Pete & Heather's Wedding

November 29, 2009 / Tags: Bailey, Becky, Brad, Carlsbad, César, Erica, Heather, Jon, Kathy, Pannikin, Pete, Pi'i, Rachael, Wedding Photography, Weddings

Despite being Pete's Best Man at his wedding, with Kathy's help I was able to play unofficial photographer, too.

The day before the wedding, we had the rehearsal. Pi'i was supposed to blow the conch shell, but because it was cold, it came out sounding like someone who can't play the trombone. Everyone laughed (except Becky, apparently).

After the rehearsal was the rehearsal dinner. Our table got kind of... erm... loud. Let's just say that the red wine was really good. And I don't normally drink wine.

On the morning of big day, there was still a lot of stuff to do. But first things first — Pete needed coffee, so we went to Pannikin and got breakfast.

We also bought a few extra muffins for later. Then we went home, finished preparing things for the ceremony, and headed off to the wedding site. We didn't want to risk Pete seeing Heather before the ceremony, so we put a bag over his head ("It's for your own good, Pete") while he called to confirm that the coast was clear (i.e., Heather was safely in the bride's dressing room).

Meanwhile, Kathy had been following the girls around and got some nice getting-ready pictures of Heather.

While getting dressed myself, I took a couple pictures too. We convinced Pete to let us wear colorful socks instead of boring brown ones that would match our tuxes. And Pete gave us monogrammed cufflinks made out of old typewriter keys!

Right before leaving the dressing rooms, Pete and Heather reached out and held hands. Even though it may not look like it in the picture, they weren't able to see each other when they did this.

One last picture and we're off!

We didn't take too many pictures during the ceremony — actually, I didn't take any, since I was in the ceremony — Kathy took these. I really like this one of Brad and Pi'i coming in:

And this one of the crowd when Heather made her entrance:

After the ceremony, the groomsmen had to get our cameras for a photo. Brad, César and I are all into photography, so we had our picture taken with Heather as if we were photographing her. How meta. (The picture of us was taken on the photograper's camera, so it's not on this site.) While I had my camera anyway, I took a few photos.

Remember those extra muffins we bought at Pannikin? They came in handy; Heather was starving! (And the couple doesn't get to eat at dinner anyway, right?)

Kathy took some photos of the tables at the reception before I got there. They were really nicely decorated.

Here's the newlyweds acting oh-so-mature at dinner.

The rest of the evening consisted of the customary cake cutting, cake eating (mmm... red velvet cake...), photos, dancing, car decorating, and Pete carrying Heather over the threshold.

Needless to say, I was exhausted after the weekend marathon, but it was a lot of fun.

August Birthdays

August 29, 2009 / Tags: Amanda, Bailey, Beer, Birthday, Brad, Bryan, César, Cuban Bistro, Food, Heather, Jon, Kathy, Michael, Moles la Tía, Pete

For my birthday, Kathy arranged for a bunch of us to have dinner at Cuban Bistro in Alhambra. At first, I was thinking: Alhambra isn't really known for lively nightlife, is it? I hadn't been there in years, but I was pleasantly surprised. And the food was really good -- we need to go back soon.

They're apparently known for their mojitos, so of course we had to try them. ;-)

For Pete's birthday, we went to the Stone Brewery Beer Festival. And bonus -- Brad was in town!

Despite beer not really being my thing, I had a great time. Even Kathy had fun, and she really doesn't like beer! ;-)

For Bailey's birthday, Ambassador César took Bailey, his friend Isako, Kathy, and me to his favorite Mole restaurant in LA, Moles la Tía. And if César likes the food, it would be an exercise in redundancy for me to try and describe how good it was.

Jon's Birthday

Pete's Birthday

Bailey's Birthday