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.

Wedding Weekend

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What a busy, fun-filled weekend! Jimmy and Eleen tied the knot on Saturday and it was quite an event. People started to arrive on Wednesday and Thursday and we’ve had a full house for a few days now. It’s always so fun to have everyone in town at once and boy did we make the most of it. We had rehearsal and dinner on Friday with drinks at a local bar until the wee hours of the morning. Then Saturday was just non-stop from pre-wedding preparations to the ceremony and then the reception. Today, we all woke up groggy and exhausted but ready for a Sunday BBQ at the Agustin residence where Jes and I prepared a Mexican BBQ for about 25-30 people.

I haven’t even begun to sort through all the photos so I will need to post them this week. I’ll also have to recap the highlights a little later as well. I’m pooped.

Congratulations to the happy couple!

7 hours

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We thought about going for a half-day at Sierra yesterday but with the snow falling pretty hard and a long drive ahead of us, we decided to head home instead.  We left the house at 10:30 am and didn’t get home until 5:30 pm.  Phew!  It was a long one.  We did, however, luck out on not having to put chains on and made a couple stops along the way.

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The dogs held up quite well in the car with Smush sleeping in Susie’s lap and Koa changing positions every time the car changed direction or speed.

Here are photos from the weekend.  Can’t wait to head back for another day on the slopes!

We’re back, Baby!

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p1010293.jpgWe drove up to Tahoe with The Masayas last night and just finished another awesome day on the slopes. I managed to find a small 2-bedroom house in South Tahoe and we played at Kirkwood today. It started out with blue skies and a little wind. By the afternoon, it started to snow and the wind picked up. Regardless, it was great to be about there again. We had a dry season last year so it’s been about 2 years since we last visited ol’ Kirkwood. It’s still snowing as we speak so it looks like we may be going to another mountain tomorrow. We’ll just have to figure out what to do with the pups since check-out is at 10 am. Hopefully our creaking bones will be snow-ready tomorrow morning.

I Love Friday Nights.

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Ah…it’s Friday and I’m lovin’ it. I’ve said this time and time again and I’ll say it again. Friday evening is my favorite-est time of the week. What’s even better is a Friday with a a 3-day weekend following it. And whaddayaknow, today is one of those Fridays. Yes!

Anyway, I was sipping my hot chocolate and admiring one of my favorite cups…my “Loner Monkey Cup”. I call him a loner because I have another mug that has a bunch animals on it, which I’ve named the “Friends Cup”. They both hold my morning coffee and evening hot chocolate quite well and keep me smilin’.

Gone Fishin’

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This morning on our usual walk, I noticed that there was an ENORMOUS storm of seagulls swarming around the harbor. I thought that maybe I just hadn’t noticed them before and moved on. This evening, as I was walking Koa, I heard a sea lion barking in the harbor. I thought, “Hm…there’s something fishy going on here.” Being the curious creature that I am, I walked over to the pier to find a small boat making circles by the ballpark. One of the harbor security dudes was on his bike hanging out by the edge so I asked him what was going on. He said that they were fishing for herring and so were the sea lions. He also said that the seagulls like to eat the fish eggs that are typically laid on the side of the pier. OHHHHH! How cool! He even took out his trusty flashlight and tried to show me where the eggs were. Neat-o! I guess it’s herring season from now until February and it sounded like the fishin’ was good so far.

Lesson of the Day: It pays off to ask questions. You could learn something new.