Kitty's Wedding ~ June 20th, 2009
Last Saturday one of my oldest friends got married off. Dear Kitty, who I have known since sixth grade, finally wedded her sweetheart Tyler. They've been together for seven years and engaged for at least four, maybe five now! It was time. She's the first long-term friend of mine to tie the knot, so it was a little strange. Part of me kept thinking "But WE'RE TOO YOUNG TO BE GETTING MARRIED!!!" but I also kept reminding myself, "Dude. You're TWENTY-FIVE years old. You are all BITTER OLD MAIDS by now!"
Anyway, this is only the second wedding I've been to 'on my own' rather than as my parents' child. So I don't know a lot of the usual wedding traditions and ceremonies. Christine's Catholic, so this was also my first Catholic wedding.
The wedding was at St. Joseph's Cathedral Basilica in downtown San Jose. It's the prettiest church in the area.
I spent a lot of the slower moments of the wedding ceremony contemplating the murals on the wall and trying to remember what little I know about the Catholic saints. I would be embarrassed about the meagerly few facts I managed to pull together, but asking my friends who grew up Catholic and realizing they didn't know anything either made me feel better, although a little sad.
Andi couldn't sit with us because she was doing a reading during the ceremony, but Seanie and I found Kero and Sean as well as some of my old co-workers from Bath & Body Works. Sean had cut his face shaving right before he left, and it still hadn't stopped bleeding when we got to the church so he sat with a finger holding a piece of kleenex to his face throughout the ceremony.
Andi doing her reading. If I remember correctly she was reading some of the verses from Proverbs or Ecclesiastes about the virtues of a good wife. King Solomon should know, he only had a couple hundred of 'em!
Now, normally Sean's a decent photographer so I gave him my camera to use. (I'm a lousy photographer PLUS I always forget to take pictures!) Unfortunately, he did pretty badly this time. I don't know if it's because he wasn't used to my camera or if he's just too fussy with settings (he was messing around with the flash and the ISO and everything else whenever something important happened, and he'd miss the shot) but nearly every single one of my pictures was too blurry or too pixelated to show off. So most of these images are from Kero or Andi.
My camera does have a better zoom than most, however, so we did get a few decent close-up shots during the ceremony:
Christine's sister Rebecca was her maid-of-honor, and Tyler's brother Kyle was his Best Man.
Since it was a Catholic wedding, there was a Mass in the middle. Since I'm not Catholic I couldn't participate, and I thought it was hilarious that as I and other Protestants and atheists were sidelined in the pews, the singer belted out lyrics talking about the unity and strong community that so blessed this union.
The mothers of the bride and groom light the unity candle.
The Kiss:
The Exit:
Kero really liked the shadow effect of this photo, and I have to agree that it turned out pretty cool.
The Wedding Party:
They were taking the formal photos, and we were waiting to talk to Kitty, so we just chilled out in the pews for a while and watched.
Kitty's huge-mongous family. The photographers kept shouting "Is everyone here?" and then two or three more people would come running over.
After the photos were done, Kitty and Tyler went out to the old-fashioned car that would drive 'em off to whatever came next. We were still just standing around as the professional photographers took pictures. After they left, nothing happened. No driver came up and swept the newly married couple away. So we kept looking over and thinking "Can we go over and talk to them?" Finally I just stomped on over and started talking, because I figured if we weren't supposed to be there Kitty would tell us to go away and the problem would be solved. Instead, we got to pose inside the car with her.
Kitty and her new husband Taitai.
Kitty and I
Kitty and Kero
Kitty and Andi
Due to tragic planning, the wedding was at 12 and the reception wasn't until 5. (Kitty did it that way so that people with kids would have time to take them home, but man. We had no kids, so it was just time to kill.) We walked over to a frozen yogurt place that was a few blocks from the church and had crepes for lunch.
Penguin Fro-Yo, where the crepes smile at you!
While we were eating, Kero had a tragic accident and some sauce spilled on her dress. We rushed her to the bathroom and got it all cleaned off quickly (thank goodness for synthetic fibers!) but I think the guys behind the counter felt bad for her (even though it certainly wasn't their fault!) and made our group a free 'sweet cheese' crepe. It was sooooo good, honey and cream cheese and powdered sugar. As if we weren't already threatening to burst the seams of our dresses after the delicious food we'd already devoured!
