Wedding Report
I know that a lot of you were there, but a few of you weren't and I wanted
to write this up for my journal. Besides, it's always great to see one's
name in print :)
We had a great trip to DC last weekend. In addition to the stated purpose
of attending Sumati's wedding (which was wonderful and fascinating), we also
managed to have dinner with Sonja & John and wore our feet out seeing many
of the major sites (the Capitol; the Jefferson, FDR, Lincoln, Korean War,
and Vietnam War memorials (as well as the Washington Monument from a
distance); the Natural History Museum; the National Air and Space Museum;
the Arts & Industry building; the Smithsonian Castle; the Renwick Gallery;
the National Gallery's sculpture garden; the exhibit on the 300th Birthday
of the piano; and Russian hockey players having a pickup game in front of
the White House). We had good dinners in Bethesda and Baltimore and saw the
Inner Harbor there.
Our trip back was fairly horrific and involved an unscheduled night at the
O'Hare Hilton in Chicago, but we did make it back on Monday and had lunch
and dinner with my folks, who had arrived the night before and spent a
couple of nights at the Rose Garden Inn before heading up to Fort Bragg and
Ukiah for the middle of the week. On Tuesday, I drove into the city and
picked up presents that had been shipped to Laurel and then got Rhonda from
her cousin's SoMA apartment. We did a couple of errands and she did a load
of laundry and helped me with wedding-related tasks. We had a lovely dinner
at the Townhouse Grill and then I took her back into the city.
On Wednesday, we had a wonderful dinner at Kokkari with John & Mike and then
picked up Rhonda again and brought her to use the room at the Rose Garden
Inn we had to pay for, since one of the people we'd made reservations for
had changed his travel plans and we failed to cancel before their 48
hr. cancellation policy kicked in. That night I stayed up until 4:30am
doing "just one more thing," so waking up on Thursday morning was pretty
tough.
Rhonda and Susan both arrived around 9:30am and we went over to the This is
It salon where we all had manicures and pedicures. Susan went fairly
conservative, with pink for both sets of nails. Rhonda got a French
manicure on her fingernails and a lovely purple on her toes. My nails are
too short at the moment for a French manicure, so I went with clear there
(J. hates colored nails) and blue on my toes for "something blue." Susan
acftually had to run down the street to buy the blue polish, bless her
heart.
I dropped off my bridesmaids at the house and got sandwiches for all of us.
After lunch, Jason's folks showed up and we all ran around trying to get
organized and finally got Trish, Steve, Jason and Rhonda out the door around
3:30pm. Susan and Daniel went for a walk and I took a nap.
They came back shortly after I woke up and Susan and I went up to C&C
Cleaners, whom I had called on Monday to remind them that the wedding dress
they'd been storing for me over the last month needed to be pressed and
ready to go on Thursday. I strolled up to the counter and asked for my
dress and the guy there said "Can you pick it up tomorrow?" I don't really
remember the next few minutes, but Susan tells me that what I said was "No.
I'm leaving today, I have to have my dress. If it's not ready now, then get
to work." He said he could have it ready in an hour, so we went back to the
house and started getting stuff in Susan & Daniel's rental car. steve & Tom
arrived in the minivan and we loaded that. Susan & Daniel headed out and
the rest of us followed, after a brief stop to pick up the dress, which was
done and looked beautiful.
We made it up to the Sonoma County Hilton just after eight and unloaded our
stuff. Susan & Daniel pulled up just as we were about to leave for dinner
(I never did hear what made them so late), so the nine of us (Steve & Trish,
Jason & me, Rhonda, Susan & Daniel, steve & Tom) went to Mistral. That was
lovely...I had the seared scallops with chantrelles and the chicken stuffed
with ham and goatmilk cheddar in a mustard-tarragon sauce. Jason split the
goat cheese salad with his mother, but then realized that he had to leave
immediately in order to meet Todd & Sandy's flight, so didn't get to eat his
entree. We finished our meal and had them pack up his grilled lamb and
headed back to the hotel. Jason having taken Steve & Trish's Explorer, Tom
graciously made two trips to ferry us all.
There were several messages on our voicemail when we got back and Jason was
getting told at first that Todd & Sandy wouldn't arrive until about 2am, but
it turned out they did arrive at midnight, so everything worked out well. I
hung out with steve & Tom for a little while, then went to sleep. Jason got
back to the room around two and ate his lamb--he said it was the best thing
he'd ever eaten with his fingers.
