Despite the rainy weekend, Bill and I had a beautiful wedding. After two nights at the Hummingbird Inn , we've come back home and are surrounded by many gifts from well wishers. VMI's Colonel Wayne Neel played the bagpipes for my processional, complementing our organist. My former boss, Simon, has become a Presbyterian minister, and did a fantastic job officiating the ceremony. My mother's friend, JoAnn served as the Mistress of Ceremonies, and did a great job coordinating everything. Chef Robert Hylton, a dear friend and professional baker, baked and decorated a lovely wedding cake for us. We had exquisite red and ivory roses and ivy for our bouquets and centerpieces, and a competent photographer, to record the event. My Uncle Brownlee and his old pal Donnie Cash provided music at the reception. Bill and I have plenty of Domaine Ste. Michelle sparkling wine left over! We had a wonderful time in Lexington and want to offer our thanks to everyone who attended and helped us celebrate our special day!
Speaking of dresses... mine is really beautiful if I do say so myself. It's an A-line white gown with short sleeves and an organza overlay. The bodice has a scalloped v-neck, and it's fitted with a lace overlay and pearl beads formed into blossoms. The skirt has pearl beaded appliques and a cathedral train. My veil reaches the middle of my back and has pearls imbedded in the lower part of the veil. There is a pearl comb that holds it to my head. I also managed to find a pair of white satin shoes with beads at the toes for only $14. Unfortunately, CC chewed them up a week before the wedding, so I had to replace them with new white satin shoes that cost over twice as much as the first pair. The dress fit perfectly through the bodice, but unfortunately, it had to be shortened a few inches and the shoulders needed to be taken in.
Several of my aunts hosted a lovely rehearsal dinner for us at the Lexington Golf and Country Club. We had roast beef, seafood, rice, bread, and wonderful desserts as well as red and white Virginia wines to complement the meal. We even had live music! Now, if we could just find the official marriage certificate, everything would be golden.
Bill and I finally received our certified marriage license December 2nd, which means that we're finally married in the eyes of the state of Virginia. Now that things are starting to normalize a bit, I've found myself remembering our big day with much fondness. Yesterday, I found myself baking in preparation for the big snowstorm that was supposed to come into town and listening to music that we used during our ceremony. Those of you who were at the wedding may recall that our music was somewhat unusual. We didn't use "The Bridal Chorus" or "The Wedding March". Instead, most of the music consisted of simple church hymns that could be heard at any Sunday morning service. The only exception to that rule was my processional, "Highland Cathedral", which is a fairly recently composed piece that in recent years has slowly started to gain in popularity. Since those musical interludes will forevermore remind me of our big day, I thought I would share how I came to choose the music we used at our ceremony.
The first time I heard "Highland Cathedral" was at church. One Sunday morning back in January 2001, I rather whimsically decided to attend the 11:00 service at Shandon Presbyterian Church in Columbia, South Carolina. When I arrived at the church, I noticed a group of people standing outside the front door. Most of them were wearing kilts and carrying bagpipes, drums, or clan flags. I had stumbled upon my first kirkin' of the tartans, and it would have a profound effect on me.
I entered the church and took a seat, taking another look at the sanctuary's decor. It was obvious that this church's architecture was heavily influenced by the Tudor architectural style. The walls, with their half timbered appearance, closely resembled the houses I had seen as a small child in England. The windows were tall and narrow, ornate with stained glass. The ceiling was high and peaked, with rafters holding the roof aloft. The church also had a magnificent pipe organ. At 11:00, I heard the pipers and drummers begin their march into the sanctuary. They were playing a gorgeous piece of music that I had never heard. It sounded so classic, elegant, and dignified that I was compelled to sit up and take notice as the pipers and drummers marched down the aisle. The musicians were accompanied by a talented USC graduate student playing the pipe organ, and followed by members representing clans who placed flags bearing their tartans at the front of the church. By the time all of the families had entered, I had tears in my eyes and a huge lump in my throat. I suddenly felt a mystic bond with these people, realizing that my own ancestors were of Scotch, Irish, and English descent (with a smattering of German thrown in there somewhere). I was raised Presbyterian, a denomination that has a strong Scottish heritage. As I listened to "Highland Cathedral" and watched the people participating in the kirkin' of the tartans, I felt very connected with the past. "Highland Cathedral" had given me such a feeling of belonging; I was so touched that when I got home from the service, I immediately started looking for it online. It had occurred to me that it would make a fantastic wedding march should I ever decide to get married, which at that point, seemed like a distant and unlikely possibility.
