Thirteen people were present at Wendy and Sean’s June wedding, and that’s including the bride and groom! Their intimate and charming ceremony is a great example of how to include children from previous marriages in a second wedding. Says Wendy:

We have three boys between us, from our first marriages, and we both felt very strongly that this wedding wasn’t just about Sean and myself, but about our new family. It was a chance for our children to heal from the divorces and to feel safe and secure in our new family. Everything we did was geared towards making it a happy, special day for them.

The day before the ceremony, Wendy and her sons decorated the church inside and out with magnolia leaves taken from trees she had planted when they were born.

A few details from Wendy: For our first “family date,” we visited a little church in Amelia where a small battle had been fought during the Civil War. We took Frisbees and had a really fun picnic, plus we got to share a little of Virginia’s Civil War history with my sons. It was a magical day and the real start of our family. When we were trying to figure out where we wanted to get married, that little church, Namozine (maintained by the Amelia Historical Society), seemed like the perfect place.

For the wedding, we did a sand ceremony with our boys. Each of us had our own jars of sand, which we poured into a larger jar to symbolize that we are individuals, but joining together into one family. The children took the sand ceremony very seriously and I think that it meant a lot to them. I hope that every time they look at that jar of sand, they will know how much we love them and want to make a happy, secure family for them.

Wishing all the best to this new family! And thank you to Susan Bolling for sharing these charming photos with us.