It is a small building with sightly furniture, and it overlooks the Bay, too.
Entering the room for the first time.
A Bahá’í wedding ceremony is very simple and is not required to be held in any particular place. The only necessary formal aspect of it is that the couple recite the Bahá’í marriage vow, which reads, "We will all, verily, abide by the Will of God", in front of two witnesses and a marriage celebrant.
Our witnesses were our lovely sisters, Sabrina and Po (Mona).
Photo by Nasim Eshraghi
With the help of my parents, Jared and I prepared a short program, consisting of prayers and readings on the topic of marriage and unity. We used a drawing I did of a French provincial design as the cover. We had a hard time finding a competent printing place in Haifa, so we had to settle for the very limited printing facilities at the equivalent of Office Depot, where they printed it on white paper and failed to centre it or white-out the border. Oh well.
Jared and I are both kind of obsessed with music so we made sure to put thought into the musical aspect of the ceremony. I asked my friend Geoffrey Tyson to be our "wedding singer". He has a beautiful, gentle, voice, and sang prayers and songs between the readings. Once we said our vows, he sang Jared's favourite song - Elephant Gun by Beirut.
As a gift to my mother-in-law, Pam (on the left), my mother, Soraya, chanted a special prayer for Jared's father, Jeffery, in Farsi. It was the same prayer that was chanted at Jared's father's funeral service by the mother of a very dear friend of ours, Shadi Toloui Wallace.
Pretty friends
After the ceremony, we took photos outside with our guests while our muscley relatives rearranged the furniture inside.
Some of Jared's closest friends made it to the wedding. From left to right, Ned came from Chicago, as did Ben, and Kitchen came from Copenhagen. What sweethearts!!
Two of my favourite people, Chucas and Haley
Po deep in conversation with my boss, mentor, and friend during my time at the Bahá’í World Centre - the one and only, Geoffery Marks.
The charming Kitchen with Jared's grandmother Nana Shirley, who flew from Florida to be there!
Sore jaw from smiling.
Jared and I designed our wedding rings and had them made in Sydney. I don't wear much jewellery and I wanted something different, which was too hard to find in the stores. I wanted a more intricate design than just a single stone, and I knew the claw setting (where the stone sticks out) would not have been practical for me for every day use. So i designed a white gold and diamond ring that was inspired by an antique english ring I saw and loved in Sydney. The antique ring was significantly more delicate and made of yellow gold, so I changed a few things around and now I have my perfect wedding ring! Jared wears a classic yellow gold band, which suits him perfectly.
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