Given the ever-changing state of ceremonies and laws for LGBT couples, they have held celebrations through various traditions over the years.
Their first date was June 11, 1997, and their commitment ceremony was on the full moon of March 1, 1999, on their back porch in candlelight with friends and animals.
They held their civil union Aug. 31, 2012, at sunset/moonrise, “Tying the Knot Once in a Blue Moon,” at White Pines Forest State Park in Mt. Morris, Ill, with officiant Susan Grossman, and surrounded by 50 friends and family members. Their honeymoon was a motorcycle trip on their Harleys to Maine, down the east coast to Maryland and home through the Ohio River Valley.
And finally, with marriage legal in their home state, they held their marriage March 1, 2014, at sunrise/moonset, with officiant Susan Grossman, in 15-below windchill on Chicago’s Lakefront at Foster Beach, with a reception at Lizard’s Lounge.