Wedding Ceremony, Columbia Yacht Club, Chicago

Mary Beth

Bhante Sujatha

Liz, Bhante Sujatha, Killian

Bernie, Bill, Greg, Mary Beth

The Rings

Dallas, Wes, Clare

The Bracelets

Liz & Killian

Liz & Killian

Dallas spent the day of the wedding with Killian. They went out for brunch and then went to a hotel downtown where they got dressed and whatever else before going over to the Columbia Yacht Club. I wasn’t that much involved, but I did go to the club early to be with Liz and the other girls before it all began. I wasn’t technically in the wedding party, but since there were more men than women who were in the party, we ended up having a few women walk down the aisle with the men to balance it out. I was one of them along with Naoise’s girlfriend Elissa and Greg’s girlfriend Anna. So we were all there to help out and to be in photos as requested.

The wedding was to take place on the upper deck of the yacht club. The day of the wedding it was sunny, but windy all day. Same thing the day before when we rehearsed. We thought it might be too windy up there to have the wedding – skirts over heads is not a good look for the wedding party – but we didn’t think much about rain. Minutes before the wedding was to begin it started raining. Luckily, it didn’t last long. The seats were all wiped down and we fit the wedding ceremony in before it started to downpour again.

Bhante Sujatha, a Buddhist monk from the Blue Lotus Temple, officiated over the ceremony. I’ve never been to a Buddhist ceremony of any sort before and I found it really interesting. Bhante Sujatha was so calming and sweet. He kept throwing in little jokes that kind of relaxed people more. The ceremony was spiritual, but not religious, and there was even a little meditation portion where he asked everyone to shut their eyes and think about certain things. Killian and Liz symbolically got their fingers tied together as they were blessed and there was another cool part where Bhante Sujatha tied bracelets on their wrists.

Oh, and because we were on the lake and it’s just rained, the seagulls were going crazy squawking. There was even a bird fight right above the wedding. I heard that one of the guests got shat on too. And you could hear Blues Fest nearby. That’s ok, though. All adds to the experience.

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