A wedding! Mazel tov!

[cjsmith]

I love weddings, and this one was particularly special. Yeah, I'm a romantic. :-)

Yesterday afternoon rfrench and I attended the lovely and simple wedding of fyellin and his longtime partner Mark. One is Jewish and the other Unitarian whoops, Lutheran, and the ceremony embraced Jewish and Christian traditions in a harmonious blend. (I wish I knew what the love song said! It was beautiful, and I don't understand Hebrew.) It was clear that everyone there was ecstatic that after more than eighteen years together, Frank and Mark could finally be married legally. The cheers that erupted when the officiant said and by the power vested in me by the State of California were spontaneous and heartfelt.

The reception was held at their home, where we walked past the framed marriage certificate from their last go-round, in 2004 in San Francisco. The cake had several dates on it, which I suspect were their first ceremony, the San Francisco marriage, and yesterday's California-legal ceremony. At the reception the groom and groom wore T-shirts emblazoned PARTY A and PARTY B.

Thank you, Frank and Mark, both for inviting us and for quietly showing such a steadfast example of love and partnership. Thank you, humanity, that we're getting this far in recognizing such things.

Comments

[lcohen]

if it was a hebrew song sung at a wedding, likely excerpts from the song of solomon:

"I am my beloved's, and my beloved is mine"

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Could well be. I wouldn't recognize the words to that, so I simply don't know. It was a pretty song.

[fyellin.livejournal.com]

I will be posting a longer response to C.J. The song was Erev Shel Shoshanim.

[racerxmachina.livejournal.com]

Woo-hoo!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

It was, and is, wonderful.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Ohhhhh, wow, I *LOVE* the touch of the "PARTY A" and "PARTY B" T-Shirts!!! A perfect detail to a beautiful story! :D

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Isn't that awesome? They have a great sense of humor.

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Did the person performing the ceremony say "I now pronounce you Party A and Party B!"? Perhaps followed by "a happily wedded couple". Would've been great fun!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

He pronounced them "Married for LIFE!" That echoed a few comments in previous speeches, along the lines of how impressive it was that any human beings "...can live together for eighteen years, and THEN after that, COMMIT to staying together in the future." :-)

[rampling.livejournal.com]

I just recently realized that my longest relationship (other than with members of my birth family) is with mira_kitty, including being longer than my marriage ('83-88). Well, she's chosen family anyway. I must admit I find these long-term couples quite impressive (and inspiring). :)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Rob only recently surpassed my late lamented Princess, who was 21.5 when she died. He had quite a ways to go to catch up; I got that cat when I was something like ten!

[rampling.livejournal.com]

Well, you and Rob are one of those Impressive Couples too!

Ohhh, I hope mira_kitty can make it to her 20s too!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Fingers crossed!

[rampling.livejournal.com]

And polydactyl digits crossed too!

[fyellin.livejournal.com]

Thank you for those kind word. Mark and I were thrilled at the palpable level of excitement and anticipation of everyone involved in planning the wedding.

The song is Erev Shel Shoshanim, which means "Evening of Roses". This was an arrangement done by Brad Rubenstein (the guy I dated just before Mark!) that he had written especially for our first ceremony. He had even changed the wording and notes slightly so that the feminine you/your "eich" became masculine "echa". There are many many versions of the song on YouTube.

Evening of roses
Let us go out to the grove
Myrrh, incense, and perfume
Will be a carpet for your feet.

Night slowly descends
A breeze [or smell] of roses blows
Let me whisper to you a song quietly
A song of love

At dawn, a dove coos
Your hair is covered with dew
Your lips to the morning are like a rose
Let me pluck it for myself.

Mark has just beat out Schmutzik (my black cat) as my longest relationship. (And it was a Lutheran church, not Unitarian. Unitarian would have saved us a lot of hassle that you don't want to know about.)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Some weddings you know you're there because Weddings Are Supposed To Be Done This Way And These Are The People We Were Supposed To Invite. Others, you're there because every person there is celebrating the couple. The latter are the best kind. :-)

Thanks for posting those lyrics! That's nifty that the feminine form was changed for your version. What a lovely song.

Whoops, I didn't know Mark was Lutheran -- I had always thought he was Unitarian. And it never occurred to me to look at the label on the building. Shows how much I know about churches and such.