Weddings…they’re magical. I always tell people that my wedding was the best wedding that I ever had, which is supposed to be funny, because I have only been married one time, but it truly was incredible. It was held at the Ritz Carlton, Laguna Niguel, California, August 10th, 1996.
There was an orchestra with a harpist for the ceremony, and when we got to the aisle that my parents were to walk me down, we found that the aisle was too narrow, so my father just forged ahead. When the music changed and my husband-to-be turned to see me, he instead saw my father walking down the aisle and panicked because he thought that my dad was coming to tell him that I changed my mind.
My mom was my maid of honor, and stopped in the middle of our walk down the aisle to kiss and schmooze with my aunts and their friends, which everyone found hysterical, to my delight, and the rest of the ceremony was light and carefree and funny and romantic and perfect. Our band was amazing, the food and atmosphere; even better than that.
As I admired my handsome new husband and laughed and danced with my friends and family, I felt carefree for the first time ever in my life. I wouldn’t have changed any moment of my wedding for the world.
But there was one moment when it wasn’t so much fun. My husband and I are different religions, and we had trouble finding an officiant to marry us. It wasn’t a great feeling having people tell us that we were wrong and bad for wanting to have an interfaith marriage in ultra liberal California. As an international commercial photographer and magazine editor, I started meeting people who were getting a lot of “no’s”, people of color, people of size, people with disabilities, people who were older, same sex couples, people who married out of their faith and race who were made to feel less than celebrated for getting married, and the thought that this kind of discrimination needed to stop was so strong that the idea for Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine was born.
We hope that you love our ideas, and celebrate all of our awesome weddings. We invite you to send us your weddings and your stories, and we would love you to become a part of our community.
Sincerely,
Barbara Stitzer, Editor-in-Chief, Northeast Ohio Weddings Magazine