Kero always had her camera out to snap another photo
Cute photo of Andi and her boyfriend, Christian
My feet were killing me because I hadn't worn heels in so long, so Seanie ended up carrying me part of the way back to the parking garage. That was so sweet of him. This is my favorite photo of the lot, personally. I changed into flats during the reception.
The reception was at the Santa Clara Marriot. We went back to my house for about an hour just to kill time - everyone was so tired that we couldn't even muster the energy to play the Wii - and sat around talking. Then off to Santa Clara, Andi and Christian carpooling with Seanie and I. If we'd had a bigger car we would have squeezed Kero and her Sean in too.
Everything was happy bright pink and flower petals and candles.
Centerpieces
At each table there was a list of trivia questions that we had to try and answer. The pressure was on Andi and I, since as Kitty's oldest friends we should know all the answers! Luckily, we had James, another of Christine's oldest friends (I think she'd been in his fifth grade class?) to help us out.
So is Christine's favorite thing to do after work eating or bowling? WE DON'T KNOW.
We said bowling, but James said that wasn't right. Since he's the one who goes bowling with her, we assumed he must know.
BUT HE WAS WRONG. IT IS BOWLING.
OH JAMES, WHY?
Moving on...
How many siblings do Tyler and Kitty now have? We needed our fingers and toes to count 'em all...and we got that question wrong, too.
The dinner menu
The first course - my camera died after this so no more food pics!
It was really dark, and we were placed right next to the speakers for the dance floor so it was murder trying to have a conversation.
Rebecca translating her father's speech from Vietnamese into English for us.
I was having a lot of fun talking to people from junior high and high school, folks I hadn't seen in years, but Seanie didn't know anyone beyond the people at our table so he was just a *little* bored.
One of those people, Michael Mai, also sat next to us at the ceremony. I just love the tie-tucked-into-shirt he's rocking.
Sean stepped out because the loud loud speakers were getting to him, so we had setting up one of the lobster heads on his plate. Would you like your chopsticks, sir?
Cute shot from the first dance.
Of course Tyler swept Kitty off her feet.
Kitty dancing with her father, and Taitai dancing with his mother
Cute group photo of Kitty, Kero and Andi while I was out in the hallway avoiding the loud music.
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Big group photo of all the young'uns from junior high, high school, college!
I felt really bad that I didn't recognize everybody right away, but at the same time I was surprised how many faces I could remember since a lot of these people I haven't seen for five or ten years. It was a lot of fun to see everyone again!
Kitty and Taitai, I wish all the best to you!
Anyway, this is only the second wedding I've been to 'on my own' rather than as my parents' child. So I don't know a lot of the usual wedding traditions and ceremonies. Christine's Catholic, so this was also my first Catholic wedding.
The wedding was at St. Joseph's Cathedral Basilica in downtown San Jose. It's the prettiest church in the area.
I spent a lot of the slower moments of the wedding ceremony contemplating the murals on the wall and trying to remember what little I know about the Catholic saints. I would be embarrassed about the meagerly few facts I managed to pull together, but asking my friends who grew up Catholic and realizing they didn't know anything either made me feel better, although a little sad.
Andi couldn't sit with us because she was doing a reading during the ceremony, but Seanie and I found Kero and Sean as well as some of my old co-workers from Bath & Body Works. Sean had cut his face shaving right before he left, and it still hadn't stopped bleeding when we got to the church so he sat with a finger holding a piece of kleenex to his face throughout the ceremony.
Andi doing her reading. If I remember correctly she was reading some of the verses from Proverbs or Ecclesiastes about the virtues of a good wife. King Solomon should know, he only had a couple hundred of 'em!
Now, normally Sean's a decent photographer so I gave him my camera to use. (I'm a lousy photographer PLUS I always forget to take pictures!) Unfortunately, he did pretty badly this time. I don't know if it's because he wasn't used to my camera or if he's just too fussy with settings (he was messing around with the flash and the ISO and everything else whenever something important happened, and he'd miss the shot) but nearly every single one of my pictures was too blurry or too pixelated to show off. So most of these images are from Kero or Andi.
My camera does have a better zoom than most, however, so we did get a few decent close-up shots during the ceremony:
Christine's sister Rebecca was her maid-of-honor, and Tyler's brother Kyle was his Best Man.
Since it was a Catholic wedding, there was a Mass in the middle. Since I'm not Catholic I couldn't participate, and I thought it was hilarious that as I and other Protestants and atheists were sidelined in the pews, the singer belted out lyrics talking about the unity and strong community that so blessed this union.
