Tequila Photographs and a Rainbow Altar

Joshua John Allen Blair, 37, experienced been in Houston a minimal extra than a year, and Carl Edward Jones Jr., 39, even significantly less, when they achieved at Austin’s Otterfest. They had numerous mutual good friends but experienced under no circumstances found or fulfilled every single other until eventually July 12, 2019, when a simultaneous “Damn, who is that?” flashed throughout each man’s brain.

Initially from Jeannette, Pennsylvania and a College of Michigan graduate, Carl is an Aerospace Engineer/ISS Flight Controller at NASA and US Navy Reserve Learn Air Attack Planner Chief/Strike Functions Officer. Josh is a indigenous of Pryor, Oklahoma, an Oklahoma State University graduate, and a Solution Assistance Functions Agent for Caterpillar Inc. 

Swiftly, the two caught each other’s interest, met, and ahead of very long arrived to know and care for every other. But it wasn’t until eventually Josh was returning from a 7 days-long work journey to North Carolina that he realized for absolutely sure it was genuinely love. “I don’t forget flying back and it hitting me: I experienced someone who I cared for and cared for me. But just that emotion of caring for a person was not adequate for me.  I remember racing back again from the airport and starting off the scheduling procedure for how I would propose.”

Little did Josh know, though, that Carl had proposing on his head, as well. “But Josh did his very first, and extremely cleverly,” Carl explained. “Josh proposed to me and it was essentially a significant lie. Josh advised me he had to go to do the job and do some matters and was heading to swing by a friend’s house to check their house.” 

The latter element was genuine. That June 2020 weekend, Josh was organizing a shock birthday party for Carl. “However, he employed that as a address for the true cause for the social gathering, which was an engagement bash in which he was going to suggest,” Carl reported. “Of system, I was shocked and perplexed at initially about what was going on. But when I obtained to the section where he was standing outside the house in a bed of roses, and roses sprinkled in the pool, our buddies there and about 40 of our friends and spouse and children on Zoom, out of the blue, it all built feeling.”

The pair were being legally wed on August 4, 2020. They selected to get lawfully married at that issue since Carl was leaving for a yr-very long Navy deployment to the Center East and preferred Josh to be regarded as a armed forces partner with total advantages in case some thing transpired to him. So they went downtown to the courthouse to tie the knot, and only informed a couple persons.

In October 2022 they had their wedding with mates and loved ones at the Barcelo Vacation resort in Riviera Maya, Mexico, with a family buddy of Carl’s, Rev. Donna Jones, officiating. Donna also identifies as lesbian. As Carl pointed out, “It was essential for us to have somebody who could stand for our local community and could tie enjoy into the ceremony without having discrimination or incendiary religious beliefs.”

There is an old expressing that suggests that rain on your wedding ceremony working day is excellent luck. A moist knot is tricky to untie, immediately after all. According to the forecast, though, there was no rain in sight for the working day of the marriage ceremony. But just as the couple headed to the ceremony, it commenced to pour. Fortunately, Carl figured out that the attendees had taken shelter and matters had been being coated.

Then, as the pair lined up for their entrances, the rain subsided. The pair walked down the aisle to cheers and found all people pointing and getting images. “A rainbow experienced formed powering us perfectly and stretched more than the altar and both equally of us. If rain is superior luck, then owning a rainbow clearly show up in the backdrop of your altar, has to be the ultimate homosexual symbol that really like will constantly conquer every thing,” Carl said.

When it arrived to the ceremony by itself, the few claimed they wished to have some thing that would make an perception accurate to who they are. “We additional getting flower boys to increase some excitement. They handed out pictures of tequila, beer, and roses to Ginuwine’s “Pony” at the starting of the ceremony,” Carl stated. “We preferred a ceremony that was uniquely ours and devoid of what a standard ceremony repetitive appears like.”

Executing their wedding day was no easy feat, Josh remembers. “We were being likely by a all over the world pandemic and Carl was deployed to the Middle East for a yr and hoping to be certain our friends experienced all the proper information and could get there safely and securely to the resort in Mexico,” Josh explained.

Now, the two couldn’t be happier. Carl stated Josh supports his desires and ambitions, pushing him to be better in just about every possible way. “I would not be the place I am in my existence with no his encouragement. There is no a single else I would somewhat have standing beside me.”

And Josh states Carl has a way of pushing him out of his convenience zone and into a everyday living of journey. “He can switch nearly anything into a scavenger hunt. After, when he was absent for an prolonged time period, he hid a card in a special area that he understood I would be seeking or heading to every working day.  The truth that he took the time and believed about each day to plan a minor something unique meant the entire world to me.”