No hitches in getting hitched June 17, 2008

We decided to show up to the county clerk’s office a couple hours after the office had opened, in hopes that the crowd and the media circus would have died down a bit.

We were pleasantly surprised when we just walked right in, filled out an application and sat for a handful of minutes before we were called to affirm our paperwork and pay our money. A couple minutes later and we were in the small wedding chapel with an arch of fake flowers.

Simple as that. We ran into some people we know from work. One of them didn’t know what to make of it. Another person kept asking stupid questions, like are you here to get married?

I was busy filling out our marriage license application so I was pretty flip.

“What does it look like we’re doing?”

We brought our friend Sarah as a witness. And then we ran into yet another person from work, who was very happy for us, and didn’t even know we were a couple. We told her several times, we’re not really out at work so … But she was invited to watch, since she was already there.

Overall, it was fast, painless and pleasant. Which was a happy surprise.

We probably did miss out on the best of the camraderie of a bunch of gay folk showing up in solidarity, getting married or just to support each other. But there were no anti-gay protesters, only pro-marriage people shouting on the street corner with Marriage Equality signs. Hell yeah!

There’s going to be a big group reception at a local restaurant and bar tonight, but we have to work. The party still might be going on when we get off work, but it’ll probably be dying down, just like all the wedding ceremony furor.

It was a good way to do it.

Everyone in the clerk’s office was very nice. We didn’t get too many stares. And the woman who married us smiled. Another person complimented my dress.

Oh, yeah, that’s another thing. We weren’t sure what we were going to wear. I thought about just dressing up but then I realized I had a perfectly good wedding dress, and Jade wore her suit again too. Might as well get another use out of each of our outfits. But you can absolutely bet that I didn’t wear my damned uncomfortable sparkly high-heeled shoes. Nope. Birkenstocks. Doing it Cali style, yo.

We wanted this to be taken seriously, to show that in showing up to get married today, this historic day, that we had given it a lot of thought. And we have. Some people dressed up. Some did not. But it was important to do this today.

In a few days, we can get our certified copy of the completed marriage license (instead of the pretty fake copy we got today.) We plan to do that as soon as possible, because once we have that in our hands, it can’t be taken away. Not even by some scary haters who may vote otherwise. Whether what we did today remains legal is something that will be dealt with later.

But today, we are married in every sense of the word.

Partner. Wife.

We join hands

We grin as we hold hands, about to kiss

We exchange rings

Outside, after the deed is done