The mothers of the bride and groom light the unity candle.
The Kiss:
The Exit:
Kero really liked the shadow effect of this photo, and I have to agree that it turned out pretty cool.
The Wedding Party:
They were taking the formal photos, and we were waiting to talk to Kitty, so we just chilled out in the pews for a while and watched.
Kitty's huge-mongous family. The photographers kept shouting "Is everyone here?" and then two or three more people would come running over.
After the photos were done, Kitty and Tyler went out to the old-fashioned car that would drive 'em off to whatever came next. We were still just standing around as the professional photographers took pictures. After they left, nothing happened. No driver came up and swept the newly married couple away. So we kept looking over and thinking "Can we go over and talk to them?" Finally I just stomped on over and started talking, because I figured if we weren't supposed to be there Kitty would tell us to go away and the problem would be solved. Instead, we got to pose inside the car with her.
Kitty and her new husband Taitai.
Kitty and I
Kitty and Kero
Kitty and Andi
Due to tragic planning, the wedding was at 12 and the reception wasn't until 5. (Kitty did it that way so that people with kids would have time to take them home, but man. We had no kids, so it was just time to kill.) We walked over to a frozen yogurt place that was a few blocks from the church and had crepes for lunch.
Penguin Fro-Yo, where the crepes smile at you!
While we were eating, Kero had a tragic accident and some sauce spilled on her dress. We rushed her to the bathroom and got it all cleaned off quickly (thank goodness for synthetic fibers!) but I think the guys behind the counter felt bad for her (even though it certainly wasn't their fault!) and made our group a free 'sweet cheese' crepe. It was sooooo good, honey and cream cheese and powdered sugar. As if we weren't already threatening to burst the seams of our dresses after the delicious food we'd already devoured!
Kero always had her camera out to snap another photo
Cute photo of Andi and her boyfriend, Christian
My feet were killing me because I hadn't worn heels in so long, so Seanie ended up carrying me part of the way back to the parking garage. That was so sweet of him. This is my favorite photo of the lot, personally. I changed into flats during the reception.
The reception was at the Santa Clara Marriot. We went back to my house for about an hour just to kill time - everyone was so tired that we couldn't even muster the energy to play the Wii - and sat around talking. Then off to Santa Clara, Andi and Christian carpooling with Seanie and I. If we'd had a bigger car we would have squeezed Kero and her Sean in too.
Everything was happy bright pink and flower petals and candles.
Centerpieces
At each table there was a list of trivia questions that we had to try and answer. The pressure was on Andi and I, since as Kitty's oldest friends we should know all the answers! Luckily, we had James, another of Christine's oldest friends (I think she'd been in his fifth grade class?) to help us out.
So is Christine's favorite thing to do after work eating or bowling? WE DON'T KNOW.
We said bowling, but James said that wasn't right. Since he's the one who goes bowling with her, we assumed he must know.
BUT HE WAS WRONG. IT IS BOWLING.
OH JAMES, WHY?
Moving on...
How many siblings do Tyler and Kitty now have? We needed our fingers and toes to count 'em all...and we got that question wrong, too.
The dinner menu
The first course - my camera died after this so no more food pics!
It was really dark, and we were placed right next to the speakers for the dance floor so it was murder trying to have a conversation.
Rebecca translating her father's speech from Vietnamese into English for us.
I was having a lot of fun talking to people from junior high and high school, folks I hadn't seen in years, but Seanie didn't know anyone beyond the people at our table so he was just a *little* bored.
One of those people, Michael Mai, also sat next to us at the ceremony. I just love the tie-tucked-into-shirt he's rocking.
Sean stepped out because the loud loud speakers were getting to him, so we had setting up one of the lobster heads on his plate. Would you like your chopsticks, sir?
Cute shot from the first dance.
Of course Tyler swept Kitty off her feet.
Kitty dancing with her father, and Taitai dancing with his mother
Cute group photo of Kitty, Kero and Andi while I was out in the hallway avoiding the loud music.
Big group photo of all the young'uns from junior high, high school, college!
I felt really bad that I didn't recognize everybody right away, but at the same time I was surprised how many faces I could remember since a lot of these people I haven't seen for five or ten years. It was a lot of fun to see everyone again!
Kitty and Taitai, I wish all the best to you!