We're Married!

Wow, it's been a while since we posted. It's been about 2 weeks and boy did they fly by. We're still trying to recover from all of the events. The week before the wedding, we printed produced all of the tablecards, bagged the favors, tied ribbons on the bubbles, sent out the final schedule to the wedding party, bought gift for our parents, and finalized the music. I don't think that I went to bed before 3:30AM the week before the wedding. It definitely went by fast. Thank God we had some help from our friends. Matilde wrapped the gifts for us and Show decorated the gift box. Jinn gave us a guest book as part of our wedding gift which was great because we didn't have one.

I took Thursday and Friday off. On Thursday morning, Edwin and I went to decorate the rehearsal dinner location. It took us a bit longer than anticipated and Edwin ended up getting a $30 parking ticket. Since we were unloading to bring stuff into the clubhouse, we thought it would be OK to leave the car there. We waited for over half an hour for the concierge and they didn't say anything about needing to move the car. Oh well, the cost of parking the day before a wedding. I didn't escape from the parking nazis either. I got a $50 parking ticket because I forgot to display our parking sticker. Anyway, Edwin dropped off the liquor and reception items (signing cloth, favors, placecards, tablecards, etc.) and picked up Andrew while I had my mani/pedi with Laura and Ellen. I was so sleep deprived that I fell asleep for half an hour during the mani/pedi! We hardly got to eat anything that day. Then, we were off to the rehearsal.

Rehearsal started at 4PM. Edwin's entire family was there at 4PM. Where was my family? At my apartment. I couldn't believe that they were half an hour late. The officiant, the wedding coordinator, and my parents were all late. My dad didn't have directions and then missed the exit even though Nikki gave him step by step directions as she caravanned with them. I was definitely freaking out. If I was a bridezilla at any time during this engagement, it was this day at this time. We only had an hour and we didn't get started until 4:30. I definitely had my doubts that things were going to go smoothly the next day.

As we headed to the rehearsal dinner, we realized that the directions that we had given to our family were wrong. The signs had changed since we created the directions and the exits from the Bay Bridge were no longer correct. Nevertheless, we arrived at the clubhouse and had a very enjoyable evening with our wedding party, sponsors, and family. We finished surprisingly early around 9:30 so we were able to go home and practice the rhumba routine a few more times. Nikki had choreographed a really cool routine for our first dance song by Bebel Gilberto called "So Nice." However, we were having trouble remembering the entire routine. We finally got to bed around 12:30AM which was really good since I hadn't been sleeping before 3:30AM.

The next morning started while we were sleeping. Ellen let herself and the make-up artist into the apartment to get her hair and make-up done while I got an extra hour of sleep. I woke up at 7AM to shower and then had myself a small breakfast of mixed fruit from Berkeley Bowl. It was nice and leisurely as I sat down to get my hair and make-up done around 8AM. The rest of the bridesmaids arrived around 8AM as well. Priyanka was so thoughtful and brought breakfast for everyone. It was great. I even got to have muffin and some orange juice. I have to admit that I was starting to feel a tickle in my throat that morning, but I was not going to let myself get sick that day. Char came in to help fix the bustle because 2 of the loops had broken because the dress was so heavy. I got the dress on with the help of 4 bridesmaids because Laura was getting her hair done. Everyone looked so cute in those bridesmaid dresses. I loved them! I just wish that I had time to write a note to each of my bridesmaids to let them know how much I appreciated them.

We left for the pictures a little after 10:30 and a little behind schedule. We decided to go the the Legion of Honor and the weather was perfect. It was 79 degrees and sunny. We couldn't have asked for better weather. I was going to bring my green parasol from Dave and Ashley's wedding, but in the hustle and bustle, I forgot to take it with me. I haven't seen any of the photos yet, so I hope that they came out well. There were more posed shots than I would have liked, but maybe the photographers were being more stealthy and I just didn't know that they were taking the pictures. We were supposed to go to the Palace of Fine Arts for a second location, but there wasn't enough time and so we headed straight to the chapel.

At the chapel, I was in the back waiting. To keep my nerves down, I did ring around the rosie with Hannah a few times. Matilde had a small leak from her breastfeeding, but luckily, we caught it in time. It's funny the things you hear after the wedding about what happened during the wedding. Jeannette later told me that she didn't have a copy of the poem she was supposed to read in remembrance of their dad, so she quickly googled it on her cell phone and wrote it out. How funny! I probably would not have thought it was that funny while it was happening so I am relieved that they told me afterwards. I wouldn't have even known if she didn't confess to me later. I love having her as a sister now. She's such a great friend and now we get to be sisters! There was a slight delay to the beginning of the ceremony, but everything went very smoothly. I think that I was on cloud nine and I don't really remember too much except that I was happy that it was happening. I didn't cry at all and everything just seemed so surreal.

