My Favorite Wedding Story

A very amusing post over at The Ice Floe reminded me of this memory. When you've read them both, you'll understand the connection.

It was a lesbian commitment ceremony in 1998, planned by my daughter elswhere and her partner RW. From far and wide about 100 people were streaming to a beautiful Victorian resort-town near Canada to witness the event. Months of preparation had gone into the event, with not a little trepidation about encountering overt and incipient homophobia.

The ceremony was a rousing success, as was the entire weekend, including the meeting of the two brides' families for the first time, and some family feuds were healed. Throughout all the planning - the invitations, the caterer, the dresses, the rehearsal dinner, the musicians, the program, the vows, the hotel, the photographer, etc., etc. - nobody involved batted an eye that this was for two women (admittedly, it was still the era of "It's the economy, stupid," but still, I was impressed.)

Later elswhere reported this happening after the event:

She and RW stayed on in Victorian Resort Town for a couple of nights to recover from the festivities, and so it wasn't until two days later that they went together to the local rental shop where they had rented various items like chairs and tableware, to settle their account:

RW: "We're here to pay our bill for the Booland wedding."

Saleswoman: "Oh, you're from that wedding over at the Victorian Resort Town Hotel. We heard it was really unusual."

Uh-oh, they thought, here it comes.

RW (cautiously): "In what way?"

They held their breath to prepare themselves for the reply.

Salewoman: "We heard it was a Jewish wedding! With lots of wonderful dancing!"
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(And so it was)------------------------->