So, it’s official!  Jow and I are legally married.

We had a small rehearsal barbeque at my mom’s the night before, most of our friends came along with my parents, Jow’s parents and my sister’s family.  We drank banana daiquiris and ate grilled meat and regaled each other with stories about our families and our pasts. It was my mom’s birthday and we stuck candles in the canolis and the cheesecake and sang to her.

Pre-wedding ceremony, I went to my mom’s to get ready.  April2 came over to help and she brought Italian Lobster Tail pastries and French martinis and we giggled and watched the wedding scene from the BBC version of Pride and Prejudice.  I wasn’t nervous anymore, I was excited and everything felt perfect.  I wore my grandmother’s gold satin dressing gown over my dress as I did my makeup.  My hair was done up by my hairdressed and was perfectly Joan Holloway.

The wedding ceremony was lovely, Gordon said it was as close to Masonic as you can get while still being Catholic.  To me, it reminded me of the wedding scene from Baz Lehrman’s version of Romeo + Juliet.  We used the small chapel (with the Dyonisian stained glass), I even wore a corsage instead of carrying a traditional bouquet.  It felt so exciting to be sitting on opposite sides of the aisle, stealing glances at each other like we were super Orthodox.  When our priest read our reading from Song of Songs, I totally teared up as Jow and I locked eyes from across the aisle.  (My lover speaks; he says to me,     “Arise, my beloved, my dove, my beautiful one, and come!”)  I offered flowers to Mary (and it was made clear that my time with Her was my time with Her and I could talk to her about whatever I felt like).  We drank from the chalice, just like the wedding guests at Cana did.  Once we were married, then we sat together and of course we sealed our vows with a kiss.  After the ceremony, everyone waved the wands (like these) I made for good luck.

We got some good shots in outside before it downpoured (good luck anyway) and Jow and I enjoyed having the car ride to our reception to ourselves, we played the soundtrack from R+J.  At the reception there were the usual small kerfuffles but our decorations were up (bunting flags made of burnished gold and mossy greens, moss terrariums with tiny golden deer, hand pressed [by me] rooibos teabags with little tags that said “Love is Brewing” with our names and honey sticks), we were seated with our friends.  We managed to snag a whole large bottle of wine for ourselves as we ate and drank and laughed.  Jow and I stole away to the wine cellar for more couple shots and made friends with the patrons there who saw us as good luck charms.  We made our rounds and our families left and we snuck into the now empty side room where we played our wedding song (“Chariots Rise“) and put on iPod headphone in each of our ears and danced by ourselves in the quiet empty room.  We took our friends to the porch outside which we had to ourselves and we drank thyme vodka lemonaid and lemon drop shots while everyone told stories and laughed and got sentimental.   Jow and I adjourned to continue our properly Pagan festivities in our gorgeous room that had a downy bed big enough for four and a hot tub big enough for a private party and a deck that was perfect for sealing our marriage.

We had brunch overlooking the water with our friends the next day.  Mimosas, perfect waffles and eggs benedict as we said our good byes and headed out for our honeymoon.  We stopped at wineries along the way and went to our favorite teahouse.   We enjoyed wine by the fireplace, touring Guilded Age Museums with ornate huge porcelein dolls with human hair, high tea service in the museum/mansion’s dining room, we visited with alpacas and tried local maple syrup, we made dinner with local heirloom tomatoes and fresh figs and cider donuts for desserts, we went to French restaurants and tapa restaurants and enjoyed ourselves immensely.

It was perfect.