Stinkerpants

Stinkerpants Wedding: Cultural Ceremonies

September 25, 2008 in Our Wedding • Ceremony • Cultural Stuff • Recap Photos

This post was originally featured on Weddingbee.  To see all of the comments, you'll have to check them out over there!

Guess what?!  We finally got our professional pictures back!!  I love them soooo much.  I love our photographer soooo much.  So, people, let’s get started!

The first part of our day was the Chinese tea ceremony, and the only person who know what was going on was my MIL, who was late (haha).  For awhile we just chatted with Mr. Stinkerpants’ family, who were beginning to trickle in. I will say, it was very surreal to realize that the tea ceremony was about to begin.  I had to remind myself, “hey, this is it.  This is the tea ceremony!”

Mr. Stinkerpants, MIL Pants, me, SIL Pants and FIL Pants.  I think I am trying to get MIL Pants to tell me what to do.  This will be your first glance of my qui pao (Chinese red wedding dress), which I absolutely love.

First, we served tea to my parents.  Sadly, MIL Pants didn’t do a very good job of explaining what we were supposed to do, so most of the tea ceremony was really funny to me, Mr. Stinkerpants and my parents; we all thought we were going to screw up somehow. I am sure the video of this will be hilarious, because there was a lot of giggling as MIL Pants said things like, “NO! Use TWO HANDS for the lai see!”and, “Okay, NOW go.”  In this photo, you can see Momma Pants, trying not to laugh:

Momma Pants, about to give us our Lai See (Chinese red envelopes with money inside):

Serving tea to MIL Pants:

MIL Pants gave me some very beautiful heirloom gold jewelry:

Right after we finished with the tea ceremony, we did the signing of the ketubah (Jewish marriage contract).

Mr. Stinkerpants and I asked our moms to be our witnesses (usually the ketubah is signed by the bride, the groom, two witnesses, and a rabbi), and our officiant served as our “rabbi,” because we didn’t have a rabbi. This is one of many benefits to making your own ketubah.  Instead of “rabbi,” it says “officiant.”

For the ketubah signing, Mr. Stinkerpants donned a yarmulke (Jewish skull cap), which I bought him for the wedding. Check out the gold jewelry I’m wearing!  These were all gifts from MIL Pants during the tea ceremony.  See the jade necklace I’m wearing?  Years ago, MIL Pants bought two: one to give to her daughter on her wedding day, and one to give to her son’s new wife.  How awesome is that?

A close-up of his yarmulke:

The ketubah signing is very straightforward: everyone signed it.

After the ketubah signing, it was time to get ready.  Mr. Stinkerpants went with the groomsmen to a different room in the hotel, and all the ladies stayed with me.

One of the most exciting things about getting our professional photos back was being able to see the things that I didn’t know happened.  For example, Mr. Stinkerpants and I didn’t know that our officiant, Miss K (a close friend of ours), was preparing for her job while we were getting ready:

She brought a book to read out of (so it looked pretty in pictures), and was taking notes!  Seeing these pictures made me feel so blessed to have such a wonderful friend officiating our ceremony.  We seriously would not have wanted anyone else to do it.  More on that later!

Next up, the girls get ready…

I Have a Husband! Weird!

August 14, 2008 in Our Wedding • Ramblings While Planning • Recap Photos

This post was originally featured on Weddingbee.  To see all of the comments, you'll have to check them out over there!

Hi guys!!  Mr. Cream Puff and I got back from our honeymoon late late Tuesday night.  I just logged in to WeddingBee and saw that I am now logged in as “Mrs. Cream Puff.”  WEIRD.  I still haven’t used the term “my husband” in a sentence (mostly because I have no need to refer to him in the third person, as we’ve been together nonstop for the past 2 weeks), but I think it will probably feel weird.  I was just getting used to calling him “my fiancé!”  Now he wears a ring on his finger, which looks totally out of place (but I love it!).  I keep thinking, “you’re married?!  To whom?!” And then I realize he’s married to me.  Which, of course, starts me thinking about how weird that is all over again.

What?  You want me to stop blabbering and tell you about the wedding?  Okay, okay.  Overall, the wedding was awesome!  I was totally thrilled with how our color scheme panned out.  The girls looked fabulous together, and the guys’ ties were magnificent with their tuxes.  I hadn’t talked about our flowers too much, but I was totally blown away by them.  The chuppah looked FANTASTIC in Crissy Field, it really did.  I was thrilled.   And the day?  It seriously couldn’t have been more beautiful.  Check out our guests and the perfect, blue sky:

We were really, really lucky with the weather.  After about a week of super cold weather, I resolved not to think about it anymore.  After all, there’s no use in stressing about something that you have no control over, right?  Right.  The day before the wedding, it was 62 degrees, but pretty windy.  At the rehearsal, we were feeling pretty chilly, and I was really hoping that our guests brought their coats, like I warned them to in the invitation!

The day of the wedding, though, coats weren’t needed at all.  If you know much about San Francisco, you know that even the warmest days usually start out with a heavy, chilly fog.  The morning of our wedding, however, was CLEAR and absolutely gorgeous.  By the time the ceremony rolled around, it was a PERFECT 75 degrees.  It couldn’t have been better.  And just to show us how lucky we were, the next morning was freezing cold and foggy, with a high of 63.  We were SO lucky.  People were able to enjoy our outdoor ceremony without being too cold or too hot.

After the ceremony was over, our reception began.  It was SO beautiful.  Our caterer, Thomas John Events, did an amazing job setting up the Green Room.  Our band was totally amazing–hardly anyone left before the reception was over, which I totally credit to the band.  The photobooth was a total hit (and worth every penny, despite my doubts) and people marveled over all of the details.  People repeatedly told me that it was the best wedding they’d ever been to, which over course meant a LOT to me.  I can honestly tell you that not one of my details–not one–was overlooked by our guests.  I got comments on every single thing.  It was awesome. So worth it.

I’m kind of inclined not to show you guys any of our non-professional pictures.  Our photographer, Kim, was so awesome, and I can’t wait to see the pictures she took and show them to you guys!  It’s very strange to have the wedding over and try to figure out what to tell you guys about until I have the photos to illustrate with.

Do you guys have questions?  Things you want me to blog about?  I’ve missed you!