I am officially a married man.  Horace and Patricia has become one under the witness of over 200 families and friends.  The wedding is very successful, thanks to the helps from our good friends.  I don’t want to repeat my wedding speech again in the blog, but I must say thank you to those who have helped us one more time.  It is great to see all of my good friends to celebrate my biggest day in life with me.  Many of them come from far away, some even just stay for a few days.  We had good time and able to catch up with each other before the wedding.

The wedding is very well planned, down to time resolution in 15 minutes.  However, Murphy’s Law always rules.  Thing is working pretty well in the morning.  Except no one knows I had a stomachache due to too nervous.  I have to ask my best man drove me to McDonald’s for a washroom break before the the door opening game begins.  I don’t think asking to use the washroom in Pat’s house would work.  The morning photo session is pretty fun, we have lots of group pictures with the groomsmen and bridesmaids.  Everyting seems running so smooth that we were able to arrive early in the church.

Probably none of the guests notice, the church ceremony is really off schedule and liturgically wrong in a few places.  Too bad that there is another wedding right after ours, so we were literally kicked out from the church.  We did not get enough time to have group photos.  Luckily, we were able to make it up in the banquet.  Those group photo are most boring photo in a wedding anyways.  It is more like a record of who has shown up.  So consolidate group photos into bigger groups to speed things up wasn’t really a big lost.  We planned another photo session in Stanley Park between church and banquet.  In the original plan, the wedding party will tag along too.  We are running short of time, so we decide to take more couple pictures instead of group shots.  The groomsmen and bridesmaids went straight to the restaurant to setup.  They got some rest and with just us and the photographers, we were able to take photos quite efficiently.  It is important to have take engagement photo with the same photographers, so that we know how to work with each other on the wedding day.

I am really tired at the banquet.  We have good MC and wedding planner, so the banquet runs pretty well.  I just have to follow the instruction.  I don’t have to think too much.   It seems my brain has shut down and I am just react with subconscious reflections.  We have some silly games in the wedding.   One of the game is hiding the groom.  It is the first break I have since the morning.  I was hiding quite relaxingly at the table in the far corner.  That table is full of Pat’s high school friends, the girls could not finish the dishes, so I can share some food.  I was enjoying a chicken leg when Pat finally found me.  After the banquet, we have another challenge.  We received lots of gifts, some of the gifts are in huge boxes.  I love gifts in general, but some gifts I got simply shows the giver has no common sense.  For example, I got a huge fancy garbage bin.  It is nice, but it is inconvenient to bring to the restaurant in the first place.  Did the giver ever think about how could I possible move it home?  Luckily my groomsmen are really good friends, although it’s pretty late after the banquet, they still helped me to bring the gifts home.  It takes three cars to load all the gifts.

I will write a more detail blog entry about my wedding experience when I have more time to digest it.  There are so many things happening in the wedding day.  I could use some quiet time in my honey moon trip to think over it when I am sun bathing on the deck of a cruise ship.

My wedding slide show:

T minus one and counting.  Only one more day from my big day.  Things are piling up.  I already passed the point I feel nervous or pressured.  I simply could not feel anything.  Tonight, my groomsmen and bridesmaids met and have dinner together.  It is the first time the whole group is gathering in one place.

We had done the church  rehearsal, it’s funny that the guy who conduct our rehearsal seems even more stressful than we are.  He lost his temper over some silly questions, yelled at us and have to walk to the side to clam himself down.  Maybe I simply have the talent to push people over the edge, or maybe he is just nuts. The only thing important in the church is the entry, the exchange of the ring and the exit.  Who cares about the liturgy, no one knows the “correct” way anyways.  If we screwed up and missed some steps, as long as we improvise on the spot, no one will notice.

Traditional Vancouver special style wedding requires lots of work and co-oridination.  I am glad that we have lots of good friend helping us out.  With their help, we are in reasonably good shape.  I stronger suggest those who are about to get marry, consider keeping it simply.  Travel wedding just with the family and a few close friends would be much easier.