Journeys of the Heart officiants gathered yesterday, March 3, 2012, for our annual blessing, commissioning ordination ceremony.  Now in our 17th year of celebrating weddings, funerals, birth celebrations, bar/bat mitzvahs, we were delighted to bring six new officiants onboard.  They are Renee Ford-Conway, Tim Dalton, Stacey Schiding, Tara Rubinstein, Jim Haley and Susan Harte.

I
Have
Learned
So much from God
That I can no longer
Call
Myself A Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim
A Buddhist, a Jew.

The Truth has shared so much of Itself

With me
That I can no longer call myself
A man, a woman, and angel
Or even pure
Soul.

Love has

Befriended me so completely
It has turned to ash
And freed
Me

Of every concept and image

My mind has ever known.

Journeys of the Heart Officiant Irene Fulton happily merged two traditions into a grand and newsworthy event, featured in the Philadelphia Inquirer

Lauren Rocca & Chester Villanueva
June 4, 2010, in Philadelphia

By Kellie Patrick Gates

Inquirer Love Columnist
Hello there

Lauren had dated her high school boyfriend all the way through college, but they split in 2005. She was ready to try again, but there was a problem: "I didn't know how to meet people or go on a date," she said.

Inspiration came from her mother, who met her boyfriend online several years before. "I thought if she can do it, and she's technophobic, I can do it," Lauren said.

Lauren posted on Yahoo! Personals, and Yahoo quickly sent her profile to Chester as a potential match.

The pharmaceutical market research company Chester worked for then had transferred him to Philadelphia from Chicago. Chester liked his job in Philadelphia, but after two years here, he was on the brink of leaving to move back home. The group of coworkers he was transferred with had all left by then and Chester was struggling to make a new group of friends here. He felt isolated.

Still, he sent Lauren an electronic wink – a little message in the Yahoo! Personals world that let her know he was interested.

Lauren had not even been on Yahoo! for a day when she received it. His picture was cute, and his profile said he was hoping to explore Philadelphia and meet new people. "I've lived here my whole life, and I really like to show people around the city. I thought that would be really fun," she said. Still, the "online thing" felt a little weird to her. She didn't answer, but she also couldn't stop thinking about him. "I know it sounds cheesy, but I was wondering, 'What if he's The One?' " Lauren said.

The e-mail she eventually sent led to many more, and then to instant messaging and long, late-night phone calls.

About three weeks after the wink, Chester and Lauren decided to meet in person. Lauren was nervous, in part because she had let her mom, a customer service professional, cut her hair. "I literally had a mullet," Lauren said.

At 7 p.m. on a Saturday, she went to the corner of Third and Chestnut in Old City to wait for Chester. She waited, and she waited. And then it started to rain.

Chester was nervous, too. He wanted everything to be perfect, so he also got a haircut – by a professional – and gassed his car, then decided he should clean his apartment before meeting Lauren, just in case they ended up there after their date. With all the rushing, he lost track of time. He pulled up to their meeting spot 45 minutes late.

Lateness is one of Lauren's pet peeves. "I was ticked off, and standoffish," she said. But she agreed to dinner at the Continental and soon found herself having a good time. He was a fun guy, and the conversation was good, so Lauren decided to let go of any bad feelings caused by the 45-minute delay.

Dinner was so fun that Lauren and Chester went to coffee afterward. Four hours after their date started, they decided to call it a night. Confident that they had clicked, Chester asked, "Can we do this again?"

Within a week, Lauren canceled her Yahoo! membership. "They sent me my money back," she said. "I got him for free!"
How does forever sound?

Chester, now 33, stayed in Philly and is an analyst for Independence Blue Cross. Lauren, 27, is the director of alumni relations at Drexel University, a position that was making her crazy busy in April and early May of 2009.

"The whole month of April I had been working nights and weekends. Then on May 1 – the first day of alumni weekend – I had laryngitis."

May 1 was a Friday. She was up and out of the couple's Roxborough apartment at 4:30 a.m., and she wouldn't be home until late. That gave Chester plenty of time to put on a suit and pay visits to Lauren's three closest family members. He gave her mother, Rose, a box of her favorite chocolates. He presented Aunt Theresa with flowers. And Lauren's brother, Michael, got a can of the protein powder he uses. For all three, Chester had a question: Did he have their blessing to marry Lauren? Yes, yes, and yes. And from mom, a little advice: Propose when she'll least expect it.

It was 11:30 p.m. when Lauren got home, her throat a bit sore from trying to talk through her laryngitis, her disposition a bit grumpy from being too busy to eat a fabulous-looking dessert at the last event. "I got myself a bowl of ice cream," she said. She ate it, then a second bowl, on the couch. She had to get up early and do it all again the next day. "I just wanted to go to bed," she said.

But Chester walked over and sat on the coffee table. He started talking about how meeting Lauren had changed his life, and how the years with her have been the best he's ever had. Then he got down from the table, and onto one knee.

"I'm trying to yell, but no sound is coming out," Lauren said. She was determined. Before Chester even finished his speech, she croaked out "Yes! Yes!"
It was so them

The couple married in an outdoor ceremony at Glen Foerd on the Delaware. They wanted their 130 guests to feel like they were "in a different time and place," Lauren said, and an old, riverside mansion did the trick.

Lauren wore a strapless, lightly beaded dress of ivory taffeta. Chester and his groomsmen wore the traditional Filipino formal wear called a barong – an elaborately embroidered ivory shirt made of plant fibers.

Lauren was raised Catholic, and in a nod to weddings in that tradition, the couple lit a unity candle.

