"That place is filled with grace," she says.
Linda helps Elli with the platforms she'll wear at their wedding.
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It's the big night -- Friday, August 27 -- and 15 minutes before the 7:30 ceremony, Elli and Linda are posing for pictures inside Bering. Linda had been spreading the rumor that she'd arrive in a tux and wing tips, but here she is in a light teal, ankle-length dress, with metallic-gray platform heels, at that. Elli's dress is an eggshell off-white, similar in style, a variation on the same theme.
Elli is chewing gum nervously. Her throat is dry, and she's sure her voice will disappear in front of a crowd, even if it's an expectant crowd of her closest friends. But as a surprise, she wants to read Linda a poem that a co-worker wrote as a gift for the couple.
Sitting on a bench is the rest of the wedding party: Linda's twin, Nancy, and her daughter Nicole, who is Elli's bridesmaid. Just as Linda was Nancy's bridesmaid, Nancy is Linda's. Nancy says she is representing their other four siblings. Elli's remaining brother and sister are too ill to fly from Connecticut, and none of her daughters could make it.
Peeking out the church door, Elli spies on the chattering guests who have filled the 150 rented chairs. Another 30 to 40 people stand behind them. At the blocked-off intersection of Harold and Mulberry are a harp, two guitars and a PA system with microphones. On the southeast corner, two TV crews from local stations and several newspaper reporters and photographers fidget with their equipment. Linda and Elli had been concerned about protesters, but none have appeared. Only two young men on bikes have stopped to watch.
As the harp reverberates with an ethereal version of "My Heart Will Go On," the Reverend Meeker-Williams leads a row of 16 vestment-clad clergy, who file beneath the church's colonial pillars to stand on the steps. They are Presbyterian, Orthodox Catholic, Baptist, Unitarian, Unity, Lutheran and Methodist. (One Methodist pastor flew in from San Jose, California, her ticket donated by a lesbian couple at her church.) When the wedding march begins, a procession carrying a candle, the quiltlike flags and the Bible descends from the church steps to the street. Linda and Elli, arm in arm, follow slowly, holding on to each other tightly.
After Linda solemnly professes her love for Elli, it's Elli's turn to read the poem. Instead, she chokes on her gum and says in a playful singsong, "We're getting married, in front of everybody." With tears in her eyes, Linda exchanges vows and rings with her "life partner."
Blessing the union, the Reverend Plummer wraps a colorful stole around their clasped hands. As the ceremony ends, he solemnly entreats for the inclusion of gays, a people in exile standing outside their church: "Is there sanctuary for us? A place of rest that we can call our home?"
Enough activism. "We forgot the kiss!" Plummer cries. Amid cheers and applause, Elli and Linda share a simple kiss and, with the guests following, proceed into the church for a service of hymns and communion, of uplifting voices.
Inside the glass-walled private reception hall are three photo collages capturing the couple in the '70s, '80s and '90s: snapshots of Elli reluctantly ironing, of Linda sticking her tongue out, of the pair in Atlanta, where they're returning for their honeymoon. The stole made for the ceremony is also on display, soon to be donated to a minister who is traveling with a collection of stoles from clergy who were dismissed from their jobs because they were gay or because they performed wedding ceremonies for same-sex couples.
The room is packed, with an excuse-me, pardon-me at every step. Outside, quaint black iron lamps line the path around the dance floor, their orblike white bulbs glowing in emulation of tonight's nearly full moon.
Linda and Elli clink their glasses, each inscribed "Bride," and dance, Linda's arms around Elli's waist, to Shania Twain's "You're Still the One."
Later, inside the glass hall, dotted with lights, the couple cuts the four-tier wedding cake, or tries to.
"Anyone got a chain saw?" Linda shouts. "I need power tools!"
"That's for later tonight," someone yells back.
Linda and Elli feign shock, then laugh, as any newlyweds would.
