Rainbows and sparkly fairies at a newly-legal lesbian wedding in New York

Jenn and Sarah were featured back in 2008 at their outdoor fairy wonderland wedding, but now that New York has legalized gay marriage, they planned a second wedding to make it official.

Jenn and Sarah’s second (and legal) wedding was held at Pullman Memorial Universalist Church in Albion, NY on September 30, 2011, four years (almost to the day) after their first wedding in 2007. This time around they wanted a rainbow theme, in honor of the gay pride rainbow flag, and fairies. Eventually, due to the decor and killer dresses, it became known as the “Sparkle Wedding.”

Jen made almost all of the decorations, including the giant tissue paper pom-poms and rainbow-colored signs.

Each sign was painted with different adverbs: triumphantly, blissfully, wildly, bravely, magically, gratefully, fervently, and sweetly.

The pair asked eight of their closest friends to be “rainbow bridesmaid fairies,” with two “ribbon fairies” to assist with the handfasting.

The pastor read “Life has Loveliness to Sell” by Sara Teasdale. The bridesmaids, flower girls, and ring bearer walked down the aisle to “Rainbow Connection” (natch!).

Jenn and Sarah walked down the aisle, hand-in-hand, to “Love Came for Me,” by Rita Coolidge from “Splash,” one of their favorite movies. The elements and the Goddess were invoked (they are both Pagan), and the pastor read an excerpt from Patience and Sarah. The ribbon fairies bound their wrists with ribbons in the eight colors of the gay pride rainbow.

During the ceremony, Sarah asked for a tissue. After she’d wiped her eyes, she stuffed it down the front of her dress, much to everyone’s amusement.

Bubbles! Seriously, what could be more perfect for this theme?

The guest tables had a different color assignment, each with its own whimsical table name. They also wrote personal notecards for each of the guests as place cards. I love that these two fully embraced their theme and ran with it.

Since they were going all-out with DIY, why not include the food? With lots of help from friends, they tackled the enormous self-catering project the day before the wedding. Even the food got the rainbow treatment.

Jenn and Sarah’s tattoo-artist friend, Cat, volunteered to make the wedding cake, which turned out to be a rainbow as well! Each layer was a different color. Plus a little My Little Pony and butterfly action is always welcome.

Their homemade photo booth with lots of things-on-sticks.

Jenn and Sarah left us with some advice:

Be present. At our first wedding, Sarah and I were so hurried and overwhelmed that we scarcely remember the ceremony at all, or much of the reception. This time, we made a conscious effort to not only remember but cherish every single second. There were so many beautiful moments. I wrapped them up in my heart as they happened.

GUH… cute! I heart these two and their super-duper rainbow, sparkly hearts.