A Walk in the Clouds: Wedding Numero Uno

It was mid-summer when Dan and I realized that we had 2 weddings in 2 consecutive weekends in California. "Why not take the whole week off?" A wonderful, albeit rainy and cool week was puncutated by these 2 weddings, and my Mom's birthday thrown in for good measure. Celebrations!

We flew back to LA on the 3rd weekend of October to attend Patty & Chris' wedding. Patty was a good friend of Dan's from high school onward, and this wedding was a DIY extravaganza. I would not be surprised if they DIY'ed the tables because Patty was crafts extraordinaire. The wedding itself was on the cloudiest, foggiest day in LA I had seen in a while. Dan and my brother-in-law, David, and I started refering to this wedding as a "A Walk in the Clouds".

(Tangent: That movie, YES, that movie with Keanu Reeves, is one of the all-time favorite cinematic masterpieces in South Korea. True Fact. When Dan and I were in Korea, we ran into no less than a dozen restaurants named "A Walk in the Clouds." They LOVE that movie. They are puzzled if you do not wax rhapsodically about it.)

Patty had sewn together purple flags with various celebratory words, and placed them on chairs for us to wave throughout. A DIY masterpiece. See David and I with aforementioned artwork. We also started riffing a la Lil' Jon with "Yeah! Yeah! Yeah!" I'm sure Patty totally intended for us to start rapping extemporaneously.

Because of the rain/clouds, the ceremony was relocated from the grounds of the La Canada Flintridge Country club to an indoor banquet room. Nevertheless, it was just as moving.

The reception was held in an adjacent ballroom. Each table was named after a specific type of candy (e.g. "gummy cola", "kit kat", "cashew candy"), and the centerpieces were large glass jars filled to the brim with the table's candy. In lieu of a traditional wedding cake, Chris actually created the cupcake "tree" with his mad metalworking skillz. Completely impressive.

Dan toned down his exuberance a bit, since his 7-hr written boards were the next day. Nevertheless, with the Arcadia gang back in one place, he couldn't help but enjoy himself with espresso martinis, gummi colas, and lottery tickets (courtsey of the winner of the garter and bouquet tosses). I actually won $3 in the California lottery.

And, of course, Patty was always obssessed with photobooths at other people's weddings, so it was no surprise that she had her own. The best part was the random props you could use to spice up your pictures. The photobooth spit out 2 copies, 1 for the bride + groom, 1 for the guests. A clever take-home memento to remind us of Patty & Chris' wedding. Congrats to the beautiful, happy couple!