Introduction
Name and/or LJ userID: Thom Watson (thomwatson)
Wedding Date: Saturday, September 26, 2009
Bride/Groom/Other: We're both grooms
Age: 46 (but turning 47 before the wedding)
City/State/Country you live in: Daly City, California, US
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): San Francisco, California, US
Your song/First Dance song: We haven't decided on a song for our first dance, but one song we think of as "our song" is "Happy Together" by the Turtles. When we first started dating, we frequented a local diner in Arlington, Virginia, where "Happy Together" seemed to be playing every time we were there; we then started selecting it on the jukebox ourselves when it wasn't. Then we started hearing it almost everywhere, in malls, in elevators, on the radio, so we started calling it "our song" very early in the relationship. While I really love the original version by the Turtles, there's also a fabulous groovy cover by Mel Torme that we'll likely use at the reception, or at least on the wedding CD.
Wedding Colors: chocolate and pool (ok, brown and robin's egg/Tiffany/peacock blue), with sage and red accents
Formality: Originally we thought we'd wear our own tuxes for the ceremony, but then decided that was too formal for a morning wedding. We considered wearing our dressier barongs to honor Jeff's Filipino heritage, but then decided we'd probably change into those for the reception. Currently we're planning to go semi-formal, and are thinking of wearing linen suits with ties or bow ties that incorporate our colors and our love of midcentury design.
Theme (if you have one): As I noted, we're both fans of midcentury modern design (we live in a home in a classic planned midcentury community, and I've collected dishware and glassware from the 50s and 60s for most of my adult life). We both also really love tiki design. So we're thinking of going with a retro tropical theme. This also suits our location, which will be on a seaside terrace directly overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Number of guests: 70-100
How'd you meet your fiance?: We were both bloggers, and were introduced to each other's blogs through a third party. Over the course of a few months we moved from reading to commenting to some light flirting and eventually decided to meet in person. Our first date (we didn't think of it necessarily as a date then, but later realized it had been) was a Kinsey Sicks concert and dinner; two weeks later we had a picnic dinner at an outdoor screening of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and we've been together ever since.
How long have you been together?: We had our first date six years ago next month. We became registered domestic partners in California on Friday, February 13 (I've always considered 13 a lucky number) this year, and became engaged over dinner in Carmel the next day, Valentine's Day.
Do you have a personal wedding website?: http://thomandjeff.com/
Have you read the community rules before posting this survey? Yes I have.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?: My partner Jeff (jefftabaco) has been a member of this community for about a month, and keeps talking about it, specifically how warm and accepting he's found it. Since we're absolutely planning our wedding together, I thought I should come in and check it out and introduce myself.
Sadly, with the California Supreme Court recently upholding Prop. 8's majority vote to strip equal marriage rights from the state constitution, we won't now actually be able to get a marriage license in California. However, we're having our ceremony as planned, and as far as we're concerned, it still is a wedding, if not one formally recognized by either our state or federal government -- for now, though that will change, and hopefully in my lifetime. At least here in California we do have registered domestic partnership, which gives us many of the same rights and obligations as civil marriage; part of the reason I wanted to leave Virginia, where I was born and where Jeff and I first met, and move to California with him was because Virginia had passed a draconian law not only prohibiting same-sex marriage but suggesting that same-sex couples could in fact make no legal contracts with one another that gave them any rights enjoyed by opposite-sex married couples.
Wedding Date: Saturday, September 26, 2009
Bride/Groom/Other: We're both grooms
Age: 46 (but turning 47 before the wedding)
City/State/Country you live in: Daly City, California, US
City/State/Country you're getting married in (if different): San Francisco, California, US
Your song/First Dance song: We haven't decided on a song for our first dance, but one song we think of as "our song" is "Happy Together" by the Turtles. When we first started dating, we frequented a local diner in Arlington, Virginia, where "Happy Together" seemed to be playing every time we were there; we then started selecting it on the jukebox ourselves when it wasn't. Then we started hearing it almost everywhere, in malls, in elevators, on the radio, so we started calling it "our song" very early in the relationship. While I really love the original version by the Turtles, there's also a fabulous groovy cover by Mel Torme that we'll likely use at the reception, or at least on the wedding CD.
Wedding Colors: chocolate and pool (ok, brown and robin's egg/Tiffany/peacock blue), with sage and red accents
Formality: Originally we thought we'd wear our own tuxes for the ceremony, but then decided that was too formal for a morning wedding. We considered wearing our dressier barongs to honor Jeff's Filipino heritage, but then decided we'd probably change into those for the reception. Currently we're planning to go semi-formal, and are thinking of wearing linen suits with ties or bow ties that incorporate our colors and our love of midcentury design.
Theme (if you have one): As I noted, we're both fans of midcentury modern design (we live in a home in a classic planned midcentury community, and I've collected dishware and glassware from the 50s and 60s for most of my adult life). We both also really love tiki design. So we're thinking of going with a retro tropical theme. This also suits our location, which will be on a seaside terrace directly overlooking the Pacific Ocean.
Number of guests: 70-100
How'd you meet your fiance?: We were both bloggers, and were introduced to each other's blogs through a third party. Over the course of a few months we moved from reading to commenting to some light flirting and eventually decided to meet in person. Our first date (we didn't think of it necessarily as a date then, but later realized it had been) was a Kinsey Sicks concert and dinner; two weeks later we had a picnic dinner at an outdoor screening of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" and we've been together ever since.
How long have you been together?: We had our first date six years ago next month. We became registered domestic partners in California on Friday, February 13 (I've always considered 13 a lucky number) this year, and became engaged over dinner in Carmel the next day, Valentine's Day.
Do you have a personal wedding website?: http://thomandjeff.com/
Have you read the community rules before posting this survey? Yes I have.
Anything else you'd like to tell us?: My partner Jeff (jefftabaco) has been a member of this community for about a month, and keeps talking about it, specifically how warm and accepting he's found it. Since we're absolutely planning our wedding together, I thought I should come in and check it out and introduce myself.
Sadly, with the California Supreme Court recently upholding Prop. 8's majority vote to strip equal marriage rights from the state constitution, we won't now actually be able to get a marriage license in California. However, we're having our ceremony as planned, and as far as we're concerned, it still is a wedding, if not one formally recognized by either our state or federal government -- for now, though that will change, and hopefully in my lifetime. At least here in California we do have registered domestic partnership, which gives us many of the same rights and obligations as civil marriage; part of the reason I wanted to leave Virginia, where I was born and where Jeff and I first met, and move to California with him was because Virginia had passed a draconian law not only prohibiting same-sex marriage but suggesting that same-sex couples could in fact make no legal contracts with one another that gave them any rights enjoyed by opposite-sex married couples.