Dan and Jen Jafarzadeh-L'Italien Wedding; September 20, 2008 Mosquito Head Martinsville Maine

I'm a bit biased but this wedding was absolutely stunning and near perfect. The idea of having a small wedding on the coast of Maine at first didn't strike me as one that I definitely would have chosen, but consider me converted. My brother Dan and his new wife Jen, rented this old farmhouse near the mouth of Penobscot Bay in Martinsville Maine (FYI: I had never explored the Maine mid-coast region between Bath and Belfast before). The wedding was small, immediate family and friends; a larger wedding just would not have been possible at this location.

The pic below is from behind the old barn looking out towards to shore. That is the longest walk down a wedding aisle I've ever seen by far, it's a wonder Jen wasn't in hiking boots and sweats rather than a wedding gown. Come to think of it, I never did notice what was on her feet (I'm not observant that way). The view north from the shore.

Weddings are supposed to be happy occasions, and this one was definitely that, but I managed to nearly cry me a river. This wedding was an extremely emotional one for me that happened to cap an extremely emotional week. The week prior, at my cousin Molly's wedding and visiting with my Aunt Kathy, who is struggling with Stage IV esophageal cancer, began to make my emotions raw. The memories of our mom, who had also struggled with cancer and passed away in '94 at the age way too young age of 53, came rushing to the surface. It isn't that the pain of her loss has never gone away, it hasn't; it's just that when I think of the loss the pain is just as deep.

Dan and Jen wrote their own vows. So I ended up crying when Dan read his vows (FYI Dan, the 'weary soul' part nearly started me bawling ;-)). I ended up crying again when Jen read her vows (damn you two). Finally, I completely lost it when I was trying to relay a story as I was giving a toast a bit later. That be the last time they ask me to give a toast anywhere.

My sister Cathy, Dan, and myself

When I was just a wee boy of yea height, I asked my parents 'where do babies come from' (stop rolling your eyes!). Instead of an abbreviated G-rated birds and the bees lesson, my mom replied that if a person wants to have a baby they must pray to God, and if God deems it so, then that person is blessed with a baby. I remember praying and praying and praying some more for my mom to have a baby. I had been praying for so long that when our parents sat us down to say that my mom was pregnant and that we were going to be welcoming a baby to the family that I ran the entire Hazel Street neighborhood knocking on doors, interrupting peoples suppers, letting them know that my mom was going to be having a baby. Yes, I was that excited and filled with this happy joy that my prayers were finally being answered. I was yelling it from the top of my lungs to the world. Once that prayer was answered I then started praying that I would have a baby brother rather than a baby sister. I already knew what having a sister was. Having two big prayers answered is quite the accomplishment let me tell you. Now my parents often joked that my brother Dan was a surprise baby. Not to me, I had been praying, but to them. You see, we've been told that my mom wanted to have a large family but she wasn't able to have children without taking a fertility drug which she took to have my sister and me. Dan showing up without having taken any fertility drugs was truly a surprise. An act of God?

In a nutshell, that was the story I was trying to relay as way of expressing that our Mom would have been just as excited and filled with joy in welcoming Jen as I was on that evening I ran the neighborhood. I also asked that as we were giving toasts to raise the glasses just a bit higher for those that weren't able to be present.

Of course my emotions got to me about halfway through as my thoughts went over that painful spot in my heart for the loss of our mom.

Jen's family

John, Erin, and Dan

Boogie in the barn

This wedding was absolutely beautiful, right down to the bald eagles fishing just off the shore as they were exchanging vows. Love to the both of them.