Browse Day: January 30, 2008

Goodbyes

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Three years ago, Jes and I went to the BMW dealership in hopes of finding a 3-series wagon. In the end, the X3 was a better deal so that’s what we took home.  Above is a photo of me at the dealership.

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Right off the lot, we headed up to Mammoth with the excitement of an awesome weekend in the snow and a new car to test out on the icy roads. I will never forget the time we were heading back down that Sunday with the “miles left” indicator blinking “0.0” and then “–“. Ah, the memories. To this day, we still salute Jaw Bone Station on our way up to Mammoth.

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Now it’s January 30, 2008 and our lease has ended. Last night, we went down to the garage to clean out the car and take down the racks. It sounds pretty silly but I’m going to miss our trusty Sport Activity Vehicle and also the convenience of driving. Jes returned the car this morning and now we are about to embark on a little experiment I will call “We Have No Car”. I’ll have to keep you posted on how that pans out.  What a funny coincidence that I’m wearing the same sweatshirt on my last night with the car.  Haha.

Today also marks another significant milestone. My mother has retired from her job of 20+ years at the DMV. Yep, no more cutting in line. And no more “Mommy, can you pay my registration and I’ll pay you back later?”. Bummer. I guess it’s pretty good timing for us though. We won’t need to worry about much besides renewing our licenses every 3 years.

Wedding Recap

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Whew! What a weekend. I feel like it just ended even though it’s already Tuesday night. Most people left on Sunday but Dayantha and Krissy stayed until this morning. I’ve finally sorted through my hundreds of photos. I don’t know if I reached 1000 but it was close. Here goes the recap…

On Saturday morning, we got to The Faculty Club around 10 am to help set-up. With camera in hand, I managed to get some cool shots of all the work that went into setting up a Do-It-Yourself Wedding.

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Family members were assembling the floral arrangements while the boys set-up the lanterns and table settings.

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The girls were arranging their own bouquets while Eleen supervised all the action as her hair and make-up were being done.

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It really was amazing how much thought and hard work went into this wedding.

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Eleen even made her own wedding gown, which was beautiful with hand-wrapped buttons along the back. At the very last minutes of wedding prep, Eleen was still rubber stamping and snipping thread off of the shawl she made.

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At the church, Susie coordinated while I helped her set-up. Fortunately, the rain had stopped the night before and stayed away until after the ceremony.

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Here are the pillow rings that were also handmade and carried by a pair of very cute little boys.

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The church had high ceilings with a balcony that allowed for some awesome wide-angled shots.

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The priest kept it short almost left out “You may now kiss the bride.” That was weird.

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Back at the reception, we got back to work with the placecards and slideshow.

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Here are the name cards and homemade flavored lipbalm that was lovingly prepared, designed, and packaged by the bride herself. Jenn, one of the bridesmaids, made an awesome movie that included stop animation of little dolls that represented Jimmy and Eleen. I contributed by adding some photos of the actual wedding for a little surprise for the audience.

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The homemade cupcakes (prepared by Clara, the other bridesmaid) were the talk of the evening and tasted so yummy.

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The party was a lot of fun and Dayantha performed his little “Ditty” for everyone to enjoy…including the parents. Check out Victor’s dad getting into the action.

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By the end of the night, we were all pretty buzzed and exhausted…as we should be. There was a requisite stop at Top Dog before meeting up at a local bar before heading home.

Here are photos of the pre-wedding activities.
Here are photos of the wedding ceremony and reception.

If you’re looking for some of my favorites at a higher resolution, go here.