How It Went Down

It’s been a busy week. Back into work today, and will try to chip away at the big list of emails and such waiting reply. But here’s something of a roundup of the day.
It was a pretty relaxed day, all told. There was setup of the venue in the morning, with assistance from many lovely and generous people who shifted fridges and set up chairs and so on. We got that done much faster than I thought possible, which was great. Thereafter I lurked about as Dan set up some lights and Damon set up some sounds, and then I just lurked about. Strange to spend a while sitting all alone in the venue on your wedding day.
I ducked away with Billy to clear my head, then went home to get kilted up; Ado and Frank joined me for this and a whisky or two was drunk. Then to the venue again, where I hid out the back waiting for the go signal. Soon my parents appeared and we got the word, and Cal and I entered the hall from opposite sides and went up the front at the same time.
Then we got civil unioned. It was pretty cool. Here’s the 2-minute highlight reel prepared by Steve Leon:

Afterwards there were many photos, a couple of speeches (but no more because acoustics were rubbish), a haphazardly hilarious ceilidh, and dancing to DJ Malc’s tunes to finish on I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles).
And yes, the face was sore from smiling by the end, but that was great. It was a very happy day. Memorable, you might say. And now I’ve got a ring on my finger and, y’know, it actually feels really quite different.
A number of people wondered why we went for a civil union over a marriage. There’re a bunch of reasons – it’s more inclusive, for a start, which is something quite important to us. Most of all, though, the CU allows us to sidestep the long shadows of tradition and preconception and make our formalised relationship exactly what we want it to be. I feel quite privileged, actually, that we can join in a formal union using a structure that has virtually no baggage attached to it; it’s a special position to be in. (Respect also to starlajo and Thomas, and Evie and Jarratt, for going the CU route before us and showing the way.)
Here’s something of a linky roundup. Have I missed anyone? I still need to reply to all these people:
The Alligator
Not Kate
Susan
Karen
Dave S
Gametime photo
Matt C (with photos)
Debz (with photos that aren’t of me!)
Damon’s gearbox analogy
Maire
Fishy
JB
Damon’s collective naming exercise
Dan
Hottieperm
elderflower’s photos
Off-Black
lostperdita
buzzandhum
And there’s a heaping helping of photos up on Facebook too, if you are part of that collective. (Some of them may be public-view, I haven’t checked.)