Rehearsal

Our wedding was to take place at the Houston Zoo Reflection Pool, a gorgeous site surrounded by ancient live oaks and greenery.

{photo by Chris Morrow}

On Friday, the wedding party and family began arriving at 4:30pm for the rehearsal. A few key players did battle with Houston's legendary Friday-afternoon traffic, and were a bit late. This actually gave us time to rehearse the music, so it worked out okay. Becky helped me coordinate everything, and I did my best to lay out the plan for processional and ceremony. Our photographer, Daniel Colvin, came to the rehearsal to scope out the ceremony site and take pictures of this happy gathering. Here are some of the bridesmaids chatting.

My dear friend Bob Daniel organized the live music for our ceremony. I wanted to have a tuba quartet, naturally. Brendan and I also wanted to feature some of our most beloved friends as soloists. We thought carefully about what kind of music we wanted, and were so grateful to the friends who agreed to arrange music for us. Bob put together a quartet from some of his top students at Sam Houston State University, where he teaches tuba. Although the group had the music for a few weeks prior, this was their first and only opportunity to work with the singers. They did such a great job, and were more than flexible with some of our logistical problems. For example, the zoo did not provide any chairs for the rehearsal...a slight misunderstanding that ended up being very inconvenient. When it started to rain, I was worried they might walk out on me. Thank goodness for college students willing to have an adventure. They were troopers and made it work, despite the unusual conditions. 

One of the reasons I wanted to have our photographer at the rehearsal was that it seemed a more intimate chance for family and close friends to meet and interact before the wedding. I knew he would capture precious moments like this one of my sister, Roxanne, holding my niece, baby Arwen.

My goal was to have our wedding be family-centric. I believe marriage ties two families together, providing the foundation from which two individuals become their own, new family. Brendan and I wanted our ceremony to reflect the importance of the family union as well as our personal union. I was grateful our families went along with my ideas, hair-brained or otherwise. Here are two of the "great-grands" practicing their part at the rehearsal.

When Brendan and I got engaged, we thought about who would be the ideal person to marry us. It couldn't be just anybody. When my grandfather died, the priest who performed his memorial and funeral couldn't pronounce his name, obviously didn't know him, and generally did a piss-poor job with something that should have been so, so personal. After that, I swore I would never have somebody conduct an important ritual in my life that didn't know me, and know me well. For our marriage ceremony—one of the most important events of our lives—Brendan and I knew my brother Don would be the perfect individual. Even though our request came out of left field, he agreed and got certified to be an officiant so he could perform our ceremony. Here we are going over some of the details with Donny as it starts to sprinkle. Make sure to note his North Texas hat!

Soon it was more than sprinkling, and we hurried to finish up a full run-through before everyone got soaked. My friend Chris Morrow took this picture, and I love how it captures the beautiful, rainy mess of that hectic day.

At the end of the rehearsal, we had to talk about the elephant in the room, (or zoo, as it were). What if the rain didn't clear up by Saturday evening? There were only a few options, and none ideal. We could cram inside the reception space, but it wasn't very good for a ceremony. What ended up deciding for me was the fact that we couldn't bring the tuba quartet inside because the venue houses animals that are sensitive to loud sounds. I decided I was having my tuba music, no matter what, even if we had to park under this awning and have people stand around while we said our vows.

Here is my favorite shot of the rehearsal. The procession was a long walk—all the way down the side of the reflection pool, which was serving as my "aisle." Nine months ago, when I spent the first day of 2012 holding my Dad's hand as he lay in a hospital bed, bleeding in his brain and clinging to life, I wasn't 100% sure that this moment would happen. As he fought through months of complications and recovery, I reminded him that he had an important job to do in September. It's hard to even think about how far he has come without being overwhelmed. But he did come that far, and here we are, laughing about something while I hog the umbrella. And everything is perfect. He complained a little bit about how long the walk was, but I never said I'd make it easy on him. He doesn't look like he really minds though, does he? 

Comments

[Leah Buckley]

lauren, the last picture made me tear up. it's a great picture on its own, but it represents so much. beautiful. xo.