So, now that gay weddings are legal in California, my best friend Elizabeth and her fiancee Cookie can get married legally! I’m so excited for them. They’re disgustingly cute. They’ve been planning their wedding since December, and its wonderful that this happened right now, so they can make it ‘official’

Here’s the tale of how they got engaged.

Elizabeth told me first that she wanted to propose, and we made plans to go ring shopping when she got to New York this past December, but I wasn’t supposed to tell Cookie anything.

Then Cookie called me to tell me she wanted to propose to Elizabeth, and not to say anything, because she wanted to do it when they got to New York. She also wanted to ask my permission to marry Elizabeth.  Apparently, I take the place of her father. But seriously, it is important to me and Elizabeth that we like each others partners, and get along. It would suck if we didn’t, her being my BFF and all. Cookie, thank god, is 18 shades of awesome.

However, I was now in a bit of a quandary.  I don’t like keeping fun secrets like this! I wanted to call Elizabeth and giggle about how Cookie was going to propose. But I managed to stay mum, do a bit of ring shopping, and not let the secret slip.

Cookie managed to propose first, in Central Park. They’re both photographers, so she asked Elizabeth to take a look at the pictures she took on her digital camera.  She saw a few, and then the next few pictures she scrolled past each had one word on each, spelling out “Will you marry me?”

Aaaaawwwwww!!!!

Since then, we’ve been in the vague planning station of the ceremony, deciding on colours, on whether or not the bride’s maids are wearing suits, dresses, or both, finding a dress for Elizabeth and a place that can tailor a tux for Cookie, finding someone to DJ (Hey, some of you guys are DJs….anyone want to do a gay wedding? We’ll provide half the music. You just spin, and be willing to work cheap. We’re on a tight budget here! Maybe, if you’re good, I’ll blow you. See? I help my friends however I can)

Elizabeth just bought her dress, which is gorgeous!

They have also done me the greatest honour a friend can do for another during a wedding- they have asked me not to be a maid of honour, or a best man, but to perform their wedding ceremony.  Obviously, not being ordained, my part is strictly ceremonial. They’re going to get legally married right now, just in case anything happens with the law, which makes damn good sense. But I will be the one standing in front of their friends and family, joining them together for life.

I really, truly feel blessed to have friends who love me so much, they ask me to be such an big part of their wedding.

Last night, when we were talking about the plans, Elizabeth mentioned that Cookies mother was ‘morally opposed’ to the proceedings, at which I snorted, and she agreed.

Morals, however, got me thinking.

“Hey, Elizabeth…your Jewish, right? What religion is Cookie?”

“Uh, she was raised Catholic, but she doesn’t believe in any of that, why?”

“You do realize then, that you’re having a wedding where a Jew and a lapsed Catholic are going to be joined in a ceremony performed by a witch, right?”

We laughed at the irony. Of course, bits of each faith will slip in, despite it being a mostly non-denominal ceremony.  There may be a chuppah the ceremony is performed under, and I’m pretty sure someone will stomp on a glass. I personally plan to make some sort of cord with which to symbolically ‘bind’ their hands together. (You know, that would be cute in a kinky ceremony - literally being bound to your partner? Oh god, I’m so saving that for my kinky wedding. That is awesome.)

But I’m hoping it will be a truly memorable wedding.

Best of all, as the person performing the ceremony (what do you call me in this situation? I’m technically not a Priestess, not one ‘ordained’ by any coven, being a solitary and all.) it means I don’t have to wear a bride’s maid dress! I’ll probably make a tasteful over robe I can slip on over my dress for the actual ceremony.

So, congratulations to Elizabeth and Cookie, and all the other lovely couples who can now, finally, get legally married in California! Whee!