As most of you can see, we have literally poured our hearts into the creation of this website. At times, we definitely looked at each other and said "who's going to read all of this stuff?" (Ok, that was more Perry wondering whether my usual verbosity and endless storytelling would overwhelm our website's visitors! My friend, Jon Tolins, the extraordinary writer, has referred to it as my "lack of economy of phrase"... always loved the way that sounded!)

But as we really got into writing the various stories that are here on the site, and the tributes and the history of the Queen Mary (which took me the better part of two days to do the research and find the perfect pictures!), we felt like we were really going to help to personalize this wedding for our friends and family, and maybe make it a bit more meaningful for everyone. Not that our love story, or our feelings about our wedding party, etc. are any more special than any other couples, but by sharing as much as we could about all of those things, we hoped that people would feel a closer to connection to everything related to our wedding... and that for those attending the wedding, they'd feel less like casual observers, and more emotionally involved. I know, myself, of the many many weddings I've been to, the wedding party are usually just these random faces of people; then you end up meeting them later at the reception, and often finding out little tidbits of how they're connected to the wedding couple. On some occasions, you find out that you have something in common in one or two of them, and enjoy the brief chats that you have later in the evening when you finally get around to meeting them (usually as things are winding down at the reception!). And that has often left me wishing that I had been introduced to these people earlier in the day, or been told of the connections they had with the wedding couple, which would have made watching the wedding even more interesting. So, as I was writing my very lengthy bios/tributes to my wedding party, I wanted to add stories that would not just tell what these people meant to me, but also to help personalize them for everyone coming to the wedding. If people read it all, great. And if they didn't, then that's fine too. 

But we found that the response has been overwhelmingly positive to it all. The people in our wedding party have been so touched - even emotional - about reading what we've said about them. I've heard on more than one occasion "I didn't know that I meant that much to you!". And if absolutely nobody else but the wedding party ever read those tributes, then they were worth the time and effort, just for them to know how very special they are to us!

But beyond that, the responses we've gotten from people who aren't in the wedding party has been absolutley incredible and heartwarming. People are telling us how excited they are to meet our wedding party, after reading about them. And others are telling us how much it means to have a more detailed understanding of our journey to each other, and the choices that we made in our wedding party, etc. Even old friends from high school are taking the time to explore the site, and are leaving such amazing messages of support for the wedding and enthusiasm for the website! Having grown up in a small town in Upstate New York, attending a school that was fairly limited in it's scope of the world beyond the town boundaries, I would have probably taken my life in my hands if I had ever been open about being gay back in high school. It was a number of years after graduation before I even started admitting it to a few chosen friends. Over the years it became more and more known, and I found a great deal of support from old classmates of mine. And it's been incredibly touching to me that so many old classmates from high school are reaching out to congratulate us, and are exploring this site and learning more about our story as a couple. Makes me wish I had the budget to be able to invite every one of them to the wedding!!

So, I just want to give my heartfelt thanks to all of you, for being so supportive and so enthusiastic about what we've done here with the site, and what we're creating for our big day. Growing up as a gay kid, I always believed that I would have to live vicariously through my friends and family, when it came to weddings. Secretly, I dreamed of what my wedding would have looked like, if I was able to have one. And there was always a tinge of sadness when I would attend a wedding, knowing that I couldn't have something like that for myself - unless I ignored my truth and married a woman. And how cruel would that be, to mislead some poor unsuspecting girl, just so that I could have my dream wedding! Clearly, I would never have done that to anyone. So I just resolved myself to knowing that a traditional big wedding would not be an option for someone like me.

But then the world began to change. And with the progress that has been made with legalizing gay marriage, the door that seemed SO firmly shut, started to show light through the cracks... And falling in love with Perry allowed that door to swing WIDE open. So, for me, this isn't just another wedding. This is a wedding that was long thought impossible. It's one thing if you choose not to have something, but to have it chosen for you is not an easy pill to swallow. And now, with the great responses we're getting from friends and family members, who are thrilled to see us finally be able to live out our own wedding dreams, we get the privilege of feeling like a "normal" couple, excited to plan our own big day.

And I cannot tell you how much it means to us that so many of you have reached out with support and enthusiasm, because it allows us to continue to feel like a "normal" couple. Clearly, I use the word "normal" loosely, as there isn't a lot about either Perry or myself that would technically fall under the heading of "normal"! But in terms of planning a traditional wedding, feeling "normal" is a gift that means the world to us. And we hope to inspire many other gay couples to carry on with their wedding plans as "normal couples" as well. And maybe that's part of what will help to heal this huge divide that is happening with the legalization of gay marriage. Maybe couples like Perry and myself, will help so many of those against it to finally see that "they're just normal couples, not much different than us".

At least we can hope! 

The wedding is starting to really come together this week! We hired our band, and they are AMAZING!! 12 piece band that has 3 amazing female vocalists, male vocalists and 4 brass/horn players! They can do everything from the great big band era all the way to the more current music, and with some of the best vocalists we've ever heard from a show band, they do all of that music VERY well! We've been so happy with the awesome help that we've gotten from Rebecca Rossi at Rossi Music in securing the band of our dreams and pulling it all together for us. We highly recommend her if anyone has any events that need music; they represent a number of Southern California based bands of all types.

We also started speaking with wedding coordinators, and have a number of meetings set up for our time in Los Angeles, and so hopefully we'll get that decision made soon as well.

Also, our room block at the Queen Mary hotel is all ready for wedding guests to call and make their reservations! Remember, you can even make minimal payments, so check out the page on this site about Accommodations, where you'll find all of the information you need to get the amazing discount they're giving our guests and secure your room.

PLEASE NOTE: The Queen Mary only has 300 guest rooms, and although that sounds like a lot, they also have a number of ballrooms, which could also have events going on in them, and there's also the added attraction of the "Haunted Harbor" Halloween event that goes on at a property adjacent to the Queen Mary, and we've been told that a number of visitors to that will often get rooms. So we do suggest that our wedding guests get their reservations in early. As we said, you don't have to actually pay for the entire thing up front, but at least get your name on the system in connection with our room block. That also helps us to know how many we'll need to add to our room block as we move forward.

We really do recommend staying on board, because that ship is SO magnificent at night, and even after the wedding reception has ended, I'm sure a lot of people will be staying on board and enjoying the various other bars and relaxation spots on the ship, as well as walking the decks and just enjoying that beautiful Southern California October night air... 

We can't wait til next year to see everyone!!