1. Michele & Paul November 22, 2000

2. Anne Marie performs our ceremony at sunset as (l-r) Matt, Elsie, Chris, and Melissa look on.

3. We pledge to love, honor, and care for one another as long as we both shall live.

4. A moment in private to say our vows.

5. By the power vested in Anne Marie by the island of St. John, we are now Husband & Wife!

6. Chris congratulates Paul

7. The wedding party pauses for a group shot

8. Melissa, Paul, Michele, and Matt

9. Elsie, Paul, Michele, and Chris (oops! - Elsie had been crying tears of joy and Paul got caught during a blink)

10. No threshold in sight, just a pose of the newlyweds.

11. Looking forward to a future of love and happiness.

12. The Groom gives the Bride a ‘piggyback’

14. We board our open-air taxi, headed back to the St. John ferry dock.

15. Our wedding rings

16. The Ceremony We are joyfully gathered today to witness and celebrate the joining of two lives in marriage. Paul and Michele have invited you to be with them, and to rejoice with them in the making of this important commitment. The essence of this commitment is the honoring of another person in their entirety as life partner, everlasting lover, heart companion and soul friend. It is therefore a decision which is undertaken with great consideration and respect. Paul and Michele have come together in the hope that the love which brought them to this union may go out beyond itself into the lives of others. Thus, we ask that the promise and hopes of this union be realized. May you both be granted the patience to listen, the capacity to understand, the compassion to give comfort, and the joy to laugh and to be yourselves. Let your marriage make a home, where neither person is ever lonely. Let it offer illumination and the excitement of shared discoveries. Let it be large enough to endure the difficult times. May life’s challenges bring you closer together and may you always be able to turn to each other. Paul, do you take Michele to be your wife and equal? Will you share your life openly with her and promise to love, honor and stand beside her always, in times of joy and times of conflict? Michele, do you take Paul to be your husband and equal? Will you share your life openly with him and promise to love, honor and stand beside him always, in times of joy and times of conflict? A circle is the symbol of sun, the earth, the universe, of wholeness, perfection, peace and of unity. Like circles, your rings have no beginning and no ending. They are symbols of the growing relationship you have come to celebrate and confirm. Paul, as a sign of your faithfulness, place the ring on Michele’s finger and repeat after me, “I take you Michele as my wife through all of the experience life holds for us, in faith and love.” Michele, as a sign of your faithfulness, place the ring on Paul’s finger and repeat after me, “I take you Paul as my husband through all of the experience life holds for us, in faith and love.” Having heard the vows you have made to each other, witnessed by these loved ones, by the power vested in me by the territorial court of the Virgin Islands, I now pronounce you husband and wife. You nay now kiss the bride.