BEST BEST-MAN'S SPEECH EVER!!!!

As you know I have been doing weddings for 20 years, but this weekend, I heard the best BEST MAN'S SPEECH so far!!!    Here it is:

It's funny, Bro, the way things happen are not always the way things will eventually turn out.  If you're smart, you'll see stuff coming, and you can create the happening so things turn out your way.  Bro, we've been going at it for a long time.  About 20 years.   We've been friends longer than some of our siblings have been alive!  We've had the best of times - typically surfing - and we've had the other times, too.    And I could not be happier about being here tonight, and I could not be more proud of you.

Bro, life's a kick!   In the 24 years I have under my belt, thought it feels more like 204 years, the greatest thing I can say to you both is:  Life is a KICK, MAN!   ALL THE HARDEST PARTS ARE THE BIGGEST JOKES.  THE DEEPEST STRUGGLE ALWAYS BEGATS THE MOST SATISFYING REWARD.  THAT'S THE KICK, AND THAT'S THE CATCH.  YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT ALL HAPPEN.  YOU HAVE TO MAKE IT ALL WORTH IT.  WORTH THE STRUGGLE.

You are a virtuous man, my brother.  As long as you remain so, and as long as you keep your eye on the ball, (and you know how I have to work at this myself), you will get what you want.  

So  LAUGH!

Don't argue.

Give and receive love.   

Don't create separation or division. 

Have Faith and never forget that darkness cannot exist in The Light.

Today is a great beginning for the two of you.

And things will only get better.

Enjoy Yourselves!!!

Personal Vows

At 3:00pm on December 6th 2014 in the oceanfront gazebo in Heisler Park Laguna Beach California -  Mr. and Mr. Christopher & Brian Cox-Carter were married.   Here are their personal vows.

My Dearest Christopher:

1.        I promise to respect, admire, and appreciate you for who you are, as well as for the person you wish to become.

2.        I promise to support and protect your freedom; because although our lives are intertwined, your choices are still yours alone. 

3.         I promise to seek a deep understanding of your wishes, your desires, your fears and your dreams.

4.        I promise to always do all I can to make sure your needs are met; not out of obligation, but because it makes me happy to see you happy.

5.        I promise to be there for you when you need me, whenever you need me.

6.         I promise to nurture your goals and ambitions; to support you through misfortune and celebrate your triumphs.

7.         I promise to try my best to keep our lives full of passion.

8.        I promise to remain committed to you even when times get tough, knowing that any challenges we might face, we will conquer them together. 

9.        I promise to treat you with compassion over fairness, because we are a team, now and for always. 

10.      I promise to show you; every day for the rest of my life that I know exactly how lucky I am to have you and that I will love you and you alone until my last breath. 

My Dearest Brian:

The day I met you, I knew we would be standing here today.   I have fallen in love with you more and more as we have spent time together.  I woke up 3 years ago and knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you. I woke up today feeling the same way.  And I have awakened every morning for the last three years knowing I would spend the rest of my life waking up beside you.

From now on and until the day I draw my last breath, I promise:

I will love you unconditionally.

I will always stand by your side, unconditionally.

I will cre for you in good times and bad.

I will nurture you and hold you, when you need it and when you don't.

I will devote my entire lifetime to making you happy.

I will be a man you can be proud of.

I will be the husband y ou deserve.

I will always listen when you need me to.

I will never break your heart.

I can always be depended upon to bring you laughter.

To you, I vow all of these promises, and I will give you all the joy and love you will ever need or want.

New Ring Thing!

Here's a new ring tradition for Vow Renewals! I did a 25th Wedding Anniversary for a couple from New York. The husband gave his wife a

toe ring "as a symbol of his love and a sign to the world that she is still

his wife!"

how old were you when you got married?

I recently married a couple at the gorgeous St. Regis Hotel in Dana Point. The groom looked very young to me but he was very much in charge of the wedding, had made all of the plans, and conducted himself maturely and in confidence. The bride was delighted with the beautiful red and white rose bouquet he got for her.   When I signed the marriage license, I noticed that he was a mere 18 years old!  And she was 35 years old.    It was a first marriage for both of them, and they said that they knew the moment that they looked into each other's eyes that they were to be together.  She told me that she had been waiting for him.  

kissing at sunset

prettiest dress of the year!

This is the prettiest dress I've seen all year.  And the bride's girls were all in purple with purple and white flowers.  We had an absolutely gorgeous day at the beach - warm and balmy - beautiful blue skies.  The bride had the bridesmaids and groomsmen already down at the beach and she walked in with her dad and had the flower girl and the ring boy walk in right in front of her.   Her music was:  Marry Me by  

children at a beach wedding

Brides ask me about having children at their beac

Global wedding

This bride came to Laguna Beach from Figi.  Her 3 neices from Figi were her bridesmaids.  The groom was Japanese-German and his Best Man was French

Christmas in Laguna Beach

12/13/14 Wedding Date

Hi Ms. Last Minute Bride!   Do you want one of the hottest wedding dates of this year?
I have 12/13/14 available!!!   The bride and groom who had reserved this date are going to wait until next year to have their celebration so that certain important family members will be able to attend. So:
I have a permit available for 12/13/14 for some lucky bride to be married at the beach in Laguna  Beach, California!!!    We get the sunsets in the ocean in the winter in Laguna Beach.    First person to call me at 949-433-3129 gets this date!

