Our Vegan Wedding & Honeymoon

If you've read our "about" section, you know we met on... Tinder. This cracks most people up because we're not at all typical Tinder people, but somehow it happened – and here we are, all married and sh*t! Our first date was on February 2014, we moved in together that August, we bought a house and moved to Massachusetts a year later, and about a year after that we got married on July 27, 2016.

We had an intimate ceremony at a beautiful lake house (okay, technically a "pond house" but that just sounds weird) that we rented through VRBO on Walker Pond in Sturbridge, MA with just my two best friends (an Amy from each coast!), my mom, and my sister's family (her husband and my nephews). Although my dad passed away in 2008, he was there in spirit and I quoted him in my vows. Craig's parents and his sister's family were unable to join us in person, but they attended virtually from Minnesota via Skype!

We wanted to keep it very low key and inexpensive, but still wanted it to feel special, and honestly it ended up being totally magical and just the best day ever.

And in a cool twist of fate, I ended up finding several 100% vegan vendors in some cases on accident. Here's more pictures, a video, and info about the vendors:

Photographer: Joseph Gonzalez-Dufresne

I contacted photographer Joseph Gonzalez-Dufresne, whom I saw had been voted #1 in Worcester by Worcester Magazine, because I loved his artful style – and it turns out he had photographed my New England FestVest Presentation several months earlier and has been vegan for something like 20 years! Talk about serendipitous. We also have mutual friends from the local hardcore music scene I was into when I was a teenager. We got to know him better before the wedding over a meal at Chickpea vegan restaurant in Worcester. You can see more of the photos here. We love the photos and are going to treasure them forever!

The Flowers: Priscilla Chambers

I didn't want to pay people to ship flowers to us from across the world, but I was clueless. Craig said he saw on Facebook that our friend Priscilla Chambers, whom we had met at a vegan potluck held by Maple Farm Sanctuary, arranges flowers, and she was thrilled to be contacted for this as she works at a major flower retailer but wants to do more stuff on her own. More serendipity! She also was really into my request to use mostly local, in-season flowers. In addition to the bouquet and table arrangement, she made Craig's boutonniere and my hair garland (obsessed!) with fresh flowers. If you want to contact her about doing your flowers, email us. 

Hair & Makeup: Green Hair Company

I've been going to Green Hair Company in Worcester since we moved back here because not only is it 100% organic, it's actually 100% vegan. This was impossible to find even in San Diego, a much more populated city. When I get my hair cut by Mimi, we chat the whole time about all things vegan and more. (She went vegan when she moved to a small town with a dairy farm at the end of her road and saw firsthand how each little calf is separated from mama so farmers can take her milk instead. Yep, that's how dairy works.) I was really, really happy with how my hair and makeup came out and refused to take my hair down for two days... okay, three. 

The Food: Belmont Vegetarian & The Bean Counter

Belmont Vegetarian seemed like a no-brainer, since it's easily transportable and everyone, vegan or not, loves it. Actually, almost everyone at our wedding was vegan or vegetarian anyway, and the two who aren't eat a lot of veg food, so we weren't worried about that. It's a small, very affordable Jamaican/American vegan restaurant that plays reggae music and posts lots of vegan stickers and articles on the walls, and you can get a selection from everything they've made fresh that day (or you can get it all) crammed into a small or large container. If you want to drool, check out their Instagram. The cake was from the Bean Counter also in Worcester, who have vegan options. It was a really delicious vanilla cake with fresh strawberry filling. The dark blue frosting ended up looking a little goth, but hey, we're goth. Okay, we're not.

Graphic design

My West Coast bestie Amy of Wonder Creative, is also a reiki master and vegan nutritionist, made our awesome sign! We just wanted to have something to post on the Eat Plants / Drink Beer Facebook, but we didn't want to make a big deal of out if it. This message was based on something I heard a vegan UFC fighter say when interviewed after he won his match, which I saw because someone had posted something about it, and I just thought it was fitting. 

My East Coast bestie, also named Amy (who has been a vegetarian since she extracted a large vein from a hamburger she was eating as a kid - ew) served as our JP, and got ordained from the Universal Life Church just for the event. She is a Boston roller derby veteran and a nurse, basically the sweetest, kindest badass you'll ever meet.

What's that you say? You want to see more? Well, I made this photo/video montage of our wedding and NYC vegan food tour honeymoon. You will not believe all the delicious food we feasted on. Perhaps the best part of this video, though, is around 4:30 when my nephew Roman loudly says, twice, "Can I get married, too?" right when Amy is announcing us husband and wife. :)

So, there you have it. We tied the knot, vegan-style. I'm so happy to spend the rest of my life with my handsome vegan beer-brewing scientist!

One more thing. I think it's important to mention that we're both divorcées (feels so French and sophisticated to say it that way), because at one point we each felt like we would never be able to pick up the pieces and I'm sure a lot of other people out there feel the same. It also can feel like being vegan makes finding a relationship a lot harder, or maybe there's something else making you feel that way. I hope this gives someone out there some hope that their person is really out there... and that sleazy dating apps can actually lead to a legit relationship and marriage, ha!