Richard's Reveries and Rantings: Wedding Stuff

WE DID IT!

Sat, 05 Nov 2005 10:52:54 GMT

I am officially a married man... or at least I have been for two weeks now. The weeks leading up to and following the big day were crazy... which explains my inactivity on my blog. I could not have asked for a more perfect day. E looked beautiful and I was smiling ear to ear through the entire day (except during the many times in the ceremony when i was tearing up). The ceremony got off to a rough start since the shuttle bus which carried 60 of our guests arrived 20 minutes late. Also, some parts of the ceremony didn't run quite as smoothly as we would have liked but no one else seemed to noticed and everyone commented on how touched they were by it.

The reception was awesome. We had a ton of things planned such as our traditional Korean soju ceremony and our traditional Japanese sake ceremony. All of our guests loved seeing us in our traditional garments. People told us the first dance was hilarious... although that wasn't necessarily the look we were going for. I think the highlight of the night was seeing about a dozen women dressed in full kimonos gettin' their groove on to hard core hip hop all night!

All in all, E and I had a fantastic time and were thrilled that so many friends and family members came from so far to share this day with us. Thanks to everyone who was there!

Here are a few links to some of our friend's photos from the weekend. Enjoy!

Adela's Photos

George's Photos

Matt's Photos

If you'd like the URL for our wedding website, just email me and I'll send it over.

Engagement Photos

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 08:34:25 GMT

A few weeks ago, Erika and I took some "engagement photos" to display at our wedding. Here is a sample. Bradley Hanson is a rockstar!

Wedding Gift Giving in the 21st Century

Fri, 16 Sep 2005 07:16:33 GMT

Tom (my officemate) and his wife Wendy are not coming to my wedding. He's not a big fan of them, and I agreed not to give him a hard time, if he used the funds he would otherwise have spent on airfare towards our gift. When I mentioned to him that we were accepting monetary gifts, he asked if he could paypal me. I thought he was kidding...

Here is our IM conversation from a few days ago:

Richard: hahaha... dude, i just got your paypal… thank you for your generous gift...

Tom: no prob

Tom: no need to send thank you note, they're quite useless

Richard: but i'd still like a card :)

Richard: hahaha... dude, you're hilarious

Tom: why don't u just print out this IM conversation

Richard: i'll send one anyway, i don't think wendy shares your same sentiments

Tom: Wendy and I wish you our most sincere congraturaltions and best wishes for your nuptials. May you share a lifetime of happiness together. Love Tom and Wendy

Tom: done.

Richard: HAHAHAHA!!!

Tom: ttyl

Richard: Tom and Wendy, Thank you so much for your generous gift. We will surely put it to good use and think of you every time we use it. Looking forward to good times in Seattle with you. Love, Erika and Richard

Richard: ok... done. thanks!

Tom: sweet

Tom: gotta go

Richard: later

Bachelor Parties and Vitamin B

Wed, 14 Sep 2005 08:46:29 GMT

This past weekend, I celebrated Bachelor Party II in Vegas. Yes, I am lucky enough to have celebrated my last few days of singlehood not once, but twice, before getting married. My buddy Sean had the great idea of organizing a separate party for my ex-coworkers at Vividence before my "official" bachelor party which took place this past weekend. As you can imagine, I didn't put up much much of a fight and luckily E had no problems with the idea. (yes, I am a very lucky man).

Of course, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas so there's not much for me to blog about. However, I will attest to the amazing recovery that I had from my hangovers after taking Vitamin B. My friend Gene first introduced me to this routine a few months ago. Basically, if you take a Vitamin B supplement before you drink, and then another the next morning, your hangover will be noticeably better. I was originally very skeptical but am a firm believer after this weekend.

I actually looked it up and it seems like it has some merit: Another study showed that prophylactic use of pyritinol (similar to vitamin B₆) reduces the symptoms of a hangover by about 50 percent.

Well, its officially 38 days until the big day!

Pre-marital Counseling

Sat, 27 Aug 2005 19:02:01 GMT

Last weekend, E and I went to Engaged Encounters, a weekend pre-marital counseling retreat for couples who are planning to get married in the Catholic Church. While we had already completed the pre-cana sessions required by the Stanford Memorial Church, we decided that it would be a good idea to spend a weekend preparing for the next big step in our lives. You only get married once right? I think we were the only couple out of the 25 that was there voluntarily.

We were both glad we went to the retreat but ended up leaving early on the last day. While the weekend was valuable, it became quite repetitive after 3 days. There were about 12 sessions dedicated to various topics relevant for couples planning to be married; most of them emphasized the importance of open communication and sacrifice. I think the weekend would have been much more valuable and enjoyable if we had more time discussing and sharing with the other couples, as opposed to discussing everything between ourselves.

There were several great things we got from the weekend:

1. E learned much more about the Catholic faith and realized how much it parallels her Buddhist faith.

2. We discussed topics that couples otherwise neglect to bring up. Sometimes when you're forced to talk about these topics, it makes it easier to be honest with eachother.

