I stumbled upon this photo while combing through some of the formals last night. I’m so glad Tin captured this moment… this is us.

I’m not sure what I expected from the wedding. I think combing through articles on the Knot, Brides.com, Martha Stewart weddings, etc. had braced me for a bunch of keyed-up assholes to attend my wedding, even though my family (and Raju’s family, now OUR family) are anything but.

So I’m glad it worked out that everyone was so happy and seemed to enjoy themselves both at the rehearsal and at the wedding. And no one took themselves too seriously, including Raju and myself. We had fun, we celebrated, we partied, and everyone pitched in to make sure everything went perfectly… or at least close to perfect.

But I don’t suppose the magazines and wedding blogs make this stuff up. Every vendor we dealt with gushed about how great our family was, how much fun everyone had, including themselves.

So, I guess we’re just really lucky and really blessed. And we know some fun people.

Filed under:
Fun Times, Happy, Memories from the Wedding Celebrations, Wedding by Courtney

There are so many things during the wedding that I don’t think I will ever forget. Some have larger stories and will be expanded on. Some won’t. And the list might be updated as I remember more of those little moments.

1. Shop towels
2. The tears in his eyes when we were standing at the altar
3. The smile on his face
4. The story of 4:20
5. Being pelted with flower heads
6. My thali’s clasp coming undone during the ceremony
7. The Hindu priest asking how to pronounce Harrison
8. Our First Dance
9. Dance with Dad – all choked up
10. Talking with Shankar in the moonlight while cooling down
11. Enjoying Robert Fleury with friends
12. The colors
13. I’m the lakshmi (and I’ve finally figured out what that means)
14. I wasn’t right for a few minutes
15. The priest being kind enough to move the coconut out of my way
16. That feeling, walking up the aisle and everything else sort of fading away
17. Poor Phoenix bustling me, bustling me, bustling me, and bustling me
18. Chris’s present
19. Getting the photo frames for favors at IKEA
20. How happy everyone was
21. My uncle David talking about making Raju “disappear” during his toast (it was in jest)
22. Martin spilling the beans
23. Tiffany noting that Raju still makes me laugh
24. The smoldering Geeta
25. Being surrounded by our friends and family
26. On the way down the aisle, trying not to cry and Dad saying “Just smile”
27. the Sharp Dressed Man
28. Joey’s dance to Sexy Back
…

Filed under:
Memories from the Wedding Celebrations, Reminiscences, Wedding by Courtney

The pizza has arrived and we’re sitting on the couch, box between us, two-liter at our feet.

“Do you have any napkins?”

A blank look comes across my face. Napkins?

“Paper towels maybe?”

“Ummmm, no…” I’m not making a great impression on this first date. I need to get the man something to wipe his hands on after eating greasy Papa John’s pizza.

“Oh!” I jump off the couch and run back through the hallway, into the back room, the junk room. Ahh, yes, this will work.

“Here you go.” I plunk down a box of shop towels next to the two-liter of Coke. I’m quite proud of my find.

He pauses for a moment and just looks at me. Then he smiles and takes one and we eat.

The wedding is upon us. I arrive home, with a few moments to myself. On the kitchen counter: blue shop towels and a note, “In case you don’t have something used and something blue…”.

Tears well up in my eyes. It was by far the best wedding present he could have bought me. And it was my something blue (and used).

And by far, my favorite memory of the the wedding week.

Filed under:
Memories from the Wedding Celebrations, Reminiscences, Wedding by Courtney

A while back, during the wedding planning mania, I stumbled across the work of a couple of artists that really piqued my interest. I never got around to posting it, so I will now. Both were posted on yumsugar, one of my favorite daily reads.

The first of the two is a book, Hungry Planet: What the World Eats by Peter Menzel and Faith D’Aluisio. The premise of the book is something fairly simple but pretty astounding when all binded together. The artists photographed families around the world with the food they consume in one week. The amount of money they spent on the bounty is also noted in the captions.

While I do find the pictures fascinating, I can’t help but wonder how they picked the families. Did they decide to pick the family in Chad to prove a point of the lack of food in Chad? Is there not a rich family in Chad that would have photographed much differently? And what about the U.S. families? They seem to be middle-income. Was there not a lower-income family that they could have photographed?

Of course, this is why I need to go buy the book. Maybe they chose the most representative of the country as a whole to feature (i.e. most of Chad has a $1.23 to spend on food, and most Californians spend $159.18 per week). Or, maybe they took artistic liberties and showed families that would prove whatever point they wanted to make. I will only know once I search out this book and read it.

The other artist I discovered is like a mix of Cindy Sherman and Sandy Skoglund. Her name is Daniela Edburg, and she has some fantastical photos, mostly featuring food. In her series Drop Dead Gorgeous the subjects are consumed by the food, dying by an OD on MnMs, or being chased by a tornado of cotton candy.

It was refreshing to see this work. It’s been a while since I’ve looked at any art that has impressed me much — not sure if this is my fault or if there’s just been a lack of impressive art lately, but I’m glad this is changing for the better for me.

Filed under:
Influences, Observances, Others Art by Courtney

After all was said and done, I’m glad we blended so much of the Indian ceremony into our California celebration. The altar area was beautifully decorated and so many people got to play a part in the wedding. And, it was funny to have the Hindu priest ask us how to pronounce the name “Harrison” (I guess we’re not the only ones baffled by some names). I also got to show off my freshly pedicured feet while stepping on rose petals (seriously, some people pay good money to have their feet rest on rose petals… I think a few did at the nail spa).

Plus, I’ve decided I’m going to adopt my husband’s penchant for exaggerating the truth in order to spin a better story. Instead of “I circled the sacred fire 3 times,” I think I will say, “I performed a death-defying stunt in the middle of the ceremony. I was a daredevil, circling a flaming coconut, each time getting closer and closer, with a 10 foot train on my wedding dress!” I’ll have to let him finish the tale with some out-of-this-world meaning for making it around the fire, as I’m not nearly as good as he is yet… but I’m working on it.

Filed under:
Fun Times, Observances, Surreal, Wedding by Courtney