Archive for January, 2012

Jan 2012

* Eva, Senior Organizing Manager of Sierra Club & Tyson, Registered Nurse at St. Davids Hospital * Photographer: Lauren McGlynn (APW Sponsor) * Soundtrack for reading: "That's The Way Love Goes" by Janet Jackson *

The Info—Photography: Lauren McGlynn (APW Sponsor) / Venue: The French Legation Museum in East Austin /Caterer: Me So Hungry / Officiant: Best friend, Lindsey Barnes / Flowers: Cheri Grant at the Gala Gal (centerpieces by Eva & friends!) / DJ: Edwin Morales / Dress: Made by local Austin Designer Chia Guillory / Shoes: Seychelle “I dos” / Earrings: Michelle Goni (bridesmaid) family heirloom/ Suit: Hugo Boss / Shoes: Cole Haan Wing Tips / Bridesmaid Dresses: J Crew (Starla’s was handmade by Grandma Vicki!) / Groomsmen: Banana Republic

Other cool stuff we should know about: The wedding was very much a community affair, from hundreds of handmade fabric flowers sewn by friends and family, to the Dads hanging all the lights the night before, to the officiant who is one of our best friends! A local designer made the dress, and we bought the fabric from this great little fabric specialty shop, Silk Road Textile, which is located at a great little art studio in East Austin. The food was from an East Austin specialty food trailer, and they served up Vietnamese Bahn Mi sandwiches which were a hit! The DJ was one of my oldest friends from college, and he tore it up! Our families got along amazingly, and we danced the night away.

One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: Ceremony and celebration of love, through and through, that turned out to be one hell of a party.

Favorite thing about the wedding: Eva—It’s so hard to chose just one favorite thing, but if I had to I would try to sum it up by just saying all the love in the air (is that one thing?)! Tyson and I felt every minute was amazing, our families loved each other, our friends came in from different parts of the country, and it was just all around a big giant party to celebrate our love! Tyson—I was really excited to see Eva, because I had not seen the dress yet and it really was perfect. It was the best day of my life and the most fun! The dance party at the Longbranch Inn was absolutely amazing!

This post includes Sponsors, who are a key part of supporting APW. For more information, see our Directory page for Lauren McGlynn Photography.

Posted in: Wedding Graduates, Wordless Weddings | 23 Comments »

Jan 2012

Wedding Graduates: Alix & Shawn

*Alix & Shawn*

To build on yesterday's conversation about Why A Wedding, we have Alix, whose wedding in LA's Natural History Museum makes me want to hug the world. But what I find particularly fascinating about Alix's Wedding Graduate post is how she talks about figuring out what a marriage is when your parent have been divorced for as long as you can remember. And, taxidermied animals aside, the part of this post that makes me gasp with delight is this line, "The thing is that the experience of getting married is in some ways indescribable. It is as if you walk through this invisible door and something happens, but you can only see it by looking back through the door at where you were before." Because that's how it was for me, too.

From the beginning planning our wedding was strange for me in that the whole idea of marriage had been so foreign my whole life. My parents were divorced before I was one, so I had no memories of them together. While I always believed in commitment, I was not raised with the concept of marriage and for most of my life I did not imagine I would get married.

It wasn’t until the past few years when Shawn and I started attending our friends’ weddings did I begin to see the significance of marriage and actual weddings themselves. When Shawn asked me to marry him it was as if this weight I had been carrying around my whole life without realizing it was lifted from my shoulders. I had found the one person I wanted and he had found me.

So we embarked on planning this event, this huge party tied down to tradition and loaded with emotional significance. Despite my excitement, it was difficult for me at first. While there were the usual stresses of choosing venues and wardrobe and staying within our budget, the hardest part was feeling like I was alone.

I didn’t feel like I had that core group of friends or a close family to help me through the process. It wasn’t that the people close to me were absent, I just didn’t know how to ask them to be a part of the experience with me. Then I found APW and all the intelligent, thoughtful ladies who inspired me and helped me through the process with their own stories. I was no longer alone.

