The wedding album

Thursday, May 10, 2012. We picked the day months in advance, only to find out that City Hall only performs marriages on Saturdays, Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays. While I considered solutions to this problem, my friend Lorraine told me that her friend Pat could perform the ceremony and she put us in touch with one another. Pat graciously agreed to officiate and we were back on track.

Ken looks nervous (second thoughts?) and I'm directing traffic, as usual.

Through the miracle of e-mail, Pat and I discussed the what the ceremony should be like and where we'd have it. Like I said, I originally thought we'd be doing this in City Hall, but now the options were wide open. I liked the idea of being married in Albany's Washington Park among the May tulips, so that's what we decided to do.

Pat performs the wedding.

As Thursday approached, the weather forecast got iffy. Ken and I went to the park on Wednesday to scope out a location and to see if we could find a sheltered spot in case of rain. The park's lake house has some covered arcades that would serve, so we felt good about that. I took a whole bunch of photos of the lake house and the tulips that day, and then some photos of our pizza dinner that night, but somehow I lost them. Something to do with the new camera, transferring pictures from the card to the laptop, being jet-lagged and excited about the wedding. Oh well.

I always cry at weddings. Please pass the kleenex.

On Thursday at eleven-thirty, we all met in the park at our predetermined rendez-vous point: the statue of Moses among the tulips. The weather stayed dry, but there was a bit of gusty wind. Pat's husband Richard suggested we hold the ceremony in the shelter of a nearby large weeping cherry tree. It was the perfect spot; in fact, Richard told us that many people get married under that tree and that he's heard it called "the wedding tree."

The wedding tree. You can see the tulip beds in the background on the right.

After a little milling about, we got down to business. Pat was wonderful. After about fifteen minutes, we were married. In addition to Pat and Richard, we were joined by my very dear friends Lorraine and Lou (who are indirectly responsible for me meeting Ken over thirty years ago), and some relatively new friends (whom we met because of blogging) Evelyn and Lewis. We are so very grateful for their support and for standing up for us on our special day.

Ken, Lou, Walt, and Lorraine.

Evelyn, Walt, Ken, and Lewis.

After the ceremony, we convened for lunch at a famous downtown restaurant called Jack's. The first order of business was a bottle of champagne, of course. After lunch, Ken and I took Evelyn and Lewis on a little walking tour of downtown. It was a great way to spend some time with them and to walk off a little of the food and wine.

Walt, Pat, and Ken.

Lorraine, Evelyn, and Lewis did a terrific job with the cameras to record our little ceremony. Lewis even took some video. These are some of their photos.