Personally, I found working on the Nuptial Mass was my favourite part of the whole wedding planning. We both took this very seriously and by the time the day came around, it was exciting to see if the readings we had carefully chosen and what we envisioned would come alive as we wanted. From the start we wanted the ceremony to be the focus of the day and not necessarily the party afterwards. This is a snapshot of how we tried to make it happen in preparing the Mass – a run through of what happened as a result of us being us will come later.
We did the Mass booklets ourselves – I did all the words and Bill is a pro at thinking backwards/sideways so he was able to get the pages all in order as needed when they printed duplex. To compile them, I picked up a box of cover stock paper at Staples for $16 that again gave us the traditional feel that complimented the wedding and I just folded them all myself. This is how they looked –
You can view our Mass booklet here.
We went back and forth on what readings we would have. We wanted them to reflect us and our love and so we selected the following –
First Reading
Tobit 8:4b-8
A reading from the Book of Tobit
On their wedding night Tobiah arose from bed and said to his wife,
“Sister, get up. Let us pray and beg our Lord to have mercy on us and to grant us deliverance.”
Sarah got up, and they started to pray and beg that deliverance might be theirs. They began with these words:
“Blessed are you, O god of our fathers; praised be your name forever and ever. Let the heavens and all your creation praise you forever. You made Adam and you gave him his wife Eve to be his help and support; and from these two the human race descended.
You said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone; let us make him a partner like himself.’ Now, Lord, you know that I take this wife of mine not because of lust, but for a noble purpose. Call down your mercy on me and on her, and allow us to live together to a happy old age.”
They said together, “Amen, amen.”
The word of the Lord.
Second Reading
1 John 4:7-12
A reading from the first Letter of Saint John
Beloved, let us love one another,
because love is of God;
everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.
Whoever is without love does not know God, for God is love.
In this way the love of God was revealed to us:
God sent his only-begotten Son into the world
so that we might have life through him.
In this is love:
not that we have loved God, but that he loved us
and sent his Son as expiation for our sins.
Beloved, if God so loved us,
we also must love one another.
No one has ever seen God.
Yet, if we love one another, God remains in us,
and his love is brought to perfection in us.
The Word of the Lord.
Our Gospel reading was from John about the wedding in Cana that we both loved.
The Prayer of the Newly Married Couple was optional to include in the Mass. As soon as I read the words I knew this was perfect for us. Bill agreed and we opted to include it. This would involve us standing and reading it out aloud to everyone. For me this was the most emotional moment of the Mass. We tried practicing it together weeks before and every time we would, I would end up in tears. The words are perfect. Here they are –
We thank you, Lord, and we praise you for bringing us to this happy day.
You have given us to each other. Now, together, we give ourselves to you.
We ask you, Lord: make us one in our love; keep us one in your peace.
Protect our marriage. Bless our home. Make us gentle. Keep us faithful.
And when life is over unite us again where parting is no more in the kingdom of your love. There we will praise you in the happiness and peace of our eternal home.
I made it my job to write the Prayers of the Faithful as I wanted them to be fully personalized and used examples from other wedding masses that I found online and worked with Bill on what to include. They are quite long, so you can read them in our booklet.
Another optional inclusion is the symbolic gift to the poor that is included in the presentation of gifts. We opted to include this in our ceremony and it could be anything of our choosing, baby goods for the local shelter, canned food, anything. So Bill and I went shopping one night and got baby clothes, baby food, baby cereal and we also wanted to include something personal from us. In true Bill and Jenelle style, this was a can of garbanzos (chickpeas) and a can of creamed corn. Why? Bill’s mum would always give each of her children a can of garbanzos anytime one of them moved out of home so she could always have the peace of mind that their cupboard would never not have food in it as they would never eat the garbanzos at any other time so they would never go hungry. In our family, we always have creamed corn in our cupboards due to the dad invention of corn omelets. So that was another personal touch. We borrowed a gorgeous rustic basket from Pauline, filled it with tissue paper and the gifts and this was placed on the altar.
We also arranged for roses to be placed at the Statue of Mary as a dedication to all of our grandparents to ensure they were ‘there’ with us.
Along with Father Joe, Bill’s mum was our Eucharistic minister and it was so personal and intimate – I loved every moment and I know Bill did too. Saying our vows was not nerve racking at all – we stood before everyone on the altar and Father Joe stood down at the church floor speaking to us – it was just like it was Bill and I there making our promise to each other.
As we don’t have our professional shots yet, here are two that Colette took at Holy Spirit. 🙂
