Sunday, February 26, 2012

Wedding Fiasco part ONE


Washington State’s Senate and House of Representatives both passed a Gay Marriage bill, which our Governor signed into law.  It will officially become law on June 6th, unless the opposition raises 120,000 signatures, in which case, it will go to ballot this coming November.  This is the closest Washington has come to allowing Gay Marriage.  We currently have a domestic partnership law that says Joseph and I get all the benefits of a married couple in our state, but the actual word marriage has been denied to us all this time. 

            There are a lot of “ifs” involved in the Gay Marriage law.  And Joseph has tried to get me to be more settled, and not get my hopes up.  But, darn it, I love a good wedding.  And I started planning ours with abandon.  And if the Gay Marriage Bill does go to ballot, and it does get voted down, then I guess I will just throw myself and Joseph a big party and invite all the friends and family. 

            The unfortunate thing is that I have so many plans regarding this wedding, I’m hard pressed to narrow my ideas down.  Joseph’s no help, the things he actually likes are so boring that I can’t find the heart to even smile at them.  He likes all his colors in one place.  He likes muted, somber tones with punches of color.  He wants a white and blue wedding theme color with just one blue and we’re planning our wedding for the fall, which means our colors would be very wintery indeed. 
*me and my wild chicas living it up*


            Now, Joseph and I are no strangers to wedding ideas.  In 2009 we hosted our SECOND wedding dress party where all my best friends showed up in their wedding attire and we ate wedding cake (which talented Mr. Joseph made) and drank cosmopolitans … a LOT of cosmopolitans.  We both have very strong points of view when it comes to these wedding ideas.  Joseph comes from the masculine, linear, organized side of the ideas.  I come from the flighty, lovely, airy-fairy side of the wedding point of view.  This whole wedding thing might come to blows.  Just like a real marriage!!! 
 *Joseph's amazing cake*


            We’ve decided to set the date for October 2013.  This will give the bill plenty of time to decide if it is a law or not and if it’s not a law, well, it’s silly to have a wedding ceremony, we’ll just have a party.  But if it is a law, well, someone is going to be very excited!  (That someone is me, by the way.)

            For an October theme, I thought I would take something very seasonal and very harvest-time and turn it into a theme.  I was going to buy up a lot of white pumpkins and arrange them as floral themes throughout the big event.  But when I mentioned white pumpkins to Joseph he almost laughed his stupid coffee out of his nose, and I was left with the idea that white pumpkins were either too Halloween or too Cinderella.  You should know I love both Halloween and Cinderella, so I failed to see his point, but I had to scrap pumpkins all together because he didn’t like them. 
 *me in my bridal finery*

I also thought it would be nice to put together a theme involving blue flowers with bright fall colors like orange, gold, and green.  But Joseph thought that was way too many colors.  He thought they looked messy all together.  His thought was that we just have blue with a little green and when we did up bouquets, all the blue flowers would be in one place with all the greenery in another place.  He does not like mixing things. 
I thought a sea of paper lanterns in many colors hanging above a dance floor would be ideal.  But Joseph thinks paper lanterns look cheap and tacky.  Although, given that he probably thinks florescent lighting is cutting edge modern, I have very little to say about his tastes on the subject. 

It was about this time that I decided that I wouldn’t listen to a word of what Joseph says he likes or doesn’t like.  I am just going to go crazy and do all the craziness when his back is turned.  I don’t want a somber wedding full of alphabetized flowers.  I want a mad jumble of wonderful ideas and dimensions.  I want everything and I want it to be so amazing that I can look back on it and always think, yes, that was a beautiful and timeless ceremony, and those paper lanterns did in no way look cheap. 
 *good times are rolling*

So, Joseph came up with the idea of starting a wedding idea journal.  Yesterday we went shopping at frame stores and craft stores to find the right scrap book in which I can paste all my ideas.  I think Joseph thinks this will give my overly-wild juices an outlet, but I think he just threw gasoline on my fire.  I have already completed one wedding concept page based on one of my most favorite things: the mermaid.  But I think she needs a little tweaking, because I would also like to combine the concept of a mermaid with the gold of autumn.  No easy task, I assure you.  Most people think summer when they think mermaids. 

I think my next theme will use clocks and looking glasses and have an Alice in Wonderland spin to it …

Well, I have a lot to think about in the next year and eight months!


Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Twinkle twinkle little fish


There is something about a starfish that has always struck me as magical.  It’s as though a child drew a star and magically it came to life.  I’ve seen them in all different colors and all different sizes.  The babies are always brighter, like fishing lures in magenta and tangerine.  Once the tide was very low on one of my dog walks and I saw the beach full of glistening, fleshy constellations.  Starfish spangle the tail of my mermaid tattoo, and I always imagined I would wear them somehow—half pets, half accessories—if I were a mermaid.  Stars are my favorite shape; and mermaids have to be the shape my soul would take; and in starfish these vital essences collide for me.  I love them. 

Starfish are definitely one of my favorite things.