Brother bear's wedding!!

On December 6th, my most fabulous brother married the lovely Dia! The wedding ceremony was particularly beautiful and the reception was a blast!

Friday: Everyone joined Cam and Dia at the church for a rehearsal, which really helped to work out the logistics for the next day. After the rehearsal, the entire bridal party and the ministers (my aunt and our church pastor) prayed for Cameron and Dia's marriage- I thought this was lovely. My parents hosted a rehearsal dinner at Panache restaurant- a very hip and happening place in northern VA. A number of people gave really personal and touching toasts, including my dad, who made everyone cry and Cam's best friend John, who recalled Cam's escapades (an arrest for public urination in Tijuana??) in front of all of our friends and family. hahaha.

Saturday: I met Dia at the church at 12:30 for makeup (I loved doing it!). It was 25 degrees on wedding day, so it was definitely wintery and beautiful out. At 1:30, we went to the salon across the street for her hair appointment, where her stylist created gorgeous tendrils and put in her veil. From there, we got dressed, kept Dia from tearing by yelling various hilarious things ("do you have the wings?" Princess Bride anyone?) and took a few pictures before walking down the aisle!

Dia's uncle, Paul Winter, is a three time grammy-award-winning musician and he performed one of his pieces as a prelude which was absolutely beautiful. After we all made it down the aisle, the congregation sang a hymn together, "Great is thy Faithfulness," which is Cam's favorite. Their friend Danielle, who is an internationally acclaimed opera singer performed a sung version of the Lord's Prayer and afterwards, there were three readings-- two biblical and one literary. My sister-in-law Abigial read "clothe yourselves in love" from Colossians 3:12-17, which was the crux of the homily as well. Later on, Dia's good family friends performed a clarinet and piano piece- overall, the music was amazing. Many people said that they felt they should have paid to come since the calibre of the musicians was so high!

After pictures and visiting with friends and family, we headed over to the reception. Cameron and Dia danced to "Your Love is King" by Sade, which has always been their song. Before dinner, Dia's mom announced that her friend who is baritone with the Metropolitan opera and is playing the title role in Rigoletto (in case you don't know, this is a BIG deal) would be singing a song to Cam and Dia. So that was amazing! He did a romantic song from Camelot. We all had dinner, took pictures with the cameras that were on the table and then danced the night away! To kick off the dancing after dinner, Dia and her father danced to "The Way You Look Tonight" by Frank Sinatra and then my mom and Cam danced to "I Hope You Dance" by LeeAnn Womack, which was very sweet. When the dancing got under way, people really let loose! The highlight was Dia's French friend, who was a maniac on the dance floor; singing loudly to livin on a prayer; and following the conga line around the room. SUPER fun!!