I was not, repeat NOT talking about any tux made of burgandy crushed velour sporting lapels with a wingspan wide enough to make a giant condor jealous, worn over a pink shirt with frilled jabot instead of bowtie.

One thing I thought about the first wedding, though, is the one wearing the tux got the better end of the deal, at least compared to weddings I’ve stood up for. A tux is just so classy looking, whereas I sometimes wonder if the prerequisite for selecting bridesmaid dresses is to find the one dress that will LEAST flatter the bridesmaids.

And a note on my personal “There’s Hope for World” list, the wedding wasn’t held at the church the girls grew up in, but it was held in the associated Knights of Columbus hall. I think the church officials purposefully looked the other way, but even that is a shift from business as ususal. Yes, we need a 180 degree change in opinion, but 90 degrees is half way there albeit in a minute part of the population.

Not much of a fan of marriage since to me, even though I am married, it’s just a piece of paper. I was young and stupid and did what I thought I was supposed to be doing. The botton line was that I found someone who accepted me for exactly who I was and never wanted to change me and vise versa. We can be individuals as well as a couple. Anyway, life is too short. Whatever makes you happy, gives you joy, helps you smile, that is what counts….

Marta, your story made me think of the recent movie which I was forced to watch with my daughter, “Twenty Seven Dresses.” Some of the dresses were beyond ugly, and yeah, there was one tux, and many theme-related movies with weird costuming, but Katherine Heigl (sp) wore them all and participated in the weddings because she was a friend. It was a cute movie.

It’s a tradition. Like wearing the butt-ugly bridesmaid dress because your friend the bride fell in love with hot pink/turquoise/chartreuse chiffon jumpsuits. Yes, I had to wear one. It was the seventies but I still looked like hell. I didn’t care, Pammy was getting married and she was the best, so I went with the psychedelic chiffon. Same thing here except the clothes were probably very nice.

I loved that story. Everybody got the wedding she wanted and nobody said, “But that’s so not ME.” Lovely friendship.

Civil Partnership ceremonies and legal registration for same-sex couples were introduced in the UK on December 5, 2005, and naturally, many of the first couples to marry (although the actual word ‘marriage’ is not used!) made the news. It was very striking how many of them, both men and women, were middle-aged or older couples who had been together for decades. Some gay men had been together since the 1950s, like the two ladies featured here; they had seen our society move from classifying their relationship not merely as immoral but as criminal to an attitude in which the law, and most rational people, regard it in much the same light as a bonded male/female partnership.

Many things were better in the past: this is one thing where we have moved in the right direction.

Congratulations ladies, and I pray every day that California does the right thing and makes the right permanent.