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Ceremony at New Community Baptist Church in Mountain View and reception at Dynasty Seafood Restaurant in Cupertino.
Ring and John (BTW, don't they look great?!!!) started the morning at the Cypress Hotel. (No doubt a few of you will recognize the wallpaper and lounge areas.) As the ladies applied their finishing touches, the guys went on a McDonald's run. With everyone now ready, we filed into the elevator along with John's special accessory, a football. More on that later. Sweet! I love it when we have a generous amount of time and rarely run out of interesting photography ideas. Downstairs we took advantage.
The large church was packed, I mean packed. It was amazing! More people just kept coming. Highlights included a pre-ceremony ballet performance, plenty of live music and singing, and the pastor's creative references to football which is one of John's favorite sports. That explains the ring pillow that I got a shot of below.
After a brief stop with Ring and John at Cuesta Park for a few fun shots, we hightailed it to Cupertino Square for the reception. But not before squeezing in another 5 minutes of portraits in the mall with the entire wedding party for a special page I have planned for the album. :D
Dynasty Seafood's large banquet room was bursting at the seams with nearly 400 guests. A variety of pink and brown paper lanterns were hung from the ceiling which dressed up the room nicely. After the tasty banquet, there were no shortage of games, activities, and challenges to keep the crowd entertained. Mr. DJ also played plenty of Asian anthems to keep the youngin's satisfied. New Order, Depeche Mode, Erasure, Anything Box... c'mon you know what I'm talking about! Something worth noting are the wedding cupcakes. They were made by a business that John's sister (Jessica) co-owns!
Floral Arrangements: Tanjeeryn Designs
Cupcakes: Cupcakes by Andrea and Jessica
Music: Jeff Lee
Ceremony at New Community Baptist Church in Mountain View and reception at Ming's in Palo Alto.
It is Friday, January 4, 2008. The National Weather Service has a severe storm warning posted and is forecasting hurricane-force winds for the Bay Area. The Sierras around Lake Tahoe is forecasting blizzard conditions (extremely rare). We are going to have 3 straight days of chilly inclement weather. I just completed another scouting trip to Stanford and it doesn't look good. The wind is blowing rain everywhere, good luck finding a dry spot. Even I am worried at this point - but I did call Jeannie and joke that I was going skiing on Saturday instead of photographing her wedding because of the epic snowfall ;)
Saturday morning was clear enough for the groomsmen to gather outside while preparing for the seemingly universal Asian tradition of gift offerings, tests, bribes, and begging before being allowed inside the home of the bride's family. Several of the tests were... entertaining (one involved some ladies underwear). Shortly after entering Jeannie and Hyung served tea to Jeannie's relatives. Gifts and blessings were exchanged. After a mid morning snack and a quick change of outfits we were off to the Four Seasons - our backup bad weather indoor location - for bridal party pictures. The hotel was very accommodating!
It is starting to rain heavily again. It has rained so much up to this point that half the church's parking lot is underwater when we arrive. Jeannie is still all smiles though as they exchange vows and perform another tea ceremony. Korean this time. A unique aspect of this tea tradition is the throwing of figs and chestnuts. The more the couple the can catch, the more children they will have. Another wonderful thing is how each nationality has such different and colorful clothing.
At Ming's everyone is looking much more relaxed and we've all but forgotten about the rain. It seems the bridal party may have gotten their shoes wet because they changed to sneakers, hahaha. There was an abundance of food, a touch of emotion, lots of Karaoke, and tons of music. One thing worth mentioning was the DJ/MC - he was pretty entertaining if you prefer highly interactive DJ's.
Floral Arrangements: Nicole Ha
Cake: Napoleon Super Bakery
DJ: Macala Entertainment
