Venue

I was looking after my most recent blog post for ceremony related things.  I took the step that scared me the most, looking for venues.  Venues are expensive, and when I searched for anything with the word "venue" in the search, we were looking at between $1,500 and $5,000.  Fuck that noise.

Then I got smart.  I looked for simpler, but still in keeping with my mental theme.  First, state parks... cheap, but the good spots are several hours drive from Denver.  Then, with little hope for something pretty, I searched Denver parks, and I found the perfect spot for $350. 

Washington Park Boathouse is a historic structure, has the space, plenty of parking, is on a lake, will be great for pretty pictures, and it has that southern gothic feel I wanted.  The fee gets us the venue for almost 12 hours.

Here's some pics of it....

Two years

In two years, my owner and I will be having a commitment ceremony to honor our relationship and exchange locking bracelets.  I already feel a twinge of nervousness for announcing this, planning it, and the haunting whispers of phrases that I know I'll have to repeat over and over. 

 "This is not a wedding."  There may be similarities to a wedding.  Two people are making a commitment to each other, and I have no social reference for what we're doing.  In effect, I'm creating a ceremony based on who we are and what I know.

"I'm sorry, but we're keeping it small."  There will be people not invited.  There will be people close to us that aren't invited.  I have to make some crucial choices about guest list.  No, my mother is not going to understand the M/s aspects of the ceremony, but since I'm never having a wedding, she gets to come.

 "Be nice"  I really won't have to say this, but it's one of the phrases in my head.  If I don't think that you can be nice to the other people invited, you won't be invited.  There will be both vanilla guests and "lifestyle" guests.  There will be guests of different faiths.  There will be guests who differ in every way people can possibly differ, except one.  Everyone invited will have manners.

"I need help."  This is a hard one for me, but once this thing begins, I will need some things taken care of for me.  I'm not doing cleanup from my own ceremony.  There are just some things I know shouldn't happen.


There are probably a bunch of other things I'll have to tell people when I'm planning this thing.  I'm hoping that everyone will be supportive of our pseudo-public statement of love.  Two years is a long way off, but will go so fast with our already busy life.