Kathryn and I have been together for about 6 1/2 years.  We've never bothered to do anything formal about it- most people know that we were not legally married.  It wasn't out of lack of commitment- we love each other very deeply, we just never felt the need to go get married.  Our impending move to Singapore has forced us to finally "formalize" our relationship, though.  More than one person has commented that it's ironic that a foreign government has finally managed to pull this off when no one else could.  Seems tha the Singapore government doesn't recognize the obvious.  :-)

In keeping with the fact that we viewed this as a "documentation upgrade", we did not have a big to-do.  Actually, we went down to county hall and tried to get it done on January 2, but they didn't have any available appointments.  It worked out well, though, as Kath's folks arrived on January 3.  So, as a group we went over to see a lawyer we know who is licensed to perform marriages.

The Family, John McBride, and Grammy, just after the "ceremony"

The ceremony was very informal.  We went to John McBride's office.  (Doug's Mom used to work in John's law firm).  We went into a conference room, said hello, and just kind of slipped into it.  John looked at Kathryn and said "I hear you want to get married."  Kath said "yeah, that's the plan."  John looked at me and said "and I hear you'd like to marry this fine woman."  "Yeah, that sounds like a good idea to me," I replied.  "OK, you're married."  and that was it.  It was literally over before Nana could even grab a formal picture. In the end, I was glad that Mom, Ed, and Nana could all be there.  Of course it would have been good if Bob, Kathy, Tracy, Arnold, Alex, and Heather could have made it too, but this was a marriage in paper only- we've been married in spirit for a long time.  However, we promise that when we get back to the USA, we'll do a big event for everyone to get together...

Mother of the Groom, at the reception at Clark's

Father and Mother of the Bride

The Bridge and Groom at the Reception (Note that the famous green jacket did make an appearance!)

A Wedding Portrait