Nothing wrong with a little bit of color!

I came across this image in Fr. Louis' farewell message.  He is the pastor at the church where we got married in York who is transferring to a different church soon.  I love love love love this image he used and wish I had seen this prior to the wedding as it would have looked perfect in our wedding program!!  Every single color of our wedding party is represented in this image and of course the Eucharist was a crucial part of our wedding mass.  One of my favorite parts of the wedding day was right after Communion when Adam and I prayed in front of the Holy Family Statue as Kim Kalman sang, "At the Foot of the Cross"...such a beautiful song.  I'll never forget the words Adam said just before we headed to the back of the church.  Looking upon this image, I'm reminded of the blue of my Mother's dress and of my junior high school and college best friends.  I also think of some of the font on the program that printed out in a blue font color rather than in the wedding colors of purple, green, and pink.  When talking about this unexpected font color with a friend she reminded me that the month of May is devoted to Mary and that the blue font was a way of honoring Our Lady.  What an awesome perspective to take!!  So, seeing this blue background in the image above brings about imagery of Mary and her serene nature.  The wheat reminds me of the handsome groomsmen in their tan suits and the boys in their sand khaki outfits.  The chalice reminds me of the matron of honor's bright begonia dress as well as my mother-in-law's lighter blush pink dress.  All of the girls and the mothers carried vibrant bursts of all of the colors above in their keepsake bouquets as the men wore boutineers fashioned in similar colors.  The purple grapes remind me of the flower girl's dress and of two of the dresses selected by the bridesmaids while the other two bridesmaids wore green. The black outlines remind me of the dads' charcoal gray suits and last, but certainly not least, I think of Fr. Jack's white robe with light green stripes on it when I view the Eucharist.  In Jesus' name I pray that our marriage will be a long and faithful one spent in service to others.  Amen!

Anyhow, back to the program, on one of the last pages I considered inserting an image of a claddagh but instead opted to include a picture of a tree in our wedding colors I had seen posted elsewhere.

This tree could mean any number of things....

it could symbolize a new family tree, 

the gathering of the many different family members and friends who make up the tree, 

it could represent a faith with deep roots, 

it could be a reminder that beauty is all around us,

pondering what you reflect to others,

or perhaps this tree helps us to remember we are all members of one body.  We may go out on a limb or a branch may break and we may fall but through the support and love of others and most of all, of our God, we can grow again and reach toward the sky.

Or it could just be a really pretty tree on a beautiful sunshiney day much like it was on our wedding day. ; )  Really, the tree can mean whatever it means for the viewer and that's okay!  

On an unrelated note, before going to bed tonight, Adam and I watched the highlights video on the "big screen" when we saw something we hadn't noticed in previous viewings of the video.  A small rainbow at the 3 min. 48 sec. mark in the lower left part of the picture (right above my foot) appeared on the screen which completely made my evening.  

You see, rainbows are viewed as promises from God (if you'll recall rainbows figured prominently into my dissertation defense..hehe).  What's more, is that our matron of honor, Heather, tied rainbows in to her beautiful speech!!


*  Ok side note here.  Heather included rainbows in her speech and talked about us finding our pot of gold at the end of the rainbow by finding each other.  She incorporated this fun picture from St. Patrick's Day 2014 in San Diego. 

What she didn't know when she created her speech was that we would have this sign on display at the reception by the favors:

How incredibly awesome is that?!  Her speech was directly connected to favors that were on display at the reception without she and I planning for it to happen.  Love it!

 Something else that it's no secret I love is color!!  So yes, we had a rainbow of pretty colorful dresses/ties/pocket scarves/bowties/socks/ties throughout the wedding party.  Can you see the cute little purple flower on Mason Noelle's shoulder of her dress and the green sash at her waist?  The bottom half of her dress was covered in light purple flowers.  She truly did look like a little princess as our flower girl!  Also, check out my handsome brothers and sweet mom for a glimpse at some of the other colors!
 

Here is the link to the video again.  Fast forward to 3 min. 48 seconds.  Are you able to see the rainbow too?!?

I feel like I should play some music with all this rainbow talk so here is a song that was requested at our wedding.  Happy listening!