Duuuude... I'm married.
Sep. 20th, 2008 12:09 pmThe wedding was a brilliant success. Allow me to provide the brief summary:
We had the event at the Governor's Inn, in Rochester, NH. The ceremony began at sunset. It was a traditional pagan handfasting ceremony. Our guests were seated in a circle around the altar. Four of our friends called the corners with candles lighted by our priestess. Our Flower Child, my niece, dropped rose petals from a bukkit. We walked in to the instrumental version of the love theme from "A Princess Bride."
Our officiant opened the ceremony with the "Mawage" quote from the Princess Bride, to the entertained laughter, giggling, snickering, and sporfling of our friends. It was then that some people may have noticed that our officiant was holding a copy of the first Harry Potter book.
Our officiant introduced the ceremony, defined love and marriage and all that jazz, and gave a brief explanation of what a handfasting meant.
We lit the God and Goddess candles, and did a brief blessing/anointing.
Then, we had the Unity Bukkit. One of our friends brought forth a small shiny tin pail, symbolizing the vessel into which we would pour our individual lives to create something new. The crowd laughed. Then, we were asked to present what we'd chosen to represent our individual lives that we would combine together. Fi's cousin and my friend kriken stood and revealed a bottle of Boulevard beer and a bottle of Sam Adam's beer, respectively, and popped the tops. I indicated that Sam Adam's was always a good decision, and Fi reminded everyone to drink responsibly. We poured our beers into the bukkit. Fi took a swig of hers... then another. And yes, we drank from the bukkit.
Then came the actual handfasting. Our mothers presented the cords. Our Priestess tied a knot in the middle of them, and while reading off a verse that we'd written (and we repeated, each in turn), she tied Fi's cord around my wrist, and my cord around Fi's wrist. Instead of "I do", I said, "Can has." Fi rolled her eyes and said it too. The final pronouncement: "By the power vested in me by the God and the Goddess, and on loan from the State of New Hampshire, I now pronounce you (insert real names here), stuck together for life. You may now snog."
We proceeded to the reception, to the tune of "Love is All You Need" by the Beetles. The reception was held in the carriage house cafe, which had been decorated with a tastefully understated pirate theme. Hey, it was National Talk Like a Pirate Day - we couldn't pass up the opportunity. The tables were set with pirate maps that we'd made ourselves. Some were quite amusing. (Use your imagination - what would fandomers and geeks do with fabric and permanent markers when told to "draw something piratey?")
There was a help-yourself buffet of hearty hors d'oeurves , and we let people eat and relax for a while, and we got something for ourselves to eat. We made the social rounds (which was a lot of fun - I actually WANTED to see everyone who was there), and then once people were a bit warmer and slightly lubricated, we went outside for our first dance. The tune was "The Rainbow Connection," as sung by Kermit the Frog.
We went inside for the dessert - canolis from Mike's Pastries in the North End of Boston.
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Later, we tossed the bouquet from the balcony (read: fire escape from the carriage house apartment above the cafe)... and had set up the bouquet to fall apart on the way down. Instead of one bouquet, the crowd (which included anyone who was single - boys and girls) had a small shower of sunflowers to catch. And then, Fi surprised me with a garter. That was fun.
The party had thinned out a bit by then, so we rearranged the tables in the cafe, and began doing some proper dancing. As the evening wound down, we had our DJ play "Save the Last Dance for Me," to which we danced with an aviator scarf - the ultimate nod to our slasher crowd.
After that, the fun people retreated to our upstairs suite for continued chit-chat and partying. I think the last people left at 2:00 AM.
Good times. And now... I've got to go. Stuff to do!