Tired of ads? Subscribers enjoy a distraction-free reading experience.
Click here to subscribe today or Login.

FORTY FORT — This extravagant wedding was much more than a celebration.

Talk to any of the 300 guests in attendance and you’ll hear comments like this:

The food was amazing, the band was fantastic, the flowers were spectacular, a cigar roller was on site and a woman wore a tiered dress with glasses of champagne set in row after row for guests to select. That woman later changed her dress to dispense cordials and desserts.

It was — in a word — a blast.

Did I mention this wedding had two grooms?

John Barancho and Paul Kabacinski were married last Saturday, culminating 15 years of commitment and legalizing their togetherness as so ordered by the deeply-divided U.S. Supreme Court on June 26. That was an historic victory for gay rights, with the nation’s highest court ruling 5-4 that the Constitution requires same-sex couples be allowed to marry no matter where they live.

‘Do it right’

Gay couples immediately began getting married while John and Paul began planning their day. Oh, what a plan they made.

“We wanted to do it right,” John said. “And we wanted to do it big.”

On Wednesday I visited with John and Paul in their business, Floral Designs, on Wyoming Avenue — the business they have owned and operated for 25 years. John started the business in 1990 and Paul joined him 10 years later.

For a guy with as many allergies as I have, being among all those flowers kept me sniffling throughout the interview, but the guys didn’t mind.

The happy couple looked through proofs of wedding pictures, beginning the process of selecting special photos for their album.

John and Paul met online 15 years ago. After dating for a while, Paul asked John to marry him. Over the years, they watched the negative press and heard the insensitive commentaries. They were aware of obstacles that stood in the way of gay couples denied venues for their wedding receptions, etc.

Their dream finally came true when they walked down the aisle and were married by their longtime friend, Thomas Engle, an ordained minister with The Universal Life Church.

“This is a day of great celebration and reverence, on which we come together to recognize and commemorate the sacred love and dedication shared between these two men,” Engle said as he began the ceremony. “It is wonderful to have family and friends here to join us today. John and Paul would like to thank all of you for being here, and would like you to know that each of you were invited here on this day because you have played an integral part in their lives.”

Engle offered these observations, some of them coming from Mark Twain.

“Marriage is truly a magical gift. Marriage makes two fractional lives a whole. It gives two questioning natures a reason for living and something to live for. It will give a new gladness to the sunshine, a new fragrance to the flowers, a new beauty to the earth and a new mystery to life.”

Those words are for all, not just for heterosexuals. They are for people who love each other and want to celebrate their love by marrying — by making a lifelong commitment to each other.

Acceptance

If people don’t agree with the concept of same-sex marriage, if they don’t support gay rights, if they can’t find room in their hearts and minds to accept others for who they are, that’s their problem. We should never sit in judgment of others. Live and let live. Treat everyone the way you want to be treated. It’s that simple.

Paul’s son, 28-year-old Adam Kabacinski, stood as his father’s best man. Sandra Frantz, John’s sixth-grade teacher, was matron of honor.

The 300 wedding guests celebrated with John and Paul, none of them thinking the marriage of two men was the least bit odd or different.

John first, then Paul, recited their vows, vows that addressed one’s love for each other, rather than their gender.

The two then joined hands as they promised to “honor, cherish and love” each other “from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health,” for all the days of their lives.

They each said, “I do” and exchanged rings.

Then Engle said, “Paul, you may kiss the groom.”

Freedom to choose

Acceptance is sometimes difficult, but this wedding shows we have come a long way in letting people live their lives they way they want to. There were high school classmates of the newlyweds at the wedding — all there to celebrate the happiness of their friends.

“I think we are finally reaching some level of acceptance,” Paul said. “The next generation will probably read about this and think, what’s the big deal?”

The men are both Catholic and said spirituality is important in their lives. They threw the negativity to the wind and celebrated their love in style. Even their dogs attended — George and Starr, two Great Pyrenees — to complete the Beatles connection. Get it? John, Paul, George and Starr, who would have been named Ringo if she were a boy.

John and Paul were surrounded by forever friends to celebrate their special day.

And now they anticipate their honeymoon to London and Paris.

Is this news? Should it be news?

Or is it just what it is? Another wedding of a happily-married couple.

Bill O’Boyle
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Columnshot-1-25.jpg.optimal.jpgBill O’Boyle

Paul Kabacinski, left, and John Barancho, owners of Floral Designs in Forty Fort, share a laugh as they talk about their wedding last Saturday at the Woodlands.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082715Wedding3.jpg.optimal.jpgPaul Kabacinski, left, and John Barancho, owners of Floral Designs in Forty Fort, share a laugh as they talk about their wedding last Saturday at the Woodlands. Clark Van Orden | Times Leader

The inverted chandelier cake at the wedding of Paul Kabacinski and John Barancho.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Weddingcake3.jpg.optimal.jpgThe inverted chandelier cake at the wedding of Paul Kabacinski and John Barancho. Clark Van Orden | Times Leader

A server dispenses wine in a tiered shelf dress at the Kabacinski-Barancho wedding.
https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_Wineglassdress3.jpg.optimal.jpgA server dispenses wine in a tiered shelf dress at the Kabacinski-Barancho wedding. Clark Van Orden | Times Leader

By Bill O’Boyle

[email protected]

Reach Bill O’Boyle at 570-991-6118 or on Twitter @TLBillOBoyle.