So You're EnGAYged, A Gay Wedding Blog

Name/Blogger Name: Jen
Partner’s Name: Sam
Location: Jamaica Plain, MA
Date of Wedding: 12.11.10
Venue/Location of Wedding: Cambridge Multicultural Arts Center, Cambridge, MA
About Me:  I work with victims of violent crime and civil rights violations (hate crimes), including families of victims of homicide.  In 2008, I founded Black Cat Rescue, an all volunteer network of foster homes serving homeless black cats in MA.  I serve as the organization’s Director and Adoption Coordinator, which is essentially the really fun and rewarding job of kitty/human matchmaker.  Sam and I started dating in college.  We are both from Massachusetts but met at school in Upstate New York.  Sam is a marketing professional and uses her considerable skills to raise money for our cat rescue efforts, which never fails to make me swoon.  When we’re not doing something or other for the homeless cats of the world, we enjoy staying home and ordering free On Demand movies and lots of pizza.

Name/Blogger Name: Michelle/ M.G.
Partner’s name: Deborah
Location: Deep in the Heart of Texas
Date of wedding: November 21, 2010
Venue/Location of Wedding: We are planning on being legally wed in another state, but we just don’t know where yet. We are also planning a blessing of the marriage (aka full blown celebration) at a local and lovely historic house, the Astin Mansion.
About me: I’m a full-time high school teacher and part-time theatre fiend. My fiancee and I met at local community theater, and we are both self-proclaimed theatre and book nerds. We are currently navigating the sometimes tumultuous waters of a lesbian wedding, in a not-so-gay-friendly area, with as much humor and optimism as humanly possible.
Loves: champagne, Arrested Development, quirky photography, etsy
Hates: Diets, humidity

Name/Blogger Name: Mandy
Partner’s name: Bek
Location: Toronto
Date of wedding: May 29, 2010
Venue/Location of Wedding: Loft+Rooftop in Midtown Manhattan
About me: I live in Toronto, Canada, and after having spent a long time wandering, I am enjoying putting down some roots. I work in the arts, volunteer within the queer community, and I don’t really remember what I used to do with my free time before I started planning a wedding. I am a Canadian girl who fell in love with an American, and I am fortunate that my American is brave enough to weather the Canadian winters so we can be together! We got legally hitched here in Canada a little over a year ago, just us two crazy kids at city hall… and now we’re planning a ceremony and celebration in New York (where we met and fell in love!) to share with our friends and family. I have an amazing marriage to an amazing partner, so this wedding has a lot to live up to!

About me: I work in the nonprofit sector at an organization that combines environmental work with youth development, and I’m constantly reading, starting knitting/crochet projects I don’t finish, and trying to convince people that being a “cat mom” is good practice for being a parent. Both my partner and I are lifelong Pittsburghers, and consider ourselves to be about the luckiest people in the world. It’s not that we don’t love other cities and all they have to offer… it’s just that they don’t have the Steelers, or the Penguins, or pierogies, or the rivers, or… well, you get the point. We met while we were in high school at the Gay and Lesbian Community Center’s youth group, and the rest is history. We like tasting wine and beer, enjoying local food, being outside, and taking road trips.
I’m so excited to join the SoYou’reEnGAYged community!

More about me after the jump: (more…)

Name/Blogger Name: Derek Noel/D*Rock
Partner’s name: Joey Norton Love
Location: Las Vegas, NV
Date of wedding: October, 16th 2010
Venue/Location of Wedding: Southern California Backyard/Beach
About me:

I’m a former actor/singer turned Baker from San Francisco. I’m an alumni of the American Academy of Dramatic Arts in New York City, While I was living and studying in NYC In 2005 I met the love of my life randomly through an accidental myspace mishap. Now we live in Las Vegas, NV I work for a local chocolate company and run a little freelance cupcake business out of my home and he writes a wonderful pop culture and music blog called “Joey Love Is Revenge” and works at a bookstore. We love pop culture, art, movies, and being silly and ridiculous.

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Blogger Name: Jenna Rose
Location: Dallas, TX
Date of wedding: 8/14/2010 (ceremony) & 8/28/2010 (reception)
Venue/Location of Wedding: 10^th century castle in Hondarribia, Spain (ceremony) & a friend’s kick-ass backyard in Dallas, TX (reception)

About me:
I am a writer and wandering artist who grew up in and around New York City. I’ve spent the last five years bouncing around the world, living in Buffalo, London, Florence, Dallas, Los Angeles, and back to Dallas again. Living in the south has taught me two indispensable things: one, anyone born a yankee stays a yankee for life; and two, the proper southern pronunciation of ‘shut the hell up’ is ‘bless your heart’.

I met my beautiful wife-to-be, Chris, two years ago in Dallas (her hometown). I had just returned from a long trip abroad, and was exhausted and completely broke, but a mutual friend dragged me out to a bar anyway, insisting I would have fun. Chris had a pile of books at the end of the bar table, and I’ll be the first to admit that I noticed the books first, and the girl second. When I put the two together… it was love at first sight. We fell headfirst into a whirlwind romance. Two months later we flew to Jamaica for a vacation, and four months after that we packed up our lives and headed west for the sun and sparkle of Los Angeles. Our wedding ceremony will be on the three-year anniversary of the day we met.

