They came from all over.

Monday I married three same sex couples from out of state. They came from Las Vegas, Nevada; Decatur, Georgia, and from Honolulu, Hawaii.   They had come all the way to Oakland, California to marry, knowing it would not be recognized in their home states.  There were two men from Oakland who had been together for 41 years.  They met as teenagers and finally were able to marry. I told them they were lucky they lived in California and would be recognized as a married couple.

I had a Bride from Ukraine and her groom was from Pennsylvania. Her Groom and the Best Man were wearing traditional shirts from Ukraine.  Her toddler nephew also wore a traditional shirt.  The Bride's dress was a white spaghetti strap sheath that had the same embroidery as the shirts on the bust and on the belt.  During the ceremony the toddler decided he needed to stand with his Mom, the Matron of Honor.  We all were grinning because he was so cute and doing cute toddler things.  Suddenly he spotted the Bride's yellow heels.  He got down on the floor and tried to pull them off her feet.  That is when everyone in the room including me lost it.  We laughed until we cried.  Mom picked him up and we finished the ceremony.

The Hawaiian couple and their guests were in Hawaiian shirts or brightly colored dresses.  Everyone wore beautiful wonderful smelling leis.  A little girl who was 3 years old had made a poster for them and we all signed it.  She showed me the hearts she had drawn and colored and then told me, " Mommy wrote the words."  I told them as we went back down stairs they were the best smelling group I  had ever had and that I would miss the flowers.  One of the woman leaned over and placed her lei around my neck and kissed me and thanked me for the beautiful ceremony.

Isn't this lei lovely?  I wore it as I did some more weddings.  When Marty picked me up he took me to lunch and I wore it then.  The lei would only last a day or so and I wanted to enjoy it as long as I could.