When I started to imagine our wedding I imagined an intimate outdoor affair where we would be surrounded by those closest to us in the midst of nature. This was my dream. Shawn on the other hand was adamant about having an indoor wedding. He warned me about what happens when it rains on outdoor weddings. I proclaimed that it never rains in sunny Los Angeles.

Ultimately, we agreed to have the wedding indoors, in the Natural History Museum. If we weren’t going to be married outside, we were at least going to be married surrounded by taxidermied animals. Needless to say, it poured on the day of our wedding. The skies opened up and let down a flood of water, and in a way it was one of my favorite parts of the day as we still had the fury of nature in the middle of the city. Continue reading Wedding Graduates: Alix & Shawn

Posted in: Wedding Graduates | 29 Comments »

Jan 2012

Book Tour By Amtrak: NYC to Washington, D.C.

Hi Everyone,

It's editor Maddie here, writing from my very first leg of the Amtrak tour! See that photo up there of me looking wistfully out the window? Well, that's pretty much how Amtrak travel makes you feel. And let me tell you, with the amount of traveling I've done this weekend, I feel like somewhat of an authority on modes of transportation.

You see, in the past three days I have traveled by car, plane, bus, subway, taxi and now Amtrak. The flight out of San Jose was bearable, mostly because I had gotten three hours of sleep leading up to my departure and could barely tell which way was up, but that ignorant bliss was quickly squashed when I was forced to surrender the wine opener I accidentally left in my bag at security (womp womp—Spoiler alert: You don't have to do that on Amtrak, so I bought two new wine openers at the Penn Station gift shop). From there I finally discovered how to ride a New York City bus, transferred to the subway, and walked the majority of Lower Manhattan trying to find the bar where I'd set up a party for myself.

A cab I tricked into taking me to Brooklyn dropped me off just in time for the Brooklyn book party the next day (which was AMAZING, more on that later) and then an off-duty cab that I also tricked took me back to Manhattan that night.

So, as somewhat of an expert these days, I can say without reservation that having endured layovers, turbulence, and way-too-damn-expensive cabs, Amtrak is easily the most comfortable and accomodating mode of transportation I've ever been on. Back when Michael and I were dating long-distance between New York and Boston, I was a slave to the Chinatown bus. And while I begrudgingly accepted that my fate was to ride that cockroach-infested speed monster until the day I die, I remember that every year my uncle would give me an Amtrak gift certificate for Christmas. I would always save it for a special occasion trip, knowing that for one glorious day I would be guaranteed to travel like a human being.

Now I'm here again (and in first class, baby!) and I'm overcome with how amazing and different feels from what I'm used to. As I'm writing this, I am devouring a generous slice of carrot cake and watching as Meg tracks down a glass of champagne for us. I have enough space underneath the table where my laptop sits that I haven't once had a panic attack about getting deep vein thrombosis (I'm a worrier).

Now that I no longer have to travel to see Michael, or commute three hours to get to work each day, I really thought I'd sworn off train travel entirely. But, as it turns out, I've just sworn off crappy train travel. And luckily for me, Amtrak happens to be just the opposite of that.

Now I have to go because there is a glistening bottle of Korbel on my table practically begging for me to drink it. But don't fret, I'll be back to update you again on the next part of my adventure: overnight train travel! Until then, cheers.

