Wedding: The Liveblogging

This wedding liveblogging post comes to you from Megan M., perched in the front row!

It’s a gorgeous day for a wedding — which, incidentally, starts in twenty minutes or so. Pace Smith and Kyeli Smith are getting married at 2:12pm this afternoon at their awesome house in Austin Texas, and you can “be here” too, if you want to follow along. I’ll be liveblogging the wedding the way I would usually liveblog a conference (I don’t know whose idea this was, but I am SO diggin’ it).

This means that you can refresh this page and read all the bits and pieces as they happen.

Glorious, huh?

Important points:
* I will be tweeting from Pace’s Twitter account.
* Video and later, photos will go up in my Flickrstream.
* All you need to do is refresh to see the latest bits of text — and feel free to comment profusely!

More coming soon!

The yard behind the house is filled with chairs and the sun is shining. Nathan is ringing a gong. This probably means that something awesome is starting. “Everyone! Please be seated” he says to everyone, already seated “…and silence your cell phones.” Of course!

A beautiful woman whose name I don’t know comes to the front: “By the earth, which is her body. By the air, which is her vital breath. By the fire of her bright spirit. And by the living waters of her womb. By all the powers above and all the powers below and all the powers that gather in between, the circle is cast. We are between the worlds. What happens between the worlds changes us and all the worlds. So mote it be.”

Whatever this song is, I love it. I see bridesmaids walking around the edge of the fence, coming around to the back. They’re all in shades of blue, so pretty!

A girl scatters lavender flower petals in front and Kyeli is walking around back with her mother. She’s dressed in gorgeous white, with blue in her hair and huge yellow flowers! There are blue ribbons. She’s smiling.

Whoever picked the wedding music ROCKS. Do you think we can get them to give us the playlist to post here? ;}

Pace is walking around back now, coming towards the front. She’s bouncing to the cutest Japanese techno song EVER. She’s in white and she’s grinning and she has pink flowers. She’s so pretty! Her dress is all white with a bright pink ribbon tying up the back. I love it!

Pace and Kyeli are facing each other. Pace is reading something in another language — maybe more than one language. Kyeli is saying something that sounds like a story. “You not only disturb me, she said. You shatter my entire existence.”

Nathan is officiating in a black Utilikilt. He says: “We join Pace and Kyeli for their joyous… illegal wedding ceremony.” Gleeful laughter from those attending. He says, this isn’t legal in Texas — and that’s TOO BAD FOR TEXAS. Look what Pace and Kyeli have done. They’ve built a family, they spend their time encouraging people to grow and change the world. They haven’t done this by hiding who they are. They live their lives brightly, like shared beacons…”

“Just as surely as Pace and Kyeli have reached out to us, we have an opportunity to reach out to them. Marriage isn’t just the union of two people. It’s the union of the community.”

“It’s confusing and lonely to be isolated the way many of us find ourselves. We can’t persist alone, we can’t thrive like that. What we can do is open our eyes and open our hearts to others. We can search our own hearts, know our own selves, know our capacity for love, kindness, forgiveness, empathy…”

“We can look around us and see opportunities to connect. We can see others not despite their fear and uncertainty, but including it. Seeing them as whole humans who may have sometimes walked a rocky path but not without carrying love, hope, and compassion in our hearts — just as we have.”

There are bamboo wind chimes hanging from the edge of the porch. There’s a gentle breeze and it smells like grass and incense and happy people.

I can’t see Kyeli’s face, but I can see Pace’s. Marty has snuck around to the other side to take video!

“This cord symbolizes Pace and Kyeli’s intent to join together today…”

There’s a professional photographer getting much better pictures than I would have gotten — so I am paying attention to text! Kyeli is saying, “You really see me. You really understand me. And when you don’t, you figure me out. You nourish me, you challenge me, you give me space to grow in my own way. My heart knows your heart, and in that knowledge I find peace and love.” Her voice is breaking and they’re TOTALLY in tears, still beaming.