As I was walking down the aisle, I saw so many faces smiling at me that all I could do was small back. It was the happiest day of my life. There were a couple of little hiccups, but the funniest thing was when Jamie and Kaori forgot to take the cord off of us. They didn't completely forget, but they did hesitate just long enough for us to notice. After the ceremony, we took photos outside. I know that the photographers wanted to take photos in the church, but I wanted them outside because of the view of the city. That is the one thing that I had done a better job with- list of photographs that I wanted. I did put one together, but I have a feeling that it was not used because I didn't see them refer to it at all. Also, our family photos were not as organized as I would have liked. I think that we might have missed some pictures that we should have gotten.

After the pictures, we went to Twin Peaks for the tea ceremony. There were more people than we had planned at the tea ceremony, but it turned out really nice. We made it back to the Empress of China with time to spare. We actually had time to check in at the Hilton across the street. The night before, we decided to get a hotel room for the wedding night. We were able to get a 4 star room for $140 with taxes. I booked it and found out that was the hotel across the street from the reception. Kismet! Then, the security guard let us out on the walking bridge over Kearny so that we could get some shots with the city background. That was really cool. Then, we went to the reception and had a blast. I took a picture of the view from our room which I'll upload later.

The entire day went at a pretty good pace, but the reception just went by SO FAST. I surprised, but we actually got to eat some of the food. All our hard work practicing the rhumba and we forgot the routine a couple bars in. It was OK though because we still had fun. We also played some Chinese wedding games which I think was a big highlight. First, I had trouble with the egg up the pantleg game. I'm sure that we'll have video to post soon. Then, Sujay straddled Edwin during the guess which kisser is the bride game. I hope someone got video of that too. Vic and Jeannette did a great job emceeing. We were able to get a big group shot that I had wanted on the reception dance floor and DJ Jimbo was smart enough to start the dancing while everyone was still on the dancefloor.

We were supposed to go to Bubble Lounge for the after party, but we bailed after it looked like most of the guests were too tired to go and since we also had the BBQ in the park on Saturday. The BBQ was another blur. We had to pick up a few things from Costco and so I went to the partk early to greet guests while Edwin went to Costco. It was yet another beautiful day for an outdoor picnic. We were next to the carousel and it was more fun in the sun and I definitely felt like we got to spend more quality time with our guests. We forgot the plates and we ran out of water, but we had a great time.

Saturday night, we got another Chinese banquet dinner. This time, it was at Koi Palace with my family. It was a fun time and then we met up with Jinn, Show, Bo, Ellen, Mustafa, Andrew, and Gen at Ghirardelli for dessert. Sunday, we had brunch with Tita Gallette and Uncle Benny at Cityscape in the Hilton on the 46th floor. Then, we met up with Mom, Dad, Andrew, and Gen and made a short trip to the Palace of Fine Arts. Then, Edwin dropped off Andrew and Gen at the airport while I went back to the apartment to meet up with Joe and Nemora and wait for Janice to arrive. We didn't get too much time to hang out with Joe and Nemora, but it was good to see them anyways. Janice got to stay with us overnight before her interview at Cal-Pacific. I took Mom and Dad to the airport while Edwin took Janice shopping. Janice had a dinner event that night and so we met up with Xochitl, Eddie, Jinn, Show, Chris, and Corinne for a light dinner at Il Luna Basque. It was great to be able to hang out with them.

Then we got to have a sleepover with Janice. She had her interview the next day, so it had to be short, but then we got to have dinner with her on Monday night before we dropped her off at the airport. On Tuesday, Edwin went to pick up his mom and Tita Angie from Sacramento. We had a quiet dinner in and then realized that they had taken Tita Dori's luggage from Sac by accident. While Edwin dropped off the luggage at a relative's to be returned, I went to Sin Yen's to pick up the leftover cake. We had 2 layers left over, so we get to enjoy the chocolate and the carrot cake. Since Halloween is next week, we'll celebrate some more and finish off the cake. So yummy. OK, that's enough for tonight. We'll post pictures once we have them. Speaking of which, does anyone have any suggestions for where we should post them? I've heard of flickr and picasa and I used to use shutterfly, but I don't like how these photo sites now don't allow people to download my photos as .jpg files.