Civil Ceremony in Hamilton

Upon changing hotels on Friday, Julie and I gradually encountered guests who arrived the prior night.

We first saw Claire, who you may recall was the "Main Event" photographer.  Her dad Mark had also made the trip. He's another good friend of Jay who has brought him to many Lakers games and concerts over the years.

Jay's college friend Jimmy hosted Jay a couple of times on amazing trips to China.  He'd flown in all the way from Shanghai for the event, along with his wife Amyia and their adorable daughter Lucia.  Jay is the godfather of Lucia.

As our well-dressed crew assembled in the hotel lobby to take the bus to Hamilton, our nephew Jered introduced his girlfriend Kelsey to Julie and me.  They've spent quite a bit of time with Jay and Sasha in Seattle and L.A.

Our assembled congregation walked in a herd to the bus stop and rode into Hamilton.  The men who cared to participate in wearing Bermuda shorts for the ceremony were supposed to go shopping, but Laszlo wouldn't arrive until later that afternoon, along with Gina and Emma, and I had a bigger problem: dress shoes that had become flip flops.

I hoped to find a suitable pair of black shoes quickly, but it took the saleswoman three long searches in the back room to find a pair I liked in my size.  Even when she found my size, they weren't a perfect fit.  When I put them on later, however, I realized that perhaps my feet had just been swollen that day, because they now seem to fit fine, if a bit less comfortably than my usual Skechers, which is to be expected.

Amy and Lukas had joined Julie and me, prepared to take me back to the shorts store to join Jay and Jered, but by the time I bought my shoes, shorts-shopping time was over.  We headed directly to the magistrate's office for the big event, the official marriage of Jay and Alexandra by a civil officiant.

Originally, Jay and Sasha planned to just take the easy approach for a destination wedding, which would have been to marry in L.A., but Jay decided that other than their birth certificates, no other document would be as significant in their lives, so why not have their wedding certificate proclaim they were married in Bermuda?  It cost a little more, but they considered it well worth the difference.

When we first arrived a dozen strong, we filled the small registrar's office, raising eyebrows of a local who arrived after us until we clarified that we were all together.

By the time the ceremony started, another half dozen of our party had arrived in the lovely marriage chapel, making it standing room only.

The magistrate who performed the ceremony did not brush this wedding off as a simple civil duty but rather delivered beautiful sentiments in a sincere, loving way.

I don't think she could have done a better job if she was a family member.  Indeed, it turned out she was a family member of sorts, the second cousin of "Uncle Kenny," though each other's connection to the wedding apparently took them both by surprise when Kenny arrived.

At the end of the ceremony, the newlyweds signed the papers that made them officially married in Bermuda "On Her Majesty's Service."

Bermuda is, after all, one of fourteen United Kingdom Foreign Territories under the jurisdiction and sovereignty of the U. K., and by extension ruled by the Queen of England.

As big James Bond fans --- "On Her Majesty's Secret Service" --- that alone was probably worth the modest price difference between having the event recorded in Bermuda versus Los Angeles.

We were all hungry, so after the ceremony, most of the group set out for an ice cream parlor associated with Sasha's family history.  Having skipped breakfast as well as lunch, Julie and I needed something more substantial, so we headed off with Amy and Lukas in search of a suitable restaurant.

As it turned out, we instead went into a grocery store and bought a loaf of the bakery's banana bread that looked homemade, a jar of Skippy Chunk peanut butter and some granola bars.  While not quite vegan, it was certainly a vegetarian lunch similar to what I would have eaten when I gained a quick twenty pounds trying to be vegetarian when I was much younger.  For me, lunch couldn't have been tastier.