KELLY LEMONS

Congratulations to Kristy and Greg February 12, 2010 at the Empire State Building!

2010-02-15T16:06:00.009-05:00

It was my joy to marry Kristy and Greg, our grand prize winning couple in The Knot's Wedding with a View contest at the 86th Floor Observatory of the Empire State Building last Friday morning. Theirs was the first of the fourteen Valentine's Day weekend ceremonies I did that weekend. I personalized each wedding, sending the couples questionnaires and drafting a ceremony with them in the weeks leading up to the event. Kristy and Greg included their two daughters as flower girls, but I also mentioned them throughout the ceremony as part of the promises being made that day. I told the story of how they met and fell in love, and have overcome tough times and separations (Greg is in the Marine Corps!) only to return to a love that had endured, and would endure, all things. As the gorgeous pink sun rose on us from the East, I was honored to make the four of them officially a family!

Amy Shey Jacobs of Chandelier Events (http://www.chandelier-events.com/) worked with The Knot (theknot.com) to put together a crack team of vendors it was my pleasure to spend the day with while marrying these two and all the other thirteen couples on Saturday! Thanks to Amy for the picture sequence below.

Bentley Meeker Lighting and Staging (BentleyMeeker.com) created a fantastic custom gobo design of the Empire State Building.

Kristy was phenomenal in her Justin Alexander wedding dress. The stylists at Paul Labrecque Salon (PaulLabrecque.com) gave her a look to match her personality and style--romantic and natural.

Hatch Creative Studio (HatchCreativeStudio.com) did these gorgeous arrangements. They do all kinds of "toppings" like these white feathers on their bouquets -- so pretty. I'll be blogging more about Barb later--she is amazing!!!

The ceremony took place on the 61st floor of the Empire State Building, overlooking the city. We all enjoyed the perfect pink sunrise to match the decor just before the 7AM ceremony. Afterward, guests were treated to tasty treats by Shiraz Events (ShirazEvents.com ,) and the band Lapis Luna from Elan Artists (ElanArtists.com) played sweet jazz music so Kristy and Greg and their guests could spin ontheir pretty pink dance floor.

Photos: Carlos Andres Varela and Judith Rae (ElanDocumentary.com)

Press Release for Valentine's Day Weddings at the Empire State Building this weekend!

2010-02-11T12:30:00.001-05:00

I am happily eyeball deep in performing a wedding tonight (putting on my snowshoes to trek to Brooklyn,) and finishing the fourteen ceremonies for this weekend, so my lengthy blogging hopes about my couples will have to wait until the second half of Valentine's month.

Until then, here's a press release about the event!

http://eon.businesswire.com/portal/site/eon/permalink/?ndmViewId=news_view&newsId=20100209006915&newsLang=en

News and Updates: The 2010 Wedding Season is ON!!

2010-01-19T17:40:00.005-05:00

Hi everyone! I have an exciting announcement. I will be performing FOURTEEN weddings Valentine's Day weekend on top of the Empire State Building as part of The Knot's Wedding with a View contest!! I am absolutely thrilled, and will be blogging more details soon. For now, here is the contest website so you can read about some of the couples.

http://global.theknot.com/contests/empire-state-building-wedding/TopStory.aspx

On the update side, one of the hazards of starting a new blog and revamping my website in the middle of a busy wedding season is that I didn't get as much time to blog or update! :-) So in the next few weeks, I'll also be doing catch up blogging from some highlighted 2009 ceremonies and updates to the site that I'll announce here.

The 2010 wedding season is ON!!! :) Celebrate your life now with a personalized ceremony.

Worried about what can go wrong?

2009-08-31T13:27:00.003-04:00

Of course you are! I was, too, as a bride. I was scared it would rain, but I knew it would be nice and cool in October. It didn't rain, but it was 85 degrees! Not what we were hoping for, though for some couples it is probably the weather they dream of--to each their own!

