An Introduction

Planning a wedding was not something I ever thought I would be doing. Michael and I have been together a little over four years and from the start there was a connection I have never felt with anyone before.



I always assumed that at some point we would move in together and become domestic partners, you know something like marriage lite. We would go down to the courthouse, fill out some forms, sign on the dotted line and afterward we would gather a few of our friends and families and have a small dinner somewhere.

Then four years after we met two unexpected things happened. The First: On May 15, 2008 the California State Supreme Court overturned the ban on same sex marriage in California. Beginning June 16, 2008 California would be the second state in the union to allow people of the same sex to get married. This was a very exciting and historic day. While marriage had never been an option, now it was something I could seriously consider.

It was not long after that that the second unexpected thing happened. It was our anniversary and we had a romantic evening planned. Dinner at the Napa Rose at Disney's Grand California Hotel, followed by an evening at Disneyland. We had a delicious meal served with wine and then it was time for dessert. Right before dessert is served my then boyfriend pulls a ring out of his pocket and places it on my finger. What he may have said at that point in time is unknown to me. I have never been in such a dazed state. At some point he stopped speaking and I looked up at him and said, "typically you wait for a person to say 'yes' before you put the ring on their finger." He said he knew what the answer would be so he didn't feel the need to wait.

A wedding of our own was not something I had even considered until that point. Suddenly more thoughts than I could process came to me at one time. We needed a location, a date, how would it all come together, what kind of wedding did we want?

In the two months since we have been engaged we have made a lot of those decisions, and I will fill you in on them here, as well as other issues and bits of interesting news. The quick explanation for the blog title is that we decided to have a mad tea party themed wedding at the Disneyland Hotel. I am a big Disney fan and knowing how happy it would make me my new fiance suggested we have the wedding there. It has made me very happy, and I am looking to the day when we gather our friends and family and declare our love and devotion to each other for the rest of our lives.