Thanks y’all
Wow, we did it. We’re married. The wedding was awesome. It was great to see so many of our friends and family together having a good time. It was pretty funny too, my scheduling was perfect.
At a quarter to one Alex started rushing me to leave the hotel lobby because the ceremony was supposed to start soon. I told him to relax cause I knew that it wouldn’t start at 1pm like it was supposed to. I told our wedding coordinator when we set the time-line for the wedding- we should set the start time for 1pm so that we’re actually done with the 15 minute ceremony by 2pm. That’s just the way it goes I guess. So after Alex rushed me a little more one of the photographers said the bride wasn’t even dressed yet, so I got to say told ya so.
We eventually made our way over to the ceremony site and we were off to the side on a walkway just waiting and people came over to greet us. It was kind of funny because I wasn’t really nervous or anything and I was really relaxed. But then my grandmother came up to me and she was a little emotional and she mentioned that she loved the programs and how we mentioned my grandfather in the memorial section of it. Now she got me all emotional! It was actually hard not to cry at all, but I couldn’t let all my makeup run. I love my Gramma and Grampa, I wish my Grampa could have been there with us. Sophia and I setup a small table with pictures of my maternal grandfather, my paternal grandparents, and a picture of Sophia’s dad. While we waited, our DJ, who is also an excellent pianist, was playing live on his keyboard. I was impressed because we didn’t really discuss any other music besides the four songs he would be playing live during the ceremony, so it was nice to hear the other music he played while everyone was getting seated and waiting for the ceremony to begin.
Okay, it’s 1:40ish, let’s go wait in line to start the 1pm ceremony. So we lined up… …and then we walked out to the Godfather Theme. Then the bridesmaids walked out to Jordin Sparks’ No Air and the maids of honor escorted my Gramma, the flowergirl, arm in arm. Then finally, to Ne-Yo’s Because of You Sophia’s little brother Joey escorted Sophia and gave her away to me.
The Justice of the Peace performed the ceremony very nicely, it was a beautiful rose ceremony. After making out with my bride we posed for a couple quick photos and then ran away with the bridal party to take some pictures.
One thing that was awesome about The Warren was taking our formal pictures. While all of our guests enjoyed cocktail hour, we were off taking photos with the bridal party. My wife and I were driven around the beautiful property on a golf cart, with a second golf cart following us with drinks and Hors D’Oeuvres. Let me tell you, there’s nothing like having the beer follow you.
After an interesting formal photo session we went to the reception hall where DJ Russ announced us all and some of our distinguished guests. Then Sophia and I had our first dance. It felt to me like it went really well, and we got a lot of good compliments on it, so I think it worked out pretty well. Sophia was very nervous about our first dance, so we practiced before the wedding, but not enough to make her less nervous 
Then the Best Men made their toast. Which was a little funny because it started with the more drunk of the two. They did a good job though. I think it would have been funny if we made the Maids of Honor (or Maid of Honors depending on your choice of term pluralization) make a toast also, as they aren’t public speakers either. I’m pretty sure they were already drunk, but I don’t think they were drunk enough to make that as hysterical as it could be.
The day before the wedding I drove round-trip to New York for my kung fu class. It was a lot of fun as usual, but my kung fu brother Shifu Eli said something that turned out to be very true. Eli had recently been married so he told me to cherish every moment of the day with my bride because the day would pass in the blink of an eye, and the next day it would seem like it was already a month ago.
He was right. The day flew by and it was impossible to do everything I wanted to. Sophia and I were dragged in every direction for pictures, for dancing, socializing, and if we had the chance, to actually eat some food. And let me tell you, the food was worth being a little anti-social to eat. My plate had both the steak and salmon, and they were both delicious! After installing food and beer in me belly, I was back on the dance floor, actually dancing (instead of doing my gangsta head-bob). The only time I felt kind of silly dancing was right after Shijiao was dancing with my bride. Shijiao can dance ridiculously well, and I’m mediocre at best, so following him wasn’t easy.
Yet another example of the crazy pace of the day, I broke away for a minute to go hang out with Shijiao while he enjoyed a cigar. I sat down, and bam, two people came over looking for me and I had to run back inside for the garter toss. So I had a couple friends I was trying to aim at over my should but, unfortunately for my evil scheming, my cousin has crazy reflexes. Seth, besides being almost as tall as me played center on his basketball team and tons of other sports type stuff. So when that garter came within a few feet of Seth’s reach, he grabbed it without even realizing what happened. All of a sudden the garter was in his hand. Oh well, there goes my plotting.
More dancing, more drinking, more fun. More getting tired and worn out. Too much excitement! There should be a 20 minute nap time where the hosts bring out cots for people to nap. Or not, whatever. So when the party was finally over I went back to my hotel room and jumped into bed to relax a few minutes, waiting for the bride. …And waiting. And waiting. Sophia was running back and forth with her bridesmaids from the bridal room to their other hotel room. Then she had to pack her stuff up to bring it to our room. So I got bored and went to hang out with my friends in their rooms. I grabbed my friend Wayne, who taught me to play guitar, he grabbed his guitar and we went across the hall to the room my other friends were hanging out in.
Mike, George, Katlynn, Mai, Jason, Cindy, Lex Luthor, were hanging out in their drunken silliness, which got even sillier when Wayne started playing his acoustic guitar and everyone tried singing along. It was mostly funny because, as you would expect, people mostly knew part of the choruses to any song, but as soon as the verse started people either hummed or got quiet. Eventually Sophia made it over to the room so I left with her and everybody else kept hanging out in their drunken sing-a-long. I was told at one point, to Mike’s chagrin, they grabbed his laptop to look up lyrics online, and that didn’t help too much anyway. Hilarious.
We spent the next day relaxing at the hotel started off by a delicious buffet breakfast. Then we said our buh-byes to family and friends that had to go home. That night I took Sophia out on our first date as a married couple to see The Dark Knight in Imax (her first time going to Imax). It was fun. Some people think once you’re married you don’t need to do things like going on dates or taking time out to just relax with your better half. I can’t think of anything else that I would rather do.
