Saturday, January 12, 2008

Handfast, hold fast

I attended a beautiful event a week ago today. I've been meaning to write about it ever since, but in first life I started school again this week, so it has not been easy to make time.

The event was the wedding of my dear friend Anwen Ryan and her darling River. They have been together for several months now. Anwen is Wiccan (maybe River too, I'm not sure), so they were married in a handfast ceremony, just as my friend Tatsuko was. As sometimes happens in Second Life, things went wrong. The most serious thing was that Luna, who was going to officiate, became ill and couldn't make it into SL. Fortunately, our friend Cala stepped in to perform the ritual, as she did for Tats.

I love the Wiccan handfast ceremony. I don't remember all the questions and answers, but I remember questions like whether one partner will hurt the other ("yes" or "probably") and whether the partner will wish to cause harm ("no"). There are seven or eight questions, I believe. I should have been paying closer attention instead of taking photographs!

Luna had arranged the reception, and because she could not be there, the original plans fell through. But in SL, it's more about people than all the fancy stuff. An and River hosted us at their place, with music streamed in by our awesome DJ friend Merik (who was also Anwen's maid of honour). Scatter a few dance poses around, and you have a party. The ceremony started at 9:30 at night, so I couldn't stay too long, but I did get to dance quite a bit with my dear Phadre, who had been busy as River's maid of honour, as well as with River, An, and Merik.

Good friends make good times. I love that about SL. Best wishes to An and River! And sorry the wishes come so late!

I will post more photos on my Flickr site (which is badly in need of updating). Meanwhile, check out the photos Emma posted on her site. I think she has the Windlight viewer.