They're Married!

Richard Phillips & Tara White
Married on Sunday March 30, 2008 at 2:00 PM.
This past weekend, we celebrated the wedding of my good friends Richard Phillips and Tara White. They have been dating for almost five years now. I've know Richard since he was seventeen and I met Tara on their second date.

Obviously, I am ecstatically proud of the newlyweds. They are pefectly made for one another. They both have a love for God and a natural passion for helping others, et la joie de vie that they display every day is contagious. Happiness, hope, faith and fun just pour out of these two friends of mine.

The above picture displays the entire wedding party. From left to right, we have: Stephanie Ross, Ruth Borowski, Candice White, the flower girl (name?), Tara Phillips, Richard Phillips, Jamie Grant, Abe Oudshoorn and Joel Terry. I acted as the Best Man and Candice, Tara's twin sister, was the Bride's Maid.

The entire day was so much fun. Granted, there was a lot to do and to organize so some of us were feeling a tad winded at different points. Being surrounded by eighty or so family and friends can seem overwhelming at times. Everything was so great, though, a real pleasure from beginning to end.

The ceremony was performed by Leonard Terry and he spoke movingly. The Groom's Men did not attend the wedding rehearsal but we made sure that we knew our roles during the ceremony. Thank goodness for little x's of tape on the floor. And thank goodness for Abe, who whispered to me when I was supposed to go to sign the registry and showed me which way to face during the ceremony. Heh.

My big job was to pass Richard the ring at the appropriate moment during the ceremony. I was guarding Tara's ring all day and my part went smoothly. No fumbling or dropping the ring on the floor, fortunately. Unfortunately, the Bride's Maids, who had all attended the rehearsal the previous evening, had forgotten to bring the ring. Oh, it was a classic moment when everyone realized what had happened and Aunt Pat scurried away to find it. She did find it, eventually, right there in her purse beside her chair. I thought the irony of it all was amusing and it was actually a funny, personal and very memorable situation. We cracked a few jokes, broke the tension a bit and finished off the romantic I Do's with a flourish.

After the ceremony, the wedding party had our pictures done. Throughout the afternoon and evening, Ariel Terry set up a video camera in different locations and he invited all of the guests to take a minute to record a personal message to Richard and Tara. I'm really looking forward to seeing that video, and I was actually on it three times. Once at the end of Joel Timmerman's message, once with Cam as we danced like fools and gave a heartfelt message, and once with all of the ex-AV-Base staff. Along with Tara, there were five ex-AV-Base staff members there, which was cool to see since I was the one that helped Tara get a job for a while there in the first place.

During the dinner, a few people were selected to give speeches. A little to my surprise, my speech was the first one. I had written my speech out and I had rehearsed it with Cam the night before, which was a good idea since it turned out to be fairly lengthy even with my editing. I opened up my reminiscing about Richard's life and his giant green mohawk, mentioning his graffiti alley in downtown London and how he developed a career as a social worker. I recounted the story of Richard and Tara's second date and then related some more thoughts about the two of them. I closed by giving them their wedding present, a scrapbook album that Cam and I had prepared for them containing many of their engagement photos and various blogs about the two of them.

Once dinner was served and the cake cutting was complete, the dance began. Richard and Tara's first dance was to the song "Kiss the Girl" from Disney's The Little Mermaid. They can both sing the lyrics of every Disney song you can think of, and their dance was terrific. Tara kept coming close to Richard as if to kiss him and then she would turn her face away suddenly, and Richard had a brilliant smile the entire time. At the end of the song, they finally drew close to each other and completed a passionate kiss. Perfect.

May God be with you every single day. Each dawn, as the sun breaks over the horizon and you slowly awaken, may you feel His presence. And when you turn over in bed, may you see the evidence of God's blessing in your lives. May you know that the person there is fully and completely yours, and that you are theirs.

May you be forever passionate for one another and may your love for each continue to grow. May your love grow so much that it spills out of you both, from your hearts and into the lives of everyone that you meet. A deep and wonderful love that flows from God's heart through you to the world. May you experience the joy of being one, of being close to one another and being close to God.

A new day has come and it's looking brighter all the time. Always remember God's love for you, and your love for one another.