Wedding

We went to a wedding this morning for Thom's friend Ann. He worked with Ann and another woman, Carolyn, when I first met him. They were the entire staff of the local office of a national company, so they were pretty close.

Not long after Thom and I started dating, he changed companies, and shortly after that, Ann and Carolyn also went their own ways. But the three of them stayed in touch and still meet for lunch a couple times a year. Ann and Allex and Carolyn came to our wedding 7 years ago, and a couple years ago, we all went to Carolyn's wedding. Ann and Allex have been together longer than us - 14 years compared to our 10, but only recently have they been granted to right to marry.

The ceremony was held outside and the weather was beautiful. Aaron was especially entranced by the live music. I brought Duplos and books to help keep him entertained, too, but for awhile he was content to just watch the musicians.

When a song would end, even if Aaron was looking at his book, he stopped to clap. And when the ceremony started, he kept watching them and signing "Please", hoping they would play another song.
Allex and Ann's dog Aloha participated in the ceremony, and given her name, I thought Aaron's Hawaiian shirt was appropriate. We don't have any formal wear for him, so jeans and a button down shirt were the best I could do. But I did put on his adorable little shoes from our friends Crystal and Eric, which he toddled around in (with one hand held) before the ceremony and later at the reception.

The wedding ceremony was a Taoist ceremony, which was new for us. The man performing the ceremony (I'm not sure what his title was) came out before hand and explained a little about what we would see, which was a nice touch since it was probably the first Taoist wedding most of us had been to.

Not only did the service start on time, but it was over in 15 minutes. That's my kind of wedding, especially with a baby in tow.

The reception was at Ann and Allex's house. They have a lovely backyard garden and we enjoyed a nice brunch reception. Aaron was pretty good for most of it, eating lots of melon and scone. But eventually, he had to get up and walk around, especially up the 11 steps from the back yard to the entrance to the house.

We shared a table with Carolyn and a mother and daughter we just met. The daughter is a 2nd grade teacher in a local school district. We were talking a little about Prop 8, which would amend the state constitution to prevent similar weddings. The teacher was angry over the ads that have been running saying that schools will have to teach gay marriage. She said she doesn't even teach about marriage in her class. It's unfortunate that the Yes on 8 campaign has resorted to lies to try to sway voters. I just hope that the right to marry isn't overturned on Tuesday.