Jason & Susanna
The only thing we, the guests, knew was that the wedding would be in Big Sur. Owing to my (and a few friends) procrastination, we lost out on getting a cabin reservation and instead had to reserve a campsite. While a bit inconvenient, the beautiful location didn't mean I enjoyed things any less.
With a entire morning free prior to the start of the festivities, our group decided to take advantage of the weather and location to visit McWay Falls at the Julia Pfeiffer Burns State Park. While a bit foggy, we still got to see the falls. So lovely.
The secret venue along the coast turned out to be this place called Point 16. The fog gave the breathtaking view a bit of mystery, but this little space you see here would typically look out upon the vast Pacific. While short and sweet, the ceremony touched all the right emotions with lovely (and humorous) vows by Jason & Susanna. And like any good officiant, Troy got us efficiently through all the ceremony with a few meaningful words of his own slipped in along the way.
The "Cal Friends" photo. While I didn't attend Cal (aka UC Berkeley) with everyone, I'm truly thankful to be a part of the gang for all these years.
For the dance with the Father-of-the-bride, things took a very unorthodox turn with some modern dance moves. Kudos to Mr. Wen for a lively and exciting dance!
The first dance with the bride & groom also had some energetic, modern dance involved before easing into a more traditional, slower dance.
Buffet dinner! A few of the highlights include a yummy risotto, tri-tip and roasted veggie salad.
The wedding party gave their speeches during dinner and, like the couple's vows, contained a healthy dose of wit and humor along with some very touching stories and emotions. After dinner, the bride and groom spoke about their gratitude for everyone prior to cutting the "cake".
Since Jason doesn't much care for sweets and desserts, they crafted a "fruit" cake with a homemade topper (DIY FTW!).
Daniel & Karen
Just one week later, I had another wedding to attend with quite a different set of duties. As a groomsman, I found myself with jobs to do before, during and after the wedding. I hadn't ever been to Paso Robles before and that Friday afternoon we drove down to Windfall Farms. The
We spent a good part of that Friday afternoon getting decorations setup including this arch/trellis thing where all the action would be taking place less than 24 hours later. As shown in the pic, unsurprisingly, Mother and Son had a direct hand in much of the activity.
The "rehearsal" dinner (not really, just a title I guess) consisted of several trays of Chinese food from Paso Robles' one Chinese restaurant. Not too bad. While this looks like a whole lot of food, we (both families and close friends) actually ate most of it.
After dinner and once we retired to the Inouye house (rental for the weekend), we continued to work. This time, the groomsmen had to help the groom with his vows (while having an ice cream dessert of course). We even slipped in a late evening trip to Walmart (closed unfortunately, so we ended up re-routing to Food4Less) for last minute supplies before going to bed. We, particularly Daniel, had a big day tomorrow.
That day started early with some finishing touches to the wedding decorations. Here, Daniel sets up the GoPro camera which would record video during the ceremony.
And more decorations. Daniel & Clifton get some direction from Mrs. Inouye.
Before long, the morning disappeared and the caterers came to do their setup. The main event would be starting soon.
As the guests all filed in and began to take their seats, we prepared to make our grand entrance.
I didn't know anything about Paso Robles before, but I can tell you now that it made for a beautiful (if just a smidgen hot) wedding venue. P.S. See the GoPro?
The aftermath.
During the downtime between the ceremony and the reception, guests cooled off by partaking in the deliciously cool and refreshing dessert known as Italian Ice.
And could also help themselves to the party favors: commemorative frisbees and mini pineapple cake!
The happy (and hungry) couple!
Richard, Julie & Baby Kay! Someone looks kinda tired from all her flower girls duties.
The other sides included a nice potato salad, chicken skewers and some steamed veggies.
After a night of much merrymaking (including dinner, dancing, some decoration cleanup, the after party and some tacos), we had a nice quite Sunday morning to recover and drive back north. Everyone had a pretty good time, especially Grandma!
While it made for a very busy September, I'm glad I got to take part in the special days for a couple of my friends up here in the Bay Area. Congratulations to Jason & Susanna and Daniel & Karen. As a nice close, I'll present this Robert Ingersoll quote (thanks to Troy, who shared it during Jason & Susanna's wedding):
My creed is this. Happiness is the only good. The time to be happy is now. The place to be happy is here. The way to be happy is to make others so. The creed is somewhat short, but it is long enough for this life and strong enough for this world.
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