By Denise Oliveira
This Story was first published on GayWeddings.com
Their plan was to have a private wedding on the Big Island in Hawaii, but at the last minute, Christine and Felicia decided to invite family. “We’re getting married, can you get ready in 15 minutes?” Christine asked her parents. Her brother also acted quickly and even managed to grab some shaving cream to write “Just Married” on their car.
Christine and Felicia are not the best planners. “We’re some of the best procrastinators ever,” Christine, who is a realtor, said. When they first started thinking about their wedding, the Knoxville, TN couple felt overwhelmed by the level of detail involved, staring with having to send out invitations. “It sounded so stressful, and like it would take away from the whole purpose of the event,” they both said. That was when they had the idea to have a private wedding during an upcoming vacation to Hawaii with Christine’s parents, brother and sister-in-law. The couple decided they wouldn’t tell anyone until after the wedding, not wanting to make the rest of the family, who wouldn’t be in Hawaii, feel excluded. But at the last minute they were having a hard time escaping without having to say where they were going, so Christine and Felicia gave it away.
The two women had done all of their planning online. Karen Loudon, their photographer, said it was the first “surprise wedding” she had ever shot. “Everyone was so happy, and they kept joking about how hard they’d worked to plan it,” Karen said.
Christine and Felicia chose Reverend Patrick Thompson to officiate, partly because he had the same name as Christine’s brother, and also because on his website he looked really friendly and laid back and had a huge smile. They weren’t picky about the color of their leis, but they did write their own vows. Once they arrived in Hawaii the couple took a walk together on the beach, then they went their separate ways to compose what they wanted to say to each other.
The entire ceremony was very casual, just as Felicia and Christine had wanted. They had always hoped to get married in cargo shorts, but they knew they couldn’t get away with that in Knoxville. In Hawaii, it was perfect. “That’s us, and that’s what we’re comfortable in,” Christine said. Felicia let her usually-ponytailed hair down for the ceremony. Afterward, everyone had dinner together at Roy’s Restaurant.
Christine and Felicia, who is a physical therapy assistant, had been dating for about a year when they got married. Their relationship was meaningful from the very start. They knew people in common, and they initially became Facebook friends, with no romantic intentions. But when they did meet for the first time, they talked from 7:30 at night to 6 the following morning, without any lulls or dull moments. Christine’s family may have been caught off guard in Hawaii, but they weren’t shocked. They knew how serious the two women were about each other.
