It started as your typical boy-meets-boy story: Two nerdy (by their own admission) Yale undergrads try out for the same singing group and end up in love. Eight years later and now living in Portland, Gary Gregoricka, 30, and John Mission, 31, took their relationship even further.
“We were in San Francisco and the night before we left I asked him to go for a drive,” recalls Gary of that fateful 2012 evening. “We stopped and walked along the beach. He mustn’t have seen it coming because when I dropped down on one knee and asked him to marry me, he was silent for 90 excruciating seconds.”
“It was more like 45 seconds,” recalls John.
But Gary had nothing to worry about. “Gary is a handsome, lighthearted guy,” says John. “Initially those qualities were what interested me, but it was Gary’s earnestness and good-naturedness that kept me around. He’s one of the kindest people that I know.”
The couple wanted their celebration to feel relaxed yet intimate and chose the sleek industrial interior of Holocene in Southeast Portland for their ceremony and reception. “It was like a blank canvas that allowed us to create a modern vibe with little effort,” recalls Gary of the former warehouse turned venue more commonly known for its hipster dance parties than weddings. With the help from their friend and coordinator Lisa Acheson, the couple settled on a navy and cement gray color palette with splashes of sunny yellow in their matching socks and boutonnieres.
Guests arrived from around the globe, greeted at the door with hugs from Gary and John who were humbled by the outpouring of love and support. “It was important to us to soak up the moment and remember that this was the only time in our lives wherein we’d be surrounded by the closest people in our lives,” recalls Gary.
A tear-filled ceremony segued into a plated dinner by Simpatica featuring comfort-food favorites biscuits and gravy, fried chicken and waffles with a green tomato syrup and Bavette steak and eggs. Two ceramic roosters sat atop the white fondant-draped wedding cake, a fitting tribute to the couple’s own backyard flock of chickens. Acheson suggested that they continue the barnyard theme throughout the décor, resulting in petite Oregon animal figurines taking the place of table numbers and nestled inside centerpieces. The evening closed with (what else?) a dance party befitting the happy couple and their guests.
After their wedding, the couple returned to their home in the historic Mississippi Avenue neighborhood and their three hens: Hengela Lansbury, Feather Locklear, and Yolko Ono. Because of their busy schedules (John’s an OB/GYN resident at Oregon Health and Science University and Gary teaches middle-school math in Gresham), their honeymoon has been postponed until spring 2014.
