The Timing was Right

Megan and Phil met on the Jersey Shore many years ago. Their paths crossed now and then, but one or the other was always involved with someone else. A couple years ago they ran into each other at a diner, and this time neither was involved. They started dating and made up for lost time with newly discovered romance. This was long overdue, and they are quite a match!

Their wedding ceremony was at Island Chateau, a one-event-at-a-time venue on Staten Island. You can't find more client-focused management and staff! I also observed the respectful and careful work of their photographer, Angel, of Photography Elite Inc.

Just before the ceremony, the couple and their witnesses gathered in a private room to sign the license and keepsake certificate. It was a quiet moment in the midst of excitement that helped all of us focus our emotions and thoughts on the ceremony to follow.

While Megan was beautiful, especially in a bridal crown worn by her mother and her aunt in their weddings, it was Phil and his entourage who definitely stole the show with their unusual tuxedos and cool hats. Somehow, these suits were made for these charming and exhuberant men!


Ceremony Tip: Don't forget to schedule time for the signing of your marriage license on your wedding day. It only takes a couple minutes - but it is a significant part of the ceremonial things you do that day. Determine who your witnesses will be ahead of time and formally ask them..it is an honor you bestow on them. Decide if you want to have photographs of this moment. Be sure to give your parents the opportunity to be present. Another option is to sign the documents during the ceremony.

Julie Laudicina, Celebrant!

Loves Makes it REAL

Andrea and Phil arrived on foot for their wedding ceremony in the Ladies Pavilion in the Hernshead area of Central Park. This lacy ironwork structure is just the right size for an intimate ceremony...just the bride and groom...and me.

Phil was quite dapper...decked out in his formal wear. And Andrea's lovely silk dress with the hemline ringed with flowers was a knock-out. I'm not a fasion maven, but they were delightfully gorgeous on their wedding day. As the Brits would say..."Simply loverly."

But they were rather quiet, reflective, and a bit tearful during the ceremony. Glad I had some tissue...and pleased that their ceremony was so meaningful to them.

I wish them the best as they go back home to London for a couple parties with family and friends, and then off to Croatia for their honeymoon.

Now I can't wait to see the photographs their photographer,Brian Friedman,took. I keep checking his blog everyday...let's see them soon, Brian, because I know they will be stunning.




Ceremony idea: Consider picking a reading from chidren's literature...something that has had meaning from when you first read it. Phil and Andrea picked a passage from The Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams...a passage about becoming REAL when you are loved.

Julie Laudicina,Celebrant!

Podcast about Tina and Paul's Wedding Vendors

Photo by TimothyGlenn Photographers

As part of a project by the NJ Chapter of the American Bridal Consultants organization, I volunteered my services, along with other wedding vendors, to a bride and groom last June. The bride has Stage IV breast cancer, so their wedding was a wonderful day in their lives which are so deeply impacted by her illness.

You can hear my voice on a podcast by Wedding Podcast Network. This program was a recap of what this wedding was like for us who provided products and services. My part of the podcast is in the second half of the program.

Julie Laudicina,Celebrant!

An Auspicious Day to Get Married

After doing many wedding ceremonies in Central Park, finally...finally a couple took my suggestion of having their ceremony by Bethesda Fountain. It is such an iconic location...there's covering if it rains...you can see the beauty of the park as well as the skyline of the city...it's just lovely.

Mark and Linda, along with family and friends from Australia, Germany, and the US, celebrated their wonderful love story in their wedding ceremony. They met on Melbourne Cup Day 2008, got engaged on Melbourne Cup Day in 2009...and then decided to get married in NYC on...well, no it wasn't Melbourne Cup Day 2010. But it was the first day of school, Fashion Week, the eve of Rosh Hashanah, and the U.S Open was into the finals. So their wedding date was a big day here.

We did the ceremony on a grassy hill somewhat away from the fountain area because there was a persistent saxaphone player whose music we thought wasn't exactly the music the bride and groom wanted. But the observant musician won our hearts when he played "Here Comes The Bride" as the bride and groom kissed. Only in New York!

Thank you, Georgie and Paul, for recommending me to Mark and Linda. It's good to know I have friends in Brisbane.

Julie Laudicina, Celebrant!

A Wedding Journey - West Coast to East Coast

Until we have marriage equality in this country, same-sex couples find they have to be creative about how to get married, and Deirdre and Claire were very creative. They had a wedding ceremony at the foot of Mt. Baker, WA, with their West Coast friends and family in July. Then the journey came to the East Coast last Sunday with a gathering of East Coast family and friends.

It was my honor to lead a ceremony at The Lake Club on Staten Island. In the ceremony, Claire and Deirdre removed their wedding rings and passed them among all the guests for their blessings. They put the rings in a handmade box (by Claire for Deirdre for their first Christmas), and they took the box to Connecticut the next day for their legal marriage.

Deirdre's brother gave an equally emotional and rational toast in support of marriage rights, which was followed by words I read from a Massachusetts court decision. From Justice Marshall:

... Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family.... The decision whether and whom to marry is among life's momentous acts of self-definition.

It is undoubtedly for these concrete reasons, as well as for its intimately personal significance, that civil marriage has been long termed a ‘civil right.’ Without the right to choose to marry, one is excluded from the full range of human experience.

I congratulate Deirdre and Claire for their "momentous act of self-definition" by marrying each other. May there come a time soon when all American can marry the person they choose.




Julie Laudicina, Celebrant!

Wedding in the Gazebo

Bevin and Eric enjoyed the presence of their closest family and friends at their wedding ceremony in the dramatic gazebo at Nicotra's Ballroom at The Hilton Garden Inn.

Eric proposed to Bevin on a moonlit night in a sandy beach in St. Lucia. To link their wedding ceremony with their engagement night...they included a ritual with sand in their wedding ceremony. In this ritual, they poured two colors of sand into a glass vase. The colors of the sand matched the colors of their wedding, blue and green. As the two colored sands mingled, so too do the lives of this bride and groom. The photo below shows the sand after the ceremony at the reception.



Ceremony Tip: For a summer day, consider having your ceremony in the late morning. Bevin and Eric were rather comfortable in the late morning shade inside the gazebo. We all had "cool heads" during this ceremony.

Julie Laudicina, Celebrant!