Wow, it has been one year since our wedding – time sure has been flying! I looked at some of the pictures today and was remembering what we were doing on that day. It was a long day – started at 5 am and ended pretty much 24 hours later.

While we were celebrating our anniversary almost the whole weekend, we got to start planning the Bachelorette/Bachelor party. We decided for G and G to have a party for each one of them instead for them both and talked to a couple of friends. Any suggestions for a gay Bachelor and Bachelorette party are very welcome! We have a wine aficionado and a party animal, the ideas are flowing but nothing has been set in stone yet. We’ll probably keep everything local although the notion of a limousine has been thrown at us. Also I’m not big in party games so I’ll have a lot of reading to do.

On another note, I started the next process on my Limoncello. I let it stand for over 10 days and mixed it with the syrup. For the syrup I used organic sugar and so the whole mixture looks a bit brownish although I did not use raw sugar. I tried a teaspoon and it tasted actually pretty nice – lemony. It now sits in my fridge for the next 10 days (sorry, Limoncello-Gurus, I just can’t wait any longer…) and then I can finally filter and bottle. I’m so looking forward to take that first sip of ice cold Limoncello. Mmmhh…

Yes, I know, it’s old by now, worn out, almost corny. But I just got to see it – the Dark Knight in its full dimension. I was unbelievably impressed by the Joker as I thought, I would be. Heath Ledger did it one last time.

I also got a chance to update the website with some new articles. I added a hopefully useful report on how to select the right food for a wedding and what to pay attention to. And I put up a How To on Wedding Invitations. Check it out and add some of your own ideas!

Now I get to go shopping for a black dress as it was requested by G and G. I don’t normally like shopping but I might enjoy this one. I’m just not so sure on the color. Is black appropriate for a wedding?

Massachusetts now also allows same sex weddings for couples who are out of State. I hope, they do not have the equivalent of Kern County there as well…

Just a couple of days ago, I saw a TV commercial where everything possible was thrown in the way of the bride, hindering her from getting to her groom, who was held back by his best man. Falling over a deliberately extended cane from a guest, she sits on the ground looking desperately to her husband to be. ‘What if you couldn’t marry the person you love?’ is flashing over the sad bride. The commercial is for a new website: http://www.letcaliforniaring.org/ (no, I don’t have anything to do with it) and I hope, you will check it out. It is very well made and you can show your support for same sex marriage by signing with your name. They offer T-Shirts and a ring for showing support on their site.

There are some small news on our website. We added a new feature – from now on you can send personal messages to your friends who already signed up. Just go visit their profile and click on ‘Send a message’ – even if you are not registered.

On a personal note: I’m making my own Limoncello. I just added all the zest from 16 lemons bought at the Farmers market to a bottle of Everclear and in about 2 weeks, I’ll let you know about the result. The worst part about all Limoncello recipes is needing so much patience! If you know about any recipe that does not take such a long time, please comment!

Wow, I just returned from an extensive wine tasting. Obviously, yours truly, loves wine. Our local wine shop, by the way, where we not only get to try interesting wine but also hear the gossip of the neighborhood, is in our local business directory. Check it out! If you live close by, try their wine. I can highly (*hickup*) recommend it. They have everything from value wines to high budget boutique wines. Oh, and did I say local wines? From Sonoma down to Laguna Beach – it’s all there.

Other than my wine indulgence, the Gs were assembling their invitations, which should come along nicely. I can’t wait to get mine. Am I invited? I am invited, right? Pretty please?

We still have not been able to go watch the Dark Knight. I have a busy schedule, you know. And we had to celebrate Swiss Independence Day, yesterday, up in Los Angeles. It was a blast! And I hope, we were able to sign up a couple of new members to our website (yes, there was wine, too). I worked on a piece that shows a random selected couple on the website and some of their wedding details – it looks pretty neat and I will upload it probably tomorrow after giving it a good old test run.

Ah, I’m getting sidetracked by that inviting smell of smoked pork belly. I love you, dear husband! Thank you for cooking! Now let me open that bottle of Pear Valley Shiraz…

…or how to word an invitation thereof. Yes, we did it! And it was utterly fun, too. G and G decided on a very creative design which involves three sheets, a card stock and a perforated line type of RSVP card. The first sheet is a vellum paper with just G and G’s names on it. We printed it grayish with a nice flourish font and it looks very elegant. The second sheet is a chartreuse green and we found a modern yet classy font that is perfect for a wedding invitation.

A side note about fonts: It is sheer unbelievable how many options are out there! And many of them are free to download so it does not make the selection easy. All while G, Mr. Entertainment, gets sidetracked by shiny things in our office. Wedding invitations are definitely a touch-stone for a relationship!

So, the chartreuse paper contains the actual invitation, which is not over the top formal but keeps the elegant and modern style of the whole card. Then there comes the gold (or lovingly dubbed ‘mustard yellow’) sheet with the details, directions and a RSVP section which is divided from the rest of the card by a perforated line. Pretty neat!

The Vellum paper tricked our laser printer a bit and created a ghostly shadow picture of the names when we printed more than one piece, so we printed one by one and had G stand at the printer and holler ‘OK!’ when one paper came out. Yes, we had fun! OK!

