Monday 6 August 2012

On.... the perfect wedding day

So. Just over two years ago, Fox and I got married in Manhattan. (Crowd goes wild.) Yes! I know. Mawwiage.
Anyway, we had a civil ceremony down at Town Hall in the morning, followed by a blessing / ceremony and all night party for 150 of our nearest and dearest.

This is Manhattan the morning of our wedding day. View from the bedroom window.



In the taxi. Blue hydrangeas.



This rat I saw the moment we got out of the taxi at Town Hall (it was good luck!).





The first step we took as a married couple (yah we are total dorks).



Just after getting officially hitched. I have some more photos somewhere, I think, I'll try to find them and post them... Or our witnesses might be able to send some to me. Conor? Caroline?



Then we kissed goodbye, Fox went to lunch with the groomsmen, and I ran off to get my hair and makeup done with the bridesmaids. I wasn't nervous in the morning at all - it was casual and funny and awesome - but by midday, I got okay-let's-get-this-shit-over-with nervous.

The ceremony / blessing part in front of all our friends and family started at 5pm. I am pretty staunchly non-religious, so we didn’t have any hymns or anything churchesque. All we wanted with was to make everyone laugh and feel happy and included. Because that’s what love is all about.

So I walked down the aisle to Feeling Good by Nina Simone. The five seconds before I walked down the aisle, I thought I was going to pass out from fear. (The song still gives me goosebumps.)

Then my sister read a poem we love called In That Still And Settled Place, Fox’s sister read the words to I Should Be So Lucky by Kylie Minogue (seriously, think about it, it’s pretty awesome) and our friend Hawk read a children’s book called A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton.
Then everyone sang our song, Happy Together by The Turtles.

Then we walked out to Baby I Love You by The Ramones.



Goddamnit, it was awesome.




This is our wedding party on the streets of Tribeca just after the ceremony. We're playing a game called Happy/Sad. Simple rules: everyone does a sad face and then everyone does a happy face. (I know. We are COOL.)
Then we drank a lot of martinis, ate a lot of steak and cake, some very funny speeches, a lot of dancing, and a 1950s-style Du Wop band from Jersey followed by a DJ who enthusiastically agreed to our music guidelines (lots of OK Go, absolutely nothing lame). At 1am milk and cookies were offered, alongside cheeseburgers and champagne. (Most of our guests were more of the cheeseburgers and champagne types.)
It was a perfect day.

If I could change anything about it, however, I might add this to the ceremony. It's the wording from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ­decision that it be the first US State to authorize gay marriage.

Civil marriage is at once a deeply personal commitment to another human being and a highly public celebration of the ideals of mutuality, companionship, intimacy, fidelity, and family … Because it fulfills yearnings for security, safe haven, and connection that express our common humanity, civil marriage is an esteemed institution, and the decision whether and whom to marry is among life’s momentous acts of self-definition.

4 comments:

  1. Oh Gosh, that last paragraph just made me cry. I am a sap.

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  2. Thanks for sharing the photos and the story... well, except maybe the dead rat.

    You can't go wrong with Nina Simone, of course.

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  3. The bottom photo is my favourite! Looks like something out of Friends :)

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