For a couple preparing to be married, engagement is a season of anticipation and excitement, but it can also feel overwhelming. As engaged couples prepare for their wedding day, they are also preparing for a lifelong vocation of marriage together. More than a contract or legal agreement, the marriage covenant is a vocation of service to one another in the eyes of our Church.
The Wedding Ministry here at St. Michael the Archangel ensures the couple feels welcome and that the wedding ceremony itself is a seamless, peace-filled celebration of this beautiful sacrament. Paulette Adams leads this ministry along with a couple of volunteers who help support.
“I enjoy meeting the couple, hearing their story, where they’re from, why they decided to get married here, just find out what their story is,” Paulette says. “I’m also part of the greeter ministry, so it’s just kind of an extension of that welcoming attitude we have at St. Michael. It’s a very nice place to be. I just like meeting people, putting them at ease — to make it the best for the bride and groom.”
Paulette stepped into this role about 10 years ago, shortly after the new church building was dedicated. When Fr. Lio asked her to begin leading the ministry, she had no idea what her “yes” would mean.
“I had no idea of what it would entail or look like,” she says. “With the help of the office assistants at the time, we figured out what to do. It’s been a process of learning.”
Now, Paulette helps coordinate every wedding that takes place here. At its most, there were a dozen weddings in a single year. So far, there are five booked for this year.
Most of the couples who choose to have their wedding at our parish are destination weddings. There are couples from across the world — Australia, Canada, and beyond — who travel to the island and choose St. Michael the Archangel as their church for the celebration. This means Paulette and her team have an opportunity to extend hospitality to these visitors as they celebrate one of the most important days of their lives.
With most of the couples travelling here to celebrate their big day, most of the coordination takes place over email or video calls, such as picking out the wedding readings.
“Most of the details are organized before the rehearsal, before I even really meet them,” Paulette says. “Oftentimes, the couple doesn’t arrive on the island until a day or two before the wedding, so everything needs to be done ahead of time.”
The couple meets with Paulette the day before the wedding for a rehearsal to go over all the last-minute details and a walkthrough of the ceremony. If the couple has never been to the church before, it helps them to see the church and its surroundings to ease their nerves before the big day.
“I start the rehearsal with a prayer, and I remind them how in the book of Jeremiah, the Lord tells him to tell the people, ‘I am going to enter a covenant with them, they will be my people,’” Paulette says. “This couple will stand before the altar as God as the witness and enter into a covenantal relationship.”
Paulette talks about the weight of the vows that the husband and wife will exchange the following day, and the importance of the covenant they are making to each other. She also likes to get to know the couple and put their minds at ease that everything is going to be taken care of on the day of the wedding.
“They’re very thankful for our help,” Paulette says. “Once we get them down the aisle, then it’s less stressful.”
The Wedding Ministry works with other ministries and its members in our parish, such as the lectors, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, Music Ministry, and altar servers. It is truly a labor of love!
To get involved in the Wedding Ministry, sign up during the stewardship renewal in November or by contacting the parish office at 808-326-7771.
