Words and Photos: It's (Almost) Legal !

B's wedding gift is complete! When I had last week off from work I did a lot of sneaking around. All of our finances have been merged for a while now, so it is pretty hard to hide things that I buy for him, in this case, I had to get very creative. One part of the gift was a little pre-wedding, de-stressing, overnight adventure.

When I dropped off B for work last Thursday (we own only one car, so on days that I don't teach, I take him to work so I can have wheels for the day!) I secretly placed an envelope into his lunch (yes, I pack his lunch every day! Healthy and inexpensive!) with bus fare and some instructions. I told him I would not have phone access for the day, but I would see him in the evening. It was all very mysterious.

After following his detailed directions, B ended up in Beverly Hills, where I treated us to a night at the Avalon Hotel. See, it's been 100 degrees and super smoky in our 'hood this past week. We live only a few miles from some crazy raging wildfires, so we have been breathing in raining ash and smokey smog haze for days. We also live in a 1920's bungalow with no air conditioning. Let's just say, it's been hard to concentrate or work!

I wanted us to have a place to relax, decompress and write our vows (I also needed a place for a secret project, but that happened much earlier in the day and B won't get details about it until our wedding day), which needed to be in our officiant's hand by the next day. So B arrived, we basked in the 65 degree air, and spent a few hours eating pita chips and writing vows.

The next morning we had two more stops! First, we dropped B's suit off at the tailors to be finished up...

Then, we drove to the courthouse in Beverly Hills and got our marriage license.

We happened to arrive right at 1pm as they were opening after their lunch hour, which was good timing. When we left at 1:15 the line was almost out the door. The couple behind us made fun of the process the whole time, but we just couldn't help but be giddy!

We chose to apply for a confidential license, which means that no one can order a copy or search our information in public records, except us. It is the same price as a regular license, but the only stipulation is that you have to swear you have been living together as a couple, not "as roommates." You also do not need a witness to sign this type of license. I loved that I had to raise my right hand and pledge! I had never done that before. A license here in Los Angeles costs a cool $70 and is valid for 90 days. We are so close to being legally married that I can taste it!

Hmmm, we probably should have taken the license out of the brown envelope!

I am happy that our officiant is, well, efficient, and made us turn our rough draft vows in two weeks early. If it wasn't for that we would be doing them the morning of (we are total procrastinators!) and we wouldn't have had a nice night relaxing in a posh hotel :)

Did you write your own vows? Did you wait until the last minute, or were they finished ahead of schedule?