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Video: Amy Poehler And Carrie Brownstein Officiate Surprise Wedding
Attn: rest of the Internet. No more "crazy" or "viral" wedding videos for the rest of the year. One lucky couple will have you beat.
Tuesday night at the Pasadena Presbyterian Church was supposed to be a regular stop in Carrie Brownstein's book tour for her memoir, Hunger Makes Me A Modern Girl, in which the Sleater-Kinney guitarist and Portlandia star would be in conversation with Amy Poehler in front of a sold-out crowd. However, Kendall Oshiro and Genevieve Hernandez made it an event to remember, asking during the Q&A section if Brownstein would wed the two of them on the spot.
"My now wife Gen and I had already been planning on eloping in a few months at this point," Oshiro told LAist. "We had tickets to Carrie's conversation with Amy Poehler in Pasadena on Tuesday, so I told Gen, 'How cool would it be if Amy Poehler and Carrie Brownstein were on our marriage license?'"
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Oshiro had heard from a friend, who attended Brownstein's event in Austin on Sunday, that Brownstein was an ordained minister, and that set the wheels in motion. After kicking the idea around with friends and Hernandez, Oshiro bought a marriage license from an Orange County courthouse that afternoon before heading over to the event in Pasadena. "Gen reassured my crazy scheme, saying 'We may lose out on $60, but the potential of getting married by two of our favorite people is worth it.'"
"Yeah, it was impromptu," says Kristen Sales, one of the friends who was part of the aforementioned conversation. "It was a group text between friends that turned into national news within hours."
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Genevieve Hernandez and Kendall Oshiro (Photo courtesy of Kendall Oshiro)
Although late to the event and stuck sitting in the balcony, Oshiro managed to make the request during the Q&A. Needless to say, Brownstein was taken aback. "Carrie had her head in her hands, laughing, and Amy's jaw dropped," says Oshiro. "She practically forced Carrie to do it, but in good fun." The two were brought down to the front.
"I got ordained for the purposes of marrying my friends in a couple of weeks," says Brownstein, as Poehler hands Oshiro and Hernandez some of the fake flowers she took from the church's backdrop. "Now, they might not want me."
Poehler provides the soundtrack, playing "the first part of 'Greensleeves,'" the only song she says she knew, while Brownstein tells the couple: "All of us here are rooting for you. We’re rooting for you in the way we root for ourselves. In the way that we root for love to win out over despair—for hope to win out over fear, for joy to win out over sorrow."
"I'm excited but also slightly embarrassed to be here," Oshiro says while exchanging off-the-cuff vows with Hernandez. After exchanging rings, Brownstein declares them married before the two of them take off from the stage before a raucous crowd.
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Well that pretty much the best thing that's ever happened. #otterpopwedding
— Miranda July (@Miranda_July) November 4, 2015
"We told my mom this morning, who knew we were planning on eloping eventually," Oshiro tells LAist. "She was dying of laughter." Don't worry family and friends, the two of them plan on a "real" ceremony once Hernandez finishes her master's degree at Chapman University in 2018.
"We are just so grateful that Amy and Carrie were willing to do this, because we definitely put them on the spot," says Oshiro. "We really can't express our gratitude to not only them, but all those who attended—their patience and support is greatly appreciated."
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