enter the english teacher:
i love literature. so much! i love to read books and then talk about them later. i love words and their power and how they can evoke all sorts of feeling!! i even love the dreaded shakespeare (can you hear the audible moan from the high school peanut gallery?), his words are so incredibly genius…
i know it’s a bit cliche because it is so well known but hamlet is one of my favorites. it’s a ghost story, and a love story, and a mouse-chase story all in one! i love that play so much. the intricacies, sub-plots, characters, and themes are so detailed and profound within themselves…
let’s just discuss one…
the character of ophelia is for sure my fav in the play. she loves her man so so much, but then he starts acting funny to her and treating her weird and so it makes her crazy because she doesn’t get why this guy, who has professed his love would be so hot one minute and cold the next. needless to say she loses her senses and ends up a soggy dead drowned mess in the river at the end. hey, that’s the story…
hamlet tried to reveal to her what he could without disclosing his plan. see, he was (according to my interpretation) pretending to be mad to trap his father’s killer; he wasn’t really crazy! he couldn’t trust her with everything because he didn’t trust her dad or her bro at all…and they totally manipulated her too…see the intricacies? and is anyone getting as excited about this as i am? my brow is furrowed and i am writing so fast; i wish you could see the intensity i am typing with!! i love this stuff!! so anyway, hamlet tries to tell ophelia to go away until all of the stuff goes down at the castle and he is able to exonorate his father’s death, but instead of just saying, “look beautiful lady, i love you and am going to spend my life with you and we are going to make hamlet and ophelia babies, but you have to go away for just a bit…” he says, “get thee to a nunnery…” which makes her, like all women, start thinking and obsessing and over analyzing and she starts wondering, “why the hell would he send me to a nunnery to be a nun? i thought he loved me and wanted to live with me in the big castle together and stuff…” and so begins the downward spiral of beautiful o.
she goes crazy, legitimately, unlike hamlet, but she parallels his feigned craziness (reigning in the english teacher…) she loses all of her senses and goes mad…can you blame her? something just clicked when hot prince told her to become a nun…it happens…
hamlet tried to remind her of his feelings with all these love letters he wrote to her. (this is the part i am getting to, the part that connects to this post. i promise it relates, not just me needing to fulfill a teaching void.)
hamlet writes,
“doubt that the stars are fire;
doubt that the earth doth move;
doubt truth to be a liar,
but never doubt i love.”
it’s as plain as day, o!!! he was nut-so for you!!! you can doubt that all those things are what they are, but the one thing you were never supposed to doubt was that he freakin’ loved you!!!
had only she had her wits about her then the story would have ended a romance and not a total and complete tragedy with all of denmark either dead or wondering what the hell was happening!! 😉
my point being…
there should be no doubt from anyone who attended their wedding, from anyone who see’s these images, or from anyone who reads these words that mindi and alex love each other so deeply and profoundly, that theirs is the making of classic literature (without all the weird drama stuff! ;))
never doubt their day was one poets, even those like shakespeare, use as muses for incredibly moving work:
never doubt alex, that you married a lady. one with a kind and gentle heart. the kind of heart that would give the world for you, the kind that knows yours and holds it tightly, the kind who would go to a nunnery if you told her to, because she would understand the subtext and know you had her best interests in mind and that you would come and get her as soon as things settled in denmark…wait…i digress…;) mindi, never doubt you will always be alex’s most absolute muse.
mindi was “far more lovely and more temperate…than a summer’s day…”
mindi, never doubt you married a gentlemen who looks at you differently than he looks at anyone else. never doubt you hold his heart in your hand; never doubt he is your truest star and greatest fan.
never doubt that seeing each other before the ceremony is such a cool choice! 😉 i love how it gives the couple time to just be together, away from the hustle of final details, just to soak in the pending moments. (mindi’s family has a tradition: she comes from a family of girls, that’s right, another house of phloof (mckeown’s see blog posts below to know what i am talking about… :)). the girls’ father, larry, who happens to be one of those men with such a tender spirit, especially towards his wife and daughters, walks his girls not only down the aisle, but also towards their groom for the first look. i loved it and thought it was so special and made the moment even that much more sweet.)
