And What A Wedding It Was

As it turns out, going to Florida to see a bunch of my friends at a big queer wedding for a couple of our other friends was exactly what I needed to do this weekend.

Anna.

There is no way I'm going to get this post written in its entirety tonight but I'm going to start. I really didn't know HOW to start and then I saw what Anna had posted on Facebook and I stole the picture and the quote and left her a comment telling her that if she wasn't happy about that to let me know and I hope that she's not unhappy about that because I think it's perfect. I have spoken about Anna many times as she started out as a friend of Hank's and then became a sort-of friend of mine and yes, another member of the family who has spent a whole lot of Thanksgivings with us and Easters, too, I think, and she moved to Minneapolis a while back and we've missed her like crazy and when I saw her yesterday I was thrilled. Oh my goodness, we hugged!

Y'all- they did it. Hank and Rachel fucking DID IT! They pulled together the queerest wedding of all times (or at least that had been held at the Miccosukee Land Co-op last week), and into this decidedly non-traditional wedding they inserted many, many traditional elements up to and including a first dance, a wedding cake, a groom's cake, so many flowers, a gift table, a bride wearing white, a groom wearing a suit, and dancing children.

I'm getting way ahead of myself. 
The wedding itself was held outside and Juancho/John did the honors with Tia beside Rachel and Jacob beside Hank. But before the ceremony began, Hank realized that certain people were not yet seated and so, in his best and loudest Trivia Master voice, he called them in. By name. 
It was so Hank. 

And then Rachel and Tia walked up to the little stage where the ceremony was held and Tia made sure to keep Rachel's dress arranged properly as to the lace train part. She was amazing! 
Jacob held the rings and Juancho did the ceremony. 
It was a really good ceremony and he shocked the hell out of me when he quoted a thing from one of my blog posts about how to have a good marriage. I'd link that advice but I can't find it. Basically it went like this- Marry the Right Person. 

Hank and Rachel looked at each other exactly like you'd want two people who were getting married to look. As if no one else in the world was even there. As if they were looking at their entire worlds in each other's eyes. As if they'd been through the fire and were now in the sweet cooling waters of peace and love. As if they were saying, "I do. I most certainly do."

We all cried. Glen said that he heard Gibson asking Owen if he had gotten emotional during the ceremony because he himself had cried. Gibson has the tenderest heart of all of them. 

And he wanted a boutonnière so I pinned a rose on him. That's Lauren sitting beside him and see the guy with the beard back there? That's my Billy.

So yes, we all cried and we all clapped when Juancho declared them married and demanded that they kiss and they, as a married couple, walked back down the aisle together and Billy's mother had passed out little bubble wands so bubbles followed them all the way down their first journey together as wedded and the bubbles shone with their rainbow iridescence as well they should have. 

It was a rainbow wedding for sure. There were so many queers there,  friends from way, way back, with lives that intertwine and are woven together in the very cloth of their lives. 
And many of them are woven into my life too. Our family's life. Because Hank has always shared his friends with his family, knowing that everyone he loves, we will too. 

But here's the thing- there were people of every description, gender, identification, occupation, age, and status in life and every one of them was there because they love Hank and/or Rachel and wanted to be part of their joyful celebration. 
Oh my goodness. It was amazing. It was beautiful. It was far more everything than I had expected it would be. I have no idea how this all came together but it did.  And so many people were part of the reason it did. 

Lis Williamson made the wreaths which were just what Hank and Rachel wanted. 

Tia had one as well. 

She also made a boutonnière for Jacob. Some of the elements she used in these things came all the way from Australia and I am sure she spent hundreds of hours making them. She made me what could have been a bouquet, but which I pinned in my hair. 

Also the groom's cake. 

And let us not mention the fact that she was there for me when anxiety took me over, when I needed someone to hold my hand in support. There is no one like Lis. I love her so dearly. 

The family pictures were taken after the ceremony which did not take long compared to every other wedding I've ever been involved with on that level and there was fruit and cheese and a few other lovely things for people to snack on while that was going on. 

There were so many people! The community center was packed. Every seat at every table was filled and no, there were no place cards. People sat where they wanted and old friends reunited and new friends were made. 

My brother Chuck came and his wife, Kathe. Because of many stupid damn reasons, Chuck and I do not see each other enough but we love each other profoundly. I was very, very glad to see him and re-introduce him to my grandchildren whom he hasn't seen in quite awhile. 

Speaking of grandchildren.

This picture is misleading. Owen is now officially taller than his mama. 

 

The young'uns. 

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All right, you guys. This is all I can do tonight. Mr. Moon must have some supper and I suppose I should too. 

Dear Lord. What a weekend. 
But Hank and Rachel are well and truly wed and on Monday they are leaving for New Orleans, Louisiana for a honeymoon. 

I'm telling you, they are doing it right. They have done it right. They will do it right. And I could not love them more or be more proud of them than I am. 

Their first dance. The song they danced to was La Vie En Rose, the Louis Armstrong version. 

 

Stay tuned for more stories and pictures including the Sister Speeches! You do not want to miss this. 

Love...Ms. Moon