The Ring Ceremony

After our beautiful temple ceremony where we were sealed together as husband and wife for time and all eternity...I like to think of it as our souls being bound together...and we stopped by the "Pleasure Palace" to pick up a garter, we went through the drive-thru at Wendy's on the way to the church. Albert and I were in the back seat of Jeff's car and so Jeff pulled up so we would be the ones to give the lady at the window the money for our order and hand us the food. It was obvious from the way we were dressed it was our wedding day and while Jeff ran into get the missing hamburger (they always forget mine!) a nice man came out and gave us a free vanilla frosty in the parking lot. We probably should have taken more advantage of it being our wedding day and tried to get more free stuff.

We got to the chapel right before the ring ceremony was supposed to start. I purposely set the actual start time 15 minutes after the time I put in the invitations so everyone would be seated. The ring ceremony was simple, but pretty. I think it was substantial enough that those who couldn't attend the temple ceremony felt apart of our wedding.

We had a small procession while the pianist played "Canon in D" by Pachabel. Our flower girl, Albert's niece tossed a few pink petals followed by my sister and Albert's brother (our maid of honor and best man). Albert and I made our enterance together. I figured since we were married already we should go together, besides I didn't want to have to go through all the drama of having two dads to give me away. (All pictures by Ashley Custer)

(our flower girl and maid of honor)

We had a welcome by our officiant, Bishop Wellington, who presides over the congregation we used to attend (it's for singles only and since we're now married we have to go to a regular family "ward" or congregation) and sang the hymn "Love at Home" after my good friend Jackie gave an opening prayer.

The Bishop gave a short talk on the meaning of a temple marriage where he reiterated that it is the most sacred, most desirable thing for a member of the LDS church to do.

(some of our friends, Jeff in the front)

My cousin Jake read part of the "Proclamation to the Family" and gave a nice explaination of it, saying that it was written by the leaders of our church to define family and marriage and reiterate their importance not only in society, but in Gospel of Jesus Christ. He read the following:

"The family is ordained of God. Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan. Children are entitled to birth within the bonds of matrimony, and to be reared by a father and a mother who honor marital vows with complete fidelity. Happiness in family life is most likely to be achieved when founded upon the teachings of the Lord Jesus Christ. Successful marriages and families are established and maintained on principles of faith, prayer, repentance, forgiveness, respect, love, compassion, work, and wholesome recreational activities. By divine design, fathers are to preside over their families in love and righteousness and are responsible to provide the necessities of life and protection for their families. Mothers are primarily responsible for the nurture of their children. In these sacred responsibilities, fathers and mothers are obligated to help one another as equal partners." -- The Family: A Proclamation to the World by the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

We then had an awesome musical number by our amazing pianist and violinist who played an arrangement of my favorite hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing."

(my brother, dad, mom, cousin & her husband, and a pic of the temple in the background)

(friends)

Albert's sister read my favorite scripture on marriage while she held our cute nephew who smiled and laughed.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12: "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up. Again, if two lie together, then they have heat: but how can one be warm alone? And if one prevail against him, two shall withstand him; and a threefold cord is not quickly broken."

After the scripture reading Albert's mom read a beautiful poem his dad had written in Tagalog about their love for their son and their happiness during his special day. Everyone got teary eyed, including myself, during her explaination in English. Afterwards she gave both of us a hug. It was really sweet and still everyone who was there comment on how much they liked it. She wore a dress from the Philippines which was very beautiful.

We then had the ring exchange. The Bishop read a little story about a ring and we gave eachother our rings for the second time. We had actaully done a small ring exchange in the temple so that we would have them on for the pictures. We just stood off to the side of the room and gave eachother our rings so this was a lot more momentous.

Now presenting...Mr. & Mrs.!

We then closed with the hymn "For the Beauty of the Earth" and a prayer by a friend from church and moved the group into the multipurpose room for the reception.