Our wedding day: the ceremony

(Picture by Sandra)

Today's I am writing about the wedding ceremony. I promise my blog hasn't tuned into a wedding blog - but I want to tell the story of the day in several parts. Firstly, here's a photo of Adam and Jason looking amazing. I was upstairs waiting for our guests to enter the venue, so I had a quick flick through my phone. I smiled so big when I saw this.

(Picture by Jason)

Our ceremony started differently to any wedding ceremony I'd been to. Adam rode down the aisle to Queen's I want to ride my bicycle on his custom made 20 inch chrome cruiser. He took so long to polish it, and it was inconveniently in our living room for a week prior to the wedding. At least it was worth it for his grand entrance.

(Picture by Pauline)

I didn't see him enter, obviously, but I hear it was a hit. As I waited for Adam to ride in, our event manager came to tell us that the guests were getting worried that Adam had disappeared! He was just enjoying the music and didn't enter until the bike bells part of the song! So cute!

Then Darren Hayes' So Beautiful started, and Cassie and Camille walked down the aisle first. We waited until the second verse and my parents walked me down the aisle. I won't forget the gasp when everyone turned around to look at me. I wondered how Adam would look when he saw me in my dress for the first time. He was serious, not even cracking a smile. I think he was a bit teary. He was also serious all through the ceremony. I asked him why, and he said he was taking marrying me very seriously. I had never seen him in a suit until the wedding day - and he looked hot!

(Picture by Heidi)

We were able to sit down for most of the ceremony - it was lucky as I was sore. I remember thinking, is this really happening? Am I really here? It was a strange feeling of being the reason the wedding is taking place, trying to listen to what Debra was saying, and thinking "oh my god, I'm getting married right now!!!".

(Picture by Sandra)

Our ceremony was run by civil celebrant Debra Cerasa. Debra is a friend of ours - she and I met at a blog conference in 2013. She worked with us to ensure the ceremony was very personalised - she asked a lot of questions about ourselves so she could recall our stories during the ceremony. It was really lovely, and funny at times. Debra has just set up her celebrant Facebook page - you can follow her here.

Words are a big part of my life, as you know, and beautiful readings were important. I asked Adam to source some but he said it was up to me. My mum had given me a book full of wedding vows and readings, and Debra also gave us some ideas. None of these felt right for me - they were too generic. So I kept look out for quotes that I loved - mostly online. None were to do with weddings.

We had four readings through the ceremony - read by Leona (a school friend), Louis (we met on No Limits), Cassie and me. It was so lovely to have them be a part of the ceremony.

Read by Leona:

Read by Cassie:

Read by me:

Read by Louis:

I could see our guests really listening and thinking during those readings. Such powerful words.

(Picture by Sandra)

Our vows were personal and cute - Adam's made me cry. It was so beautiful to hear him make his promise to me. I know how much time he put into writing those words. I made mine a mixture of serious and silly - promising to always say I love you and I'm sorry, and to only request one outfit photo a day when you're my official Instagram husband.

We made a marriage equality statement - and I noted that we can't wait for the day marriage is an option for everyone.

I'd bought this beautiful ring plate for Jason to hand us. It was pink and blue clay, and it was the only thing Adam and I argued about during the planning. He wanted a box! In the scheme of things, it didn't matter because no one saw it! It wasn't even in any photos. It's a good reminder that the small pretty things don't really matter as it's the whole marriage that's important.

(Picture by Sandra)

We said I do and then we got to kiss. We'd been practicing this kiss - Debra said it was important for the photographer to capture this so we had to take our time. Adam and I are quite private, so I can't think of a time we had kissed in front of our parents before - and there were certainly no photos of us kissing online until our friends posted them during the wedding!

(Picture by Jarrod)

After the kiss and many cheers and claps, we signed the documents and our marriage certificate. There were two songs playing during this signing - Songbird by Fleetwood Mac (I saw Dad's eyes light up when this came on) and How Long will I Love You? by Ellie Goulding (Adam's favourite song). We chose two close friends who were not in our bridal party to be our witnesses - a friend I met at uni and a friend Adam knows from a bike shop.

While they were signing our documents, Jason called for a selfie. Of course. Gosh it was funny. We've got the selfie, and then saw many other photos of this selfie being captured. Love in the age of social media right?! I do, now let's take a selfie!

(Picture by Adam taken on Jason's phone, regrammed by Camille)

(Picture by Pauline)

(Picture by Sandra)

The ceremony ended with Keith Urban's Somebody Like You playing and us walking out of the ceremony room (I think we did this too fast - nevermind). We were so happy. (Adam said he was smiling on the inside the whole time - he was just taking the marriage thing seriously!)

(Picture by Sandra)

To be continued...

(I've already written about the venue, getting ready and the minimoon if you'd like to catch up. Thank you for your lovely wishes.)