When I’m not wedding planning, most of my energy is focused on job-hunting, expanding my cooking repertoire, planning a vegetable garden for the spring, and trying to remember to update my blog. It’s been rumored that I’m working on my first novel, but my imagination and discipline don’t always see eye to eye on that. Negotiations look hopeful.

You can find my (very sporadic) blog posts at Welcome to Jupiter.

Name/Blogger Name: Sar
Location: Northern New Jersey
Date of wedding: June 26, 2010
Venue/Location of Wedding: Asbury Park, NJ
About me: Im an east coast transplant from the midwest, and a graphic designer by trade. When Im not working I love to read, play video games, and do crafty things like sew and silkscreen. I love The Office, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, and I am a huge LOST nerd.

I’m very excited to be blogging for So You’re enGAYged! I’m a graphic artist who lives in New Jersey and works in New York.

My girlfriend Nicole and I met in art school. I still remember the day we met like it just happened! I had moved from Michigan to Georgia to go to college and I was having a hard time meeting new people. So my mom suggested LEAVING my dorm room (novel concept!) so I took my sketchbook and sat just outside my door to do my homework. Hey, that totally counted as getting out and meeting new people… right? Nicole, who lived next door, passed by on her way to the laundry room and stopped to say hi. A few months later we were roommates, 2yrs later dating, and 8yrs from the moment we met, engaged!! It was almost a year ago now on our very first visit to San Fran that Nic popped the question. We had ambitiously walked all over the city that day and without my knowing Nic had been waiting for the perfect moment to propose. She had been carrying the ring around all day in her wallet hoping I wouldnt find it. When we got to the top of Telegraph Hill and sat in Coit Tower’s shadow to catch our breath she took out the ring… and took my breath away(again)!! Of course, I said yes!!

Name/Blogger Name: Ms. Sparrow
Location: Bennington, VT
Contact info:  mssparrow99@nullgmail.com
Date of wedding: 17 July 2010
Venue/Location of Wedding: Hubbell Homestead

About me:  I am trying to plan a carnival themed VT wedding from DC, while at the same time applying to medical school.  I love to knit and draw comics in my free time.  I am pretty much a total dork, i.e. major in college was astrophysics.  I love Battlestar, Xena, and Buffy.  And old Star Wars wins over Star Trek any day.

J, my fiance, used to make up crazy stories about how we met.  For example,  we saw each other across the crowd at a Christmas tree lighting.  In reality, I think our story is just as random.  We met on the Internet.

Doesn’t sound odd?  I know, but it wasn’t on some dating website, it was on friendster (Yes, we have been dating 4.5 years. Actually naming the social networking site dates us).  One day J logged on and saw my picture in the ‘cool new people’ section. This was a lie as I was not a new person and obviously my coolness is up for debate.  She said to herself “that girl is really pretty” (my version of events) and sent me a message.  As luck would have it, our colleges were only 30 minutes apart.  We met two months later and have been together ever since.  Personally I think the amount of luck involved in our meeting is way better than any made up story.

We dated for 4 years and I proposed last February and now we are planning our wedding.

Name/Blogger Name: Monica
Location: Pittsburgh, PA
Contact info: lesbi.yinzer@gmail.com
Date of wedding: 5/14/10 (legal ceremony in CT) & 5/22/10 (commitment ceremony in Unitarian Universalist church in Pittsburgh)

About me: My fiancée and I recently bought a house and are trying to keep up with the craziness of being first-time homeowners and planning two wedding ceremonies in different states. We’ve been together since March of ’05 and share our home with our three cats. In planning our ceremonies, it seems that finding our perfect balance between tradition and non-tradition is our biggest obstacle. We want it to be unique and different, but at the same time, we want people to know they’ve been to a wedding.

I like to say Dana and I met through a mutual friend. Which is sort of true…if our mutual friend was match.com. We met on my birthday, had a first date at the romantic spot that is Denny’s, and ended up spending that day, the next day, and part of the following day together. Of course, those three days included birthday cake with a bunch of my friends (including my ex), an Indigo Girls concert, and me meeting her two cats. Why wouldn’t they?

Fast-forward two years later, and we were signing the lease on our new apartment together. She and the cats made the move to Pittsburgh from her home an hour away, and it went so well, we adopted a third. Three years after that (and a week before we celebrated our fifth anniversary), we bought a house for us and our boys, Promise, Zippo, and Graham, to share.

Walking in her favorite park one night, we decided to get married. She was adamant about having a legal ceremony, and I was just as focused on the local commitment ceremony with all of our family and friends. We have booked a date with a justice of the peace in Connecticut (that we chose sort of at random on the internet) and a church in Pittsburgh – a Unitarian Universalist church, which I insisted on joining because “if it’s good enough to marry me, it’s good enough to join.” Sorry, Catholicism. I didn’t want to abandon you, but you turned your back on me first.

I’ve never been the kind of girl who dreamed of her wedding from the age of an embryo, but I’m really enjoying planning the kind of celebration that will reflect our unique personalities. Dana has made a rough sketch of what kind of dress she wants to buy, and I am insisting that I’m not picky about the suit I’ll wear, but I really want to order Chuck Taylors to match it.

And when I said that, she just smiled and said, “Okay, honey. Sounds great.” I’ve definitely found a keeper. And I can’t wait to marry her. Twice.