Marrying an Englishman in an Alley

November 3, 2012 by Ruth 8 Comments

 

Ruth’s Tour Guide arrived in July with wedding plans already under way.  Well, plans such as they were.  It was a pretty simple wedding.  They’d both already done the church thing so weren’t really bent on having a big to-do.  They wanted something light and fun as well as meaningful.

Saying that plans were under way is an overstatement when, really, Ruth had only purchased a dress and had  basic idea of what they wanted.  An outdoor wedding, a charcoal grey suit for The Tour Guide, and what could be termed as a spiritual, but not religious, ceremony.  There were some overt references to holiness and the sacred nature of marriage without any particular references to a god.  The vows were traditional and Tessa read 1 Corinthians 13:4-8a.  Because Ruth still believes that love does not fail when two people love one another.

Jackson, Ruth’s brother, played his acoustic guitar and sang Marry Me as Ruth was escorted in by a dear friend who she now affectionately refers to as Dad. And on August 11 at 9:30 in the morning Ruth married her Englishman in the cute little courtyard of the alley downtown in Big Town, Bible Belt, USA.  The ceremony opened with Ruth’s sweet baby sister, MaryBeth, reading:

But let there be spaces in your togetherness, and let the winds of heavens dance between you.

Love one another, but make not a bond of love:

Let it rather be a moving sea between the shores of your souls.

Fill each other’s cup but drink not from one cup.

Give one another of your bread but eat not from the same loaf.

Sing and dance together and be joyous, but let each one of you be alone,

Even as the strings of a lute are alone though they quiver with the same music.

Give your hearts, but not into each other’s keeping. For only the hand of Life can contain your hearts.

And stand together yet not too near together:  For the pillars of the temple stand apart, and the oak tree and the cypress grow not in each other’s shadow.

-Kahlil Gibran

It was a short, sweet ceremony packed with meaningful words and meaningful people. The breezy, sunny day couldn’t have been more perfect.

I said I’d be back later with details, I just didn’t say how much later it would be.  Ever since the ‘I do’s’ it’s been pretty much a whirl wind.  Not sure where the last three months have gone, but you know what they say when you’re having fun…