Come celebrate our marriage!

We vaguely knew each other through the contra dance world, but the first night we truly met was at a blues dance where Morgan ran after Lucille as she was leaving the dance to request a dance lesson.... and shortly after that, we spent a contra dance weekend sharing dances, talking, and flirting. Caught by each other's lovely, playful gazes, we fell into dating. Morgan: Lucy caught my attention on the dance floor. If you’ve ever had the pleasure of watching her move, you know what I mean. I wanted to learn from her, to dance with her, and I could almost touch the joy radiating from her body. She has brought more embodiment into my life, inspiring me to bring in more care and attention to my own body. She helps me welcome routine, ritual, and ceremony into every day through dancing, walking, singing, and cooking nourishing food together. On one of our first dates, Lucy came over to make me dinner carrying an overflowing basket of produce from the farm she worked on and cooked me the most incredible meal. I didn't think I liked beets. I learned to like and love so many new foods sharing meals with Lucy and admired her playfulness and creativity through the process. She has taught me much about nourishment, about creating pleasureful meals, about tending to plants and the earth, and helped anchor me in my values of generosity and gratitude. To my delight, I also discovered that I was dating a writer! From our first few months, I was the lucky recipient of dozens of hand-written love notes and poems. I keep every one. She is loving and creative and thoughtful and considerate of every being in the living world, and brings in so much depth and sweetness into my life. But most of all, she's my best friend, and I have so much fun every day getting to do life alongside her. Lucille: Morgan's sweet voice and kind eyes drew me in. I could tell by the way she spoke and moved through the world that she was genuinely generous and deeply caring. Listening to her talk about birth and women's health was amazing. I was always learning something new about my body and about the miracle of life. Under her sweetness was a fiery passion for her work in the world and a commitment to her truth. The longer we spent together, the more I came to appreciate and admire her willingness to learn and grow, her openness to love and connect, and her steadfast sense of wonder at the world. As our comfort with each other grew, I also discovered that she is terribly funny, silly, and spontaneous.

Commitment has always felt like a pillar in our relationship, and we have held our own commitment ceremonies over the years to help center our intentions. We have known for a while that we are called to be partners in this life. Marriage felt like how we wanted to be witnessed by our community, and is the legal next step in preparing to welcome children into our future family. Morgan has felt ready to "tie the knot" for a while, and wanted to honor Lucille's process of coming into her own readiness, so it was decided last year that sometime in the next year, Lucille would propose. On December 21st, 2022, we hosted a Winter Solstice party with our close friends and neighbors to honor the darkness and depths of winter, and to make beeswax candles! Morgan spent all day cleaning the house, slow-cooking a pot roast, and little did she know, preparing for her own engagement celebration. Lucille got home from work and asked Morgan to go on a walk. Morgan begrudgingly agreed, despite that she was literally hopping in the shower and expected guests to arrive in 20 minutes. We started off hand-in-hand down the walking loop trail from our home towards the creek. As we rounded the first bend, Morgan noticed a note tacked to a tree; half of a poem. Further down was the second half. Just beyond the second poem was the creek where Lucy had, in high school prom style, spelled out "Will you marry me?" in broken up horse-tail reeds. There was a candle and a necklace laying on the rock in the middle of the stream. We both cried as Lucy pulled out a speech from her pocket and Morgan said "Of course, yes!" The necklace is beautiful. Lucille co-created the necklace with an artist we both love; picking out an eclectic assortment of stones that matches Morgan's eclectic style. Engagement rings came later from our mothers... When we traveled to Colorado for Christmas, Morgan's mom, Sandy, polished up and gifted her their family heirloom ring that Morgan had her eye on since she was 12. A simple diamond ring from her maternal great grandmother, Elsie Allen, at least 100 years old. Lucille was also gifted a beautiful family ring, a sapphire and gold ring her mama Martha had brought back from India for her mom, Mary Constance. Worried about traveling with gems, Martha heroically hid the ring and other jewelry in a maxi-pad, which she wore through airport customs. The ring was one of Lucille's favorites to borrow and wear as a child. When her mom opened her jewelry box and asked if anything caught her eye, this was the ring she picked out.