As many of you know, Vanessa and I had our big family wedding in Pittsburgh back in May. It was an amazing time for us and for our family, with tons of good food and dancing and more food. One thing we didn’t have was an officiator present with the power to make the marriage legal. While we will always think of the ceremony in Pittsburgh as our real wedding, we still needed to tie up that loose end so we could get all those benefits and tax breaks and stuff that the government likes to give married people. We decided to do something small, intimate and unique. We had our friend Jeff get ordained as a Justice of the Peace for a day, and we had a little gathering in our living room. There was a total of seven of us, and we all wore pajamas. Here’s a picture of Vanessa and I:
Vanessa is wearing her usual monkey-in-the-bathtub pajamas, complete with the button-down top. She would later add a tiara which says “Princess for a Day”. I am wearing Super Friends bottoms and my Friends for Life t-shirt that I blogged about a few months ago. Here is Jeff, the JoP:
Since he was the officiator, he got to wear the nightcap. It is too bad we did not have a candlestick for him to hold. Here is another picture of the lucky couple, along with another lucky couple:
That other couple is Jon and Loretta, who you might recognize from my Monkey and Bulldog painting. They are actually getting married in September, but I will probably not wear my pajamas to that wedding. Next, we have a photo of just the ladies who were present:
From left to right, there’s Loretta, my sister Kim, Vanessa (you can see the tiara in this one) and my good friend Shelley.
The lil’ ceremony began with a short procession from our bedroom into the living room to music from The Mummy soundtrack by Jerry Goldsmith. Jeff then had us all watch a clip of the finale from Revenge of the Nerds on Vanessa’s laptop. Jeff did not completely explain the relevance of this clip, nor did he need to. He then played a short congratulatory video made by our friend Jesse, who lives in Florida and was unable to attend the festivities. It was a parody of a Youtube video featuring a stoned Harrison Ford trying to congratulate a friend on receiving some film award. My mom, who was joining us via speaker phone could be heard laughing rancorously, although I am sure she was not familiar with the reference. After this, readings were delivered by Shelley, Jeff and Kim. Jeff chose these pieces randomly from a wedding website without first reading them himself . They were both amusing and moving. Jeff then brought the whole thing home with the standard “by the power vested in me” lines, and the deal was sealed. Vanessa and I are now able to share health insurance ! Hurray! The seven of us then went out to celebrate at Tremont 647 in Boston’s South End. We had ribs and tater tots, and lobster mac and cheese. It was the perfect mini reception to our pajama wedding. While we will always think of May 24th in Pittsburgh as the day we were married, our little party in the living room will always have special meaning for us. Good stuff.
