We did it! Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 06:04 PM PST Topic Experiences On Saturday, October 26th pAris and I got married! I should probably put this in the forums, because it was a blessedly un-shemgy event. However, now that it is all said and done I can say that it was a rather surreal experience. We have been together for a while now, and somewhat informally "engaged" for a few years. We decided at a friend's wedding in June that we should do it (both for legal reasons and for our families) soon if we were going to. So we started planning our Halloween wedding. (Sorry Monolycus, wedding planning and the start of the quarter were ultimately the death of my participation in the book club! doh!) I have to say that everything went as well I as ever could have hoped. We rented an old Victorian era firehouse with a big outdoor garden. We wrote our own ceremony, which was performed in the garden by candlelight by a good friend of ours. The ceremony itself was pretty short...we walked down the aisle, did a Cherokee blessing, exchanged rings and vows, another blessing (Apache this time...I was raised mainly plains native american if I had to pick a religion), kissed, and that was it. Did I mention our officiant was dressed like the pope? It was a costume wedding and reception. Everyone looked great. I wore a red victorian dress patterned off the one in Moulin Rouge (the smouldering temptress dress) with a black veil and he wore top hat and tails. The bridesmaids picked out their own dresses...no pink taffeta. Almost everyone that attended came in costume, and we put masks on all the tables for those who didn't. My parents (who laughed at the whole idea when we first told them) came in full renaissance garb. In attendance we had Hunter S. Thompson, the Pope, a full Mariachi band (who people thought we hired!), Jack the Ripper (aka my husband), Carmen Miranda, the Dread Pirate Roberts, tons of others I am forgetting, and a slew of gorgeous women and men in masks. We joked before the wedding about how it was really just a formality for us, and a way to get insurance. I guess I assumed it would be the same for the people who know us well. But I was really surprised by the end of the night how people suddenly seemed to be taking our relationship more seriously. For me it was kind of like having a birthday. I never *feel* a year older on that day. I certainly didn't *feel* any differently (except maybe tired) when it was all over. One of our good (married) friends at the reception started chanting "one of us! one of us!" ala Freaks. On the down side, it makes living in sin much harder. So anyway, now it is life back to normal. We're taking a honeymoon to Maui in December at the end of the quarter. Just thought I would share some good news for once. I will indeed post some pictures as soon as I get around to collecting them... This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=421