mindi, never doubt that your dad was the first man to love you so deeply. 😉 never doubt that he has been holding your heart until he found a proper suitor to continue carrying it for the rest of your life.
alex, never doubt he approved you to be the proper suitor…
this next image makes me well up a bit…kind of like queen gertrude when she drank the poisoned cup and knew she was out-ie…just kidding…but it does make me well up thinking of my own father. i saw so many similarities between he and larry, it was uncanny. i wanted to just hug larry because he reminded me so much of my dad!!
the anticipation in this moment is so palpable! i love it! i kind of start to squeal…inside…no one can hear the squealing but me…the closer she gets…
who’s squealing???? i am again…never doubt this moment makes me squeal…inside…;) get ready….
eeeccccckkkkkkkkk!!!! i love this moment so, so, so much!!!
never doubt mindi you are beautiful and admired:
never doubt, mindi and alex, that what you have is real. your love is what author’s try to recreate in their stories and poems. it’s this love that songs and sonnets are written about. it’s this love that each human being seeks to feel in his/her lifetime.
(alex, never doubt that you are really cool…:))
alex, never doubt you are talented beyond belief! never doubt you have a personality that invites everyone in…
(i shot the one on the left, whitty woo, another great poet and artist, grabbed the one on the right)
this in one was also whit’s; i loved it!!
mindi, never doubt that you are beautiful, and lovely, and so friendly, and also gifted (when i am in london i am scheduling an appointment):
and your personality, too, is so contagious. you are charm personified; never doubt it:
never doubt, that together you have something so special…
never doubt that the words and emotions shared at your ceremony all came from the heart. never doubt that when you said “i do” you made the most important promise of your life:
never doubt that you were surrounded by a tremendous amount of love and support on your day.
while i shot bridal party and family portraits whit shot details before our light went the way of the west:
she nabbed this one of the bouquet before the first look:
and before we lost all light i grabbed the couple for a few more alone…
never doubt that sunrise and sunset will always be a quintessentially romantic time…the light just says it has to be that way!!
never doubt that your party was a direct illustration of your vibrant connection and love:
and just when you thought it was over, kind of like the ending of hamlet, mindi and alex extended their festivities with some after wedding eats. i think poets could write about this food, for sure:
mindi and alex, never doubt that you have found the one person who will make you ultimately happy in this life. never doubt the stars will always be fire, the earth will always move, truth will never be a liar, and like the rest of these certainties never doubt, you two will always have this incredible love and affection for each other. all of your days, from now on, are like poetry, writing themselves because the two of you exist, together.
thank you so much for welcoming me into your life’s love letter. thank you for allowing me to be a part of the day when you completed the sonnet and started a new epic love story. much love to both of you, you cheekies. 🙂 when i am in london next, let’s meet up for that yummy apple drink i love and a hob nob.
from my heart, never doubt, that i think you both are incredible people. congratulations, kj
ps never doubt that whitney is an absolute bore…and no fun to work with… thanks for being there whit; you are a talent beyond measure!! i think shakespeare would have liked you, if only you hadn’t been so non-descript, such a yawn, and a total wet blanket…(know you i am kidding…grateful for you…on so many levels!!) check out her blog; i am sure she will have a follow up post soon!!
shakespeare for sure had this face in his head while drafting his heroines…for sure my most glamorous moment. eat your heart out shakespearean muses, nothing beats this…
i know…i have left you speechless…;)
oh, i almost forgot…i meant to weave this all in prose but i was just so overwhelmed by ophelia and hamlet and such that i forgot to mention that alex and mindi were married at thornton winery in temecula. flowers provided by wineberry hill designs; cake brought to you by bocakes. i also have contact information for amy kelley: the genius behind hair (get a site amy…:)); and their incredible makeup was done by crystal (whom i can also get information on if anyone is interested!!)their dj, devaughn daniels, was incredible too.
ps this post will run through the weekend and perhaps a bit into next week…i am going to take a teeny tiny break from blogging…just for a couple of days. i have done good though right?
congrats again to mindi, alex, and their families (shout out to the mckeown’s…LOVE YOU GUYS!! BIG HUGS!!)!
it was such an incredibly poetic day!! happy to have been there! love, kamee