“To give you space to be who you are, no matter who you are.”

“And that no random shoes that we may come across shall bring about the end of our relationship, be they single or in pairs.” Okay, lots of people laughed at that one. Did I hear wrong?

“The moment I met you Kyeli, I thought that you were really hot…” Pace is saying her vows, now. The audience giggles. “Today, I see your heart. I see kindness. I see honesty, generosity, a yearning for growth, a longing for peace. And I see love. I love you, Kyeli. I love you with all my heart, and I accept you as you are — all that you are.”

And then she said the shoes thing again. Someone is going to have to explain the shoe thing to me, so mote it be.

Nathan: “As you have poured these waters together, so too have you mingled your lives.” He continues: Amethyst has long held spiritual significance for Pace and Kyeli, which is why they have chosen it for their rings, to symbolize ongoing commitment and love.

The camera is clicking as they take out the rings. Kyeli is wearing these super spiffy white knit arm warmers with her gown, they look spectacular.

“You have made this commitment to each other in community and with the blessing of the divine. Do you, Kyeli, take Pace to be your unlawfully wedded wife?” “I do.” “Do you, Pace, take Kyeli to be your unlawfully wedded wife?” “I do.”

Nathan’s voice gets louder and more powerful, and he goes on: “By the power vested in me by the Universal Life Church and in blatant defiance of the state of Texas, I now pronounce you… WIFE… AND WIFE!” CHEERING! “Make with the kissing!”

We all milled around the back yard for awhile, eating and talking. Then Pace and Kyeli returned — “Ahem, AHEM! Ladies and gentlemen… PACE… AND KYELI!” — and had their beautiful first dance! I scrambled around the internet looking for a way to upload their wedding mix, and didn’t find anything that wouldn’t be far more illegal than the wedding. So I’m saving that bit for later!

Toast, toast! Kellan is toasting, and I hope he won’t be upset if I spelled his name wrong. ^_^

“…They’re already married, but they finally get to put together the ceremony they’ve always wanted. (They’re famous revolutionaries, you know.)” There’s all this emotion in his voice.

“I continue to learn from them. They inspire me to improve myself and my marriage. They bring hope to the institution of marriage — it makes me very happy that they have each other.”

Amanda is toasting now, too. “I’ve been in their living room while they were fighting, and it’s beautiful. They really do practice what they preach. I know that this will work. It’s beautiful.” Clapping and clapping!

Green: “This is a poem that I wrote about a week ago. I really wanted to create something that would share what I have learned from these amazing and wonderful ladies…” And she reads her awesome poem.

Kyeli: “And now we’re gonna make with the cake!”

Kyeli explains the shoe thing, while someone gets a knife to cut the cake! “Very early on in our relationship we were having some trouble and we had gone for a walk.” They’re using dinosaurs to illustrate. “And we came upon a lone shoe in a field. Gasp! Oh no! The full moon hit this shoe, hit the shiny bits, and Pace said, ‘OH NO! A SHOE! OUR RELATIONSHIP IS DOOMED!’ And I said, A shoe? A SHOE is going to doom our relationship? And we decided not to let the shoe destroy our relationship, and indeed, not to let ANY shoe destroy our relationship.” Cheering!

If you’re a member of the Freak Revolution Coffee House, you can join us in this great thread started by David to wish the brides well!

The cake, made by the lovely Michael and Gemma of Curious Confections:

The bouquets!

And a lot of bubbles…!

Thank you so much for joining us over the glorious intarwubs! Please take a moment to wish the happy brides well in the comments. ^_^

Peace out. ;}

Related posts:
• Wedding Wednesday: Vows, part three
• Wedding Wednesday: The Ceremony Preamble
• Wedding Wednesday: That’s All, Folks!
• We’re married!
• OMG Wedding

Have you read the Freak Revolution Manifesto? It tells the story of why there is so much hurt and sadness in the world, and how we can heal through connection.