Love,

Maddie

**This post was made possible by Amtrak, who is sponsoring the book tour. Thank you Amtrak!**

Posted in: Book Tour | 22 Comments »

Jan 2012

Wordless Wedding: Kate & Cydney

* Kate Pope, Investment Attorney & Cydney Pope, Assistant District Attorney * Photographer: Moodeous Photography (APW Sponsor) * Soundtrack for reading: "The Dog Days are Over" by Florence + The Machine *

The Info—Photography: Moodeous Photography (APW Sponsor) / Secondary Photography: Bill Rowe (Kristy's Dad) / Venue: Overbrook House / Catering: B&M Catering Company / Music: Our rockin' iPod / Flowers: Provided by Fifty Flowers and arranged by Kate's mom and aunts/ Rentals: New England Country Rentals & Party Cape Cod / Dress: La Sposa / Suit: Henry A. Davidson

Other cool stuff we should know about: We have anniversary wine bottles to open on our 1st, 5th, 10th, 20th, 30th, 40th and 50th anniversaries—we had our guests write notes to us that we'll read as we open 'em! Matching flasks for Kate and her "broomsmen" were purchased at a truck stop on I-95. Our wedding cake toppers, two chicks, were purchased at CVS the Friday before the wedding from the discount bin after Easter. And Cydney wore a fur stole her grandmother won in a contest in 1962—it even had her grandmother's name (in her own handwriting!) stitched inside.

One sentence sum up of the wedding vibe: Relaxed, elegant, and entertaining.

Favorite thing about the wedding: The best memory we have is the very end of the night. The weather reports all said it was going to rain all day, but we had fantastic weather the entire time. In the end, it was only as we walked back to the big house together from the reception, feeling surrounded by friends, family, and their happiness for us, that it finally started to rain.

This post includes Sponsors, who are a key part of supporting APW. For more information, see our Directory page for Moodeous Photography.

Posted in: LGBTQ Weddings, Wedding Graduates, Wordless Weddings | 40 Comments »

Jan 2012

Why My Queer Marriage Needed a Wedding (Even Though We’re Courthouse People)

One of the questions I've been asked with some regularity on the book tour is a variation of the question, "Why weddings?" or "Why marriages?" There actually are layers upon layers of questions here: Why do we view marriages (and worse, engagements) as more culturally valid than anything else? And "Why a wedding?" can mean "Why a party?" or "Why the cultural monstrosity manipulatively pushed on us by the wedding industry?" When asked, I always answer that there are different reasons for everyone, and at APW we're just trying to explore those answers. So I'm particularly pleased by the answer in today's post from Laurel. Let's dive in.

At one point, during the eight months my partner and I spent talking about whether we were going to have a wedding—after the even longer process of deciding that we were in it for the long haul and might consider getting married at all—she said, “But we’re courthouse people.” It’s true. We come from a long line of courthouse people. There were six people at her parents’ wedding, a number which includes the two of them and which is one fewer than at my parents’ only because they successfully kept their own parents from attending. (My dad’s parents crashed their wedding from 1500 miles away with a suitcase full of lobster bisque and sachertorte, but that’s another story for another day.) When my aunt decided to get married, she called me on a Monday and asked if I’d drive up to Reno with her on Wednesday and witness her marriage. (In the end she got married at the Oakland courthouse; there were eight people there, making it the second largest wedding in either of our immediate families.) In our unique, and somehow shared, family culture, it made perfect sense for my mother to ask if she was invited to our wedding.

So yes, we're courthouse people. We decided we wanted the socially and culturally privileged position of marriage; even in our queerish ultra-progressive semi-radical cultural niche, people treat marriages and partnerships differently.* We saw friends get married and the way their families and complete strangers immediately understood that their relationships were now Important and Meaningful. We saw the huge outpouring of love and support our friends got when they decided to get married. It certainly makes a difference in how our families understand our relationship. There’s just one wrinkle: we’re both women.

We considered getting married in Iowa, where my parents live, but it felt unsatisfying. We’d be asking people to treat our relationship differently because we signed a piece of paper that had no legal effect where we lived. Even with a license, all it takes is one car accident in a conservative town and a nurse with something to prove, and I won’t be able to see her in the hospital. If we have kids and one of us stays home, we can’t contribute to that person’s retirement funds or personal savings without worrying about whether we’d need to pay gift tax. The license doesn’t change that.

Plus, I’ve spent a lot of time arguing that it’s not the license that makes the marriage. I believe it. Why, for my own marriage, would I make all my decisions around the license?

