Last night the new husband stared at me in surprise and said, ‘you’re calm.’ I nodded and realized I had this wonderful day of writing and that we could settle in together nicely. It hasn’t happened in MONTHS. Let me repeat that. Quiet time to write has been months away.

I thought about wedding details all the time.

Here is a hodgepodge medly of photos from the wedding… I’ll post more later when I get them, but these are from guests or my Iphone….

Planning a cultural wedding is difficult. The priest left two weeks before the wedding and left us without someone to do both ceremonies. Luckily the fiance called someone from the Persian Cultural Association. So we ended up with two weddings in one day. The Sofreh Aghd is a wedding ceremony much older than the organized religions of today. Everything has meaning and symbolism.

A traditional Persian ceremony is centered around a spread called the Sofreh Aghd.  Every item on the Sofreh Aghd symbolizes different qualities that the couple hopes to bring into their new life.

The items and their symbolic meanings:
Mirror – To bring light and brightness into the future
Two candelabras – Fire and energy
Flat bread – Prosperity for feasts
Eggs, walnuts, almonds, hazelnuts – Fertility
Sugar and Honey – To ensure sweetness in life
Gold coins – Wealth and prosperity
Rose water – God’s blessings for the couple
Termeh (traditional Persian embroidered cloth) – Family and tradition
Wild rue – For health and to keep away evil
Goldfish – New Life beginning
Sweets and pastries – Eaten at the reception in celebration
Naan-o-panir (bread and cheese) – Eaten at the reception in celebration

Two large sugar canes will be ground over the bride and groom throughout the ceremony. This represents showering the couple with sweetness and happiness.  

Traditionally, the groom will be asked if he wishes to enter the marriage.  Then the bride will be asked three times if she wishes to enter the marriage, and it is not until the third time that she will answer.  

When the ceremony comes to an end, the couple exchanges a taste of honey to represent the first taste of a sweet, happy new life.

 

The sofreh had many pieces to it, and I’m so happy his sister pitched in to help organize that part of the ceremonies. The flowers are all my friends, my mom, her friends, and me though.

 

For Flowers, we went to the floral wholesaler. I picked out tons of flowers, but we had to put them all together. For the center pieces, I bought IKEA vases, superglued the bling, and vases were done. On Thursday of the wedding, it was flower day.

Then for the flowers itself, it was one hydrangea for the middle and six roses of various colors, 3 ferns and baby breaths.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Friday came next and that was hall decorating day for my friends and I.

My mom was again essential with her party planning way.

 

The flowers were amazing. I’ll get a good picture of the cake later, but we were happy.

Aleka Nakis came on Friday and she was amazing. She brought me the wishing tree as a gift then spent hours of her day decorating a gazebo.

I bought a ton of stuff to make everything pop, but I was so excited about the candy buffet. I had wanted one and from the few leftovers, I’d say it was a hit. It’s probably because my family has a major sweet tooth. Biggest its were the peppermint patties and the M&Ms, but all candies were taken.

 

 

A few college friends who were absolutely amazing and I love them helped throughout the entire Friday set up. I was so happy

The wedding came Sunday. I won’t be posting many of the pictures, but the amazing Kristin Wallace snapped one of my husband and I walking in. He doesn’t like sharing of his pic often, so only these two will appear on my site. The middle picture are some of my Florida Romance Writers peeps who showed up. As someone who writes romance myself, how could I not invite likeminded souls who love well love stories. Kristin Wallace, Aleka Nakis, Sheena Snow for doing a reading all get a shout out though. The Misses Jane Ederlyn had our booties on the floor dancing, though their site isn’t quite ready yet. And so many more writers. In the picture is Rose Lawson, Heidi Lynn Anderson, Mona Risk, Sandi Horowitz, Kristin Wallace, and Alyssa Maxwell. One more special shout out for Cynthia Thomason as her face was the first I saw walking down the aisle other than the husband, and besides she’s my husband’s other sweetheart.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From the picture one would never guess my dad dancing with me had only half a foot on his right side. He was hit by a MAC truck at age 12, and spent most of his childhood in the VA hospital of the 1950s. Louis Pinder died in World War Two. So the VA did a great job then and my father was one of the test subjects for skin grafting. We know where not to take skin from because they took it from my father. And unlike most disabled people, he hates any acknowledgement of his ‘weakness.’ He refuses a cane and refused to say he’d never walk. He also refuses all handouts like anything for the car that reads ‘disabled.’ He walks slow, but he walks. Identifying markers are not for him, and you’d never see him without all his clothes on. (He’ll hide the skin grafting from his arms or hands at all hours.) He still ended up dancing with me at the wedding, and more than once too. I was very happy and he’s probably where I get my determined attitude from.

Hope you enjoyed these pictures, and I’ll be back with more professional pics later…

Right now I’m going to enjoy my quietness of the day. It’s time to sit back and let the imagination soar again. Yeah.