I Cried

Send me a message or any questions!

I share the story of the wedding that made me break my professional composure and cry during the ceremony. This emotional experience changed how I approach my role as an officiant, allowing me to be more flexible with ceremony scripts and more authentic with showing emotions.

• Young couple incorporated their two-month-old daughter into the ceremony
• Bride wanted special tributes to her late father throughout the wedding
• Days before the wedding, bride discovered a 20-year-old message from her father in a book
• The quote perfectly captured the moment of creating a new family while honoring her father's memory
• Reading the quote during the ceremony led to tears from everyone, including myself
• This experience taught me to balance professionalism with authentic emotion
• Changed my approach to writing ceremony scripts, now keeping them digital and editable until the last minute

What are some emotional wedding moments you have experienced? If you're planning your wedding, consider how you might incorporate meaningful quotes or tributes from loved ones who can't be present.

Support the show

Thank you for sharing the podcast with others who may enjoy it! Share your funny wedding stories with me at [e-mail]. Any links referenced are on linktree.

Episode Transcript

Amanda (00:04):
Welcome to the Wedding Where With officiating by Amanda
.
the Wedding Where I cried!Welcome back to an episode that

(00:30):
I knew from day one I wouldrecord this one.
I just had to think about thebest way to tell this story.
As we all know, weddings bringout every kind of emotion Tears,
laughter, tears of laughter,joy, tears of love, tears of

(00:50):
grief and missing family memberswho aren't there, tears of
stress.
There's a lot of emotions,there's a lot of tears.
There's a reason that there'sspecific tissue boxes that
people get for their weddingsthat say for the happy tears.
But yeah, officiants aren'tsupposed to cry like.

(01:11):
We're supposed to be the, theoutward observer, the narrator.
We are not supposed to getinvested in, and I typically do.
I keep my emotions in check,whether it's shock and surprise
that the groom said that in hisvows or you know, tears because

(01:33):
something really heartfelt wassaid.
But with this wedding I did not.
Nope, nope, nope.
This is the wedding where Icried, and I don't mean like if
you looked at me as I walkedback down the aisle, you could
see a tear.
I mean, I didn't sob, I willclarify that but I cried and

(01:56):
thankfully I wasn't alone.
Very, it was just kind of ithit me of that.
I get to be a part of some ofthese really emotional moments
and sometimes I'm the one sayingthe emotional words and doing
beautiful things for thesecouples and these families and

(02:19):
it hit me hard and we're goingto talk all about it and I will
say that I was able to interviewthe bride that this story is
about.
So stay tuned.
That will be coming out very,very shortly.
I'm sure she's going to have alot more to say too.
That gives you a lot moreinsight about her process in

(02:41):
planning the wedding, herthoughts on the ceremony, her
dreams, dreams and desires andjust all that jazz.
She's fantastic.
So it was early on as anofficiant, I'd probably say in
the first 10, 15 weddings.
They were a young couple, theywere fun, they'd met online,

(03:01):
they got pregnant, they gotengaged on the line, they got
pregnant, they got engaged andby the time of their wedding
they had an adorable baby girlso cute, I think, maybe two
months old Carried down theaisle.
It was cute and upon meetingthe couple, they really
expressed to me just howimportant it was that we

(03:23):
acknowledge family very heavilywithin the ceremony, both the
family that they were creating,their daughter, as well as ties
to the bride's sister, her maidof honor, her nieces, her
nephews, but very specificallyto her father, who had passed
away years back when she wasyoung and she had shared with me

(03:46):
that, you know, she spent mostof her life thinking that she
was not going to take a spouse'slast name because that would
replace her dad's last name andher family line, and that was
very key to her and ultimatelyshe had me write it into the
ceremony to say out like I am,you know, taking my husband's

(04:09):
last name because it's the lastname of my daughter and of my
family, and so that was really,really important to them and I'm
like, okay, we're gonna honorthis.
So I'm like bracing myselfalready, like, okay, this is
gonna be, it's gonna hit in thefeels, it's gonna be great, but
I have to be above this, or so Ithought or I hoped.
So we had some really specialtouches to honor her dad.

(04:31):
You know some of the typicalones a moment of silence.
It was listed in the program.
When her brother-in-law walkeddown the aisle and gave her away
.
I worked with him on a reallygreat line of like Her father
would be proud of the men thathis daughters had found Some
really, really fun things.
And up to this point, when I wasdoing weddings, I would write

(04:55):
the scripts very far in advanceand I would have them printed a
week or two ahead of a weddingand PDFed and ready to go and
was not really someone makingchanges on the fly and ready to
go and was not really someonemaking changes on the fly.
This is one of the weddingsthat kept me a little more open
to quicker edits and I hadanother one that absolutely

(05:16):
destroyed how I write scripts.
So I now write them about twoweeks to ten days before a
wedding and they are able to beedited up until the moment of
the wedding.
I now carry them on a tabletand don't print them anymore.
But this wedding was one ofthose main reasons because,

