Fantasy Wedding ~ chapter 2

The deep sounding of the conch announced the groom's arrival.  He fairly sprints up the forest path along the tiki torch lit way, so eager for his first glimpse of his bride.

In a reversal of the standard order, she awaits him, glowing in the center of a circle of flickering candles, blushing orchids and fern tendrils.  The entire scene is lit by hundreds of candles, the forest outside a brilliant emerald green in the late day light.  The scent of puakinikini and tuberose mingles with the sweet air of the forest, and hundreds of birds sing, chirp, call, filling the air with the song of the forest.

The groom steps into the circle of candlelight as if in a dream, the pu sounds once more, and the music of the marriage begins.

Gentle Hawaiian slack key guitar mingles with the bird song, the artist a reknowned musician whose art has appeared in movies and who has been awarded small statues of excellence.

The couple face the altar, draped with ferns braided together, and topped with a bouquet of island orchids, tuberose, bird of paradise, and palm. Smiling, selves entwined such that they feel each within the other, they  have eyes only for each other, as the ceremony that celebrates the joining of their hearts and beings commences.  They have studied the words, but as they experience what is happening, it is more than words and feelings.  A nearly supernatural sense is all around, as if unseen beings carrying blessings were in attendance.  When the part of the ceremony arrives where they exchange lei and rings and share the sacred breath; the ha, the joy of the extended moment becomes a part of all there is.  Now and forever, both timeless and ephemeral...

The music of the guitar, the birds, laughter becomes jubilation and celebration.  The candles of the blessing circle are moved to the bases of the fire bowls.  The soft short phhffft of a bottle of Dom Perignon champagne being uncorked is all but lost in the song of knowing love.  Antique hollow stem champagne glasses are passed to the couple and their guests, and the toast to the marriage is made.  Out in the forest a pair of bright red honeycreepers known by their Hawaiian name apapane  flit and play as if to echo the heart song of the couple in the pavilion, who see them and raise a toast to the birds, guests in their wooded mountain abode.  Then from the darkening jungle comes rhythmic ipu drumming and a Hawaiian chant, as if the forest itself had raised a voice, the words calling down blessings of the ancestors on the couple.  The chanting halau enters the pavilion, completes the chant, and bestows more lei on the couple, then disappears back into the ferns and ohia. The mystical magical sense is much like the ancestors had heard them and made an appearance.  

... to be continued...