Event Photographs
Photography by Chrisman Studios
About Us
David
The only child of Leslie and Charles Kemp, I grew up in Dallas, Texas, where I attended Lakehill Preparatory School (K-4) and St. Mark’s School of Texas (5-12). At St. Mark’s, I mastered the art of diagramming sentences (and loved doing it), fenced épée for a few years, and played viola in ensembles ranging from duets to string quartets to full orchestras.
After graduating from St. Mark’s, I moved to Houston to attend Rice University, where I studied psychology. I also joined the Houston Tennis Club and competed in several tournaments throughout the state. Upon my graduation from Rice, I received Rice’s Wagoner Foreign Study Scholarship, with which I moved to Phnom Penh, Cambodia, in order to observe, participate in, and write about the delivery of health care in that country.
After spending a year in Cambodia, I returned to Houston to work at The Methodist Hospital Foundation as a development writer and apply to law school. The following year, I moved to Berkeley, California, to begin law school at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Law (then known as Boalt Hall), where I served as the Senior Executive Editor of the California Law Review for Volume 99. During law school, I continued playing viola and tennis, though with less frequency.
After law school, I began working at Justia Inc., a Bay Area company dedicated to making primary legal materials freely available to the public.
Charles
I grew up in Nashville, Tennessee, the oldest son of Charles and Dorothy Binkley. My sister Tiffany is seven years younger than I, and she and her husband Steve have two sons, Peyton and Parker.
After finishing high school at Father Ryan in Nashville, I went to college at Saint Meinrad Seminary, a Benedictine abbey in southern Indiana, where I majored in Latin and Greek. After leaving seminary, I moved back to Nashville, where I directed the local chapter of the March of Dimes for two years. I also returned to school at Vanderbilt University to finish my post-baccalaureate studies. I matriculated at Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1994.
Upon completing medical school at Georgetown, I went on to train in surgery with fellowship in gastrointestinal surgery at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. After seven long, cold years, I came to the land of milk and honey and now call San Francisco home.
I have been a proud member of the Permanente Medical Group since 2005. I specialize in hepatobiliary surgery and practice at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in San Francisco. I have a non-surgical interest in bioethics, and I serve as the chair of the hospital ethics committee as well as sit on the Committee on Ethical Affairs for the California Medical Association.
Our Story
On August 6, 2011, we first met at Moby Dick, a local bar near where both of us lived. Each of us was with our respective friends, but David was with his friend Matt, who also knew Charles. David told Matt that he wanted to meet the guy “who looked like Anderson Cooper,” so Matt made the introduction. We chatted for a while and hit it off, but then went our separate ways with our friends.
Over a month later, on September 17, we both attended a different mutual friend’s birthday party. Again, we chatted some, but it wasn’t until we simultaneously found each other on Facebook that we exchanged numbers and set up our first date: Monday, September 19, at Anchor Oyster Bar.
Over shellfish and wine, we discussed our hopes and fears, our plans for the future, and how our lives had, to that point, led us to where we were. By the end of the meal, and perhaps even halfway through, we independently came to the conclusion that (1) it was the best first date either of us had ever had and (2) there would have to be a second and third date.
Jake
Fast forward a year.
We were discussing getting a dog together, and we endeavored to learn how best to raise a puppy. We turned to the renowned books The Art of Raising a Puppy and How to Be Your Dog’s Best Friend, written by the Monks of New Skete. What intrigued us about the books, more than the training methods (which have since been shown to be outdated and based on incorrect understandings of dog learning and behavior), was the monks’ attention to giving puppies a diverse range of experiences before they are adopted. Inspired, we had contacted the monks and applied for one of their puppies; the waiting list was roughly two years.
The following month, while on a business trip to New York, we stopped by the monastery for a visit. Less than a month later, we received an email that there had been a litter of puppies, and we could adopt one of them around Christmas—just over a month away. We were ecstatic. So on Christmas Day, we flew from Nashville (where we had spent Christmas Eve with Charles’s family), to New York, had Christmas dinner out, and took an early train the next morning back to the monastery. Planes, trains, and automobiles later, we had our eight-week-old German Shepherd puppy, Jake, home in San Francisco.
Put simply, Jake has been more of a handful (and more of a joy) than we ever could have imagined. He has been a catalyst for growth and understanding and patience among the three of us. As he has gone through various stages of puppyhood, we have learned as much about ourselves and each other as we have about him.
A Proposal?
There was never a proposal per se. We have always been a partnership of equals, so it didn’t make sense for one of us to ask the other for his hand in marriage. But as our bond grew stronger, it became mutually clear that marriage would be the next step of our relationship; it was something both of us wanted, and increasingly, it appeared to be something to which we had a legal right.
Whether we are dining at one of San Francisco’s Michelin-rated restaurants to celebrate a special occasion or accomplishment, or trudging through the wilderness in search of a trail that (apparently) hasn’t existed in years, or running with Jake through Golden Gate Park, we have found in each other “the one.”
Deciding on Grace Cathedral
We decided to have our wedding ceremony at Grace Cathedral for a number of reasons. For one, it was important to us to honor the sacrament of marriage in a holy place. Second, Grace Cathedral is very much a church of San Francisco. Its walls are adorned with murals depicting the history of California, San Francisco, and the Cathedral itself. We see its AIDS Memorial Chapel as a testament to its unconditional love of all people—agape. And of course, it is a beautiful space in which to celebrate our love.
Wedding Party
Tiffany Knight
Attendant of Honor
Charles's charming and beautiful sister, pictured here in her 2013 Kentucky Derby hat. She teaches middle school science and math at St. Joseph School in Tennessee.
Chris Schools
Attendant of Honor
Chris and David became friends in kindergarden in Dallas, and have remained steadfast friends ever since. After serving in the U.S. Marine Corps, Chris returned to Dallas to complete his education in political science.
Registries