We were upset about the cake, because at the last minute we were told we couldn't have our square design and it would have to be round. I was NOT happy. On the day of, the cake was the best we'd ever tasted and round, and yes--it still bugged me. But it was okay. Really, it was. Totally doesn't bother me now. Nope. I have let that just go. :)

ANYWAY, what I didn't anticipate was that my flowers would be all wrong and that I would be at what I call the wailing wall. You know, when you are standing there, rocking back in forth crying into your hands and you can't stop? Except it was my wedding day, so I didn't want puffy eyes, so I would rock back and forth crying and occasionally dip my face into cold water to keep from getting puffy. Good times.

But when I was done wailing, I called my sister who came over as my own personal angel of mercy and flowers and we unwrapped my bridal bouquet and MacGyvered that bad boy back together. And no one knew the difference but us, and my husband, who still listens to that story because he is the best husband in the universe. Because I have also completely let go of that as well. Yep--I don't hold onto that stuff.

And really I don't, not in the important ways. I like things to be just right, which isn't a bad quality as a bride. I had a vision and I wanted to see that vision realized. But here's the key. The most important vision was standing with Mr. L and my family and friends and having the moment of grace that comes in every good wedding. Time stops (I see this all the time doing weddings) and you know why you are really there. And sure--it will bug you (not me, of course because I am OVER it,) that this detail or that didn't go as planned. I stood with a bride and groom last weekend with a unity candle that refused to light pouring hot wax onto my hand and onto the linen and it still wouldn't light. And that is OKAY. I made a joke about how air conditioning has other plans just like life. The groom pointed to the one candle that WOULD stay lit and said "That one means us!" and it was all good and everyone laughed.

Now if that isn't enough incentive to just try to breathe when things don't go as planned, here's a story that might help!

http://www.lemondrop.com/2009/08/28/britains-unluckiest-bride-and-groom-tie-the-knot/?icid=webmail|wbml-aim|dl3|link5|http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lemondrop.com%2F2009%2F08%2F28%2Fbritains-unluckiest-bride-and-groom-tie-the-knot%2F

What the heck IS Celebrancy, anyway?

2009-07-25T15:26:00.003-04:00

So for the first real post of the blog I wanted to do a comprehensive explanation of what a celebrant does vs. a courthouse ceremony, or a leader of a particular denomination might do. I was going to give a history of celebrancy in Australia and how it came to the US, though that is explained on the interwebs here at the Celebrant Foundation and Institute where I happily became a certified Life-Cycle celebrant.

But then I saw this clip that some of you may have already seen tearing up the Youtubeses. To me it sums up in dance what being a celebrant is to me. I became a celebrant because I wrote my wedding ceremony (with Mr. L's help, of course.) We didn't have a particular faith or religious belief structure. We are spiritual, but wanted our ceremony to be about us and our family and friends. We wanted someone to say "Have you the wing?" from The Princess Bride because it is hilarious and the greatest movie of all time. (I will fight anyone who says different. lol)

Basically, we wanted a ceremony that we could remember forever, one that could only be done by us for us. The trick was, I didn't know how to find someone who would be willing to do that. We found some who would do their own script. There was one who thought our ceremony was "too pagan" (we had a handfasting which actually didn't even have the pagan references, but ok.) One said they would look at our script, but would obviously change everything because of their many years of experience in such matters. And they wanted to know who would "handle" the children. Ha! They hadn't met our nieces and nephews. :) We found some very nice folks who would have done just fine reading it, but then we found (cue the angelic choruses) a celebrant who not only had the personality to match our quirky selves and ceremony, but only wanted to add our love story about how we met and what we loved about each other. Bingo!

I discovered celebrancy, found an awesome Aussie who happily said "Have you the wing?", and I to my great surprise discovered a calling to do the same thing for other couples.

So this clip represents that essence of the couple saying, singing, or dancing what speaks to them. I love especially how they settle into a mildly reverent step to get to the altar, though I would make one suggestion to the officiant to rock it out herself a little more. :) Though some may think the dance not appropriate for such a sacred occasion, I would argue that a dance of love in the spirit of two people wanting to join their lives as one family is the most sacred thing of all!

Enjoy the clip!

Jill and Kevin's Wedding Dance Entrance

Blog and new website are live!!!

2009-07-18T16:48:00.001-04:00

The new website is up! Please check it out at kellylemons.com