Comments on I'm Working on a Story

So wait a second, you take these idiotic marriage rituals seriously?

"OMG THEY SHOVED CAKE IN THEIR FACES INSTEAD OF EATING IT DAINTILY!! THEIR RELATIONSHIP IS DOOOOOOOOOOOOOMED!!!"

"OMG THEY HAD A LIGHTSABER DUEL INSTEAD OF FEEDING EACH OTHER CAKE DELICATELY!!!! THE LIGHT SABERS SYMBOLIZE NOT TAKING OUT THE TRASH AND ALSO TURNING OFF THE SUPERBOWL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

That's fucking retarded, Paul. I expect better of you.

Ok, I'm a big, giant nerd. My friends are big, giant nerds. And I'm still proud to say we all have more class than that.

And anyway, why go halfway? Shouldn't they both be in full Jedi-gear?

I've never been one of the cake-shoving crowd, but if they're into light sabers, like maybe they're members of the Jedi religion in the UK, who am I to say it's a bad thing?

Heck, why do people break glasses and do the chair dance?

Who cares what other people do at their weddings? It's still a free country. Unless, Paul, you are their mortified parents.

ps, Would it be better if they were gays who just got married in a lightsaber duel?

If this had been an orthodox Jedi wedding, the fight wouldn't have stopped until somebody lost a hand.

Nerd love is awesome. I mean, she's wearing a ren-fair(e) style wedding dress for chrissake, plus they obviously rehearsed the whole thing. I'm happy seeing anybody with that much joy on their wedding day, instead of stressing about whether the chicken ala king was overdone, or if the flowers were the wrong color.

If my first husband and I had shared such a great connection (rather than painstakingly choreographing a waltz to "The way you look tonight"), I wouldn't be currently living with the most awesome guy in the world, in our apartment filled with Watchmen and Batman posters.

Besides, anyone who's actually been married knows that the best you can hope for is that ALL your fights are so well choreographed.

Has Charles seen this? I bet he'd be soooooo jealous.

6 is right. both of these people are into it, obviously, and that's a good thing. i had a half-nerd wedding: my half of the wedding was relatively conventional, his was star trek next gen. the marriage-- it didn't last. this should have been my first clue.

When I was in high school my boyfriend painted a portrait of us where I was wearing my junior prom dress and he was wearing a Star Fleet uniform. It was the worst portrait ever. But man do I wish I'd had the foresight when I was 17 to hold onto it after we broke up. I would hang that thing over my fireplace now!

it's moments like these that make me continue to believe in love. what adorable nerds!

@9: That is an adorable story. Slightly terrifying (and I love Star Trek), but adorable.

They're beginning their real life in the fantasy world. Plus, they both look to be about 20. This will not end well.

You know, it's only fun until somebody loses a hand...

And I completely disagree with the naysayers here.

This couple appears to have an awful lot going for them:

- trust
- a willingness to buck conventionality/tradition
- a sense of humor
- unabashed reveling in their nerdiness
- a healthy disdain for other people's opinions

Frankly, those all sound like pretty good qualities to carry into a marriage.

Damn! (Sorry @5, completely missed your post!)

These are not the married people you seek.

Paul, I loves you. Yet you make fun of the nerds so bad. I don't understand. I think it's darling. A wedding is about what you want, not what other people think is good/cool/traditional.

They are so comfortable with themselves, and that shows a lot for their maturity and strength of character. If only we could all be so open about what we liked without worrying about people judging us.

They are doing the duel in lieu of the first dance, not the cake eating ritual. Therefore, it kind of makes sense to me. It's in front of people, it's choreographed and rehearsed, it's something where they are showing they like each other, etc. And it's something they like doing together which is more than I can say for the waltz or that silly slow dance half the couples do for their first dance.

This is the sacred ritual that must only be preserved for heterosexual, one-man & one-woman marriage?

I'm the bride in this video, and a friend pointed me toward this post. So, um, hi. :)

Actually, we did have a first waltz (to "Ashokan Farewell") prior to our first duel. We also fed each other cake later on, without smashing it into each other's faces. But yes, our whole wedding was entirely nerdy, from ceremony to reception to honeymoon, incorporating musical, textual, and visual references to Star Wars, Babylon 5, Finding Nemo, Final Fantasy X,The Princess Bride, Doctor Who, and more, not to mention poetry by Christina Rossetti and Kahlil Gibran and other serious readings. While it was a secular wedding, we also used elements of the traditions of both our backgrounds (mine Jewish, his Latino Catholic). We're not especially traditional people.

And you know what? Everyone had an awesome time, including our parents. Most important, we had exactly the wedding we wanted, filled with silliness, laughter, joy, love, family, and friends, and we are very, very happy together. Everything else about a wedding is merely window dressing.

Nerd love rules!

P.S. Jason Josephes, I should thank you for the comment about my age. I was actually 36 at the time of my wedding, and we'd already been together for 5 years.

As the groom in this video, I can clarify a few things. The idea was that, as a married couple, we should have one big fight. Being geeks, we decided that the best way was to have a lightsaber duel.
Two things that weren't evident with the video:
(1) The duel took place AFTER the First Dance rather in substitution.
(2) Afterwards, my wife said to the crowd, "We hope that this is our only fight as a married couple."