A Star Trek Meeting, A Star Trek Courtship, and a Star Trek Wedding

       My mother bought an ornate tea set for each of her five sisters in 1971 when she went abroad with my father, who was in the Air Force. Many years later, my mother passed away, and eventually, so did all of her sisters. When her last sister died, my cousin asked me if I wanted the tea set that my mother had given my eldest aunt. By that time it was practically a family heirloom, and we had always been a close family. I said Yes, I would most certainly like to have the tea set. It was made of fine China and very old, and I treasured it. It was a wonderful keepsake, not to be used, but to be admired. It did remind me that I loved drinking hot tea, something I picked up in my adulthood as one of the great pleasures of life. And of course, after Star Trek: The Next Generation, I had an affinity for Earl Grey tea!

My mother and her oldest sister, Thelma

Tea set that my mom bought for my Aunt Thelma

I was in some "geek girls" groups in Atlanta, where I lived at the time, that held several tea parties. They were such fun and elegant events, enjoying fruit, chocolate truffles, crackers, or whatever dainty foods that went along with tea parties. One day after coming home from a geek girls tea party, I decided to post a picture of my fine China tea set on Facebook. I got a lot of comments about how pretty it was. Then, one of my friends whom I had met at Treklanta commented, "Bring it to Treklanta. We can have a Romulan Tea Party." Oh, a Romulan Tea Party at Treklanta, you say? Treklanta was a local Star Trek convention that I had been going to for several years, and it was coming up in a few months. So my friend and I made all the arrangements, and right before the con, I spoke to someone on staff about getting a room across from the con suite and setting up a time. We were told we could put up signs, since it wasn't on the convention schedule. I made signs and told everyone at the con that my friend and I were having a Romulan Tea Party. My little introvert self was pretty excited about this and not at all afraid to invite strangers and friends alike. I was wearing my pointed ears and a dress that was reminiscent of TOS Romulan uniforms. I called it my Romulan Tea Party formal dress.  Little did I know that one of the people I invited was my future husband, Nayr.

Kavura in Romulan Tea Party formal dress

Nayr and Kavura at Treklanta

Nayr was one of the new faces at Treklanta that year. He was from Nashville. I remember him looking interested and smiling when I invited him to the tea party. I thought he looked handsome with his crewcut and Star Trek t-shirt. I thought he looked a little young, but I didn't really know how old he was. Then, uhm, when it was time for the tea party...he never showed up. We had a good turnout for the party anyway, so I wasn't that disappointed at the time. I did talk to him later at the con. He apologized for missing the tea party. He told me he missed it because he had the time wrong, since he lived in a different time zone. He gave me a Star Wars Collectors Club pin. I didn't really know why he was giving those out at a Star Trek convention, but I told him I was a member of a light saber group, so I liked Star Wars too. I was still in my Romulan costume. He wanted to take a picture of us together looking at a MAD magazine that had Kirk and Spock on the cover. I was happy to oblige him.

            We became Facebook friends and kept in touch after the con. We never really thought about dating back them, maybe because we lived 5 hours away from each other. Two months later he messaged me about being in an Andorian cosplay group at Dragon Con. We had both been going to Dragon Con in Atlanta for several years. He said he could provide the antennae and wig, and his friends could provide the blue makeup. I could just wear my own black shirt and pants. I thought it sounded really exciting. So I said yes. We saw each other several times at Dragon Con: a light saber group photoshoot, the Star Trek group photoshoot, and we marched in the Star Trek section of the parade together. But, just like we didn't see each other at the tea party, we didn't do the Andorian cosplay, because his other friends that were going to do it got sick and left the con early. But by that time, we had seen each other enough and talked enough that we really wanted to see each other more. I found him very polite and respectful and passionate about his fandom like I was. He gave me a toy gun that he and made for the Andorian cosplay, which I thought was really cool.

              After Dragon Con, we spoke on the phone a few times. I was amazed at how easily I could talk to him, as making conversation doesn't always come naturally to me. We had a lot in common. We both loved Star Trek and were interested in getting more involved in fandom. We were both already members of Starfleet International. It turned out that we were both about the same age. Then, two months later, he invited me to be in a Star Trek fan film shoot in Alabama. He had a speaking part in it, and it was open to anyone who wanted to be a background character. It was about the same distance drive for both of us. We met for coffee before the film shoot. Then we had a lot of fun at the film shoot. I think everyone there thought we were already a couple. Well, not quite. 

    The film was "A Gathering Storm" by Potemkin Pictures. View the film here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZyKFXx9hW9k

At the Star Trek fan film shoot, we played an elf-like race

After the film shoot, we had dinner together at a Chinese restaurant. It was there that we decided to officially start dating. We got married the following year at Treklanta. Oh yeah, baby, we were married at the same con where we met! Now, two years later, we are still going strong. We still tell each other how awesome it is to have a life partner we can do things with that we enjoy so much. We go to a con or two every month. We love to cosplay as a couple. We hosted a Romulan Tea Party together at Treklanta last year. We started our own Star Trek Meetup group together. We now have our own Star Trek podcast, StarPodTrek. We have put on Star Trek panels together at cons, most notably Treklanta and Dragon Con. And Nayr still tells me he is so happy that I invited him to the Romulan Tea Party and that I had those cute little pointed ears.

Wedding Picture

by The Honorable Kavura