[{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BlogPosting","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/real-weddings-elysa-and-marie\/#BlogPosting","mainEntityOfPage":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/real-weddings-elysa-and-marie\/","headline":"Real Weddings: Elysa and Marie","name":"Real Weddings: Elysa and Marie","description":"Our TraditionsMarie and Elysa connect with family and friends in a traditional Jewish ceremony By Nicole Walsh From the time they met through friends in...","datePublished":"2010-10-15","dateModified":"2021-06-21","author":{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/admin\/#Person","name":"Equally Wed","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/author\/admin\/","identifier":787,"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca62cf123aaaf135c80b055249bacbda79de9226e11cdfcde6529bedf89683de?s=96&r=g","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ca62cf123aaaf135c80b055249bacbda79de9226e11cdfcde6529bedf89683de?s=96&r=g","height":96,"width":96}},"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Equally Wed","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","url":"http:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/equally-wed-lgbtq-weddings-logo.jpg","width":218,"height":60}},"image":{"@type":"ImageObject","@id":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/real-gay-weddings_elysa-and-marie.jpg","url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/real-gay-weddings_elysa-and-marie.jpg","height":283,"width":638},"url":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/real-weddings-elysa-and-marie\/","about":["Real LGBTQ+ Weddings"],"wordCount":983,"articleBody":" Our TraditionsMarie and Elysa connect with family and friends in a traditional Jewish ceremonyBy Nicole WalshFrom the time they met through friends in 2004, Marie had a crush on Elysa but never thought that they\u2019d actually get together. However, four years later, Elysa proposed, and Marie got what she wanted all along.For their engagement, Marie and Elysa took a weekend trip together. \u201cWe went to the beach and had a nice dinner and stayed at a bed and breakfast,\u201d says Elysa. After dinner, the pair sat on the beach drinking wine. The proposal wasn\u2019t a huge surprise, we had been talking about it and Marie knew what her ring looked like already. But I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me and gave her a traditional engagement ring.\u201dBoth career-minded ambitious women, Marie and Elysa knew that they both wanted to start a family. The couple lives in Florida, a state where gay marriage is not legally recognized, and where adoption for gay couples has been something of an impossibility, though the law was recently overturned in September.But these hardships didn\u2019t and won\u2019t stop the couple from achieving their dreams. Marie and Elysa legally changed their last names and pledged vows of love and commitment to one another on January 9, 2009, in front of 65 of their closet friends and family.It took the couple eight months to plan the wedding with the help of Elysa\u2019s parents, her mother in particular.\u201cShe designed our centerpieces,\u201d Elysa says. \u201cShe helped us out a lot with the planning.\u201dPlanning the wedding was easy for Marie and Elysa, who are both extremely organized and detail-oriented women. It was something that the two of them shared.\u201cWe were definitely both involved,\u201d says Marie. \u201cMy friends always remarked on how when they were planning their weddings that their husbands didn\u2019t have anything to say.  When Elysa and I were planning our wedding, it was two women very invested in the process; definitely a different experience.\u201dBut in preparing for the wedding, there was one more obstacle to overcome: coming out to the rest of their family.\u201cOne positive issue that came out of our wedding, because we were finally getting married and having a ceremony was that we came out to some of our extended family members that didn\u2019t know,\u201d says Marie. \u201cThat was a neat thing that came out of the wedding. Some of those family members came and some didn\u2019t. It was just one more way of leaving the closet within our family circle. After all, if you\u2019re going to go as far as having a wedding ceremony, you might as well tell the rest of the family.\u201dMarie and Elysa were married at the Lake Mary Events Center located just outside of Orlando. They were the first to have a gay wedding there.\u201cIt was nice to be the first gay couple,\u201d says Elysa. \u201cThey were very open with us. One of the groundskeepers approached me and said his daughter was gay and he was excited to see us.\u201d\u201cHe showed us a picture of his daughter and got teary-eyed,\u201d says Marie. \u201cHe told us that it made him feel good that we were having a wedding and that it meant she could get married, too.\u201d{loadposition easysspelysaandmarie}Photos: Dixie Lee PhotographyThe wedding ceremony and reception was classic and full of Jewish customs, with a sit-down buffet-style meal, open bar and DJ. \u201cWe tried to go very traditional, yet at the same time we didn\u2019t feel bound by tradition,\u201d says Marie. \u201cWe created some of our own traditions and injected a lot of our personality into what we did.\u201dThe couple wrote their own vows and made their own marriage certificate that they and their parents both signed. \u201cIt was nice,\u201d says Elysa. \u201cIt was for us.\u201d\u201cWe did the first dance, we did the bouquet toss and we did the hora,\u201d says Marie.\u201cWe broke the glass and my grandmother gave us a wine glass from Israel to drink from,\u201d says Elysa. \u201cWhen we did the hora, Marie was afraid she was going to fall out of the chair.\u201dPlanning and executing the wedding was something that brought the couple and their family closer together.\u201cIn a way, planning the wedding and having the wedding was therapeutic for our family members,\u201d says Marie. \u201cIt\u2019s their dream for the heterosexual children that they never had; seeing that realized and knowing that that\u2019s possible. We\u2019re in the process of planning a family and we knew down the line we were going to have kids and most families and most kids want to talk about or look at their parents\u2019 wedding photos. That was something important to us, too.\u201dThe bouquet toss was probably the most memorable part of the evening. \u201cMarie threw the first toss backwards, and it flew into the chandelier and got caught,\u201d Elysa says. \u201cEveryone was anticipating it and looking until someone finally pointed out that it was hanging from the chandelier. For round two, Marie threw one of the centerpieces. The girl that caught it ended up getting the bouquet at the end of the night.\u201dAfter the ceremony was over, Marie and Elysa were happy and pleased that their friends and family were there to watch them publicly pledge their love and commitment to one another.\u201cFor me, it was very gratifying,\u201d says Marie. \u201cI felt fulfilled. When I first came out when I was 18. I thought, \u2018Aw, shucks. There goes marriage and children. That will never happen.\u2019 Thirteen years later, I\u2019ve realized it actually can happen and I can have children. Just because I\u2019m gay doesn\u2019t mean I can\u2019t do those things.\u201dThe couple resides in Orlando, Fla., and plans on starting a family this year."},{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org\/","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Real Weddings: Elysa and Marie","item":"https:\/\/equallywed.com\/real-weddings-elysa-and-marie\/#breadcrumbitem"}]}]