Huge thanks to Nick and Ann Meriage at Creative Digital Masters for doing all our videoing and for putting together these great highlights.
Thank you to all our friends and family who labored with joy and delight, in some cases weeks prior to the ceremony, to create such a simple, sacred and beautiful day.
Praise God for the glorious day. The weather was amazing. The sunlight, gentle breeze, falling leaves and fragrant rose garden made it all the more magical. A huge thanks must go out to all our readers and musicians for their part in the day. And to all our guests, we greatly appreciate the reverence you showed in creating such a tranquil and spiritual space.
Everyone was so colorful. Everyone was so joyful. Everyone was so happy, accepting and respectful.
This was very unexpected. We hadn't planned an exit strategy. Thank you to all who sent us off with cheer and great joy. And thank you to our dear friends and family who stayed behind to clean up and pack up while we flew off to our honeymoon.
A huge thanks to Vafa and Aleah Akhtar-Khavari for being our photography team. We love all the photos.
Adding a fish to the centerpiece was one of the early ideas during our wedding planning. While striking and unique, the idea was discarded due to a lack of practicality; what would we do with the fish afterward? especially since we would be away for 2 weeks on our honeymoon. However, I kept bringing up the idea to Kendra, half jokingly, but imagining the excitement of having a fish in the wedding centerpiece.
The day of the wedding, I woke up early to help with on site setup. One of my responsibilities was to setup the centerpiece. I brought the bowl, the sunflower, two large bottles of water, the cast iron table, and the rings. After setting it up I moved on to other tasks. When the ceremony began, and Kendra and I took our seats, Kendra turned to me and asked "do you notice anything?"; directing my gaze toward the centerpiece. I stare intently at it, searching for something I must have forgotten. But what I notice are ripples in the water and a small, beautiful and shinny fish swimming beneath the flower. Unbenounced to me, Kendra had, out of her love for me, asked her dad and sister to purchase the fish the night before. They had snuck it into the bowl during all the setup and guest arrivals. Thank you Dian and Alex :) And a special thanks to Alex for taking care of Chester while we were on our honeymoon.
Chester has been living with us since his guardianship days and we love him very much. One day, however, we had a big scare. We had asked our property management office to take care of a pest problem. When we returned home in the evening, we saw the notice on the counter explaining that they had sprayed the house and were thankful for they expediency. When we went to feed Chester, however, he wasn't moving! Kendra was distraught and wasn't ready to say good by to the fish that had served us so well. After consoling her, I went to dispose of the carcase only to find that Chester was alive and well. Kendra did some quick researching and found that his slow or still movement was a sign of cold water temperature and most likely not due to poisoning.
Chester is a very friendly fish. When you walk into the room he will swim over to your side of the bowl. He loves the sun and loves to eat his little fish pellets. Our schedule over the past couple months has been rather complex - spanning two homes (Danville and Alexandria) and an offset work week. Sufficet to say, it has been difficult to ensure a regular feeding regiment for Chester. On one of our transition days, however, we totally forgot to account for Chester. We had driven up to Alexandria from Danville for what was supposed to be one night trip. However, plans changed and after 3 days in Alexandria we realized that Chester was home alone in Danville. We promptly called our landlord and a neighbor to see if either one could get in our apartment to feed Chester. Sadly, they had only one of the 2 keys needed to enter our home. It took us a half a day, but we eventually made peace with the fact that we may have accidentally sealed Chester's fate. To our surprise, when we returned a full week after we had left, Chester was alive. We nursed him back to full health and now he basks in the sunshine, his scales shimmering and his swimming brisk.
Our flight departed at 5pm the day of our wedding. We flew from Washington DC to Rome, Italy. It was a pleasant flight and we were able to have some brief periods of shut-eye. After making it through customs and collecting our luggage, we navigated ourselves to the rental car desk and picked up our little chariot; a small Lancia Ypsilon. And boy was it fun to drive in Italy!
The first 3 days of our honeymoon were spent in a marble apartment within site of the Vatican. This was my fist time in Italy, but Kendra has been all over the boot several times. She even speaks fluent Italian. We opted for a relaxed honeymoon, sleeping and lounging during the days, while making expeditions at night to sample the local fair and drive by historic sites. Driving the little go-kart Lancia Ypsilon through the old cobble streets of Rome at night was one of the highlights of the trip for sure.
After taking in the sites at Rome we made our way into Tuscany for the remainder of our sojourn. Luca, a beautiful medium sized town famous for its bell towers (one even has trees growing on top), became our base camp. We stayed at a quaint bed and breakfast owned by a wonderful couple and an old friend of Kendra's. From the small home in the countryside we made day trips all across Tuscany, sampling food, taking in gorgeous vistas and walking through medieval and renaissance history.
