Loose Leaf Notes

–The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on April 23, 2010

Katherine Chantal has been offering life passage ceremonies for over 30 years, including blessingways for women and newborns, coming of age celebrations, weddings and memorial services. What began as a service for friends and family grew to include the wider community. After becoming a registered officiant twenty-five years ago, able to legally perform weddings, she set up a webpage, Life Ceremonies by Katherine. With that and word-of-mouth recommendations, news of her personalized ceremonial services spread.

Since then, Chantal has traveled to several states for weddings but generally stays close to home. She has facilitated everything from five-minute ceremonies with only the bride and groom, to the most elaborate ceremonies, drawing on a wide variety of traditions and co-creating uniquely meaningful celebrations with couples. She has performed weddings on top of Buffalo Mountain, at Blue Ridge Parkway overlooks, alongside the ocean, at wedding venues, in gardens, homes and farms. Recently, she officiated one during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Leanne Hancock-Scott, a counselor with the New River Valley Community Services, and Troy Scott, Vice President of Roanoke Custom Products, had planned to have a small May ceremony on the water in Wilmington, NC, followed by a July reception party in Bassett VA, where Hancock-Scott’s parents live. But with the coronavirus looming and concerns that cases and shut-downs could get worse, they decided to get married soon.

A friend of Hancock’s who lives in Floyd discovered that Chantal was highly recommended and passed the information on to the couple, who live in Christiansburg. They filled out an inquiry form via lifecermoniesbykatherine.com and connected by email. ‘I wonder if you’re doing weddings at this time?’ was the first question Hancock-Scott asked Chantal. Chantal joked, “My schedule is pretty open right now,” considering all the wedding cancellations, due to the pandemic.

Chantal and Hancock-Scott worked together over the phone choosing and customizing readings and vows. Three days later, on April 4th, the wedding took place on Woods Gap Road in Floyd, at the gardens of Catherine Pauley, an artist and retired high school art teacher. “We just really wanted to get married. I told Katherine that it could be in my living room. I didn’t care, but she knew about the garden. That made it special,” Hancock-Scott said.

It was before Governor Northam’s recommendation of wearing masks, but physical distancing and limits on group gatherings were in effect.  Not wanting to risk too many interactions, the couple decided to have only Hancock-Scott’s parents and Scott’s mother in attendance. “We just wanted everyone to be safe,” Hancock-Scott said.

Keeping physical distancing in mind, Chantal offered a welcoming address among the trees at the top of Pauley’s garden. She guided the exchanging of vows and rings and announced a blessing proclamation. “I could see Buffalo Mountain in the background and cows in the field,” Chantal remembered.  “Everyone was smiling, happy that we were able to put something meaningful together so quickly.”

“I was ready to get married and didn’t put a lot of thought into it, outside of ‘thank God we can finally get married,’ but Katherine and our families went out of their way to make it special,” said Hancock-Scott. She described how her father played “Here Comes the Bride” on his phone as they walked to the garden patio together. “They decorated my car and my dad brought handfuls of rice that they tossed at us.”

Both Chantal and Hancock-Scott described two donkeys at the close of the ceremony. They were braying back and forth to each other from opposite ends of a nearby field, or maybe offering congratulations. “How many people have had donkeys braying at their wedding?” Chantal asked with a laugh.

Once married, the stress of the unknown was relieved, Hancock-Scott said. “The important part is done.” She commented that it was interesting to get married and then just go home. Because of the pandemic, the bride and groom didn’t have a honeymoon, but they created a “honeymoon day.” “We had to make it special. We went on the lake (Claytor) in Todd’s fishing boat. That was something we could still do.”

Hancock-Scott hasn’t worn her wedding dress yet, but she plans to for the already scheduled large reception party, which will now be a renewal ceremony and reception. It’s scheduled for July and the couple is hopeful that the pandemic will have subsided. “Now when we all get together, it will just be fun. It will be a celebration of our wedding and also of the fact that we can leave our homes and celebrate together,” she said. –  Colleen Redman