My best friend’s wedding

BRYCE Goodwin (left) and Victor Lirio with the author (right) LAURA A. LIRIO’S FACEBOOK

NEW YORK—If you’re not interested in weddings, I suggest you stop reading and move on to another article in this newspaper. However, if you’re someone in love with love and enjoy a good love story culminating in a breathtaking ceremony, then by all means continue.

In my past columns, I have spoken about my best friend, sometime director and all-around wonderful man Victor Lirio. Born in the Philippines and raised for much of his younger life in Tanauan, Batangas, Victor is an actor, director and producer.

He is a theater nerd who can quote Shakespeare, Beckett and Sondheim. He delves deeply into the great works by the legendary writers, both classic and contemporary. But as a former dancer (he was primarily trained in classical ballet), he can cut a rug on the dance floor with the best of them, and he and I have done many a hustle back in the day.

In 1999, he was invited to a housewarming party in Long Island City by a couple of friends. Because he didn’t want to go, he bribed a couple of girlfriends, sisters Liz and Cynthia Casasola, to accompany him.

There, he met the man who would become the love of his life, his best friend, and husband Bryce Goodwin. They bonded at that party over Victor Hugo’s “Les Misérables,” wondering if their hosts had actually read the book (they think not).

A few days later, they agreed to a first date at Shakespeare in the Park the following Saturday. However, the day of their date, Bryce called to cancel because one of his childhood friends was in town, and he needed to be a good host. Victor asked another friend of his to be his date, instead.

Well, lo and behold, at the entrance to Delacorte Theater, there stood Bryce. “I didn’t want you to think that I was blowing you off, so I needed to tell you in person: I want to see you again.”

Three months later, following a romantic walk on the beach, they said “I love you” to each other for the first time. That was the moment they knew that they would be together forever!

On a rainy Saturday, Nov. 21, Bryce and Victor’s closest friends and family flew in from all over the world to witness them join together in celebratory matrimony. (Actually, the two officially tied the knot on June 19 at the Coral Gables courthouse on their 16th anniversary as a couple.)

The venue: the Alhambra Room of the beautiful Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables (Tidbit: Victor was the “gay of honor” at my own wedding in January 2004; our reception was at Millennium Biltmore). The ceremony, which would not be an official one (hence no one would be officiating), had groomsmaids, groomsmen, honor attendants and a compère, all of them close friends of the two grooms.

We briefly rehearsed on Friday afternoon on the balcony outside Alhambra then met up again at a rehearsal dinner at Made in Italy restaurant, and then at a wine mixer at MC Kitchen.

On Saturday, as the weather reports had predicted, it started raining. While many of the groomsmaids were getting hair and makeup done at Ecstasy Salon, it rained.

Thankfully, Victor had a contingency plan in place: instead of the ceremony taking place on the balcony, it would now be in the Alhambra Room. (I was quietly thankful; in my gown and heels, I was hoping to walk on carpet and not on tile.)

At 3 p.m., the entire wedding party was gathered at Biltmore Lounge for a photo shoot. As in other weddings, multiple configurations of the happy couple with members of the party were taken. Given the very Old Hollywood setting, the gowns and tuxes, it looked like a Vanity Fair photo shoot (art directed by Victor’s younger brother, Fidel, and photographed by Carlo Damocles).

At 6 p.m., the guests were starting to gather in the hotel lobby. Friends and family, all holding glasses of champagne were catching up with one another. A cousin here, two nieces there, Victor’s sisters, Bryce’s mom and brother … Victor’s acting teacher and mentor, plus former costars and colleagues … Bryce’s friends from Wharton and Georgetown.

The ceremony began with the groomsmaids and groomsmen assembling in front of the room, with violinist Sho Omagari playing “Salut d’Amour, Op. 12” by Edward Elgar (which he wrote for his love, Caroline Alice Roberts, as an engagement present). The honor attendants then marched down the aisle and took their positions.

Grand entrance

Finally, the doors of Alhambra were flung open—and Bryce and Victor made their grand entrance to the cheers and applause of everyone in the room. There were readings from Victor Hugo’s “Les Miserables” read by Bryce’s brother Ryan, and of David Whyte’s poem, “Twice Blessed” by Fidel.

I sang “I Have Dreamed” from “The King and I,” accompanied by Sho. Bryce and Victor then recited their vows, eliciting sighs and tears. And finally, a champagne toast to Catullus’ “Poem 5” capped the ceremony, ending in flower petals tossed in the air—and more cheering, whooping and hollering!

Dinner was divine! The table settings and flower arrangements were a study in understated elegance. Capiz lamps brought in from Manila adorned the dining and cocktail areas with a soft glow. There were funny speeches by the honor attendants (and a short set of songs by yours truly).

If there is one overarching theme for the whole weekend, it was this: Bryce and Victor tying the knot was a foregone conclusion. However, actual legislation needed to catch up with what we all already knew, that these beautiful people were meant to spend the rest of their lives together.

To my best friend and his husband, I wish you more of the wonderful things you have both been blessed with, most of all—love!