I'm married!!!

"Love is composed of a single soul inhabiting two bodies."
Aristotle

I got hitched on Friday. P and I are having our large bells & whistles ceremony in Spain on June 24, but we needed to get civilly married in the US (too much hassle to do it in Spain). My parents were here from Spain, P's mom was here from Sydney so this was the perfect time.

We scheduled an appointment at 3:00 at LAX Courthouse. I was not expecting much to happen at this airport adjacent locale. I half expected that a brusque and officious bureaucrat would call us up to the counter, check our IDs, ensure that we really did intend to get married, get us and our witness to sign the form and we would be out of there in 5 minutes.

Boy were we pleasantly surprised!!! LAX Courthouse had a chapel. It was very Vegas. You walked in and at the end of a short aisle flanked by 12 chairs in neat rows of two, there was an arch covered in faux flowers. A faux wedding cake was on the artfully decorated table at the entrance. A cute 70-90 year old Commissioner in her black judge's robe greeted us at the door. She was about 4 foot 5, wrinkled as a raisin, and cute as a button. Her large smile lit up her tan face and after she warmly greeted everyone who was at the wedding, she patted her large blonde-white bun and headed to the front. It was utterly delightful.

I grabbed my dad and asked if he wanted to walk me down the aisle. He readily agreed. "Hold on!!" yelled the commissioner. She pulled out a small boom box from behind the podium, pressed Play and the Wedding March started blaring. My dad took my arm in his and walked me down the aisle to my waiting groom. "Who brings this woman to take this man in holy matrimony?" "I do," said my dad and gave me a kiss on the cheek.

The commissioner then invited everyone to stand behind her for better pictures and everyone filed behind her. Only my brother and sister-in-law stayed seated. Everyone else went behind her. They smiled lovingly upon us and took many pictures or videotaped as the commissioner began her lovely sermon about love and commitment and the responsabilities of marriage. We exchanged vows. Then Teo, our ring bearer, delivered a ring. Finally she pronounced us husband and wife and we kissed. It was lovely.

Afterwards we took many pictures. The commissioner even took one for us -- carefully arranging us and making sure everyone appeared in the photo. The 5 minute ceremony I expected was actually a half an hour. It was absolutely lovely and the whole thing was a delight.

Afterwards the whole family went to Duke's in Malibu for some delicious ocean-front dining. I couldn't have planned a more perfect day.

Pictures coming soon.