An Agapé Love Feast: Our Wedding

super 8 film by Meredith Rodgers

God’s Poetry.

At this altar, we find our way home

Once we stood on distant shores

Now we dance face to face.

From first kiss to dying breath

We walk together out of darkness

Chasing golden light

We breathe within the sea, dreaming once again

Hands help through this storm

A garden grow where hope is planted

This is harvest: two hearts, two minds, two souls declaring oneness at this altar.

We feast on daily bread, our lips crimson with holy wine. We are God’s poetry written in the language of our love. Let this Agapé feast be a taste of our eternity.

10.24.2021

We met in a 4-minute pass-the-peace at Reality SF Church two years ago the day they began their “dating and relationships” series.... God must've laughed as Hope jokingly told her sister en route to church “Maybe I’ll meet my husband today!”. She was living in Paris and coming out of a dark night of the soul and back home visiting family and friends for a week. Peter remembers her asking "What are you passionate about?" in that short moment of eternity. Hope's therapist had encouraged her earlier that year to practice presence, giving the tangible example of focusing on one person in the pass-the-peace moment rather than meeting all twenty people around her. In the process of healing and finding freedom, Hope met Peter in the midst of the mess of life. She sneakily slipped a sheet of Mrs. Grossman's stickers onto his journal after service with her instagram handle (she didn't have a US number or business card). He slid into her DMs and showed up to her door with freshly baked sourdough bread and ended up meeting the entire family that evening. When he left, everyone asked "who is bread boy?!". Hope secretly asked Peter if he'd like to grab a coffee the day before she flew back to Paris. We met at the Ferry Building and felt like time stopped. He had to leave for the airport for a work trip, which she found out 6 months later he changed his flight to be able to meet up (oh la la!). We wrote letters and slowly got to know one another across the ocean... Long story short, he got stuck in Paris during the pandemic and our love continues to grow with time. Now we are married!

poem written on the back of an envelope the morning of our wedding

Our wonderful friends and community surrounded us with love throughout the day. We got ready in Martinez, then headed over to John Muir Historical Home for photos: a last minute decision to take photos indoors as the weather was quite biblical and floods were forming outside. Thankfully our photographer Isabella is an outdoor adventure photographer and was up to the challenge. I drove over in my grandpa’s 1978 Mercedes 240D he purchased in Europe in the 70s… a reminder of the legacy of adventure he left behind. Our first look was in the watchtower and couldn’t have been more perfect!

Throughout the fall I foraged and dried flowers with the hope to create centerpieces and decorations that were sustainable and everlasting. Our bouquets were made with flowers from my mother’s garden and the help of many incredible friends. A special thank you to Tena for your generous floral contribution from your garden, Adelle Rose for floral design and Michelle for bringing turkey feathers from Montana! Our wedding was truly a harvest of community, beauty and God’s abundance. Each flower had a story and centerpieces were given to guests to have in their homes. My sister Hannah handmade beautiful ceramic bud vases for the tables.

Invitations designed by Peter, Ring by Whitney Shellhamer, joyful watercolor envelopes by yours truly.

About Hope’s dress:

While living in Paris in fall of 2018, I went to a Roo Panes concert with a friend visiting from Texas. During the concert he mentioned writing songs by a big fireplace. This inspired us to find a restaurant the following evening with a fire and ended up at Le Coup Chou, a quintessential romantic restaurant in the Latin quarter. Miraculously we got a table and shared a beautiful evening talking about relationships and the desire to be married yet joking I was the most single woman in Europe. Hearing English, I started small talk with the ladies at the table next to us who happened to be from Texas. They were in Paris for inspiration for their wedding dress brand, Watters. The mother-daughter duo were inspiring and gave us their business card. At the end of the meal our waiter told us our meal had been paid for by some geneous guests. We squealed and felt like God took us on a romantic date thanks to these inspiring women. Little did I know just three years later, I’d be wearing one of their dress designs down the aisle! It was a miracle dress I found on the sale rack right after we got engaged with my mom and mother-in-law, Marilyn at BHLDN. A love story is woven into the fabric of this wedding dress…

The veil was handmade by Kelsey Linnartz, a fashion designer and friend who lives in New York and wasn’t able to travel for the wedding. She incorporated pieces of my Grandmother’s vintage veil into the headpiece, it was so special to wear her creation.

To the Altar

The whole day was a cyclone of grace.

Quite literally… a cyclone hit the Bay Area that day breaking records for rainfall in a drought ridden land. The biblical weather made for road closures, mudslides and a lot of improvisation. Our vision of an outdoor ceremony at sunset shifted to be the coziest indoor altar with a fireplace lit. The Brazilian Room, a 1939 historical building in the heart of the Berkeley Hills was the perfect venue for a full on hootenanny celebration of love. The rug I found in Paris and used in various art projects awaited us as we walked down the aisle. So many stories are woven into that rug, it felt fitting to get married on it and now sits in our cozy living room. I met Peter in the 4-minute pass the peace at Reality SF Church two years ago the day they began their “dating and relationships” series. I jokingly told my sister en route to church “Maybe I’ll meet my husband today!” I was living in Paris at the time. The sermon the day we met was titled “Marriage As Commitment” given by Dave Lomas. He agreed to officiate our ceremony and led us through a rich time of understanding the symbol and covenant of marriage. Thank you Dave for entering into the Holy Chaos of our wedding day! We shared communion (the most delicious States baguette), exchanged rings and kissed (oh la la)!

The wild hootenanny continued with a lively cocktail hour with beer from our local brewer friend Jordan Reed and wine generously given from Camel Hill Vineyards. The wedding feast was a french-inspired menu of Ratatouille and Coq au Vin thanks to Jasmine Catering and their incredible team. Our cake was a masterpiece created by neighbor and baker extraordinaire Caron Hoeffer and Allie Sullberg who designed our vibrant dancing cake topper. What a gift! We danced our way into an evening full of joy and abundance. In lieu of a photo booth, film photographer Marissa Wu captured our evening through Polaroids. Peter is a designer and made custom enamel pins for favors. Programs and poems for guests were written on my typewriter. Tables were themed by our favorite cities, we collaborated on framed calligraphy watercolors for each setting. Old books, foraged eucalyptus and persimmons from the Lundblad garden decorated the tables.

Peter stole the show with his award winning dance moves. I twirled about trying my best to soak it all in, say hello to all the guests that came from near and far and capture the pure poetry of our wedding day.

Each detail was layered with relationship, story and beauty. Our community surrounded us and supported us in making this stormy day the brightest days of our lives. After a year full of loss, diagnosis, pandemic, death, unknowns and stepping out in faith our wedding day was truly a miracle. Thanks to the many prayer warriors, angel helpers and artists, this day indeed was a poem. We are poems.