A friend was reading Olivia Munn’s new autobiography Suck It, Wonder Woman!and spotted a reference to our wedding. Munn is some sort of geek queen although I admit I hadn’t heard of her before. The wedding reference is in a geek history time line, not under 2009 when it took place, but rather, under 1961, the year of Richard Garriott’s birth. Munn gives a quick bio of Garriott, ending with his officiating our wedding. She doesn’t mention my name or Noah’s. The blurb ends with a quick “All hail the geek pope!”
I’d like a scan of this page to include in my portfolio of press, if anyone happens to by this book. (The scan needs to be 300 dpi.) My friend was reading a library copy.
Noah and I celebrated our first anniversary last weekend! We saw a Broadway show (Fela) and had dinner at the famous Peter Luger’s, which is like two blocks from our apartment. Fela was really something else, and the steaks at Peter Luger’s were essentially a hunk of cow. Mostly the restaurant was filled with amusing local characters with authentic Brooklyn accents.
“Don’t expect this to continue,” Noah said. He doesn’t think he can keep finding anime characters to keep up with this theme.
Meanwhile, I’ve been compiling press clippings for a big photo album. I finally got around to scanning this article from a German magazine. The reporter was really nice, and interviewed us over Skype. The magazine finds the story behind the news, so we had a really long interview for the story:
On Wednesday, February 3rd, Noah and I were special guests at the State of the Borough address because of our unusual wedding. We got to sit on stage as Borough President Marty Markowitz was sworn in for his fourth term as Borough President by Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Noah and I weren’t sure what to expect when we arrived at the Park Slope Armory, but once we got inside it was like parade headquarters! There were all kinds of performances before the speech, by an orchestra, a ballet troupe, a huge tabernacle choir, and some scantily clad West Indian American Day Carnival dancers. During the speech, Marty mentioned all the on stage guests, including Census workers, people who had cleaned up tenements, local fashion designers, the owner of a new German beer hall, a guy who wouldn’t give Linsay Lohan’s blackberry back, and our zero gravity wedding. Afterward everyone was treated to a bunch of free food from great Brooklyn restaurants like Juniors, Cake Man Raven, and that wine-flavored sorbet place.
We met Talisa Chang of the Greenpoint Gazette, who took our picture with Marty and wrote an article about the event.
Fun fact about the borough of Brooklyn; did you know that if it were cut off from New York City, Brooklyn would be America’s fifth largest city?
…according to theknot.com.au – that is to say, theknot.com Australia. They put us on their Biggest Wedding Moments of 2009 list.
This morning the Brian Lehrer radio show on WNYC tried to put a positive spin on the decade. Because the 2000’s are framed by 9/11 and a Great Recession with Hurricane Katrina somewhere in the middle, it seems pretty bleak. Lehrer’s call-in show featured listeners talking about what went right on a personal level, and on a world level.
The 2000’s represent not just one third of my life, but the BEST third. I met Noah in 2000, and we started dating in 2002, living together in 2003, and got engaged in 2008 and married in 2009.
The Zero G Corporation started offering weightless flights to the public in 2004. My wedding dress was designed in 2006, here’s a New York Times article about it.
This set has more of the wedding details, like the cake and the flowers. Actually if anyone got good close-ups of the cake topper, please email me your photos!
These are just the funny pictures. I’ll upload more serious photos later.
Note that at the end of the set, my bridesmaids participated in a “Bridesmaids Battle” – a tradition my friends and I made up where bridesmaids duel with bouquets, samurai style. The winner at my Michigan reception was Lauren – she is now a regional champion, and I will fly her to NYC to battle the New York bridesmaids in an ultimate showdown.
The bulk of the Michigan reception planning has fallen to my mother, who is somehow managing everything and getting a Doctorate and being Dean of a college all at the same time.
I have taken it upon myself to hire the DJ. I went to a lot of Michigan weddings as a kid, and the DJ was often pretty lame. One or two weddings I attended had DJs with hair leftover from the 1980’s who were sure to play “Celebration” by Kool & the Gang and “Joy to the World” by Three Dog Night, along with two Michigan standards – the YMCA and the Chicken Dance (check out the link for a Lawrence Welk lesson if you’re not familiar).
I told my mom she can request either the YMCA or the Chicken Dance but not both. This never happens at NYC weddings. I also hoped to avoid the Michigan “Dollar Dance” tradition, but frankly, I need the money. In Michigan the money is collected into little bags and not pinned to the couple, thankfully. I think it’s a Polish tradition but my only source on this is the 1978 movie The Deer Hunter.
Here’s a tip for Michigan DJs: Update your webpages! It’s not 1998 anymore! I’m avoiding at least one company based on a really lame animated gif.
Fortunately, there is hope! This DJ sounds really fun, is highly recommended on bridal websites, and has a webpage from this decade.
I’m really picky about music, and I have a long playlist of songs about space I want played during the reception.
Sticky: Welcome to our Wedding Website
