I've finally been able to upload all my polaroids from my crazy Kaua'i vacation that ended in my very own, and very unforeseen, wedding. I've told the story of our vacation/wedding so many times, and yet not enough! There are still some of my friends who I haven't had the chance to tell yet. However, I've really felt the need to write a blog about it.... and today's my day.
Let's see.... let me break it down as basically as I can (this could be madly boring for some, and amusing for those of you who are actually in the midst of planning your own wedding).
DAY 1:
Mike and I wake up early, and go on the most amazing helicopter ride we've ever been on. Immediately after, we started looking at houses to rent, for the wedding we were planning for September of 2011.
DAY 2:
We wake up early and go on a beautiful hike to the Hanakapi'ai Falls. 4 miles in, where the falls are, is one of the most beautiful places I'd ever been. Afterwards, we tried food from a possible caterer.
DAY 3:
We see more houses and a wedding cottage that sits on a bluff, that gave us the chills. Visit a possible florist for the wedding in 2011. Then something makes us pull over to the side of the road, and say, "I don't give a crap about any of this stuff. I just want to be married to you,". We'd been engaged for a year and a half already, and it felt a little silly to have to wait another year and a half to get married just because of scheduling. Lame, right? So now we're actually contemplating this crazy new decision!
DAY 4:
We are excited about this new idea, yet tortured by it. We can't stop thinking about it. Weighing the pros and cons, going back and forth, never on the same page about it. When he wanted to do it now, I wasn't ready to make the leap yet. Then when I was ready, he wasn't all of a sudden. In the meantime, we are seeing more houses, and watching the Celtics game at a hotel pool bar. We have another road side pow wow at dusk, and finally we both come to the same decision: Let's do it now. Let's have our next door neighbor in L.A. marry us. Let's invite our nearest and dearest friends who we know might be crazy enough to fly down at a day's notice. :-O
DAY 5:
We completely forget that we have scheduled a 4 hour horse-back ride this morning and it's too late to cancel! We do a ton of trotting and cantering and some galloping on a muddy trail with steep drops to our right and left, and almost die a couple times. In the end it was the perfect beginning to our wedding planning! It was exhilarating! Afterwards, we immediately drove to the marriage license agent, and caught him in the nick of time before he left his office and all the offices closed up for Memorial Weekend. Now we are booking friend's flights, and the houses we all stay in. Luck was on our side, because somehow, on a major holiday weekend, the two houses we wanted, were available (one of which was the
wedding cottage on the bluff that gave us chills, and as a result, the spot where we got married). I order flowers from the the one florist I met.
DAY 6:
Mike buys a linen suit at Macy's. I can't find anything that looks sort of like a wedding dress, but isn't cheesy. We pick up our neighbor from the airport. Stop off for some lunch and happen to find a tall parasol/umbrella with hearts and bells hanging off of it. The perfect thing for us to get married under! We drop our neighbor off at house 1, and wait as more friends come in. My neighbor's wife, who couldn't come with, broke into our house to get me a proper dress (that I bought from Top Shop!) and handed it off to one of my girlfriend's who was flying out the next day. My girlfriend and I found a bunch of pretty candles and lights for the table and pool. Everything's starting to come together!!!
DAY 7:
I forgot about a wedding cake! I call the best place I could find, and luckily she had a cancellation and could make us a proper 2-tier wedding cake for tomorrow (this is the day before the wedding!). We buy wedding rings at Kay Jewelers for really cheap, but the bands are sort of perfect! More friends fly in. They brought my dress, and a video camera that had no battery! And the guy from this
amazing rental car company lent us his own personal one!!! We have a "rehearsal dinner" and drinks afterwards where one of my girlfriends dressed me up in a tiara-veil, a "bride" t-shirt, a "bachelorette" sash, and a huge plastic ring that glowed all different colors. (the funny thing is, I had bought my first Bridal magazine for the airplane ride to Kaua'i, and they of course had a month-by-month checklist. Here we were checking it all off from hour to hour!)
DAY 8:
WEDDING DAY. The morning begins with a rainbow. And Mike and all the boys have ordered the girls massages. :) The cake arrives. The flowers arrive. My bouquet is not what I wanted though! Ahh!!! My friends run to the market and grab more flowers, and I get to rearrange my own bouquet, which is what I always wanted to do anyway! The girls dress me up and do my hair. We all have gardenias in our hair. We drive over to the wedding site, which is a bluff that overlooks the ocean and the mountains. The boys have set up the parasol and a circle of bougainvillea petals in which we all stand, perfectly. And I start the long walk to my friends, and my soon-to-be-Husband.
After the wedding, a friend of ours made the most delicious hors d'oeuvres and dinner!!! We had lots of champagne, lots of wine, lots of food, lots of cake, and lots of love.
I am so lucky to have such a beautiful family of friends. And now I am a married woman! And the wedding is done!!! No more intense wedding website emails, no more waiting, no more stressing over guest lists. It's done! Some people say marriage isn't a big deal, it's just a piece of paper. But I have to say, for myself, and for Mike, as soon as we were "Man & Wife" we both felt an immediate, and wonderful change. It's subtle, and sort of hard to explain...but it's just the best feeling.
And so, for now and forever, I wish you all love love love
p. ahn
I stopped by one of my favorite flower shops and just couldn't resist one of their many beautiful dahlia plants. From what I can tell, they require a little maintenance. So this is my fun new project #1! I've named my plant "Penelope".
My broken Totoro cup
A very proud mom at the Gay Pride Parade
Sparkly car in the Gay Pride Parade
And sparklers
Watched the Dodgers lose horribly, but got a free fleece blanket!
Went for a hike with my friend Emi.
Another view from the Griffith Observatory.
Tagged along to a friend of a friend's studio and met their really cool dragon lizard.
Stood on a rooftop and looked down on many other empty rooftops.
Bought some peonies!!! They're one of my favorite flowers. 
Visited my friend Henry Diltz, who is a legendary photographer 
Went to see Patrick Park & Seawolf play at the Gene Autry Museum.