Fast forward to October 23, 2010. Dan and I had (1) attended our friend's LA wedding (see previous post) the weekend prior, (2) Dan had just completed his 8-hr written exam monstrosity, and (3) celebrated my mom's birthday. I flew up to San Francisco after all this to hang out with Cat, help out, and generally be an annoying nuisance as the matron of honor. See the compromising position that Brian and Cat are in?
Here's what this entailed: Multiple trips to Home Depots / Michael's / San Francisco's Flower Market / SF Public Library, a very painful Brazilian wax where I only understood every other word that the Vietnamese lady was saying, lunch w/ one of Cat's ex-coworkers, cooking fish and about a ton of bok choy for a stay-at-home dinner, getting our nails done, and multiple jokes about Kristie T's role as "deputy marriage commissioner". Along the way, we also managed to have a delicious Italian dinner out, try a sandwich called the "Menage-a-Trois" (not a joke), and scope out the food truck scene at Fort Mason. Below is a pic of Cat w/ her ex-coworker's new baby.
Daniel came up Thursday morning to hammer together lots of wood planks for the frame underneath a graduated display of a bajillion desserts. The week passed in a BLUR, and it was Saturday before we knew it. I used airbnb to find a fantastic studio steps from the Ferry Building for ~$100 / night. So for Sat breakfast, we met up with our friend Winnie to eat our way around Embarcadero and the Ferry Bldg Farmer's Market. By conservative estimates, we had a rotisserie sandwich w/ 8-hr caramelized onions, fresh mussels, enchiladas, pluots (plums + apricots = the most DELICIOUS fruit I have ever tasted and now I lust after them), strawberries, cheese, huge chili polish sausage, macaroons, among other things.
Kristie T and I ran off to the St. Regis to hang out with Cat and Mommy Ng around noon. Cat attempted to write her vows, while Kristie and I were creating a baller dance playlist for later that evening. Mommy Ng was especially entertaining because she had to nap in positions that required her right leg to be perpendicular to the rest of her body, straight up in the air. Here's a pic of Cat after she put on her makeup. I told her to cake it on.
While Kristie, Cat, and I were dilly-dallying inside the sweetest hotel room I've seen in a long time, our respective partners were running around the venue (The Box in SoMa) putting up autumn-colored paper lanterns. It apparently took a lot longer than expected (5 hrs), and Manish (Kristie's beau) and Dan bonded.
Their efforts paid off, however, since the space looked stunning.
Here's Kristie in the foreground and a blurry Manish running around in the background. Probably still putting up lights. He was going a little lantern-crazy.
It all came together for a gorgeous, very SF-like event. The food was delicious (carnitas, comfort Mexican food, etc), there were 12 types of alcoholic beverages including a free-flowing '93 Dom Perignon. Brief aside, Dan was determined to try all 12 types. He did manage all 12, had 1 more, then decided that 13 was a bad number so should have more. Towards the end of the evening, there was a lot of touchy-feely things going where Daniel was rub up against me, then flash his wedding ring with a "I'm married, okay?" Better that he loves rubbing against me than other people.
Cat looked gorgeous. The ceremony was short and sweet. Kristie T talked about how it was "all about the little things". Cat and Brian both read their own vows. Cat's was off the cuff and full of levity. Brian's was pre-written, touching, and hilarious. The tea ceremony was a nice homage to Cat's Chinese heritage. [Note: the bridesmaid dresses were from Target and our shoes were from Payless. I love value sourcing.]
The next day, SF was in a complete downpour so we ended up completely soaked after our Yank Sing upscale dim sum lunch w/ Winnie. We blazed through Ghiradelli Square and the phenomenal Exploratorium, went the wrong way on the subway and ended up eating all the pluots and strawberries, and got delayed by 3 hrs because of the torrential rain. Daniel found an abandoned, new plastic poncho on the ground and I wore it even those it was a kid's size because I was getting COMPLETELY soaked. It only went down to my hips as opposed to my knees.
Dan and I feel truly blessed to have had such an awesome vacation attending and assisting Cat' and Brian's wedding. We ate lots of delicious foods, hung out with best buds, hugged each other a lot, and generally thought we were the luckiest 2 people alive today.
