Summary

Ariel and Lucy plan their wedding and write their own vows. They take weekend trips along the Pacific coast and go out to restaurants for dinner. Everywhere they go, they drink. One of their vows is: "I promise to make life a party" (55). Ariel and Lucy suffer brutal hangovers, but Ariel sees the painful morning-afters as another thing they share as a couple.

It is 2004 and President George W. Bush supports a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriages. Getting married now feels more than simply romantic, it also seems like a righteous political act. Ariel, however, feels reluctant to claim a position within the LGBTQ+ movement since Lucy is only her second girlfriend. She does not feel like she really belongs in the community. "Getting married to a woman seemed like an act of solidarity with a movement that I was not really entitled...