Wedding Ceremony Arlington: Wedding Officiant Lance Describes the Carillon Bells

Having A Wedding in Arlington VA Speaker: Lance Orndorff, WeddingsbyLance.com
Hi, Lance here again, to talk about a great wedding venue.
That’s having an Arlington wedding over at either the Iwo Jima Memorial or the Carillon
Bells. The site of the Carillon Bells, if you are
not familiar where it is located; it is right next to the Iwo Jima Memorial.
Which is near the intersection of 27, 66, and 50, it’s down near the intersection.
You’ll want to take a look at a map, and get your directions down right because if
you drive up to the monument the wrong way you can get turned around. It takes you a
while to get back on track. There next to the Iwo Jima Memorial
is the Carillon Bells; it was a gift to the United States from the
Netherlands, as thanks for being there for them during the war.
The garden out in front, the grassy area, and garden circle that is out in front of
the Carillon Bells is a fabulous place for an Arlington wedding
ceremony. As an officiate, I am happy to go out there.
I have officiated many weddings at the Carillon Bells, in front of it, where there is an interesting
juxtaposition of monuments. If you have not been out there; you may not
be aware that, when you stand at or near the Iwo Jima Memorial
you look toward Washington DC. The monuments line up right along a straight
line. The Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial,
and then further beyond that, the Capitol. You may be able to see; off to the side the
Jefferson, I don’t recall if you can. But you are able to see all those monuments because
they line up with the Iwo Jima Memorial. If you are over at the Corillon Bells,
which is just east of that monument, just about 1,000 feet,
the vantage point that you have when you look out at the wedding ceremony,
if your crowed is looking out at you and your standing down on the hill,
you are just off the line of site enough that you are able to see all three of those beautiful
structures in Washington DC. You can see the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington
Monument, and the Capitol building there in the background.
The visual on that is just stunning. The weather is almost always perfect out there.
I don’t think I’ve ever been out there in Arlington, officiating as the minister
where the weather hasn’t been just fantastic. Sometimes they will have a hoopa out,
so if one of the couple are Jewish or both of the couple are Jewish, or a Jewish tradition
joined in with other tradition, they’ll erect a hoopa and put chairs out,
the whole works. As far as getting a permit, if you have just
a couple people, we can stand there and do a ceremony and no one will care.
If you have a larger group and you want to put chairs, and have a regular ceremony,
then you are going to want to call the Park Service to make the arrangements for a permit
for that location. I will tell you, right there with the Iwo
Jima Memorial off to the left and all the monuments lined up in front,
and Arlington National Cemetery off to the right,
it is a solemn, wonderful, beautiful place, especially when the flowers are all in bloom.
If you timing it right, just as you finish the ceremony the Carillon Bells begin to ring,
which is a bell tower if you are not familiar. For an Arlington wedding ceremony, I’m available
if you need and officiate; you want to check me out at
www.weddingsbylance.com lots of good resources there. But also I will
tell you, it is a great place to have a wedding. So, I will see you on the isle.