Thomas Gallagher and Ana Paula Cordeiro were married on March 18th, 2022. The video above is a recording of the ceremony on zoom – officiated by the Honorable James J. Lack, at the home of Kara Lack & Konrad Will. The program was approximately 45 minutes ( but ran about an hour ) with a 15 minute musical overture preceding the rings, vows, and other voyeuristic shenanigans. The ceremony was in English and Portuguese – transcripts / translations of sections of the program can be found below with an indication of where they appear in the video.
00:00 – 00:15 Overture Songs: Joyrider ( A Natural Mix ) – 808 State | Toda Menina Bahiana – Gilberto Gil | Twilight – Lusine
00:15 – 00:23 Greeting from Ana & Thomas Song: Belfast – Orbital
00:23 – 00:28 Photo Montage ( A Full Moon Love Story ) Songs: Não Dá Mais Pra Segurar ( Explode Coração ) / Lindo Lago do Amor – Gonzaguinha
00:28 – 00:41 Vows
Thomas and Ana to each other in English (every other line) and Ana to Thomas in Portugeuse (in their entirety):
I trust your truth.
I trust your truth is guided by your courageous heart.
I trust your courageous heart feels invigorated by our connection.
I trust our connection grows from the love of our hearts and the clarity of our minds.
I trust this clarity guides my self-awareness and your self-awareness.
I trust this self-awareness is the root of our continuous transformation.
I trust our continuous transformation is flourishing from our connection.
I trust our connection finds protection in the courage of your heart.
I trust our hearts will be always our truth.
I trust your truth with all my heart.
Thomas to Ana:
Ana, my love, my darling, my beautiful, Namorada, Dolcezza, Meu Coração
I know who you are, I recognize you, I remember you. You are the one that I see in dreams of my future, my present, and my past. You are the manifestation of the impossible, the miraculous made everyday.
Bewitching me in the night sky, blessing me with your brilliance. “Look up my love, I am always here. Even when I am invisible.”
I no longer thirst. I bathe in the lake of love. The depth of our love startles me, and embraces me. Thank you, my darling, for fearlessly and patiently showing me the way. For recognizing me, for remembering me, for reminding me who I truly am.
It is my honor and my delight to give my heart to you.
00:46 – 00:57 Toast ( and open mic chaos ) Song: Heal – Underworld
Konrad’s Toast:
Hello Everybody. We have the honor of hosting Ana and Thomas for this amazing ceremony. I consider myself to be a virtual stand for all the wonderful people who couldn’t be here. It’s always amazing when you find someone to love, but finding someone in the midst of a pandemic is more than a miracle. It’s a special thing you guys have, and I think that’s going to be an amazing foundation to build on for the rest of your lives. Marriage is a feedback loop, you get from it what you put into it, and I know that you guys are going to work hard to be the best friends that you can be for each other, to support each other and love each other. I’ve been married 22 years now, known Kara for 25, I feel like I have earned the right to give advice. So to you young folks ( laughter ), I learned early on that the key to a successful marriage – is everyone writing this down? – are these three phrases. You can say them multiple times a day, or as the urge arises…
You’re right. I’m sorry. I love you.
You can’t just say one of them, you have to say all three in that order.
Ana: Can we rehearse?
00:57 – 01:02 Love During the Pandemic Song: Cajuína Ao Vivo – Caetano
Ana’s Reading ( in Portuguese ):
This song speaks about how something tragic has brought along the opportunity for something very poetic to happen, how two souls unexpectedly shared a moment that went from grief to beauty. This marriage you are all participating today also has that aspect, and I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge that.
Thomas and I met during the pandemic, during a time when many lives were lost and many more dramatically altered. I was not allowed to go to the studio as much as I usually do, people were not allowed to get together. Almost all of the things we took for granted were inaccessible.
Having our routines completely altered made it possible that we could spend time doing things differently, and also allowed us to treasure another set of sensibilities.
It can be said that it all happened very fast, 18 months later and we are here making this commitment. Time is relative. Together we witnessed the end of the trump presidency and the Senate race in Georgia. Lula was found to be innocent and freed from jail, Bolsonaro screwed up the access to vaccination, 6000 indigenous people camped and marched in Brasilia. Glaciers melted at unprecedented speed, storms deluged the city we live in, flooded parts of my birthplace Bahia, fires consumed the Amazon. I had the privilege of having met Dale, Thomas’ father, and of hearing his mother Nancy introduce me to her friends as part of the family. Thanks to the 21st century, we got to share a little laughter with my family. We had the honor of spending Hanukkah here with Kara’s family. We started to plan this wedding as Russia marched into Ukraine.
I knew I loved him before I met him, but going thru the intensity of these times together was an opportunity for us to appreciate one another in ways that might have ordinarily taken much longer to realize. It is at the same time heartbreaking and heartwarming. And that is the way of life. As Martin Luther King said, darkness cannot drive out darkness. Only light can do that. So I wanted to thank you all for being light and for sharing light with us.