Minister Irene Fulton of Journeys of the Heart said a blessing. To honor Chester's family heritage, Lauren's Aunt Theresa and Chester's cousin Matt draped a veil of white tulle over the couple to symbolize them joining into one household. Chester's cousin Henry and his wife, Genny, wrapped a white cloth cord around them, in the figure eights of infinity, to symbolize a permanent union.

Also according to Filipino custom, Chester placed several silver coins into Lauren's hands, to show that he is sharing everything he has with her. Lauren then placed the coins into his palms to show that what she has is also his.

Lauren found deep meaning in the Filipino traditions. "I'm a baptized Catholic, but I can't say I practice that faith," she said. "[The Filipino customs] gave the ceremony some kind of weight, spirituality, and grounding in tradition."

The day after the wedding, Lauren and Chester took their guests – many of whom had traveled from the Philippines, Illinois and Iowa – on a trolley tour of Philadelphia, an event reminiscent of the beginning of their relationship, when Lauren showed Chester the city.
This was a surprise

Lauren's father, William, died more than a decade ago. Her brother, Michael, not quite two years younger than she, walked her down the aisle. Michael is about 6 feet tall and muscular and covered with tattoos. "He's a tough guy," Lauren said. "If you ran into him in the street, you might run the other way." But after escorting Lauren to the end of the aisle, Michael hugged his sister. He told her he loved her, and that she looked beautiful. Then he gave Chester a big hug, too. "It was at that point that I really got choked up," Lauren said.

Chester was also escorted up the aisle, by his parents, Bing and Bill.
Awestruck

After the whirlwind of the wedding, Chester and Lauren climbed into a Rolls-Royce that whisked them off to a Center City hotel. They waved to their guests, who had crowded onto the Glen Foerd patio to send them off. "Then we were in the car together, by ourselves for the first time," Lauren said. "All we could do was look at each other and say, 'Oh gosh, we're married!' "
Discretionary spending

A bargain: It really bugged Lauren that the unity candle sets she found were covered with glitter and cheesy poems – for $40. So, she got candles at a dollar store, and ribbons and vases at a craft store, and made her own for $10. She was going to do DIY stationery, too, but discovered doing so would cost her about 5 percent more than online invitations. Then Lauren remembered a small South Philly business, Sealed with a Kiss, that she used to walk past on her way home from high school. The deal they gave her was 20 percent less than the online prices.

The splurge: The food. Providing a tapas station, fillet mignon and salmon added between 10 and 15 percent to the basic package cost.
The getaway

Two weeks in Spain.
Behind the Scenes

Officiant
Irene Fulton, Journeys of the Heart, Jenkintown

Venue
Glen Foerd on the Delaware, Philadelphia

Catering
Conroy Catering, Glen Foerd's in-house caterer

Photography
Kamila Harris, Kamila Harris Photography, Doylestown

Music
Ceremony: Susan Ward, Heartstrings, Doylestown;
Reception: Mike Mandato, Silver Sound Disc Jockeys, Frazer

Dress
L&H Bridal, Philadelphia

Invitations
Sealed with a Kiss, Philadelphia
Do You Have the Date?

Tell us in a short e-mail – at least six weeks before your ceremony – why we should feature your love story. Send it to weddings@phillynews.com. Unfortunately, we can't personally respond to all submissions. If your story is chosen, you will be contacted in the weeks before your wedding.

When I met Tiffany Byer she was minus her finance' Ryan Welch, as he was in Colorado where they both have been living for the past several years.

She told me right from the beginning that she had to wear the color pink every day and everything that she owned had pink in it. She also told me that she loved animals and had (in one small apartment) 2 Saint Bernards, 3 Rabbits, and a few other animals I forgot to write down as I was still trying to digest the small apartment and the large dogs!

Months later when Ryan came to town and the three of us sat down to talk about the final details of the ceremony, it was again clear that this couple wanted things their way! They knew what would please them and had thought through all of the details.

The pink runner would have their names on it and would be tacked down to prevent any tripping or slipping. Their mothers would light tapers signifying the families that they had both come from, but after lighting their unity candle they would each blow out the others' taper, symbolizing the marriage and the new life they were making for themselves. They also included a ceremony called the wine and love letter box complete with pink wine glasses and you guessed it: a leopard cloth around the wine bottle. Read more about the wine and love letter ritual here.

So, of course, the wedding colors were pink and leopard. It made perfect sense. She even wore the palest pink gown with a huge leopard sash. And, guess what, it worked!

Lindsey called on July 1 to scheduled their July 10 wedding.  I find elopements very romantic and this was to be no exception!  Since it was just going to be Alex, Lindsey and me, I selected one of my favorite private wedding spots, The Meadowbrook Wildlife Sanctuary in Rydal.  I went there several days prior and scoped out just the right clearing for a sweet wedding.   However, Mother Nature chose July 10 for a drenching respite from this summer's ongoing drought and so the wildlife sanctuary wedding was not to be.  Instead I prepared my own private wedding space, tending to it carefully so that it would be sweet and romantic as I waited for the arrival of my guests.  I saw the blue Prius pull up alongside our house and watched as this strikingly beautiful pair emerged from their car in the rain.

I spent a few minutes with them prior to the ceremony.  I turned my satellite radio station to the all love song station.  They told me they met in college over ten years ago and have been together ever since.  They opted for a sweet, low-key wedding deciding that instead of spending their money on the wedding, they would splurge and go to France on their honeymoon.  We may not have been in the bird sanctuary but the setting was lovely and the couple was glowing. 

They exchanged rings that were first blessed in a seashell container.

They are big fans of the Tour de France and always dreamed of seeing it and so they will!