our wedding | during

D and I were married in the small Russian Orthodox church that I have been attending since ... well, birth, really.  In particular, I have lots of memories of my grandparents being really involved with the parish, so in a way, it was almost like having them there on the day.  

So in Russian Orthodox wedding ceremonies, the groom meets the bride at the entrance to the church, gives the bride her bouquet, she then pins the boutonniere on his jacket and then they both go into the church with the priest (this will become vaguely important in a moment).  I always had these little daydreams about arriving and seeing D as soon as I got out of the car and walking towards him, so when I pulled up at the front of the church, I was all looking out the car window to see D, but the doorway to the church was empty.

Hm, okay.  As my dad and I made our way up the path, D was still nowhere to be seen.  I asked my dad whether he knew where D was, but he did not.  D finally appeared, and he looked so ridiculously handsome, despite his insistence that the haircut he had gotten the day before was his Second Worst Haircut Ever, and which he tried to secretly fix himself when we got home, leaving little tell-tale hair offcuts all over the bathroom sink.  I nearly died.  But, I digress.  I gave him a kiss hello and we were both smiling so much.  I made many, many attempts at pinning his boutonniere onto his lapel, dissolving into laughter because I just could not do it as I had wrapped too much ribbon around the base and also because my hands were shaking so much.  I got there in the end, though.

{come onnn!}

And then, the priest was nowhere to be seen ...

{umm, where is the priest?}

D and I peered tentatively into the church and the priest came racing over.  The  wedding service began.  D and I stood super close, side by side, our arms kind of pressed together, occasionally leaning into one another like kids, stealing glances and saying "I love you."  Our hands kept getting covered in wax as the candles we were each holding began to melt.

During the crowning ceremony, the priest accidentally put my crown on D's head, before laughingly realising his mistake and correcting (and can I just say, those crowns (a) kind of flatten your hair (even though the priest was very careful with placement, so kudos to him for that!) and (b) teeter.  I felt like I was practicing good posture with a stack of books on my head!).

 {oops :)}

At one point, the flame of D's candle came perilously, perilously close to the sleeve of the priest's robe.  I honestly feared that we were going to have a "stop, drop and roll" situation on our hands (the poor priest.  When we had met with him a week earlier, he told us that he was a little nervous about the wedding as it was going to be his first.  Imagine the poor man being set alight at his first wedding!).  And then, when D's crown was removed, he had two GIANT red marks on his forehead, which sent me into an uncontrollable giggling fit.  Oh my goodness.

{aforementioned red marks and giggling fit}

But then, we were married.  We kissed and hugged.  And then kissed and hugged some more.  It felt so surreal.  We were married.  Married!  D was my husband.  I was so happy, I could have burst.

After being congratulated by our guests, D and I filled out our marriage paperwork.  D spelled my surname incorrectly, whilst I accidentally filled out the part of the form intended for minors.  I can't imagine what the Registry thought of all the strikethroughs!

{filling out the wrong details ... good grief!}

And then, we had some photos taken and hopped into our car to head into the city ...

{all images: Tealily Photography}

Next up: the very un-creatively titled "after"!