Though some­what hec­tic, every­thing worked out in the end for Pat and Jen’s wed­ding.

Preparations

I missed the wed­ding rehearsal because I had to close the books for the month at work. I did­n’t get to Pat’s place until 9:30 that night, which went late into the morn­ing as loose ends were tied up, and Jason and I stayed up until 3:00 am to fin­ish the slide show.

The girls got even less sleep I’m sure; the last I saw them they were gig­gling in bed like a high-school sleep­over.

Before leav­ing for Jason’s place to stay the night (leav­ing the house for the girls), Pat gave me God of War 2 and Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal as gifts for being in the wed­ding par­ty.

In the morn­ing we woke up at sev­en, had some muffins and cof­fee, dec­o­rat­ed the cars, got dressed, and raced to the church.

The Ceremony

Due to my miss­ing the rehearsal, I did almost every­thing wrong. I faced the wrong way, walked down the wrong aisle, got up at the wrong time, and laughed it all off.

Pat, Mr. Robot, Mr. Logic, had tears of joy in his eyes as Jen walked down the aisle. I could see the emo­tion in his face and eyes, and was simul­ta­ne­ous­ly shocked and touched. I think he got his wish, and dis­cov­ered that he loves Jen more than he real­ized.

The cer­e­mo­ny was short and sweet, in a grand church with too much echo.

Afterward, we stepped into a limo that chauf­feured us down­town for the pic­tures, on a day that you could­n’t ask for bet­ter weath­er.

Photos

Wedding par­ty pho­tos were tak­en in the Courtyard, which is a stone brick patio in the mid­dle of the down­town mar­ket. Then Pat and Jen (with Lin hold­ing her train) went off to take more pic­tures, so the rest of us walked around the mar­ket for the rest of the time.

Reception

There were a few hic­cups through the night — time issues, audio issues — but noth­ing that could­n’t be solved.

It was a good feel­ing to be an MC, mak­ing deci­sions on the fly, mak­ing sure every­thing went smooth­ly. It was almost as if every bit of my char­ac­ter, every­thing I’ve gained — from my con­fi­dence to my strength — was lead­ing up to this day to make sure every­thing went well. I felt impor­tant, like I could do some­thing for Pat after all the things he’s done for me, and that was the best part.

Dinner was a glut­to­nous Chinese nine-course meal spread out over four hours, the order as fol­lows:

1. Roast duck, roast pork
2. Deep fried crab claws
3. Shark fin soup with Chinese red vine­gar on the side
4. Lobster with gin­ger & onions
5. Salt & pep­per shrimp
6. Steamed sea bass
7. Deep fried chick­en
8. Shitake mush­rooms and baby bok choy
9. Yeung Chow fried rice and e‑fu noo­dles

Unfortunately, Jason and I were too busy to eat, but we got a taste of each dish. It worked out when we had room for dessert, which was a gorg­ing of rich sweets.

There were three games; this one had Pat look­ing for pins on Jen’s dress while he was blind­fold­ed. Even Pat’s mom sug­gest­ed putting a pin in a provoca­tive spot, and Pat told us he thought she was try­ing to get them to have kids.

There were also a few unex­pect­ed sur­pris­es, even though I was involved in the plan­ning of the wed­ding. Countertenor D. Kai Ma sang an opera for us, a capel­la, in an extreme­ly con­trolled falset­to at the end of the speech­es. Also, Pat and Jen did a med­ley for the first dance, start­ing out with a for­mal Latin dance, into robot­ics to Daft Punk’s Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, then break danc­ing.

There were a cou­ple breaks in the night where I could sit and relax before run­ning off to get the next part going.

Casino

The wed­ding favors — minia­ture dim sum steam­ers filled with can­dy — includ­ed a five dol­lar gift cer­tifi­cate to the casi­no that night, so after every­thing was squared away and the guests went their sep­a­rate ways, the wed­ding par­ty went to the casi­no.

I’ve nev­er gam­bled in my life and offered to give Pat my mon­ey, cit­ing my poor luck late­ly, but he refused to accept it. Katie and I pooled our mon­ey togeth­er to bet on the horse races, and along with the ones with decent odds, she kept bet­ting on a horse called “A Girl To Remember”. We stopped as soon as we were up, by two dol­lars no less, split the mon­ey, and shook hands. Pat proved me wrong.

It was around three when we went home, exhaust­ed from cer­e­monies, pic­tures, and a lack of sleep.

Post-wedding Party

The next day, Pat and Jen had us over for a post-wed­ding par­ty, a gath­er­ing to fin­ish off the left­overs from the rehearsal. Even more food was brought over, includ­ing fork-roast­ed bar­be­cue pork, soy sauce chick­en, and duck, and I think they end­ed up with more left­overs than they start­ed with.

Jen want­ed Pat to put on the wed­ding dress, which he agreed to do if the eight “kids” would sing on Karaoke Revolution. I don’t think he expect­ed us to call his bluff, because he ran away when the last duet fin­ished singing. When we final­ly got him in the dress, Jen and Amy had to drag him down­stairs to face the par­ents.

A Great Group of People

The wed­ding par­ty was a very unique group. I relate to Jen in find­ing it very dif­fi­cult to make friends. We’re both extreme­ly picky peo­ple, and per­haps this is why I got along with hers so well. She describes her friends as gen­er­ous, but what stands out to me is also how polite and friend­ly they are. You can judge a per­son by their friends, and it’s a per­fect reflec­tion of both Pat and Jen.