A High School Sweethearts Celebration at Bridgeport Art Center – Kathryn & David

A staple venue in the Bridgeport neighborhood of Chicago is the Bridgeport Art Center. It offers a number of unique outdoor & indoor spaces for couples to celebrate their wedding day. Kathryn & David chose the Skyline Loft to start the next chapter of their relationship together back in September 2019.

Kathryn & David met in high school and over the next 10 years, they built a strong foundation for a marriage. They were thoughtful in all of their ceremony choices to both honor the long relationship they had cultivated thus far, as well as incorporating the hopes they had for their marriage through the years.

The first reading that they chose is a perfect example of these special elements that helped to tell their love story during the ceremony.

LOVE POEM by Jalal al-Din Rumi

Apart from Love, everything passes away.
The way to heaven is in your heart.
Open and lift the wings of Love!
When Love’s wings are strong, you need no ladder.
Though the world be thorns, a lover’s heart is a bower of roses.
Though heaven’s wheel be mired down, lovers’ lives go forward.
Invite love into each dark corner.
The lover is bright as a hundred thousand candles!
Even if a lover seems to be alone, the secret Beloved is nearby.
The time-span of union is eternity.
The life is a jar, and in it, union is the pure wine.
If we aren’t together, of what use is the jar?
The moment I heard my first love story I began seeking you,
not realizing the search was useless.
Lovers don’t finally meet somewhere;
They are in one another’s souls all along.

I also loved that Kathryn & David chose to honor their parent’s marriages by having both sets of parents come forward during the exchange of rings. Before Kathryn & David exchanged their rings, each parent was able to hold the rings and say a private blessing over the new marriage.

Kathryn & David, I hope the last four and a half years have brought you many blessings, engaging walks with Teddy & Stitch, some good times watching Cubs games, and enjoying many vacations that still the outside noise and bring you closer together.

EVENT TEAM
Photographer: Gina & Tony
Floral: Polly’s Petals & Particulars
Design: Art of Imagination
Musicians: Backthird Entertainment
Venue: Bridgeport Art Center
Officiant: Zen Events