A Wedding World Tour ... what's that? If you curious, check out the overview on our ABOUT page...
Creating our fairytale USA wedding ceremony brought out the best of our creativity. With unbridled passion -- some might say obsession -- Jason used his all his design skills and April her musical knowledge to craft a unique ceremony: with vows taken by their community to support them, responsibility vows (which to this day have prevented a single argument between us!), and plenty of music.
With 6 marriages, 12 parents, and 4 divorces between our two families, we also came to the realization that there is absolutely nothing wrong with our family photo.
For news and updates on what we're up to -- such as our upcoming book on what we learned during the Wedding World Tour -- please like our Facebook page, or contact us and you'll be the first to get our sample chapters and articles. We'd love you to join the conversation by sharing your journeys of love!
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Photos by Richelle Dante Photography
and also by Pat Rogers Photography, and Anthony Lauberth.
A morning wedding in a private home in a beautiful village outside a small town...
This is how our Thai wedding began. From a parade down the (very small) main street, to the girls "hiding out" while Jason bargained for his bride to be, to each and every member of the village tying a string around our wrist... we learned how spiritual a wedding could actually be. We learned the joy of an intimate setting without as much of the spectacle of a US wedding. And we learned from our newly adopted Thai family the traditions of love from a culture as giving and loving as any.
The ceremony was followed by two receptions: an amazing lunch under our wedding house, and an outdoor village reception with lanterns, meat roast on a spit, and many happy villagers.
And for the first time, we truly saw the power of community and how it should figure into our relationship.
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For news and updates on what we're up to -- such as our upcoming book -- please like our Facebook page, or contact us and you'll be the first to get our sample chapters and articles. We'd love you to join the conversation by sharing your journeys of love!
Nothing could have prepared us for our Maasai wedding. We had asked for the help of a diplomat from Kenya, who initially couldn't find any Maasai tribes that would host a traditional wedding. But a month later, she found Sekerot, who took a risk on us, told the Maasai people that "his father's son" was getting married, and eventually adopted us as one of his own -- as honorary Maasai tribal members.
This was the first fully traditional Maasai wedding for Westerners that they could recall in over 15 years, and it was an amazing experience we will never forget. From April's "girl talk" with the Maasai wives, to the relationship advice I received from Baba, my new father and the village elder, to my dowry and the cow sacrifice, to a ceremony held in a hut of cow dung and sticks, this was a life-changing ceremony.
The Maasai taught us commitment, how to care for others, what it means to (not) be a victim, and the most important key to happiness on the planet.
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For news and updates on what we're up to -- such as our upcoming book -- please like our Facebook page, or contact us and you'll be the first to get our sample chapters and articles. We'd love you to join the conversation by sharing your journeys of love!
Father George, long arranged to marry us in Athens, refuses when we arrive. Well, he doesn't actually refuse, he says he will marry us when we convert to his very conservative religion. We try everything, we look everywhere, and we can't find anyone to marry us.
This, however, is fate offering a lesson for us ever. Soon, what seems to be our biggest Wedding World Tour debacle actually turns out to be our greatest lesson.
We leave Athens and find a quant church in Santorini... and with a cat our only witness, we marry ourselves. It is finally then that it hits us: We realize that the key to our relation is this moment -- it's continually committing and recommitting to our relationship, rather than waiting for someone to tell us who or what we are or aren't. We finally realize that it's not about a one-day (or in our case, one month) ceremony. It's about our our day-to-day actions, it's about every choice we make.
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For news and updates on what we're up to -- such as our upcoming book -- please like our Facebook page, or contact us and you'll be the first to get our sample chapters and articles. We'd love you to join the conversation by sharing your journeys of love!
A few extra photos, especially meant for those who were there...
The first ceremony of four was everything we'd hoped it would be. Friends, family, our entire community was there to support us -- and not just in spirit, but by volunteering to decorate; by coming in and performing or speaking; by making the floral centerpieces ... even driving a truck full of lighting and decor from Arizona to help setup!
The ceremony was crafted like a 90-minute play; I credit that to April's musical theater background. And it began theatrically... as the vast doors of the church opened to the music, the wind caught April's veil in a movie-perfect moment.
April's favorite memory is walking to the back of the church while the "wedding party choir" sang "Sunrise, Sunset." We walked from the back of the church, looking everyone in the eye as we lit candles all the way to the front. Jason's favorite moment -- one of his lifetime favorite moments -- was April singing "Finally" to him during the ceremony. Other highlights were Dani, on extreme-last-minute request, pulling off a very tough song that she learned on the drive to the wedding; and the petal-toss to cap the ceremony.