I managed to find "Highland Cathedral" on Napster, which was still alive and well at that time. I downloaded the piece, then searched for the piece on CD. I ended up purchasing Phil Coulter's CD Highland Cathedral and Amy Grant's CD A Christmas To Remember , both of which included versions of the piece. Later, when Bill and I got engaged, I searched for the sheet music, which was even harder to find. I found two books that contained the piece, Weddings and Worship, Volume 2 and a book of sheet music written for Amy Grant's A Christmas To Remember album. I bought the Weddings and Worship book, then set about planning the rest of the music. Unfortunately, this book is out of print now, but those who want it might be able to find it on Ebay. I never got my copy back from the organist.
One very Irish hymn that I have always loved is "Be Thou My Vision", and the fact that Bill is of Irish descent seemed to make it all the more appropriate for our ceremony. I consulted a Presbyterian hymnal given to me by a favorite aunt and confirmed that the words were also a good fit. The hymn's lyrics ask God to be with us at all times, protecting us, lighting our way, and giving us guidance no matter what we do in life, so that we can be with God in Heaven when our lives end. As someone who has sung in choirs, I am familiar with John Rutter, an English conductor, composers and arranger who has released many CDs with the Cambridge Singers. I did an Amazon search and found that his Te Deum and Other Church Music had a version of "Be Thou My Vision" that I had not heard. I purchased it, thinking that I would probably love what he had done with the hymn. Upon playing the track, however, I found that I was not so fond of Rutter's extremely different arrangement of "Be Thou My Vision". The CD was still a good buy, though, because I listened to the rest of the album and ended up loving two other hymns Rutter had included on the album, "All Creatures of Our God and King" and "Now Thank We All Our God". "Be Thou My Vision" was the first of two hymns sung by the congregation on our wedding day. I purchased Van Morrison's Hymns to the Silence because it included a more traditional version of "Be Thou My Vision" and I wanted Bill to have the chance to hear it.
I consulted the hymnal again and read the words to both hymns. "All Creatures of Our God and King" is the perfect opening hymn. The words urge every citizen of the earth to join together and sing praises to God, something I found highly appropriate for our wedding day. Bill and I came together in an almost miraculous way and to me, that was even more proof to me that there is a God who deserves a great deal of praise. The melody is also lovely; when it's played slowly, it makes for a very stately march. I decided to use an instrumental version of the hymn for the seating of the mothers and the bridal party's entrance. "Now Thank We All Our God" was used as our recessional because the beautiful melody came from Mendehlsohn's Hymn of Praise and the words encourage the congregation to join together in thanks to God for our many blessings. Like "Be Thou My Vision", "Now Thank We All Our God's" lyrics ask God to be with us always. I felt this was an especially appropriate musical sendoff, particularly since the wedding was almost two weeks before Thanksgiving!
I have to admit that I really knew very little about "O Perfect Love", which was another hymn sung by the congregation. I was simply looking for another hymn to be sung after our vows that would complement "Be Thou My Vision". I asked my mom about the hymn, since she's been playing organ for over 50 years. She told me it was a classic for weddings years ago, but had gone into obscurity in recent years. I decided that was reason enough to include it in our ceremony, completing my task of finding special music for our wedding day!
We had just an organist play most of the music, with a bagpiper joining her only for "Highland Cathedral". It took the two of them some time at the rehearsal to come together on the piece, but they did a fantastic job. The piper, dressed in his marvelous Scottish regalia, marched in before my entrance. When he was finished, he slipped out a side door. Unfortunately, I was hoarse on our wedding day and since the wedding party was "engaged" at the front of the chapel (with flowers and rings and such), we decided that we wouldn't join in the singing of the hymns. I now regret that decision, since I could only hear two people--my parents--singing out of the entire congregation! Had I known that no one else would sing, I would have tried to join them!
I must point out that as I planned this wedding, I discovered some truly wonderful music which has been added to my vast collection of CDs. In my search for a good version of "Be Thou My Vision", I became exposed to the Irish group Eden's Bridge, an Irish Christian music group. The first album I purchased, Celtic Worship had "Be Thou My Vision", but once again, I liked the rest of the album better than their version of that hymn. In fact, I liked it so much that I bought Celtic Psalms soon afterwards. That's not bad for someone who used to loathe church and everything associated with it! I'm sure that all of my former ministers and Sunday School teachers would be very proud of me!
Need classical sheet music?
Just out of practicality, and because I'm a second wife, here's a book that I've found very useful... (if only to keep my husband's first wife from bleeding him dry!) Use it as you will, if you find it might serve your purposes...
