Liz, Dance Educator & Tim, Actor
One sentence sum-up of the wedding vibe: With a ’60s inspired design and contributions from many of our super talented friends and family members, our wedding was a fun-filled evening of music, dancing, and good food and drink—a magical celebration of the ten years we had already spent together and the many more to come.
Soundtrack for reading: “Picture in a Frame” by Tom Waits
Other Cool Stuff We Should Know About
Tim and I met doing experimental theater in New York in 2003, so we were familiar with the process of putting on an event and saw our wedding as one of our more exciting collaborations. Decisions were based on what had been important to us throughout our ten years together. Brooklyn was where we fell in love and lived together in our first apartment. We felt, and still feel, so lucky to have such talented friends with whom we’ve had a chance to perform and create and grow as artists and individuals, so we had our friends in various roles throughout the evening—playing live music, officiating the wedding, and singing “Picture in a Frame” as we walked down the aisle. We adopted a line from the song, “Till the Wheels Come Off,” as a sort of “title” for the wedding. We had another dear, creative friend, and notable mixologist, create customized drinks for the party. My super crafty sister and brother-in-law made heart-shaped oatmeal lavender soaps as favors, and Tim put together a “mix-tape” for our guests. Guests were also invited to take the knit cacti I made for the tables at the end of the night. Why cacti? Well, because now we live in L.A. and it seemed the West Coast merited some kind of representation.
We also took inspiration from our family histories. When I chose to wear my mother’s wedding dress (from 1966 with some alterations), we embraced a vintage ’60s feel. This worked perfectly with our selection of the Vintage DJ and then we collaborated with Michelle Edgemont to come up with a color scheme, floral design, and overall look that was in line as well. One of the more fun aspects of preparing the wedding was choosing the vintage album covers to use as table assignments and then selecting which guests were assigned to each album cover. Also, finding a legitimate 1969 Lite-Brite proved a fun little challenge for Michelle and me. Finally, our love of performing could not be denied for this special occasion. During the ceremony, after an amazingly eloquent and touching introduction by our friend—and professor—Michael Smart, we recited W.H Auden’s poem “Foxtrot From a Play.” Shortly afterwards, we performed our wedding dance which we had created with a choreographer in L.A. and included a few lifts—for the fun of it.
And, of course, the dancing did not end there. After Tim’s buddies had us all cracking up with a PowerPoint history of their very long friendship (he has known some of his groomsmen since kindergarten), my bridesmaids surprised me with an unbelievable and, I think it’s safe to say, unprecedented knitting needle flash mob dance. Then we all just danced the night away!
Favorite Thing About The Wedding
It’s impossible to decide on a single thing. But I think our experience can be summed up by the fact that as the DJ finished up his last tune and some guests started filing out, we DID NOT WANT IT TO END. And, well, it didn’t really end right away anyway because we headed over to Sunny’s, a good old neighborhood dive bar across the street, for an after party. We feel lucky that we really got to enjoy the celebration! And then to enjoy it over and over again as we revisit it through photos, conversation, and, in a way, each day that we spend together.
