a wedding reflection

So, it is almost one full week. I am a married man as of May 17, 2008. It was an awesome day... everything I expected and more. My bride, Christine was beautiful and the one part of the wedding I was the most happy about her smiles. She is now my wife and that makes me feel complete. I was happy that our wedding day was beautiful for her. All of her planning, all of her hard work, all of her tears, all of her tender loving care led to a day that everyone could enjoy. I hope that everyone who attended our wedding knows that and at some point will take the time to thank her.

And me? How does it feel to be married? Hah, I guess I could tell you that I am changed man. But guess what? I am not a changed man. I am the same ol' mountain boy that I was before. I take my relationship with Christine seriously and being married doesn't change that. I love her just as much now as I did before and as I will tomorrow. Maybe the Catholic church, the state, and whoever else thinks we are official now (or maybe not), but I thought we were official a long time ago. And I also feel relieved. This wedding took a lot of planning, a lot of money and a lot of patience. A lot of me is happy that it turned out great and that it is in the rearview mirror.

But enough of the philosophical stuff. So how was the wedding weekend? Wow.. where do I start! So many parts of it that I could talk about... Guess I will have to take them on one at a time.

Sams clan hit San Diego

My mom's side of the family (the Sams) is who we have stayed in tough with more over the years. Many of them showed up for the big day. Alot of them were taking advantage of the fact that we lived in San Diego. Good for them. It was great to see the kids play in the ocean and having a great time. They got to see a great sunset Thursday before the wedding.

Gifts at the Rehearsal Dinner

The rehearsal was a little weird. The priest wasn't there. My family is not Catholic. The wedding was a traditional Catholic wedding (with mass). So everyone was a little confused. I think it went well. Good thing Christine had made the program, that saved everyone, including the church's wedding coordinator.

And the gifts that Christine bought the entire wedding party were great. They all appreciated it. The dinner was good and I even gave a speech with out stumbling too much.

Calm before the Storm

For how crazy the wedding was. The morning was actually really, really calm. I spent the night with Luthor. We just chilled. It was a nice time to reflect and focus. I was so excited and pumped. It was a cool. Then Jim showed up and it was on. I got into the tux and we were ready to roll! Everyone was whooping at us as we made it to the church.

the priest shows up!

I am not going into the details, but there was actually some doubt that we would be able to perform the wedding in a Catholic church. It was really hard on Christine the week before the wedding. So there was a lot of relief for the both of us when the ceremony actually started. I am not going to forget the many things that I learned about the Catholic faith during this wedding process, both good and bad.

The ceremony went smoothly with only a few hiccups. It was beautiful. It was over an hour long, but it seemed to fly by for me. It was awesome to share such a special moment with our family and friends.

so many pictures

And to the worst part of the day. I could never be a model. Yikes, I never took so many pictures in my life. Christine and I were in so many pictures. Our photographer (Rebecca Seal) was great, but I wanted to strangle her when she kept saying.. "Now over here". I burned my bald head in Balboa Park. We literally took pictures from the time we walked out of the church until the wedding reception started. Oh well.. we did it for the memories!

Rob the DJ! Bamboo Dancing.. broken glass.. the Sunshine company!

Everyone we hired pulled through (and many family members) to make the reception a great party. Rob the DJ was a great MC and he turned out to be good hire. He kept the party moving. I enjoyed the reception alot. My family had a great time. They saw many traditional Filipino dancers for the first time. I know they liked it.

Anyways the party rocked and then we took the after party to the Sunshine company in Ocean Beach. We had people buying us drinks until the late hours.

Into the sunset...

And then we woke in our Ocean Beach vacation condo. Isn't the internet awesome. We found a great place right on the ocean to spend out first day together. What an experience. Our family came over to share the place and the beaches. But the best part of the day was when they all left and we were able to enjoy the sunset together. Just the way to end our first weekend married.

There is a lot more I could talk about, but I am all typed out. Check in next time!