Custom Weddings by Tim Greathouse

May 20th: William & Rebecca Gilkison (the first ever wedding ceremony conducted at Sarah’s Vineyard in Cuyahoga Falls, off Steels Corners Road near Blossom Music Center… a must visit for fans of Ohio wines!)

May 21st: Paul & Amanda Scruggs (Springlake Party Center, Lakemore, Ohio)

May 22nd: Yongsong & Yan Shi (at the exquisite Hillbrook in Chagrin Falls)

May 22nd: Jim & Brett Singer (just the three of us on the deck overlooking the Cuyahoga River at High Bridge Glens Park… well, technically, the visually talented Elaine Eickhoff from Every Angle Photography was there taking photos, assisted by the musically talented Alexis Antes)

May 28th: Chris & Suzanne Straugheir (an osteopath/acupuncturist couple that came all the way from New Zealand… I wish I could say they came all that way for me!)

May 28th: James & Hilliary Savage (in the lovely hall on the grounds of the Dunham Tavern Museum in Cleveland)

May 29th: Adam & Hannah Lintz (Prestwick Country Club, Green, Ohio)

Congratulations to you all! May happiness and prosperity follow you all of your days.

Here are a few of the ceremonies I’ve performed recently. I wish I had a bit more time to tell these couples’ stories, but I’m busy preparing for four ceremonies this coming weekend and three the next.

April 30th: Adam Kue & Mai Hlee Xiong (Uniontown Community Park, Uniontown)

April 30th: Steve Siejka & Jessica Brockway (Diamond Events Center, Brunswick)

May 6th: Andrew & Irene Parker (The Fieldcrest, North Canton)

May 14th: Tony & Amanda Masri (Cleveland Botanical Garden, Cleveland)

May 16th: Miriam Bishop & Kianna Fleming (Brandywine Falls, Sagamore Hills)

Congratulations to you all and thank you for choosing me to officiate your ceremonies!

There are always a few brave souls who decide to take the plunge in Ohio during the winter. Here are a few couples that did so and chose me to officiate. It was an honor and a pleasure!

January 8th: Josh & Megan Brunner (Avon, Ohio)

March 19th: Jeff & Jessica Harmon (Brunswick, Ohio)

March 21st: Justin Stevens & Renee Williams (Akron, Ohio)

March 26th: Chris & Bonnie Fockler (Fairlawn, Ohio)

Spring dates from late April through October are booking at breakneck speed. Contact me soon if you’re interested in booking a date.

Owing to the demands of work and family, I’ve not had much time to write overviews of the ceremonies I’ve performed recently. I would like to thank and congratulate those couples:

October 30, 2010: Karl & Amanda Youngblood (Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio)

October 31, 2010: Nathan & Jessica Fain (Canton, Ohio)

November 6, 2010: Trevor & Brittany Bates (Suffield, Ohio)

December 8, 2010: Harry & Amanda Cline (Akron, Ohio)

December 10, 2010: Bob & Angie Richman (Akron, Ohio)

I began the year with no weddings on the calendar at all, and I performed my 21st wedding (and presumably my last for the year) just a few days ago. With nearly that many on the calendar already for 2011, it’s shaping up to be a busy new year. Dates are booking quickly – contact me to reserve yours soon!

Steve and Miranda’s wedding was a unique and classy affair at Rosemont Country Club in Fairlawn, Ohio. Among the highlights of the evening were the cocktail hour before the ceremony (pure genius!) and Steve’s vows, read from his iPhone.

Whenever I can, I enjoy telling the story of how the bride and groom met. Steve and Miranda met on a city bus in San Francisco when Steve, a police officer, boarded the bus while on patrol. She noticed him, but he didn’t notice her. She later tracked him down. Here’s how I told the story:

It all started on the #14 inbound toward downtown San Francisco. She was kicking off a weekend of high adventure. He was scanning the bus for troublemakers. He gave her the slip, but she made it her Mission Street mission to find him again – and the rest, as they say, is history. It’s a beautiful thing to think that, in a place as ordinary as a city bus, an extraordinary romance was born – and from that romance, a true love.

It was an honor to be there for this happy occasion with the two of you and your families and friends. Thanks for having me!

In the heart of the Cascade Valley is a centuries old oak tree, known since the 1800s as the Signal Tree. Its candelabra-esque trunk may be a coincidental work of nature – but it is theorized (and more likely) that the tree was shaped by this country’s indigenous people as a marker – literally shaping nature as a way to mark a path through the wilderness.

Matt, Jess and I took up residence by the Signal Tree for a brief, beautiful moment to join them in marriage. My own words paled in comparison to the words that I read to Matt and Jess, from each others own lips, when I asked them before the ceremony why they wanted to marry their mate:

Matt said: “I could list myriad reasons, but central to all of them is the profound sense of recognition, belonging, and unfettered freedom I feel when in her presence. For perhaps the first time in my entire life, I feel at home, able to let down my defenses and experience an unmitigated, pure intimacy. It as if we both know what the other will say before we say it; that we are attuned on a level beyond anything I have ever experienced with another human being. There is a strange resonance that unites our beings… for lack of better or more poetic words, Jess is my home.”

