Love At The Ranch: Love at The Ranch: The Ceremony (Part I)

Inspired by Mrs. Cherry Pie, we also penned our own ceremony. We used a similar structure to hers, but infused our own words and added a couple of songs from our family members. Overall, the whole ceremony (songs and all) took about 30 minutes, which was perfect--just long enough to feel the transformation, harvest a few tears from our guests' eyes, and not feel like the center-of-attention for too long.

Our officiant, my uncle Howard, started with words of welcome to our guests.

Followed by a thank you to our family and friends for making the long trip to Tabernash, Colorado. Most everyone in the image above traveled around five to seven hours to be with us. We thanked our parents for their support.

Mama and Papa Cowboy Boot

My grandmother, Marni Nixon, then stood from her chair and sang Ave Maria for us. It sounded beautiful with the acoustics in the barn.

Lucky for all of us, one of my friends recorded her singing with her camera. The image isn't great but it's the sound that counts.

Yep, I cried some more as we listened to her.

After my grandmother's song, our officiant had a few more words for us.

Then we read our vows to each other. We decided to write our own vows which was harder to do than you might think. I heeded some good advice: simple is better. I couldn't memorize my vows so I read from a piece of paper. Halfway through reading them, I ripped the paper right through my sentence. It conjured up a few chuckles from me (I was embarrassed) and our guests.

Mr. CB didn't need paper. He had prepared his vows using a voice recorder and then just said them from the heart when the time came. They were so sincere and heartfelt and had everyone in tears.

Now the tears were really flowing. You can see them all the way down my chest. I don't even think I noticed they were actually falling at this moment, though.