We decided to round up invitation day with a visit to the Orange County Fair. I don’t think, I have ever seen so many different varieties of fried food. We had fried artichoke hearts, fried corn dogs, fried hamburgers, funnel cake, fried snicker bars – oh, and a turkey leg. Yes, we were dripping with oil. Good thing they have beer, too. Definitely majorly helping with the fat factor of the fritters.

Yes, Hawaiian Visitor, we saw your footprint! Thank you for stopping by and we hope, you liked the web community well enough to come back.

We have been working hard and were able to add a couple of local businesses to our directory – they are looking forward to get more reviews. And rest assured, they make a point not to discriminate anyone, not like Monica Goodling, who refused to offer a job to an attorney because she thought she was a lesbian. Sidenote: I keep observing the news for an update on Kern County and their refusal to marry any couple currently – but so far, nothing seems to have changed.

Today is Invitation Day! We will be working on those darn invitations this afternoon and hopefully get them worded out and printed up! I hope, G and G have their guest list ready! Personally I found that to be one of the most challenging decisions – with limited space, who are you going to invite? Who will you have to invite? Who are you absolutely refusing to invite?

Guest lists are somewhat almost a political thing: it is difficult not to step on someone’s toes. Seating orders go right into that same category! We spent a whole day mulling over who sits where, grouping together the like-minded while not creating borders – aah, diplomacy!

Talk of the day was not the Dark Knight movie we were going to watch yesterday (and which was completely sold out, forcing us to sip a Margarita at Javier’s instead), instead everybody’s mind was on the earthquake which, granted, was very scary. So much so, in fact, that I grabbed the dogs and ran outside.

It wasn’t strong enough, though, to hide other news, like the fact that soon Massachusetts will allow out of state same sex marriages. Massachusetts lawmakers voted to repeal a 1913 law – a law put in place to ban interracial marriages – that banned marriages not considered valid in the couples’ home states.

Governor Deval Patrick (D) plans to sign the repeal measure and the House of Representatives approved the repeal by a whopping 118-35 vote. The state Senate already approved it earlier this month.

So, in other words, soon California will not be the only state allowing couples from other states to be married. Which is good – great, actually! In other news, I added some new features on the website but I need to get more content. Writing this blog helps me definitely with my English but that and implementing the website do not leave much time for writing essays and looking for sponsors.

Tomorrow we’ll tackle the fun problem of planning G and G’s bachelor and bachelorette party (and which G goes to which party).

Now that we have our planning tools in place and the content is slowly but surely starting to fill in, we get our first profiles. It’s fun to see where our visitors come from and what they write about themselves. I just added a friend and couple search to make it easier to find couples in your area or friends who already signed up. Yes, it’s starting to take on some shapes. We even had a visitor from Thailand! Check out the New and Improved.

In other news, the wording for Proposition 8 changed which is good news! Instead of saying ‘…amends the California Constitution to provide that only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California’, which was the text before the May 15 court decision, it now reads: ‘Changes California Constitution to eliminate right of same-sex couples to marry’. It also clarifies that banning same sex marriage can result in preventing the state from getting tens of millions of dollars in potential sales tax revenue.

Let’s hope that if nothing else money talks and puts some sense in those who mix religion with state business. For now, I am heading with G and G to the Imax to watch the Dark Knight. While I’m more interested in the Joker (big Heath Ledger Fan here!), I’m sure, Batman will at least momentarily relief the stress of G and G’s wedding planning. Off to the movies now…

I was hoping to be able to write a post about the finished invitations which we were going to print yesterday but they are not quite ready yet. We have a new addition to the whole wedding planning though – I get to be a bridesmaid, or technically, a groomsmaid. I have never been part of a wedding (besides getting married myself) and I need to get some input on what my job will be, other than what I already do: (nicely) argue with G and G about their plans, provide wine for creativity and keep G from smoking. Any ideas?

G and G said they decided to have bridesmaids after careful consideration. Women are an important part of their lives, not just men and should be part of their important day as well. I thought that was a rather sweet idea.

I will start a discussion thread on celebrateourgaywedding regarding brides-/groomsmaids in same sex weddings and their jobs – and hope for some input!

While everybody is embracing unity, at least before and during the 2008 Olympics, Kern county decides to close their offices to marriage ceremonies. All marriage ceremonies. You can still get your marriage certificate, but will have to get married elsewhere. County Clerk Ann Barnett cites ‘we do not staff or space to deal with an increase in both licenses and ceremonies. Because of long-term administrative plans, budgetary reasons, and the need to increase security for elections, the Clerk’s office will cease solemnizing weddings, which is discretionary on the part of the County Clerk.’. While there may be third parties to officiate the weddings, it will be most certainly more expensive. And if you insist on a confidential marriage license, you will have to get married in Kern county.

There is more to it though. Interestingly enough, Greg Scott is speaking for Barnett’s attorney. Scott is from the Alliance Defense Fund, which in turn, as stated on their website, defines marriage as ‘God created marriage as the unity of one man and one woman’. Hm. Wasn’t there something about separation of Church and State? Barnett keeps quiet and I keep wondering. What a childish act of defiance for an official of the Land of the Free and Home of the Brave.

Two links regarding Barnett and her unwillingness to do her job:

http://www.advocate.com/print_article_ektid55990.asp
http://www.bakersfieldnow.com/news/local/19875339.html