Jess said: “We are cut from the same cloth. We are made of the same stuff. He makes me laugh, looks out for me, and makes me feel stronger. When we are together, I am pretty sure that we control the universe. I want to have his children, and I know Matthew will be the best father. He’s compassionate, funny, and full of patience. He still remembers child-like wonder and I know he will share that with our children. Nothing about Matthew gives me pause or causes me to shy away. I am never scared around him, or worried about life. We know we face challenges, but I am not afraid of them. Because we are in love, I fear nothing.”

Rarely am I so moved by a couple’s answers to that question. It was a magnificent moment, on a beautiful day, on a legendary spot, to celebrate a legendary love. Congratulations, my new friends.

On a chilly autumn day in the heart of the Cuyahoga Valley, Mark and Melissa pledged their love and devotion to one another. The two truly had a vision as to how their wedding day was to go, and I was more than happy to help them make it a reality.

Mark and Melissa opted to have friends and family perform readings – one was the time-honored passage on love from I Corinthians, and the other was a lighthearted song lyric from the 1950′s pop hit by Kitty Kallen, entitled Little Things Mean a Lot:

Blow me a kiss from across the room
Say I look nice when I’m not
Touch my hair as you pass my chair
Little things mean a lot
Give me your arm as we cross the street
Call me at six on the dot
A line a day when you’re far away
Little things mean a lot
Don’t have to buy me diamonds or pearls
Champagne, sables, and such
I never cared much for diamonds and pearls
’cause honestly, honey, they just cost money
Give me a hand when I’ve lost the way
Give me your shoulder to cry on
Whether the day is bright or gray
Give me your heart to rely on
Send me the warmth of a secret smile
To show me you haven’t forgot
For now and forever, that’s always and ever
Honey, little things mean a lot

A lot of little things made today special. Thank you both for inviting me to help you celebrate your love today.

Anyone in my neck of the woods knows that it has been a punishing summer when it comes to the weather. It seems that I haven’t been able to escape the extremes when I perform an outdoor ceremony – it’s either blisteringly hot or witheringly humid. Or both. Today it was the wind, cruelly blowing carefully coiffed hair and carefully placed flowers in all directions – but it was Joe and Anna that really blew us all away.

Getting a laugh during a wedding ceremony is a delicate maneuver. In my opinion, it has to be in a way that calls out the endearing qualities or experiences of the bride and groom. Anna gave me some great background on her and Joe that was too funny and poetic not to share with their family and friends.

By all rights, on the surface, Joe and Anna don’t have much in common. He’s a gamer. She’s not. She’s a vegan. He’s not. She bakes. He loves pre-packaged snack cakes. He’s laid back. She’s high strung. But none of that really matters.

Because when I asked Joe and Anna each why they wanted to marry the other, the answers were as beautiful as they were simple.

Joe said: “I honestly couldn’t imagine my life without her. She puts up with my hobbies, my bad jokes and everything. I love her with all my heart and it continues to grow each passing day.”

Anna said: “He is absolutely all I have ever wanted.  He completes me. He makes my heart sing when it is sad. He calms me when I am in a rage. My soul misses his soul when it is away.  He makes me happy all the time. I am a happier person when he is near. I cannot imagine my life without him in it.”

This is why those differences don’t matter. The dissimilarities between you are cosmetic. In the way that truly matters, you are the same. You share a trenchant and steadfast love for one another, and it’s something that some people will never experience in their lifetimes.

She’s a scone, he’s a Ding Dong… and it works. Congratulations, my friends!

It was my most intimate affair to date – just me, the bride and the groom, standing on the shore of a private lake, surrounded by palatial estates in the heart of Youngstown. I retooled the entire ceremony to address the only attendees – Earl and Barbie.

I love being able to slip a reference to an inside joke into a ceremony. It worked especially well in this case, as there were no friends and family around to feel “left out” of the joke.

It started in a place where not many romances begin – on a used car lot. It made its move to another unlikely spot for love – an amusement park. The stretch of time between then and now has been packed with memorable moments – a certain game of Cranium comes to mind – amid a sea of  not-so-memorable but still wonderful moments, like the two of you curled up on the couch watching the Buckeyes. And here we stand together now, in the midst of your most memorable moment together.

It was a singularly unique and unforgettable experience to marry a couple in such quiet solitude. Earl & Barbie – I hope your wedding day was everything you imagined. Thanks for having me. I wish you all the best.

Someone flipped a switch today and turned a scorching summer into a merciful autumn. And there, surrounded by loved ones and by the fading splendor of the Quail Hollow herb garden, Bill and Tracy giggled at each other as they walked down the red brick path, past the bumblebees and the butterflies, to unite themselves as husband and wife after twelves years as lovers and best friends.

To Bill and Tracy: I see in you the same warmth and levity that my wife and I share, and it makes me smile. We should all be so lucky as to find in anyone what you both have found in each other. Congratulations to you both and may you enjoy many happy and prosperous years!