My wedding story (for the Passionate Inkers)

I'd mentioned my two weddings on a post at the forum for Passionate Ink, the erotic romance chapter of RWA, and had several requests for the story. Posting the story in that thread didn't make sense, but this blog feeds to the forum, so here you go, ladies (and anyone else who's curious.)

OK, ladies, the wedding story. Quite simple, really.

Himself and I got engaged in March of 2002. We'd been together for eight years by that time so we didn't feel any need for a long engagement. We didn't want an elaborate traditional wedding--I'm a pagan, so an outdoor ceremony felt more appropriate, and the symbolism of the big white floofy dress just didn't work for me. (Red leather, maybe. White floof, not so much.) We decided to get married in our backyard on Midsummer, have a potluck barbecue that we knew would rock thanks to our wonderful foodie friends, and wear Cavalier outfits just because it would be fun. (Have I mentioned we're in the SCA?)

There was only one hitch. My mom was the director of a small museum at the time--a Victorian house that was often rented out for weddings. And there was a wedding on that day at the museum, so she needed to be there. For what it's worth, she offered us the museum for our wedding, but all our friends would have had to travel from New England, except for the ones making the trek from California, and her town's over an hour from the nearest airport and six hours by car from Boston. Too much hassle--and I wanted outdoors.

We all felt strongly that Mom needed to be there. So we arranged for a JP ceremony on a date Mom could attend, which happened to be just after May day/Beltaine. Nice little ceremony attended by Mom and Jeff's brother and his wife, a big dinner at a local bistro, and that was that.

Six weeks later, we had the big party in the fancy clothes, presided over by a couple of special friends as high priest and high priestess. And guess what? The couple whose wedding Mom was supposed to shepherd broke up. Sad for them, good for us--we had Mom at both weddings.

This seemed especially important because between the two ceremonies, Himself's father passed away, leaving Mom as the last surviving parent in our family. It was good to have her there to honor on our special day.