Моя свадьба в Сан-Франциско
Наконец-то дошли руки написать о своей свадьбе. Правда, в своем английском блоге. Может, еще через семь месяцев решусь на русский вариант :)
It’s been more than half a year since our wedding and I think it’s time to finally write something about it :)
The wedding took place in a magnificent San Francisco City Hall on the 9th of October 2012 at 1 pm. Why in the U.S.? Well, Kostja just started to work in FB, I had a one week vacation left at my job in Czech Republic and it was almost impossible to gather all our relatives and friends in one place. So we decided to follow the line of least resistance, hard-heartedly abandoned all close connections and chose San Francisco - a city I’ve never been to, in a country I’ve never visited before. Looking back at that time I realize that it was probably the best decision and the best way to save our relationship which reached a critical point and could be only officially rescued by the law or ended forever.
The U.S. was also the easiest way to consolidate the relationship by marriage from the bureaucratic point of view - no need to translate any documents to other language or prove that you haven’t been married before, registration and payment are easily avalilable online and you can apply and get married the same day (that’s what we actually did). Not to mention the fact that I shouldn’t have worried about how they are going to distort my surname (I would be Fominova in Czech but ended up as Mrs.Fomin in English)
The minute I saw pictures of the City Hall for the first time I knew that my wedding will be something special - I couldn’t find a building more grand and beautiful than this Baroque historic landmark with the-fifth-largest-in-the-world dome and spectacular rotunda inside. The present City Hall is smaller than the original one, which was entirely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, but still it covers two city blocks and is made of granite and marble.
The whole wedding was a short hectic ceremony in the City Hall with two barely known but really helpful witnesses and a Russian photographer I’ve found on the Internet. Much more exciting were my long-distance preparations and the trip to the U.S. itself. I had to solve all the wedding related issues in about one month and I was afraid to fly. As they say, a girl will do anything to get married :) In my case, I desperately wanted to finally and forever live with K. in one country, one city and one shared flat and was ready to do whatever it takes. Well, it took my money to buy a dress, to book the big day and my nerves to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Then it took some time and more nerves to find a suit for K, to order a wedding bouquet and buy the rings in a very suspicious Chinese store - all in one day.
Being a bride was the most thrilling time of my life! I made hundreds of mistakes at work and so caused a lot of jokes by my colleagues. I should give special thanks to my friend Alina whose customary composure cooled me down on many occasions and among other things helped me to choose a wedding dress. After that I spent almost every evening in front of a mirror looking at myself and peeping with joy. She got married a week after me in Brno and beat us in “the last minute wedding preparations” nomination :)
October happens to be the warmest month in San Francisco, but I didn’t care and bought a wonderful leatherette jacket and pinkish shoes on a high platform. Our photographer insinuatingly tried to get me out of those during the whole 5-hour photo session, yet I remained determined to follow my style :) And naturally everybody agreed later on that it looked gorgeous. The one thing I would advise to any bride - do whatever you want and don’t listen to anyone, EVER!
The ceremony lasted about 15 minutes and for the life of me I couldn’t remember what I had to repeat after a deputy marriage commissioner :) I was so nervous I stopped shaking only after the first hour of our photo session and had no time even to comb my hair or wipe the sweat from the face. I remember though how K. was nervous too so that the lady who married us off somehow ended up holding both boxes with our rings :) I don’t regret one moment of that crazy busy week, it was really special for me to come to the U.S., live in a skyscraper, see a Golden Gate Bridge for the first time and finally marry K. The only thing I regret is that I can’t experience the same happy event once again :)
Photos by Ksenia Nesterova
It’s been more than half a year since our wedding and I think it’s time to finally write something about it :)
The wedding took place in a magnificent San Francisco City Hall on the 9th of October 2012 at 1 pm. Why in the U.S.? Well, Kostja just started to work in FB, I had a one week vacation left at my job in Czech Republic and it was almost impossible to gather all our relatives and friends in one place. So we decided to follow the line of least resistance, hard-heartedly abandoned all close connections and chose San Francisco - a city I’ve never been to, in a country I’ve never visited before. Looking back at that time I realize that it was probably the best decision and the best way to save our relationship which reached a critical point and could be only officially rescued by the law or ended forever.
The U.S. was also the easiest way to consolidate the relationship by marriage from the bureaucratic point of view - no need to translate any documents to other language or prove that you haven’t been married before, registration and payment are easily avalilable online and you can apply and get married the same day (that’s what we actually did). Not to mention the fact that I shouldn’t have worried about how they are going to distort my surname (I would be Fominova in Czech but ended up as Mrs.Fomin in English)
The minute I saw pictures of the City Hall for the first time I knew that my wedding will be something special - I couldn’t find a building more grand and beautiful than this Baroque historic landmark with the-fifth-largest-in-the-world dome and spectacular rotunda inside. The present City Hall is smaller than the original one, which was entirely destroyed in the 1906 earthquake, but still it covers two city blocks and is made of granite and marble.
The whole wedding was a short hectic ceremony in the City Hall with two barely known but really helpful witnesses and a Russian photographer I’ve found on the Internet. Much more exciting were my long-distance preparations and the trip to the U.S. itself. I had to solve all the wedding related issues in about one month and I was afraid to fly. As they say, a girl will do anything to get married :) In my case, I desperately wanted to finally and forever live with K. in one country, one city and one shared flat and was ready to do whatever it takes. Well, it took my money to buy a dress, to book the big day and my nerves to cross the Atlantic Ocean. Then it took some time and more nerves to find a suit for K, to order a wedding bouquet and buy the rings in a very suspicious Chinese store - all in one day.
Being a bride was the most thrilling time of my life! I made hundreds of mistakes at work and so caused a lot of jokes by my colleagues. I should give special thanks to my friend Alina whose customary composure cooled me down on many occasions and among other things helped me to choose a wedding dress. After that I spent almost every evening in front of a mirror looking at myself and peeping with joy. She got married a week after me in Brno and beat us in “the last minute wedding preparations” nomination :)
October happens to be the warmest month in San Francisco, but I didn’t care and bought a wonderful leatherette jacket and pinkish shoes on a high platform. Our photographer insinuatingly tried to get me out of those during the whole 5-hour photo session, yet I remained determined to follow my style :) And naturally everybody agreed later on that it looked gorgeous. The one thing I would advise to any bride - do whatever you want and don’t listen to anyone, EVER!
The ceremony lasted about 15 minutes and for the life of me I couldn’t remember what I had to repeat after a deputy marriage commissioner :) I was so nervous I stopped shaking only after the first hour of our photo session and had no time even to comb my hair or wipe the sweat from the face. I remember though how K. was nervous too so that the lady who married us off somehow ended up holding both boxes with our rings :) I don’t regret one moment of that crazy busy week, it was really special for me to come to the U.S., live in a skyscraper, see a Golden Gate Bridge for the first time and finally marry K. The only thing I regret is that I can’t experience the same happy event once again :)
Photos by Ksenia Nesterova