Photo Galleries
We were officially wed at City Hall in June, but we have always celebrated our anniversary on September 6th. We have a number of engraved items commemorating that date and we didn't want to lose a good thing (a date that even I remember) by having more than one date to remember for celebrating our union. So, we gave ourselves the best of both worlds-- our traditional anniversary date intertwined with our marriage date. What could go wrong with such clarity! Some things may even be engraved twice!! For a little special "something, something" find out which marriage celebration item is engraved from a previous anniversay celebration and is now also engraved with our marriage celebration date. Let Maggie or I know when you find it. The first person to figure it out, may get a little 'something, something."
These are some of the pictures from our marriage at City Hall.
We really got down to business at our wedding rehearsal dinner under the capable leadership of Zee Davis! And, there were some wonderful friends who traveled great distances to add their talents to the festivities, Berta Medicus-Moore and others.
We also enjoyed great food, with specialty dishes prepared by Jimmy Slaff-Gruel and a local Filipino restaurant, lots of laughter and lots of pre-event frivolity. And, Big Mike, our wedding photographer, caught a lot of it all on camera.
My challenge was to select no more than 100 photos for this particular gallery. Special thanks to our official wedding photographer, Big Mike Phillips, our dear friends Bixi Craig, editor of the Lavender Lens and Greg Bolian, Campaign to Elect Barack Obama Leader for making that a most difficult task!
Our dear friend Greg Bolian sent us a gorgeous photo of some of the members of the wedding party bursting at the seams with joy and laughter that was appropriately captioned: "The Happiest Place on Earth. . . and It's Not Disneyland."
How true. How true. It was most magical to see everything come together -- the firm hand of our Wedding Officiant, Zee Davis, and wedding party party members who went above and beyond for days and weeks of planning, preparation and putting together. Everything seemed to be touched with fairy dust and held together with laughter,love and care -- the people in attendance (some of whom ended up being pressed into service), the ceremony officials, the "Parade Route," plans, the walkway between two households, lights, seating,food, program,the floral and other arrangements, you name it-- so magnificently. We are so very grateful to the many friends and neighbors who gave so much of themselves- their ideas, talents and resources -- to make the magic happen. Our friends --from community groups who dedicated their time and talents to our celebration, local business owners who worked closely with us, musicians, Smoove Inspirations, our wonderful bartender and DJ team, the photographers, videographers, the caterer, Greeters and the SPIN Team. None of this would have been possible without everyone's special addition to the celebration.
Thanks to all who traveled from near and far to share in the magic. We can't wait to see the video to relive the moments in ways we can't with photos alone. Great photos, by the way, that we hope you enjoy as much as we do.
You'll all be hearing from us in the days and weeks ahead as we reach out to thank you again in person or with a note -- anything that we can do to let you know you gave us a most magical day that has an unbelievably wonderful afterglow.
Please support the businesses and organizations; individuals and groups that gave so much to make our wedding celebration a success. Let us know if you need contact information for the great leaders who came forward to give us a magical day.
Thank each and every one of you. You are wonderful. Let's make sure to soundly defeat of Prop 8 so more couples can enjoy the rights and responsiblities of marriage that we all make possible. Let's help the rest of the nation catch up to California.
Morgan Washington, (our granddaughter), Isidro Ortiz, Joaquin Ortiz all stood with us at City Hall. We also completed a mini-documentary, under the directorship of Joaquin Ortiz that gives the viewer a glimpse into how significant the occasion of our marriage is to us.
We had a fabulous dinner celebration together afterwards and the rest of the evening had a kind of magic of its own.
So as most of you know the two getting married are my grandparents. I’ve known them my whole life. They’ve taught me a lot about politics, sometimes more then I want to know. We’ve had a lot of laughs and I hope we have a lot more , but sadly I won’t be there for their wedding but I helped them get ready for it so I guess I can’t be too sad .
P.S. If you want to hear a funny story ask them about the time we went to the night time zoo. My grandma Pat Pat might have a little “something, something,” for the first person who asks. But, let Grandma Maggie tell you the story cause she gets the details right.
Of course,after sixteen years together, we have tons, tons, tons and more tons of pictures/videos, etc. The hardest lesson for Pat to learn about taking pictures in our various activities that it might not be wise to have loads of pictures with/of people we would probably never see again. So,over time, it wasn't as important to have photos of the people we struck up conversations with in restaurants, while waiting in line for the play or movie, at the beach or on this road trip or that one. The hardest thing for Maggie to learn was that it's just as important to be in the photo as it is to make sure we had photos that captured some of those wonderful memories.
We do have wonderful memories-- of times with Maggie's mom, times with each other and times with others. This one's a sort of photo memory lane-- Some of Maggie's favorite pictures and I got to try and remember when and where we were.
I’m Trixie—Morgan’s cute, adorable energetic Jack Russell. Most people know that when my mommy leaves I will stay Pat and Maggie my great grandparents. They take me on the some of the best walks I’ve ever had, buy me great doggie treats and introduce me to lots of people, some who have dogs of their own. . I love being scratched so if you see me at the wedding -- or any where-- PLEASE scratch me.
Our neighbor and friend, Lori, believed that we could create a portion of the art of our wedding with our very own hands and wow! We had no idea that -- even if we coudn't draw those awesome panthers and unicorns that Diemut has shared with us over the years, we could do a little bit with our very own hands. We were released to our own devices to turn heartfelt excitement into images and symbols.
There's a little "something, something" for the first person who finds out what the significance of yellow in Maggie's canvas (don't expect it to be easy to find that canvas) and the significance of brown is in mine. Hint on mine-- it has something to do with angels.
By the way! there's a little "something, something" for the person who can find the latest unicorn and panther creations from Diemut Heller. They are just beautiful.