(05:36):
despite everything being printed, pdfed, signed, sealed,
approved, a few days before thewedding the bride had gotten
back into her possession a bookthat her father had given to a
friend, like 20 years ago whenthe friend had had a newborn
daughter, and there was a quoteon the inside of the book and

(06:01):
she sent it to me and as soon asI read it I yep throughout the
script.
I have to include this.
I have to find a way to make itwork.
I knew it would have a verydeep impact.
The wording was perfect.
I'll read it for you.
I'll literally read you thelast little bit of what it was.
But I really was like, okay,you're just reading the words,

(06:27):
you don't, you don't have tofeel them.
And so we get to theirbeautiful wedding day and this
beautiful ceremony, beautifullittle two-month-old baby being
carried down the aisle.
I still I think about it a lot.
I made a joke to her dad, thegroom at the end of the aisle,
going yeah, you know, one ofthese days it'll be her walking

(06:50):
down the aisle.
That got him to cry from thebeginning, minutes from

(07:11):
pronouncing, and I said you knowI was going to offer you some
advice, but I'm at a loss forwords, so instead I'm going to
quote a beloved family man whowould be so proud of the family
that you created here today andthe vow of everlasting love that
you've taken.
And then this here was thequote, written word for word her
dad "congratulations.
I wish that I could be therealso to share your happiness.

(07:34):
But someday enjoy every momentwith your little one, for the
years seem so fleeting.
I wish sometimes that I couldstop the clock when moments seem
so precious, wishing you andyours the best of life, health
and love.
So yeah, I didn't get throughthat without crying.

(07:56):
The couple cried, the guestcried, I was already crying.
The words, pretty much frombeyond, were just perfect, they
just fit.
And the fact that within daysof the wedding, she had found
this quote was incrediblytouching and that she asked like

(08:21):
, oh, is it okay if we?
Of course it's okay if weinclude this quote.
Of course I very rarely evertold a couple no, but this is
certainly not when I was goingto start and there was not dry
in the house.
So I did not feel alone.
And I've officiated some otheremotional weddings since then.

(08:42):
That one got me good.
That one got me probably thehardest that any have gotten me.
I've officiated for familymembers and some sorority
sisters where, if I take toolong of a second to go, oh my
gosh, we actually got here.
Do you remember when your heartwas broken or when the world

(09:02):
seemed like it was falling apart?
If I give myself those moments,oh yeah, I'll get a little
misty, but nothing to this dayhas gotten me the way that that
wedding has, and I've workedhard to try to stay professional
in the space, because it's notabout me, it's not.

(09:24):
I'm supposed to be telling thestory, sharing the day legally
getting married.
I should not be in any way,shape or form, laughing, crying,
doing whatever, but I make theexception and I will laugh with
you and I will cry with you.
You know, if there's somethingreally funny said by the groom,

(09:45):
I chuckle and I have to chuck,chuckle and I want to chuckle.
And you want to see a pictureof the bride, her head bent back
, laughing and you want to makesure that I have at least a
smile on my face, if not alittle, because if I'm stone
face, that looks horrible.
You can't Photoshop that out.
I guess you could, but sufficeit to say I try when I fail, I

(10:10):
try to fail alongside thosealong with me, and sometimes
it's just not possible, and Ilearned that with this wedding.
And so I'm really, reallyexcited for the interview that's
coming up with Amanda, thebride from this wedding, and I
will probably share that quoteagain.
We will probably have a fewdrinks, we will probably cry

(10:32):
again.
It is definitely a near anddear moment to me.
So, before we sign off.
What are some emotional weddingmoments you have seen or been a
part of?
Do you have a family member?
It's also past.
What would you do if you foundthat quote like from beyond?

(10:53):
Are there words that you wishyou had in writing?
And if you're not yet married,how might you fit something like
that in?
How could you make sure thatthere's that little special,
special piece, a quote fromsomeone that you love and this
to tie in?
I don't think any of them nooffense, I don't think any of

(11:17):
them are going to be as nail onthe head perfect as that one was
.
But if you could almost dial itin, what would you want it to
say?
Thank you all so much.
I'll talk with you later.
Thank you for listening to theWedding Where with Officiating

(11:37):
by Amanda.
I hope you enjoyed today'sepisode and found some
inspiration or insight for yourown special day.
This podcast is hosted onBuzzsprout and can be found on
all major platforms.
If you haven't already, pleasesubscribe, like, comment and
share to help us reach even morelisteners who might laugh a
little at the Wedding Where.
For the links referenced in theshow, visit Linktree at

(11:58):
Officiating by Amanda.
You can also follow thebusiness on Facebook, wedding
wire and the Knot to stay up todate on everything going on.
If you have a question you'dlike me to answer on the podcast
, just send an email totheweddingwirepodcast@ gmail.
com, and if you're ready toinquire about officiating
services for your own big day,you can reach me at

(12:19):
officiatingbyamanda@ gmail.
com.
Thank you so much for tuning inand until next time.
This has been Amanda.