Congratulations to Newlywed J & R!

For a few weeks, BF & I have been preparing for our friends' wedding. Thankfully, we had ordered their wine glasses through their registry, and I already picked up a bottle of Dom Perignon (on the second attempt). The comical part is that we still ended up with the last minute rush. We talked all week about what time to leave because it was quite a distance and any freeway out of West L.A. was going to be suicide (or suicide-inducing). When it was down to the last hour before we had to leave (3 hours before the ceremony), I was fretting over having not written the card that I bought a month ago and not having enough time to get ready because of BF's tie fiasco, and BF was agonizing over having no tie to wear.

If this is any indication of how our wedding is going to be then I better start planning today.

We got into BF's car 10 minutes later than planned, and thanks to his mental Mapquest, he saved us about an hour's worth of traffic -- no joke. We listened to traffic reports for 1.5 hours (boring) and literally every freeway was troubled. Despite us being 15 minutes late, we got seated "just in time." The groom's party had just proceeded to the gazebo and the bridal party was just about to step out.

The ceremony was perfect and sweet. The entourage stood in an exquisitely adorned gazebo against a beautiful backdrop mountain-view of L.A. I was amazed at how flawlessly and efficiently the ceremony unfolded.

One of their primary sponsors read, "Love is a Friendship Caught Fire" by Freedman:

Love is friendship caught fire; it is quiet, mutual confidence, sharing and forgiving. It is loyalty through good and bad times. It settles for less than perfection, and makes allowances for human weaknesses. Love is content with the present, hopes for the future, and does not brood over the past. It is the day-in and day-out chronicles of irritations, problems, compromises, small disappointments, big victories, and working toward common goals. If you have love in your life, it can make up for a great many things you lack. If you do not have it, no matter what else there is, it is not enough.

The other primary sponsor read, "I Love You" by Roy Croft.

I love you,
Not only for what you are,
But for what I am
When I am with you.

I love you,
Not only for what
You have made of yourself,
But for what
You are making of me.

I love you
For the part of me
That you bring out;
I love you
For putting your hand
Into my heaped-up heart
And passing over
All the foolish, weak things
That you can't help
Dimly seeing there,
And for drawing out
Into the light
All the beautiful belongings
That no one else had looked
Quite far enough to find.

I love you because you
Are helping me to make
Of the lumber of my life
Not a tavern
But a temple;
Out of the works
Of my every day
Not a reproach
But a song.

I love you
Because you have done
More than any creed
Could have done
To make me good,
And more than any fate
To make me happy.

You have done it
Without a touch,
Without a word,
Without a sign.
You have done it
By being yourself.

Instead of lighting candles, Bride and Groom performed the sand ceremony to symbolize their uniting. They each held a different color that symbolized something (e.g., the officiant poured brown symbolizing the Earth/ground; may their marriage always stay grounded). At the completion of the ritual, their vase of sand looked amazing and it was later left by the guestbook signing table.

Between the ceremony and the reception, BF and I looked around for his money clip. :( I don't get it. He seems to always lose money! He wasn't so bent over the cash; he was more bent over the fact that that money clip was recently given to him on his birthday from the newlyweds. I felt so bad for him (he thinks he dropped it during the valet exchange). We still enjoyed the rest of the evening. I finally met all of BF's crew and like he vouched, they are a bunch of funny mofos.

We were soon seated in the banquet hall. Again, I was amazed at the organization. Not only did they have us seated at certain tables, they even had placards on the keepsake indicating where we sat at the designated table. The reception went just as flawlessly and efficiently as the ceremony. (I only wish I had ordered the prime rib.) At least I got the layer of cake I wanted (marble with cappuccino creme).

We left around the time that people started bailing. Since Ate left earlier with Flowerboy (a.k.a. Flower girl's escort), Kuya R came with us. We dropped him off at home and hung out a little bit and then went on our merry way home.

Until we came across the drunk racers. Although I have never had to do this, BF is a veteran at exiting off the freeway 5 miles away from home because of drunk fools racing on the freeway. Well, we were farther than 5 miles away when some drunk racing mofo almost crashed into us. Not even a minute later, 4 more cars recklessly sped by us, cutting people off left and right. I swear about 5 cars, including us, made a bee-line for the next exit. We'd rather deal with checkpoints and cops on the streets than die because of some stupid drunk racers (why did we not see a single cop on the 50-mile freeway drive, but we saw 5 cops on Venice?). I don't think I've ever had a car-fright like that before.

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Closing thoughts~
It was actually quite a small, intimate wedding of 150 guests so we felt very honored to be there. We have known J & R since they first started dating about 3 years ago. As cliche as it sounds, it is only right that they be wedded; they truly are meant for each other. Congratulations, J & R!