YOU Made Our Love Ceremony Magical – Thank You

Hello Our Dearest Family and Friends,

Sitting in the sun on the back deck as the humming birds keep flying above, Evan and I reminisce of last weekend when a truly magical storm swept into our lives. Unpredictable conditions created the most surreal and coolest wedding ceremony having all the elements, earth, wind, and fire, in full force.

We are so in awe just how blessed we really are to have family and community to step up and support us in such forceful conditions to create PURE magic. We had soooo much fun and are forever grateful to each of you for the mystical love you shared with us in a wild and unpredictable adventure of a day.

We planned a 1,000 little details for this day for almost a year. We picked the lowest tide of the year, we picked the date that has traditionally always had the best weather in San Francisco (the last 3 weeks has had some of the best weather we have had all year… except on our wedding day), we carried in all these decorations and seating so our guests would feel so comfortable on the beach and in the sand that day, we had homemade special desserts and lavender lemonade sweetened with honey for our guests… we could go on and on of all the small details that were put in to this day. Except… none of those things landed where they were supposed to and some stayed in boxes due to the elements at play that day.

You see… Mother Nature, in all of her glory, had other plans for us that day. She decided she wanted to decorate and celebrate our day with stormy and cold as the theme.

We had 35 miles per hour winds, we had a storm surge waters of 20 feet higher then normal, there was a fire (smoke signals from Sepulvada) in the sea cliffs where we swim to as I was walking down the aisle, the waves were huge swells, and the bitter San Francisco cold came with a grand entrance.

However challenging it was, Mother Nature’s decision ended up up being perfect for us, making a truly unforgettable and absolutely amazing celebration to remember.

With all these dramatic details and changing landscapes, we had all of you as a community show up and band together to decorate, re-arrange, spread love, huddle together to create warmth, and be what the definition of FAMILY should be… supported with LOVE and JOY!

That is what we wanted and you as a community gave us the best wedding gift we could have ever asked for that day.

We wholeheartedly enjoyed all of you, sharing with each other, and celebrating our love with the love we have for all of you!

It felt like a story book tale where the elements all came to celebrate with us and we all were courageous to stand and dance in the winds of uncertainty and witness what true love looks like. Not only in our relationship but as a community based on raw and out of this world JOY.

We truly believe Mother Nature was washing away in the wind and water all the obstacles that lay before our path. Giving us a gentle reminder that the magic of the universe is ALWAYS there and when you whisper your prayers, miracles happen.

We just can’t thank you enough. We are so grateful to each of you for your service, your love, your prayers, your emotion, your giggles, and your hard work and labor in unreal conditions, for dancing with us, for loading and unloading trucks, but mostly for witnessing our special moments. We feel forever bonded with all of you…thank you.

Some of you could not attend for various reasons like health, financial restraints, and work… and yet you still participated in your loving wishes, thoughts and prayers… we felt it, and we are still so grateful for all of your energy to move us thru this adventure.

It took a village, literally, to contribute and allow our wedding come to life.

There were a few people who went above and beyond that there is no way that our wedding day would have been as magical as it was without them. We want to take the time to really thank their tireless efforts to create such a lovely setting in hurricane winds and insane obstacles.

• To Gaby and Josh who, by far, stepped up the most the week of the wedding… taking over logistics and becoming the wedding captains that saved the day… and the week! I, for the first time in my life, let someone do for me what I do for others. I let her be in control and steer the ship so I could be with my beloved Evan, fully present, and with all of you as my heart family. I have never had anything like this happen for me in my life. It was game changing… Thanks Gaby for being such an amazing friend to both of us and Josh for helping to create the pure magic.
• To another angel, Parvati, who ushered Evan and I into our vows and commitments in a way that was so lovely, organic, and transformative… We could not have imagined anyone better summoning the wind and dancing with it so eloquently and so full of radiating pure love. We are so grateful to you on so many levels.
• To my mermaid sister, Tali, who planned and created the most amazing flowers and decorations that I could have ever hoped for. The crown she made for me made me feel like all my dreams could come true in a moment and my bouquet of flowers and sea shells was so full of love, I just can’t quit staring at it.
• To my other mermaid sister, Jjanne, who with Tali decorated Betty with hand painted signs, flowers, and custom pink cans… it is still on Betty and makes me smile with such pleasure.
• To Jasmine for beautifully creating my makeup and helping in preparing me for the day.
• To Dirk for going above and beyond photographing and capturing all the magnificent memories from our event and our Joy. With such an amazing eye, he brought so much fun and light to our day and our memories that will last a lifetime.
• To Swim Daddy and Big Papa for giving me away against gale force winds and making me giggle all the way thru it all.
• To Robin for capturing everything on video for us to treasure all the little moments.
• To Evan’s mom-Sarah, dad-Andy, stepdad-Randy, and siblings-Beau, Hanna, and Jessie, for being such a loving and much appreciated support system for us leading up to and on our big day. Especially all the little details and food ordering we needed help with in getting food to the wedding (our food vendor went out of business that week).
• To my mom, Martha, for dancing with the adventure and being a part of it all.
• To Chris Fox for DJing at the last minute and rolling with sea and wind to create a lovely dance party.
• Then there were our HUGE HEART FAMILY IN ACTION – Thea, Joanna, Maritza, Dawn, Amanda, Carrie, Mackie, Roberta, Lisa Graham, Martha, Abbey, Swim Jen, Pia, Shane, Joe, Matt, Rjat, and Nenad for going above and beyond in set up and break down! You were so amazing and thoughtful in how you set up everything and were angels in action. And Kate & Marcus, Kate, Pilar, Amy, Annia, Ankar, Corey, Christina, Frano & Petra, Gigi, Laura, Michelle, Buck and Rhada for stepping in moments needed. And so many more who helped with decorations, set up, food preparation, table set up and break down, showering guests with OneMama beads, decorating the aisle with sea shells, re-setting up the beach over and over again after wind and water shifted it all, and all the loading in and loading out, food and drinks, and just coming to be a part of the beautiful energy and joy that surrounded us all on our day. What a lot of work for all of you, and you all seemed so joyful and smiling… makes our hearts soar.
• Thanks to so many of you who came long distances to be with us on our special day… Joe, Matt Harvey, Abbey, Roberto, Darcy & Rachelle, Marla, Jenny Monster, Colette, Chad & Alice, Cathy & Birdie, Christiana DeRosa, David & Catalina, Nick & Sherrie, Joe, Brad & Ruth and so many more that took that extra to be with us.
• Thanks for all the honeymoon donations. We are so touched and grateful to take our adventure with you in our hearts… We know a few of you still wanted to donate here is the link if you are inspired theknot.com/us/siobhanandevan or theknot.com/us/siobhan-neilland-and-evan-krause-sep-2019/registry
• The OneMama Clinic donations in honor of our wedding that you made saved 500 lives so far and we are so grateful and so is Mama Jamira and the OneMama family at OneMama.org.
• The gifts and cards have been overwhelming to get thru and we are truly touched by the generosity and such open hearted love and support for us… thanks for being our beloved community!
• There are so many people we didn’t get to hug and kiss and thank face to face for all you did in joining us, helping out, and for just being there to witness love in stormy conditions… thank you… thank you!!!

We are beyond grateful we chose each other and have chosen you as our family and friends in this wild adventure.

We are sure there is more to say. It’s just that we have no words to fully express how utterly thankful we are to each of you for your gifts,  love, support, and pure joy.

… Here is to more days of pure joy as a community together!

With All Our Love and Light,
Evan and Siobhan