Wedding Category
Andreas and I have been together since New Years Eve 1997. We’ve lived together since fall of 1998. We’ve travelled across Europe together. We spend holidays and vacations with each other’s families. We’re listed on each other’s bank accounts. We’ve moved around the country together. And after almost seven years of commitment, we finally made it legal in August 2004. And now I’m writing a book about it.
Me and the wedding dress
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
Today The Seattle Times features a series about weddings, and including an article about wedding dresses, profiling three different styles — including my electro forest fairy outfit from 2004. There’s an accompanying article about wedding costs, where I offer all my tips on the ways we saved money. That one’s over here.
- 10 Comments
- Tags: Book, media, print media, promotion, seattletimes
My first Catholic wedding
10
Sep
2006
In: Wedding
The Lush Table, originally uploaded by Will Merydith.
Last night I went to my first Catholic wedding! For a while I thought it was my first church wedding — but then I remembered that I went to my high school boyfriend’s mom’s wedding in 1994, and that was at a Lutheran Church. Um, I think it was Lutheran. It was pretty plain.
Anyway, it’s remarkable that I haven’t ever been to a Catholic wedding, considering my mother’s family is Catholic. In fact, I’ve never been to a Catholic service of any sort. It was interesting, what with the kneeling (on the special fold-down padded kneeling bench thinger), and the Mary hailing and all. There was a part where we all held up our hands to bless the newlyweds and I could get into that — it was woo-woo enough that I could imagine blasting them with the happy energy beams that I can shoot out of my palms.
All religious observation aside, there was also a martini ice luge at the reception, and that was awesome. I drank much more than I would have otherwise. Congratulations to the newlyweds!
Strangely, I’ve never put together a complete wedding photoset on Flickr. I first started using Flickr summer of 2004 as an experiment for our wedding pictures, and for a while there Flickr needed to play catch-up to be fully useful. I remember wanting to do things back in 2004 with my wedding pictures … and I just couldn’t. Then, once Flickr caught up with me, I’d moved on to thousands of other photos, and ug, who wants to go back over those old wedding pictures again? But finally I did it. I put together one wedding set: Our Wedding! Chances are you’ve all seen our wedding pictures, but knock yourself out if you wanna.
Oh, and if you’re a really good stalker and you have a favorite wedding photo that didn’t make it into the set, won’t you let me know?
Also, as long as I’m talking about my wedding, how’s this for a little anecdote: A couple weeks ago I had breakfast with my writerfriend Michelle, and we were talking about an anthology that we’re both planning to submit writings for. It’s about body image stuff, Michelle had suggested reworking my Fat is a feminist issue essay for it. In talking about that essay, I admitted to Michelle that one of the reasons I decided that it was finally time for me to lose weight was my book. When I signed up for WWOnline, they have you fill out these little goal statements for why you’re trying to lose weight (it felt cheezy, but I did it anyway), and mine said “I want to feel good about my author headshot.”
Michelle pointed out how funny it was that I didn’t lose weight for my wedding, but I lost weight for my book. I hadn’t thought of it that way.
- 3 Comments
- Tags: flickr, weight loss
The B&B where Andreas and I got married has received a cease and desist to stop hosting weddings.
When I first starting thinking about book ideas, many of the revolved around my stories. I’m a writer: of course I want to tell MY STORIES. But as part of And The Bride Wore A Hoop, I’m getting to hear about some of the most amazing wedding stories. The pair who married underwater. The couple who produced a whole stage performance called Wedding! The Musical. The couple who got married at Glastonbury and have great photos of them muddy and in love laying on the ground at the festival. Straight weddings, gay weddings, geeky weddings, hippie weddings, rock weddings, fucking awesome parties that just so happened to be weddings.
A few years ago I found myself, as an essayist, considering writing a book — a 70,000 word project seemed somewhat daunting. But now I’ve realized that’s because jesus: my stories aren’t THAT fucking interesting. Honestly. But when I have other people’s stories to share? HA! Why didn’t anyone tell me that not only would it make writing my book more feasible, it would make it a pure fucking joy. People do awesome things when they play with the concept of commitment and ceremony and weddings.
Think of it: supposedly the cost of an American wedding is currently averaging around $20,000. Even if you spend far, far less than that, when was the last time you threw a party where you let yourself spend even $1,000? Never. The only parties where you spend money like that are weddings and funerals. It’s not even really an issue of dollar amount — it’s an issue of resources like time and attention.
So, it’s really cool to see what my fellow freaks do with a party when they’ve got the resources to really do it up, even when it’s far, far less than the national average. These stories are far, far more delicious than the national average.
(Now if only I had a little more time to work on the book … it’s getting to the point where I’m like a floating brain: all I do is write and think at work and then come home and write and think some more. I’ve barely seen friends since September, and Seattle Hermit Season has only just very barely begun and I’m already in full creative retreat mode? Please, won’t you tap the glass of my formaldehyde jar?)
Andreas and I are now the traditional folks in the family. You see, his little sister eloped last week with a guy she met a couple months ago. Her parents (Dre’s father and stepmother) are remarkably unfazed. After all, they said, we’ve got five weddings and an elopement between the two of us, so who are we judge?
While in Montana, I got Andreas’ mother to tell the story of how she and Dre’s dad eloped 35 years ago. Turns out they had to get married because they’d both had trouble with their jobs — employers refused to hire them while they were “living in sin.” Can you imagine? In Oregon in 1968!? A company would get soundly sued these days if they told an employee to either get married or get out. Amazing!
So they decided to elope, picking a witness up off the street in front of the court house. Then there’s Dre’s stepmother, who married a sword swallower. Three times!
Suddenly, Andreas’ and my seven year courtship and family freakfest hippy raver wedding seems so old fashioned!
