Love is a dress that you made long to hide your knees.

So we are finally back and settled back in to our post-wedding life and I have to admit I'm kind of relieved. Although it was the best to get married to Patrick, and it was cool to pull off the biggest party I've ever thrown, all without collapsing and without anyone being carried away in a paddy wagon, the week leading up to it was nutso. I'm happy to be back with my morning tea, Twitter, stacks of paper and all day NCIS marathons.

I would love to share some wedding things over the next couple of weeks along with the regular scheduled programming because I poured a lot of my creative heart and soul into those details over the past year. First up is the ceremony music. Patrick rather suprised and delighted me when said he was leaving all the music selections for the wedding to my choosing . I tried to pick songs not just with personal meaning, but with messages of love that I hoped would resonate with everyone. 

I was quite impressed by the Wayfarers Chapel music director who played all our songs on the Clavinova electronic keyboard that is the Chapel's main instrument. He told me through email that he was quite flexible and could accomodate basically any of my choices. On the day of the ceremony he played his own arrangements of these songs (with the exception of the Peanuts theme, of course) without any sheet music or notes, and he captured them perfectly. Talk about a Clavinova uber genius!  

Love and Some Verses - Iron & Wine Processional - Truly the sweetest song in the world. Simple, honest and genuinely pure. 

Say Yes - Elliott Smith Bride's Processional - I chose this song because it so clearly expresses how I feel about relationships. Love is tough, even the best kind of love with the best person. It's nearly impossible getting there, and you will fuck up goodness knows how many times, and there will be things to challenge you constantly, no matter how glad you are to work on them. But you will learn about yourself and you will keep hope in your heart and it will be so much more than worth it. Just stick around and see.

Better Together - Jack Johnson Unity Candle Lighting - This song is for my best friend John, who copied a bunch of Jack Johnson cds for me at what was probably the worst time of my life. I don't know if I ever told him how much that music did to get me through those terrible months. I relied almost entirely on these gentle tunes and on John's persistent, patient support and incredible advice to tell me that everything would be okay eventually. And this song always makes me think of his own inspiring marriage to my maid of honor. 

Linus and Lucy - Vince Guaraldi Trio Recessional - Okay, if this song doesn't make you smile, then I feel like there is some inherent evil lurking in your soul. Patrick and I are both Peanuts fans, and were excited to make the trip up to the Charles Schulz museum in Santa Rosa last year. I was hoping this would be the happiest sort of note to end the ceremony on.