Perfect Day

We simply couldn’t have had a better day for our Civil Union than this past Saturday apart, maybe, from the heat—a little lower would definitely have been better. Still, everything went together pretty much as planned.

We started only about fifteen minutes late, which is great in itself. There was an umbrella set up on the deck for Nigel and me, the celebrant and our two witnesses. The shade was nice, but it was still hot. A couple other umbrellas, a gazebo-style tent and seating in the shade helped most of the roughly 30 guests stay as cool as possible.

The ceremony went as planned, even without any rehearsal, and was over before I knew it. We both briefly choked up during our vows, but apparently hankies got a workout among our guests. I was oblivious to that, being a bit preoccupied at the time.

Right after the toast, Nigel and I posed for the photo above (my sunglasses were in my pocket, which is why I’m squinting—the afternoon sun was intense). You can see Nigel’s ring, but mine isn’t visible because, of course, it’s on my left hand. That “pinky ring” isn’t that at all, by the way: It’s the ring that Nigel gave me to wear when I went back to the US in 1995 to pack up my life there in preparation for the move to live here; I used to wear it on my left hand, and it didn’t fit on my right hand’s ring finger. He wore my university ring on his right hand’s little finger.

We cut the cake (provided by our good friend Pauline) soon after the ceremony was over. The picture at right is of the cake while it was still in the box. She also provided my birthday cake (below, left) because, of course, the original plan was to hold my 50th birthday party that day. That white frosting is actually white chocolate.

Everyone seemed to have a good time, and we enjoyed their company.

By around midnight, it was over and we went to bed. I was tired the next day but the relatives staying with us left earlier than they planned and by around lunchtime we had the house to ourselves. Sleep was good that night.

Monday was a pubic holiday—Auckland Anniversary Day—so we got another day to relax and do a little more tidying up. There’s more to do, which I’ll take care of over this week.

So, it turned out to be a perfect day for us, and a great weekend. We couldn’t have asked for better.