On Friday I left Jason sleeping and went up to the Hilton's restaurant to
meet Sumati and Sunil. We enjoyed their breakfast buffet and then Sunil
took off and Sumati and I went over all the wedding details. That done, we
all piled into cars and went up to Paradise Ridge for the rehearsal. The
officiant was late, but we managed to get through it and he jumped in when
he arrived. It was the usual zoo of people and confusion, a good omen for
the next day :) We all went to Gary Chu's for lunch, hosted by Trish. There
was a ton of food and everyone seemed reasonably happy with it.
After lunch we went back to the hotel, briefly, then steve & I went to the
tux place to pick up his tux and ran into the groom's party there, picking
up theirs. They all looked amazingly dapper. Tux in hand, steve & I headed
down to Corte Madera to pick up the food for the Open Suite that night from
A.G. Ferrari's store in the mall there. We made it back, through very heavy
traffic, by 6:30pm and got everything set up, having only really demolished
one of the ten trays of food on the journey. It was still yummy, though. I
changed into my little black dress and the party began. It was a very good
party and lots of people came by. I put out all my photo albums and various
people looked through them. We started encouraging people to leave around
ten and by eleven or so, they were gone. Jason's groomsmen dragged him away
with the stated intention of throwing him in the ocean. I took a shower and
spent a little time collecting myself and then called steve & Tom and the
folks in their room to come up for Trivial Pursuit. So steve, Tom,
Lindasusan, Emily, Elana and I played until around 2:15am. Elana was making
a huge impression on the otheres...everyone thought she was just the coolest
thing (which she is).
On Saturday I woke up at eight and decided to see how my car was doing for
gas (since it had been driven to the airport and back at least once since
I'd last driven it). It was far enough down that I thought it made sense to
fill it up, so I did that and got a free car wash with it. Back at the
hotel, I picked up a to-go box of breakfast at the buffet, running into
Rhonda on the way, and took it and her back to the suite. I ate and then
the massage person arrived and Rhonda got her set up in her room and I had
my massage. That was lovely and very relaxing. After a quick shower to
rinse off, I came back to the suite, where Katie--the JS Makeup person--had
just arrived. She set up and got to work on my face and hair and then did
Susan and Rhonda. I think she did a very good job on all of us. She
finished with us around 1:30pm and we got all ready to go and snacked on
some nuts & crackers. Then I made everyone else leave me alone and Sumati
and I went over the details again. She left and I spent about half an hour
alone, just getting my head straight and my heart calm and then ran out to
the van when they called to say the coast was clear.
We arrived at the winery exactly at three and things were already in
motion. The tables were getting set and the flowers were mostly up. I
changed and Mom affixed the stephanotis blossoms in my hair. She said I
looked good. She looked great, in her blue wedding suit. Once we were all
changed and looking pretty spiffy, steve took me downstairs (through the
tasting room set up in the barrel room, where everyone cheered me on) and
set me up on the walkway by the pillars. Deb Laver, the photographer, set
up at the other end, and then they brought Jason down for the "First Look"
moment. That was the first time he'd seen me all day and the first time
he'd seen the dress at all. He seemed very impressed and kissed me and told
me I was beautiful and Deb took a few pictures of us, very inobtrusively.
That was a very nice moment.
After a few formal shots there, we went upstairs under the oak tree in front
of the winery and did all of the principal photography. That was a zoo,
with so many different people needed and seeming to disappear if we weren't
looking at them. Guests began to arrive and to join in the picture-taking
frenzy. Once we were done with that, I went inside and Jason went out on
the deck. Various people came and found me to talk to me--I remember Eric
Rescorla (looking fab in a tux), Anca and Sonja, in particular.
We got started late--people had to park quite far down the winery road and
hike up the hill. But finally we were good to go and the ceremony began.
We could hear the Trio quite clearly and they sounded wonderful. During
their song ("Songbird" by Christine McVie of Fleetwood Mac), Jason's cousins
Brianne and Brenna scattered rose petals down the aisle that had come from
our mothers' gardens. The trumpeter was a little shaky at first, but he
warmed up as he played and the sound of the trumpet pealing out over the
valley was just what I had imagined. Daddy made it down the steps with no
problem and he looked amazing in his tux. It was so wonderful to process
toward the front with all these people I love turned to look at me, smiling
and nodding and making eye contact.
