Real Wedding: Sarah & Jim

Jim; “I walked into church and there was this beautiful girl sitting behind the piano, and it sounded like angels singing. I had been praying to meet a good Christian woman who loved music. And at that moment I felt ‘could this be the one’?”

Sarah; “I didn’t notice Jim at church…with his mom and kids, cowboy boots and moustache…until the pastor asked him to sing. Jim has a gorgeous voice and THAT caught my attention! He asked me to come to his place to ‘write music’. At one of the writing nights I made a comment that I would never kiss a guy who had a moustache…and then he showed up the next evening WITHOUT a moustache, that I knew I was in trouble!

Our wedding was a piece of theatre. Both Jim and I are musicians, we thought why not invite 150 of our friends, get up on a church stage and sing for them! So, we crafted our wedding service into a two act musical review that encompassed “Sarah’s Jazz” and “Jim’s Country”.

The storyline: boy and girl meet, boy and girl get married. There was even a tropical honeymoon on the tail end…and everyone was invited!

The Wedding was on Friday evening at Sudbury Theatre Centre, and ran like a normal theatre production with a cocktail party afterwards. The evening before, Thursday, was THE WEDDING REHEARSAL and tickets were on sale for the public. This show was advertised on radio and had coverage by local newspapers. Thursday was the exact same show musically, except when it came to Act 2 the wedding ceremony was walked through as merely a rehearsal.

Describe the proposal.

“Gone are the days when only he proposes, Gone are the days of wine and roses” lyrics from Saskatoon
Lovesong, by Sarah Matt

Jim and I had been dating for 3 years and I felt that it was now or never so I was the one who proposed. For many years I had shuffled through my Grandmother’s jewelry box on visits to her bathroom. I had in the back of my mind this one ring I had found there; it was an old setting from the 1940s for a diamond, but the stone was lost many years back and replaced with a pearl. I asked my Grandma Nettie about the ring and found that it was her original engagement ring. She and my Grandpa
Lloyd were married for almost 60 years and had a wonderful relationship! I wanted that ring on my finger and the blessing of their marriage over Jim and I.

So, one Tuesday night (so Jim wouldn’t catch on to the importance of the evening) I transformed my small living room into a boudoir. I hung heavy red drapes around the table, lit the room with blue stage lights, a Christmas tree and tea lights. On the menu was smoked salmon, fresh shrimp, steak and crisp vegetables. I surprised Jim with the most romantic dinner or his life!

We took the flame from the tea lights on the table and lit a candle-abra together. The tea lights represented our dreams, wishes, plans from the past. These we shared with each other, then extinguished after illuminating our collective dream, represented by the candle-abra. Old dreams snuffed out, new dreams beaming in this new setting. We learned much about each other through this heart-felt game! And then at the end, I gave Jim the ring which he of course, turned around and gave right back to me.

Jim and I had taken a big trip to China one year before the wedding. We set this Asian tropical flare to use as we planned the show, incorporating “Slow Boat To China” as our big duet at the end of Act 1, which became our favorite design element from the day.

I made a costume change into a bright blue oriental dress, a gift from a Chinese friend. While Jim and I sang, our 4 backup singers came onstage with bright Chinese parasols, and all the while a video rolled centre stage of boat rides in South Chinese bays, rainy streetcars in Hong Kong, and some of our favorite photos of Chinese markets and beaches.

I had three costume changes in the show! Act 1; My jazz-set dress yellow gingham, the turquoise Chinese dress and for Act 2 my tea length ‘fun’ wedding gown.

Thursday evening was billed as ‘The Wedding Rehearsal’ and was open to the public. Tickets were $5 + wedding gift. And YES I wore my wedding dress that evening! So I got to wear it twice.

Some of the discussions leading up to the wedding were to the effect, “will having the ceremony on stage makes it so much like a show, that the heart or the intimacy of the vows will be lost”. Jim really wanted it to be real and there was some concern that the lights and the performance would hinder that.
Well, let me tell you, it was so real and so tender. One audience member said it was ‘like a roller coaster, and we were all along for the ride.” Another said, “We laughed, we cried, we laughed again…”

I remember standing onstage before the show Friday, some band members were warming up on their instruments, some of us were casually standing around looking out as audience members wandered into their seats. The stage crew had to shoo us off the stage, to close the curtain, dim the lights and open
front of house to our family and friends. That is when I realized, Jim and I are so comfortable on stage.

That’s why this is going to be genuine, it’s going to work because we truly are comfortable singing and entertaining. It is who we are, so this ‘reality theatre’ wedding wasn’t really theatre at all. It was just Jim and Sarah, on stage with some very bright lights, microphones and dancers, whispering ‘I do’ as 300
people cheer us on!

Sarah and Jim’s wedding was submitted and documented by Shauna Heron Photography.

You can check out more of this wedding by visiting PART ONE & TWO on her blog.