3. We realized how so many other couples have struggled with problems very similar to ours.

4. We realized how BIG this decision is for both of us and prepared ourselves spiritually.

Overall, I recommend that all couples, regardless of their faith, spend some time formally preparing to get married. Its amazing how much you can learn, simply by taking a break from your daily lives and really talking to eachother.

Love is in the Air

Wed, 13 Jul 2005 21:01:40 GMT

Recently, I've had a ton of friends announce their engagement. Something must be in the air. Literally, in the past two months, its been: Holly and Roy, Priscilla and Kerwin, Jung and I don't remember her name (from Korea), Sean and Sasha, Moon and Lori, and Brian and Ellen.

Also JXXXXX called me this past weekend and asked me for advice on ring shopping (I am sworn to secrecy). I referred him to my jeweler, David S Diamonds who is a total rockstar; I highly recommend him to anyone who is thinking about popping the question. You can't beat his quality and prices. Tell him I sent you. :-) Chances of proposal acceptance increase to 99.5% if you have a ring from David. I've enclosed some photos of the style of ring that convinced E to say yes.

In anycase, congrats to you all. These engagements will likley have a trickledown effect where other not-yet-engaged couples will be inspired at the wedding ceremonies, and single friends will meet and form new couples who may eventually get married. So goes the virtuous cycle. Sorry guys... I think we've created a monster!

Meet the parents

Tue, 12 Jul 2005 02:34:23 GMT

Erika and I had our official parents meet the parents weekend and thankfully, everything went smoothly. In fact, I think the stars were aligned for us because the entire weekend worked out perfectly. Dinner was at 2941, a beautiful restaurant in suburban VA just 20 mins outside of DC (highly recommended if you're in the area). The ambience, wines, and presentation were all incredible, as was most of the food (except the pork and the Mishima beef). The service was probably the best I've ever experienced and the staff gave special attention to the kids which was a nice touch... I've never seen cotton candy presented so elegantly.

The next day, I took Erika and her parents out to Luray Caverns in the Shanandoah valley. It had been over 25 years since I had visited and the experience was unbelievable. My favorites were the reflecting pool and the natural organ which played each note using rubber hammers that knock on individual stalagtites (I'll post photos shortly).

Day 3, we decided to split up and I dropped Erika and her mom off at the mall to shop while Erika's dad and I toured the new Air and Space Museum, Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center. (I think this further supports the blog posted by my officemate Tom months ago labeled: Hunting: Gathering; Xbox: Shopping). This place is essentially a huge airplane hangar which houses the largest collection of aircrafts in the world including the Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird (the worlds fastest jet), the B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay (used to drop the Abomb on Hiroshima), the Space Shuttle Enterprise, and the Supersonic Concorde Jet (which was retired due to few people willing to dish out the $5K+ per ticket to fly on this puppy).

The Big day is T minus 103 days away. I guess there's no turning back now!

Wedding Update

Wed, 20 Apr 2005 23:00:11 GMT

First of all, let me just say that I am really amazed at the network effects of MSN spaces. I've done almost nothing to update my space since I created it months ago and somehow, I've registered 91 hits to it. Wow, pretty amazing. As a result, I think I will begin to make this space more interesting for you visitors.

So quick update on the wedding situation. Firstly, Erika said "yes." I proposed to her on March 12, at Canlis, an incredibly romantic restaurant in Seattle that overlooks lake union and gasworks park (Thanks for the rec Tom... BTW, for you MSofties, they accept the prime card). I rented out the Cache room and when Erika and I were sharing our bottle of pre-dinner wine (L' Ecole 41- my new fav Cabernet), I presented her with a photo album of our travels together. The last page of the album read "And for the pages in our book, yet to be filled" and when she got to the page, I was on one knee with the rock in hand.

Erika and I are now knee deep in planning and I must say, we're in pretty good shape given that we still have about 6 months left. We've got the church, reception site, photographer, videographer, florist, day of coordinator, bakery, and DJ selected; and we're putting the final touches on our website as we speak. We're having our wedding in the Bay Area in October at the Stanford Memorial Church. Absolutely gorgeous. Even though I graduated from Cal, I'll make an exception and be wed in enemy territory. GO BEARS!

Diamond Ring

Wed, 02 Feb 2005 08:03:55 GMT

So I've learned quite a bit about diamonds over the past few weeks. As you might guess, I am planning to propose to my girlfriend Erika and have been shopping for a ring... she's fullly aware of this so I'm at no risk of ruining a surprise through this blog entry. Anyway, the process of buying a ring is like buying a used car... you never know exactly what you're going to get and there are so many variables involved that at some point, you just need to find someone that you can trust and try to educate yourself as much as possible to avoid getting ripped off. So i've learned that in addition to the 4 c's, you've got the polish, symmetry, flouresence, proportions, hearts and arrows cuts, etc. Argh... in anycase, as long as its shiny and Erika is happy, I'll be happy.