This has been a summer of beautiful weddings...today Nora and I attended the last one at the local Russian Orthodox Church.(the one with the big blue onion domes downtown).
Susannah, who works at the local Monks Rock Cafe, invited me to her wedding and I've been looking forward to going all year. Susannah and Innocent were engaged at the beginning of last summer and I have heard about the wedding plans since then. I know Susannah from going to Monks Rock, as she is always upbeat and fun to talk to. She manages the restaurant/icon shop. Over the past 2+ years, I've had the chance to get to know others in the local Russian Orthodox community, primarily through my birth work. Several moms and husbands have taken my classes and for 2 of the couples, I was their doula.
So today at the wedding service, I looked around and saw many faces I know in the crowd. Many wonderful, caring people all celebrating the wedding of Susannah and Innocent. The service was in the Russian Orthodox Church downtown and just about everyone stood, as is the Russian Orthodox tradition. There was beautiful singing, in fact, most of the service was done in song/verse which was goregous. There wasn't the traditional, "I take you to be my wedded..." parts to the service-rather there was candle and incense rituals as well as a crowning ritual where the bride and groom both wore classy crowns. At the very end after Susannah and Innocent were pronounced husband and wife, they went to the front of the church and everyone was cheering and singing and the church bells started ringing outside. Quite a beautiful moment. A goose bump moment.
Nora came with me to the service and did well. I thought the service was going to be 45 minutes, but it was an hour and a half and I was glad I brought her. She had her moments of "I want to go home now" but all in all she did great. I picked her up and held her so she could see things better for parts of it. THe last time I was in the Russian Orthodox church was about 25+ years ago. I vaguely remember going to a wedding there when I was 7 or 8.
Recently I"ve felt the need to "force" Nora a little bit with longer public services like this. Its good for kids to get practice with waiting, observing and being patient. A great feature about the service today was that there were lots of kids of all ages, and parents were taking them in/out as needed.
The reception was held at the Ft. Abercrombie recreation site, and St. Innocents Academy did a fabulous job with a castle theme at the site. Complete with fake stone walls, covered tables, an incredible buffet with crab dip, halibut, gorgeous cake. And live music--fiddle and violin to top it off. There was a sound system and music going the entire time.
Congrats to Susannah and Innocent on a beautiful wedding!
Zoya
Photos:
-Susannah and Innocent shortly after being pronounced husband and wife
-the bridemaids in their hand-sewn dresses! Several of them finished theirs up the night before.
-the "getaway" vehicle--complete with the local ice cream truck pulling it! They were driven from the church to Ft. Abercrombie in it!
-Overview of the Ft. Abercrombie Reception site
-THe gorgeous cake. I'm not sure who made it, but I believe someone in the Russian Orthodox community did.
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