Me and the wedding dress
Originally uploaded by .Ariel.
Today The Seattle Times features a series about weddings, and including an article about wedding dresses, profiling three different styles — including my electro forest fairy outfit from 2004. There’s an accompanying article about wedding costs, where I offer all my tips on the ways we saved money. That one’s over here.
- 10 Comments
- Tags: Book, media, print media, promotion, seattletimes
My first Catholic wedding
10 Sep 2006 In: WeddingThe Lush Table, originally uploaded by Will Merydith.
Last night I went to my first Catholic wedding! For a while I thought it was my first church wedding — but then I remembered that I went to my high school boyfriend’s mom’s wedding in 1994, and that was at a Lutheran Church. Um, I think it was Lutheran. It was pretty plain.
Anyway, it’s remarkable that I haven’t ever been to a Catholic wedding, considering my mother’s family is Catholic. In fact, I’ve never been to a Catholic service of any sort. It was interesting, what with the kneeling (on the special fold-down padded kneeling bench thinger), and the Mary hailing and all. There was a part where we all held up our hands to bless the newlyweds and I could get into that — it was woo-woo enough that I could imagine blasting them with the happy energy beams that I can shoot out of my palms.
All religious observation aside, there was also a martini ice luge at the reception, and that was awesome. I drank much more than I would have otherwise. Congratulations to the newlyweds!
Strangely, I’ve never put together a complete wedding photoset on Flickr. I first started using Flickr summer of 2004 as an experiment for our wedding pictures, and for a while there Flickr needed to play catch-up to be fully useful. I remember wanting to do things back in 2004 with my wedding pictures … and I just couldn’t. Then, once Flickr caught up with me, I’d moved on to thousands of other photos, and ug, who wants to go back over those old wedding pictures again? But finally I did it. I put together one wedding set: Our Wedding! Chances are you’ve all seen our wedding pictures, but knock yourself out if you wanna.
Oh, and if you’re a really good stalker and you have a favorite wedding photo that didn’t make it into the set, won’t you let me know?
Also, as long as I’m talking about my wedding, how’s this for a little anecdote: A couple weeks ago I had breakfast with my writerfriend Michelle, and we were talking about an anthology that we’re both planning to submit writings for. It’s about body image stuff, Michelle had suggested reworking my Fat is a feminist issue essay for it. In talking about that essay, I admitted to Michelle that one of the reasons I decided that it was finally time for me to lose weight was my book. When I signed up for WWOnline, they have you fill out these little goal statements for why you’re trying to lose weight (it felt cheezy, but I did it anyway), and mine said “I want to feel good about my author headshot.”
Michelle pointed out how funny it was that I didn’t lose weight for my wedding, but I lost weight for my book. I hadn’t thought of it that way.
- 3 Comments
- Tags: flickr, weight loss
The B&B where Andreas and I got married has received a cease and desist to stop hosting weddings.
When I first starting thinking about book ideas, many of the revolved around my stories. I’m a writer: of course I want to tell MY STORIES. But as part of And The Bride Wore A Hoop, I’m getting to hear about some of the most amazing wedding stories. The pair who married underwater. The couple who produced a whole stage performance called Wedding! The Musical. The couple who got married at Glastonbury and have great photos of them muddy and in love laying on the ground at the festival. Straight weddings, gay weddings, geeky weddings, hippie weddings, rock weddings, fucking awesome parties that just so happened to be weddings.
A few years ago I found myself, as an essayist, considering writing a book — a 70,000 word project seemed somewhat daunting. But now I’ve realized that’s because jesus: my stories aren’t THAT fucking interesting. Honestly. But when I have other people’s stories to share? HA! Why didn’t anyone tell me that not only would it make writing my book more feasible, it would make it a pure fucking joy. People do awesome things when they play with the concept of commitment and ceremony and weddings.
Think of it: supposedly the cost of an American wedding is currently averaging around $20,000. Even if you spend far, far less than that, when was the last time you threw a party where you let yourself spend even $1,000? Never. The only parties where you spend money like that are weddings and funerals. It’s not even really an issue of dollar amount — it’s an issue of resources like time and attention.
So, it’s really cool to see what my fellow freaks do with a party when they’ve got the resources to really do it up, even when it’s far, far less than the national average. These stories are far, far more delicious than the national average.
(Now if only I had a little more time to work on the book … it’s getting to the point where I’m like a floating brain: all I do is write and think at work and then come home and write and think some more. I’ve barely seen friends since September, and Seattle Hermit Season has only just very barely begun and I’m already in full creative retreat mode? Please, won’t you tap the glass of my formaldehyde jar?)
Andreas and I are now the traditional folks in the family. You see, his little sister eloped last week with a guy she met a couple months ago. Her parents (Dre’s father and stepmother) are remarkably unfazed. After all, they said, we’ve got five weddings and an elopement between the two of us, so who are we judge?
While in Montana, I got Andreas’ mother to tell the story of how she and Dre’s dad eloped 35 years ago. Turns out they had to get married because they’d both had trouble with their jobs — employers refused to hire them while they were “living in sin.” Can you imagine? In Oregon in 1968!? A company would get soundly sued these days if they told an employee to either get married or get out. Amazing!
So they decided to elope, picking a witness up off the street in front of the court house. Then there’s Dre’s stepmother, who married a sword swallower. Three times!
Suddenly, Andreas’ and my seven year courtship and family freakfest hippy raver wedding seems so old fashioned!
Hey there. I'm Ariel Meadow Stallings, a native Seattleite who's written my way up and down the Left Coast. Electrolicious is where I post daily randomata, but I also write for a living. My first book, Offbeat Bride, was published last year.
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