonnieres for an Autumn Wedding

Something simple, understated, perhaps. That's what the bride wanted for the boutonnieres in her autumn wedding. The groom enjoys nature and is basically a simple guy.

The bride showed me a picture of what she had in mind. I looked at it once and then couldn't find it again. As I recall, it had some seedpods, maybe some grain. Well, we knew we wanted to include wheat in the wedding. The bride's grandfather and uncle are farmers who have raised wheat for many years and her aunt gave me a generous supply of stalks. Combining the wheat with the beautiful leaves of the season and adding a sprinkling of dried centaurea or little orange and golden flowers seemed almost too simple, but bride assured me this was the look she wanted. I finished the boutonniere by wrapping the stems with raffia. The cost was minimal.

Let me mention that we have loved the centaurea and have included it in almost everything, including the bridal and bridesmaids bouquets and some of the corsages. It is natural material, but dyed a brilliant "chili". It looks like something you would expect to find growing wild on a Kansas prairie, but is actually imported from Italy. We purchased it at Hobby Lobby.

Should you wish to make something similar, I'd be glad to show you how I did it. Let me preface the instructions by telling you that I am not a professional florist, just someone who enjoys playing with flowers.

Begin by wiring the leaves. I snipped leaves from a bush. These are silk oak leaf bushes purchased at Hobby Lobby. The long narrow oak leaves work better than something short and squat like maple leaves for the shape of this boutonniere. Using a straight pin, I poked a hole in the leaf, threaded the wire through and twisted in down the stem. The wire gives me a longer stem to work with and allows me to move them where I want them. This is the most time consuming and most tedious part, but you do it first and then you're done with that part.

Line up your material. I sometime resist being so organized, preferring to pick and choose as I go, but it really does make things go faster and smoother.

Lay two leaves together, slightly overlapping.

Lay three stalks of wheat on top, angling them as desired. Top with little flowers or centuarea. Twist a wire around your grouping at the neck. Twist all the wires around and down the stem.

Snip off the end, leaving about a 1 1/2 inch stem.

Wind floral tape around the stem, stretching the tape so that it sticks.

Wrap raffia around the stem, leaving a 6 inch tail as you begin. A drop of hot glue at the bottom of the stem will keep the raffia from slipping off the end (something it is inclined to do). Wrap it loosely back up the stem until you are about even with your tail. Snip the raffia and tie in a double knot. Snip again to even out your tails.