I received a Thank You today from a bride I married way back in 2003.  They did an elopement,
and this is what she said:

Dear Marcy Ann, YHou officiated our wedding at Picnic Beaqch back in 2003.  It was just me and my husband-to-be and I want yu top know that it was the most romantic thing I have ever done.  We have been happily married now for ll years and still very much in love.  I have thought of you often over the years and just thought I should let you know how much we appreciated your patience and graciousness on our special day.  (We were veryt late for our appoint, but you waited for us!).  And the rest is history!!

We are thinking about renewing our vows - and I would love for you to be the one to officiate that too.   I will be contacting you probably next year at our 12th Anniversary!!!   Thank you again so much.

April and Denny

Of all of the different types of wedding ceremonies that I do, the ELOPEMENT is definitely the most romantic, because ----- it is all about just the two of you.  No complications, no worries, no stress --- just the two of you saying your vows to one another and giving all of your attention to just each other.    I recommend an ELOPEMENT to anyone who is getting married - first-time brides, second marriages, vow renewals.   It is "the most romantic thing" you can do for yourselves!!

Anniversary Celebrations

This year has been a year of Anniversary Celebrations!   5 years - 10 years - 25 years!   This past weekend, I did a 10 year Wedding Anniversary Celebration for high school sweethearts.  I have a Vow Renewal Questionnaire that I have couples fill out so I can write a personalized Anniversary Ceremony for them, and one question is How Do You Resolve Conflict.    And these kids said:

WE ARE TEAM PLAYERS, AND WE KNOW WE ARE ON THE SAME TEAM!

I loved this!    

NO GREATER LOVE

Last Saturday, March 22nd, I performed the marriage ceremony for a couple from Arizona.  It was for just the two of them.  They wanted to just focus on each other and not have the celebration of the moment when they would be united in legal marriage be diluted by sharing it with family and friends.   And as I did the ceremony, I experienced the heights and depths, the lengths and breath of a divine love like I have never experienced in my 20 years of marrying couples.    The ring the groom used to marry his bride belonged to his great grandmother who lived 150 years ago.   My company provided a cake table for their cake and champagne for pictures of them cutting the cake and making their toast for their future, and the bride had brought the cake topper that her grandmother had on her cake.  Her grandmother is still alive and is 99 years old.   They wanted to include the life-streams of these great matriarchs of their past in the ceremony.  And the bride and the groom prepared personal statements to read to one another, and I asked them if I could include them here on my blog for all to experience, and they said Yes.  So here they are:

The groom's personal statement:   My Love, I will love you forever.  I will love you during tough times and through the good times.  I will cherish every moment we have, every time we laugh together, every time we cry together.  I will support everything that you do and cheer you on when you start to lose motivation.  I will love you forever.  I will listen to all of your dreams, your hopes, your goals and your fears.  And I will communicate to you all of my dreams, hopes, goals and fears.  I will be your lover, your best friend, and your partner forever.  I will fight for you, I will die for you, I will love you forever.  I will never let anyone or anything get between us.  I will spend the rest of my life with you.  I thank God everyday that you are in my life.  I will never stop cherishing you.  I will love you forever, and ever.

Bride's personal statement: My dearest husband, when I look into your eyes, I see my soulmate.  You are the only person I trust implictly with my whole self.  I see my past life with you, and I see this lifetime with you.  Our souls have been together many times before and we are now here together again.  When you touch me, I know love.  I am deeply grateful for the tenderness, affection, compassion, patience, and effort you give to me everyday.  I promise to stay by your side, and fight every battle with you, hold your hand through any medical issue that comes our way and partner with you so we can help each other to be the parents and team we want to be for our children who will be joining us.  I promise that I will always comfort you, and love you just as you are.  I promise to challenge you and help you grow, and I promise that I will always help you find daily joy and laughter, even if it's just by poking fun at myself.  I promise that for the rest of my life, I will do all I can so that you feel loved and cherished, because you are my sweet treasure from God --- you are the answer to my prayer.  

Who is the Best Person to do your beach wedding?

Hi Everyone!  I have been doing beach weddings now for 20 years in Orange County California and a couple years ago, I decided to localize my business to Laguna Beach California.  In the 20 years of working all over Orange County, I had a lot of girls work for me.  I trained them to work at the same standards of perfection that I require of myself.  And now that I am only working in Laguna Beach, these other girls now have opened their own businesses and they go to all of the other locations in Orange County.    Recently we had lunch together, and we discussed how we could best serve the brides who are looking to be married at the beach.  Since all of us seem to be receiving requests for information from the same brides,  we have decided that we will decide which one of us is the best person to handle that bride's wedding, and we will all refer the bride to that one person.  This way, the bride gets the best person to do it and the rest of us do not need to make a presentation to the bride, which saves us money and time.   So  if you want to be married in Orange County California - at the beach - let us tell you which one of us is the best person to do it!!!