2005.07.03

On an insanely hot day in Sacramento, CA, Lily and Robert got married. It was quite the festive event, drawing guests from Hong Kong, Texas, and hosts of other locations in the USA. But for me, the best part of the entire day was the reception immediately following the wedding ceremony: walking into that air-conditioned reception hall was heaven!

In the background, you'll notice the harp that provided all the music for the festivities. In the foreground, you'll notice Sherylen and me all spiffed out for the wedding. I think she did a better job of spiffifying than I did.

Here's the "aisle" adorned with rose petals, before anyone's had a chance to walk on them.

And here's a close-up of the ceremony in progress. At ths particular point, Robert is getting a ring put on his finger. What's that expression on his face? hmmm....

While the wedding party was off taking pictures, the guests were herded like cattle (moo) to the reception hall. Nelson, Donald, and I took this opportunity to pose next to the cake. (how they managed to survive the 100-degree heat in suits is beyond me)

Here's a sneak peek at the poses the happy couple were taking while we were eating appetizers (mmm...chocolate-covered strawberries!). This picture's angle is such that it almost looks like Lily's wearing a rose over her left ear. Other than that, this shot captures their left-hand rings pretty well.

And here they make their grand entrance into the reception hall. Notice the scores of paparazzi with cameras and video recording devices....

One side note: I once heard somewhere that in a gathering of this size (as in, more than 100 people), all the "important" people are seated in the first ten tables. So you must imagine my consternation upon discovering that I was seated at table #11, which I later found out was unofficially the "25-and-over table" (never mind that some at the table were under 25). Donald later figured that we were the "non-Stanfurd-Teacher-Education-Program college buddies" table, which made a little more sense, but still baffled me, since the Stanfurd crowd was at Table #10. Had Lily switched loyalties in the one year she spent in grad school? More on this later....

At each place setting was a set of wedding bubbles. Here's a shot of me doing my best to adorn the air (and annoy the people sitting across from me)

Since Lily and Robert were too busy entertaining the "important" tables, we took it upon ourselves to get our table's picture taken with the happy couple. The eight of us are, in a pseudo-left-to-right order: me, Sherylen, Nelson, Donald, Shayla, Frances, Alex, and Crystal (I think, although I could be wrong on that one). In front would be Lily and Robert.

I took the opportunity to try to bang on an empty wine glass while up in front, so I could actually see them be forced to kiss (all the other times, we were so far in the back of the hall that we couldn't see a thing); fortunately, shortly after lily snatched the piece of silverware out of my left hand, a few folks at table 4 obliged, and I got this shot.

One of the biggest problems about being seated at tables 11-14 is that Lily and Robert's backs were toward our side of the hall when they were cake cutting. So Sherylen pulled an end-around and got this shot off between two camerapersons of the paparazzi. You can see the reflection in the mirror more clearly than the actual people and cake.

And the requisite first dance....

Sherylen took some time out from shaking her tail feathers on the dance floor to pose with me behind the table's rosy centerpiece.

Guys with roses. Well, some may argue that this could also be called "geeks with roses" or even "dorks with roses."

And here's the quasi-Norton98-reunion shot.

At the end of it all, we all had some fun times, a few laughs, and perhaps one too many chocolate-covered strawberries. But between the energetic DJ, the bubbles, and the lack of an embarrassing best-man's speech or a toss of the garter, this was definitely a celebration worth sharing. Here's to another happily married copule.