Continue reading Why My Queer Marriage Needed a Wedding (Even Though We’re Courthouse People)

Posted in: LGBTQ Weddings, Wedding Undergraduates | 32 Comments »

Jan 2012

Zachary Hunt Photography in Austin Texas

The last time we talked about Zachary Hunt Photography (serving Austin, TX, the surrounding Texas areas, and beyond with super affordable rates), Zach was celebrating shooting his first ever APW reader wedding. And while that seemed un-toppable (I mean, the bride was throwing an uncooked chicken around the grocery store), man, did he show us. The excellent Zach (who I'm super excited to meet in Austin because he's one of those people who's both such a talented artist and the kind of chill guy you want to get a beer with) has spent a year shooting APW weddings, and what an awesome year it's been.

The great thing about Zach is that he just doesn't see things the way other people see things. I've talked before about how his photography has this feeling of belonging in an art book, but in a phenomenally alive way. He's capturing these moments in a way that no one else would (which is my definition of a real artist), but he has the rare ability to also fully capture you, your partner, your personalities, and the day as it unfolds. (And still get all the necessary wedding shots. No sacrificing function for art here.)

The two APW weddings that we featured from Zachary Hunt Photography's treasure trove this year were each so different and so well captured (and trust me, I know. I went through the full galleries for both these weddings, and it was hard not to pick every picture to share with you). There was Jennah and Gary's wedding that was full of the couple making hilarious faces. This was hands down the funniest wedding I've ever edited for the site (and you know I love that). And then there was Irene and Bob's unbelievably cool Austin bike wedding, which had a totally different vibe that Zach captured just as well. And that, is what true talent looks like, kids.

And that's just the tip of the iceberg. This year, Zachary Hunt Photography has been shooting APW weddings all year, and if you ask me, each one is more gorgeous than the last. Zach says, "I am proud of all of the APW weddings that I have photographed this past year because many of them were so full of joy. I couldn't be happier with the couples I worked with who found me through APW."

And why wouldn't he be over the moon thrilled, given your weddings that he's gotten to shoot? I mean, every single one of them is a wedding I wish I could have been at. He says, "There was an APW Jewish/Marine wedding which was a perfect blend of traditional and nontraditional elements. I had never photographed so many crying people before. (The bride is a huge APW reader by the way.) There was an Austin musician's wedding that I loved. There was a moment in which the bride and groom sang in unison with a backing band. Also, there was a lovely portrait of the bride and groom with their cat, Meatwad. She found me through APW as well." (Editors note: Meatwad is one of our only cat readers! Hee.)

In the end, one of the (many, if we're being honest) great things about Zach, is that he just loves people who are passionate about things (bikes! tossing chickens! singing! getting married!) and he wants to be there documenting it for you. Here is one of my favorite of his stories: "I asked a couple (who found me through APW) about their interests and hobbies during an engagement session. They told me they performed in a drag king troupe called Kings N Things. Then they asked if I could photograph one of their upcoming performances. I, of course, said yes! Photographing the event was an awesome experience. I loved hanging out with the couple, seeing them perform, and documenting such amazing people doing what they love and are passionate about. I'm photographing another Kings N Things performance next month that I can't wait to share on my blog." I mean, RIGHT? (The pictures are incredible, by the way.)

In closing, Zach says, "Basically, I'm so grateful to the APW community for existing and all of the APW couples for trusting me. I had such a memorable year, and I can't wait to meet and photograph my next APW couple."

And I'm pretty grateful for Zachary Hunt Photography . He's such a kind and awesome guy. His rates are crazy affordable. He's so talented I can't even wrap my head around it. And he wants to work with APW-ers in particular. I mean, how much better can it get? So Texas, and beyond, you're in so much luck. Go browse, and then drop Zach a line. I'm frankly envious of how much fun you're going to have together.

Posted in: Sponsored Posts | 15 Comments »

Archive for January, 2012

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