“What is REAL?” asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. “Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?”
“Real isn’t how you are made,” said the Skin Horse. “It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become Real.”
“Does it hurt?” asked the Rabbit.
“Sometimes,” said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. “When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”
“Does it happen all at once, like being wound up,” he asked, “or bit by bit?”
“It doesn’t happen all at once,” said the Skin Horse. “You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t happen often to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are Real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand.”
This past weekend we photographed Cody & Giselle’s wedding at Kariya Park in Mississauga. This was truly a unique wedding for many reasons. This was the first wedding where the bride and the groom said a reading to one another. Above is an excerpt from The Velveteen Rabbit. Most of us read this as young children. Ryan did, but I never did. When I heard Giselle read this to Cody I was pretty much in tears. I came home and Wikipedia’d the book and read most of it online and the synopsis of the book (which I plan to find a copy of this week). The more I read the more fitting it became to the wedding day. I love it when couples think outside of the box and say things that really mean something to them. There will always be the great wedding ceremony staples like “love is patient, love is kind”. The Bible is a hard one to compete with, and we hear so many ceremonies with that passage read. I almost feel like couples default to saying those same words. I think its time we get creative and say what we all really mean instead of just choosing a line or two from our officiants list of quotes. So get out there and really think about what you want to say to your new bride or groom on your wedding day. Words have so much power, don’t let someone else choose yours.
On top of that Cody and Giselle wrote their own vows, and a new tradition we had never seen before. The rings were passed around so that everyone in attendance could warm them with their love. Then this crazy in love couple took us to the Badlands of Brampton, which totally rocked our worlds.
Check out these photos!
Congratulations to Cody & Giselle, we hope you have the time of your lives in Africa & Egypt!
Cheers
& Ryan
