A Dia de los Muertos Wedding

Themed weddings are always fun, and this bride and groom took the Dia de los Muertos theme and ran with it! Everything from the cake topper that is pictured here, to the customized wedding chocolates were permeated with the grinning skeletons of the Day of the Dead. Even some of the wedding gifts reflected the theme in their wrappings and decorations.

Vickie and Brian are two people who know what they like and their personalities were very much in force for this wedding, expressed in every detail of their ceremony and in the setting of the wedding. I did a handfasting for them, and since they are from Southern Utah, there was quite a bit more planning involved than the usual wedding held here in the Salt Lake valley. The bride and groom visited me at the Temple a few weeks prior to their wedding so that they could create their handfasting cord with me, and then I traveled to their home in Southern Utah for the ceremony.
There are several things which make this wedding very memorable, besides the theme!
Vicki is employed at the beautiful Cedar Breaks lodge, and since I normally request that the wedding party provide some form of lodging for me if the wedding is more than 100 miles away from my home, she arranged for my family to enjoy a beautiful room at the lodge for the weekend. We had never experienced the Cedar Breaks National Monument, and I can highly recommend the experience! The lodge is located just a few miles from the entrance to the monument, and so it is a perfect place to stay and enjoy the surrounding environment. So besides having the honor of performing the ceremony, we had the great pleasure of exploring one of Utah's natural wonders!

The wedding was held in Vicki and Brian's beautiful back yard. The centerpiece of their yard was a huge, beautiful weeping willow tree, complete with a landscaped island containing benches, fragrant herbs and a small pond and water fountain. The ceremony was held under its sweeping branches, with most of the wedding guests seated in the ample shade it provided.

It was a bit windy that afternoon but with a little encouragement, the winds calmed down so that we could have a perfect ceremony. After the ceremony and dinner, we signed the wedding documents and then the newlyweds cut their beautiful cake and we lingered long into the warm summer evening, enjoying all of the decorative personal touches in their home and yard and getting to know the friends and relatives of the bride and groom.
One of the other most memorable parts of this weekend would come only as we were driving home from the ceremony on Sunday afternoon, when I received a texted photo showing that the beautiful tree had blown down on the night of their wedding. The feeling amongst all of the psychics and sensitives within Sacred Circle (and echoed by the bride as well) was that the tree was just waiting until the wedding was over, hanging on to be there for them just one last day. It was a bittersweet reminder of how quickly things can change, but I thank both Vickie and Brian for letting me be a part of their special day, and for the opportunity to explore a part of Utah that we had not seen before.