Friday, October 5, 2012

Dispatches from the Marriage Factory: Your Photos, Please

Joe is back with news of the Marriage Factory.  When he said he had been doing marriages 4 years, I was surprised.  It doesn't seem that long ago when I trained him in about 15 minutes and we jumped into the excitement of the first same sex marriages in California.  What a wonderful, fun, emotional night that was.  Joe dived in and hasn't looked back.

It only took me 4 years at the Hall of Records to get tired of
printing my name, which I do 2 times for most ceremonies.  I decided
that a stamp would be much more legible, if not easier.  (This is for
my spelled name, not signed name.  That is still unreadable.)  My
lovely wife Sue got me the stamp and wouldn't you know it, the next
week at the Hall of Records was rather slow.  I only used my stamp
about 5 times, and one of the clerks had to reprint a license because
I stamped a little off-center.  Practice will make perfect, I'm sure.

The main problem with being able to perform Spanish ceremonies will be
familiar to anyone who knows a bit of a different language.  The
people for whom I perform the ceremony assume I understand Spanish.  I
can get the gist of most conversations, but not at the speed at which
most people speak their native language.  I need to learn more and
better Spanish.

Photo sharing as a way of saving effort and space is obviously not
catching on.  The group at one ceremony had 9 different cameras &
phones going at once, with some people working 2 in tandem.  There's
no squashing the feeling that someone else's pictures won't be the
ones we would've taken.

Fashion report:
Cutest rings: matching Scrabble tiles with the mate's initial - hers
had his first initial, his had hers.  Both were worth 1 point - nice
and equal.

A few lovely asymmetrical, flowing dresses, one beaded with a beaded
headband, like an understated tiara.

So much ink, including a bride with a breastplate tattoo of a winged
heart.  Still not tempted to get one myself.  She wore a lovely black
dress, but kept a denim jacket over it.
--
Joe Mallon

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