The ceremony went very well. The only glitches I'm aware of were that steve
was so distracted, he was a little slow on getting Jason's ring into my hand
and the officiant introduced us as "Elizabeth and John Merrill." Otherwise,
it was beautiful. Barbara, Scott and Tom did wonderful readings and the
hymn-singing was excellent.
As we came back down the aisle, everyone pelted us with the flower petals
that Brianne and Brenna had passed out. I hadn't thought about the fact that
my gown was relatively low cut, so many of the petals ended up in my dress.
We greeted everyone in a receiving line while folks ate the hors d'oeuvres
(which I hear were quite good) and got drinks and stayed in the shade.
Having started late, by the time we'd got done with the line, it was time to
go into dinner. I made them wait while steve and I ran to the bathroom and
bustled my dress. Then we took a group picture and proceeded into the
Vineyard Room for dinner.
Glen was our MC and did a spectacular job and many people gave toasts and
told stories. The food was very good--we actually got to eat, which was a
surprise. After a while the band that had played during the cocktail hour
(Jason's Uncle Johhny and his two bandmates) set up on the deck and played
for a bit. At ten we closed up and started chasing everyone out. The
clean-up seemed to go pretty easily and we got a ride back to the hotel with
steve & Tom in the van. steve helped me out of the dress and I brushed out
my hair and took a shower and then I called Jason and he came over from
Dan's room across the hall and we spent some time together and then opened
presents until about 1am.
On Sunday we packed up and went to church at the First Congregational Church
of Santa Rosa with my parents and Beckie. Back at the hotel we enjoyed
their brunch buffet with a revolving set of people that ended up being the
church-goers, plus Anne & George and Trish & Steve. We went back up to the
suite, changed, finished packing, loaded up our car and the minivan, said
goodbye to the last few folks and headed back to Berkeley. Morgan was at
our apartment when we got there and steve & Tom showed up shortly thereafter
with Linda & Emily. We unloaded the various cars and then Steve, Ruth,
Brenna and my parents all showed up in stages. Jason did the paperwork with
Brenna and showed her how to deal with his car. She and Ruth and Morgan
took off in it for Boise, my parents went off to the Rose Garden Inn for the
evening and Steve and Jason went to Jack in the Box for food. Dan came by
and he, Steve and Jason loaded his couch into their trailer and the three of
them took it down to his office. Jason got back and we watched a little bit
of Olympic coverage and wrote thank you notes and went to bed.
On Monday we went over to the Rose Garden Inn to say goodbye to Billie
(Jason's grandmother) and then I went over to Millbrae and picked Beckie up
from the hotel where she'd stayed with our cousin Julie the night before.
Beckie and I went by my office to pick up presents that had arrived and then
had a lovely lunch together at Kokkari. We drove across the bay and into
Tilden Regional Park and then through a couple of the nicer neighborhoods
of Berkeley and Oakland, stretching out our time in the air conditioned car,
since it was around 100 outside. We got back to our apartment around three,
just as Steve & Trish were leaving. They took off and Beckie hung out while
I wrote thank you notes. Jason went over to Wolf to pick up the prints from
the disposable cameras we'd had around the wedding and we went up to
Tachibana and had dinner and looked at pictures. We dropped Jason back at
home and I took B. to the airport for her 9pm flight home. I came home and
we bought airline tickets for our travels to the East Coast and tried to
watch Olympics, but our cable got messed up by the guy installing the
upstairs folks' new phone service, so we had to give up.
Today I took Jason to the airport for his 2pm flight to NC for a RedHat
company meeting. I came back to the house to meet Barbara and we walked up
to Elmwood for lunch at Ferrari, followed by dessert at the coffee shop down
the block. We came home and Barbara looked at our pictures and we hung out
and eventually headed into the city together. We met up with Phi & Rachel
and her friend, Laura, at the JCC for a talk/reading by Isabel Allende.
That was excellent. Then we tried to go to Ti Couz to meet up with Dave &
Paulo, but it was closed, so we ended up having dinner at Picarro, the tapas
place next door. We went back to the Walter St. house, where Phi & Rachel
were staying, to look at pictures and got into pretty heavy conversation.
Around 1am Barbara and I left there and I dropped her at the place where
she's staying in Noe Valley and then came home.
And here I am and we're married now and it's late and I'm headed to bed. I
really enjoyed seeing all of you who were able to make it and hope that you
will write up your experiences of the wedding--it would be great to have
different perspectives and be reminded of things I missed or wasn't around
to see.