At the front of the room, everything and everyone looked grand. The center back of the room had two wooden lattices decorated with white tulle, dark red roses, ivy, and silver beads (Marilyn really outdid herself incorporating all the gorgeous touches of silver in the flowers!). All the male attendants looked so spiffy in their black morning coats with the gray tartan sashes across their crisp white shirts. I was impressed by the dramatically lovely look of my three female attendants holding brilliant red rose nosegays against their black velvet jackets and full black skirts. James was dashingly outfitted in a nehru-style black formal jacket. And there was Thomas, looking divinely romantic.

The ceremony went beautifully, thanks to James' inspired delivery and strong voice. He read from Rilke, then we had a wine ceremony. The delicious taste of the cabernet James had provided lingered in my mouth the whole time. Then Janet read my poem, which, during the rehearsal, she had prefaced with a sweet memory of San Jose State, which unfortunately did not happen during the actual ceremony. Of course, I forgot almost all of my lines during the ceremony and messed up my personal statement pretty badly IMO. I haphazardly jumped back and forth between Brontë lines and Chasing Amy lines. I also had plenty of stammering pauses during our vows (which Thomas did too ;-). And I flubbed a bit of the "with this ring" line by saying "true" twice (but at least not "true, true" of wasssup fame!).

Thomas' mom read his poem quite well, then we did the hand-fasting, which went better than it had in any of the practices (it's surprisingly complicated to hold hands and have someone tie a cord around your clasped hands!). We lit the family unity candles after that. Every time I moved around, Elisa very efficiently jumped to straighten my train.

We had our parents sit opposite where we were standing, so we could see them and they could see us during the ceremony. I remember looking over at my mom's face, as she strained to keep back either tears of joy or laughter -- a mirror of my own face.

The final reading was Scott doing an edited version of Oh the Places You'll Go by Dr. Seuss. Even in rehearsal, this one had gotten me. When Scott said, "kids, you'll move mountains," the tears started to roll down my cheeks. We had the readers stand between us, where James stood during the rest of the ceremony. It was great having the readers right there with us. I sniffled and giggled alternately during Scott's whole reading.

Finally, we kissed and James proclaimed us married. We walked together back down the aisle, seeing all the grinning faces, stepping in time to Eine Kleine Nachtmusik. We went straight upstairs, tailed by Erica and her assistant. We heard later that Scott and Kelly did indeed skip back down the aisle. I rather expect them to do that at their wedding in October too!

Upstairs we had appetizers and Asti waiting. Erica took pictures of us kissing and drinking from our Waterford glasses (which Kevin kindly brought up to us from the ceremony room). We took some pictures on the balcony, looking down at the stunning Corinthian Room, lit with dozens of candles, silver leaves, and roses scattered on black tablecloths. It was all so lovely!

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