Let Wedding Season Begin!

Back on June 6, Nick and I drove up to Los Angeles for the day to attend my (former) classmate and friend Minh-Ha's wedding. The wedding was all the way up near Glendale, which is toward the North side of LA, and as anyone who's ever dealt with weekend LA traffic can tell you, it's a drive that could take as little as 2 hours or as much as 4. The ceremony was at 4:30, so we decided to play it safe and leave the house around noon. I brought my dress, shoes, etc with us (as I didn't want to sit in the car for 4 hours and get all wrinkly) and I figured I would just find a place to change once we arrived.

In a once-in-a-lifetime SoCal driving experience, we encountered NO traffic. As in, none. Without needing to use the carpool lanes. And we only had to "slow" to below 65 ONCE. Most of the time we were cruising at 80. We took I-5 (see, I've lived here almost 7 years and although I occasionally slip and say "the 5" I still refuse to refer to it that way in writing. Take THAT, Southern California!) the entire way, which makes the lack of traffic all the more amazing. About 20 minutes out from the ceremony and reception site, we realized that we were going to be 2 1/2 hours early. Gulp.

The wedding was at the Los Angeles River Center and Gardens, which is located in a very interesting area of the city, near Elysian Park and Dodger Stadium and close to the central commercial railway hub. This area was one of the first really planned and developed areas of LA and has several roads and tunnels that cut through the hillsides. The tunnels still have beautiful art deco touches in the concretework, though it's hard to look past all of the grafitti these days.

(here's an example, not taken by me. Click on the picture to go to the original picture-taker's flickr stream):

We decided to get eyes-on the place before driving around for a little while. Sure enough, the parking lot at the venue was totally empty! So we explored the area: there are some beautiful parks along the teeeeeeny bit of river that hosted several family picnics and get-togethers. There were also more taco trucks than I could count! Several of them had lines down the block which is always a great indicator of delicious food. I was awfully tempted, but I didn't want to have greasy-tummy before the wedding. After driving around for an hour or so, we stopped at a McDonald's so I could change into my dress, and then we headed back to the River Center, still painfully early. Thankfully, we spotted my coworker Nghia and his family pulling in right behind us! Turns out, they had also left San Diego ridiculously early and had also driven around the neighborhood for the previous hour. (this became a recurring theme with all of the San Diego-based guests: everyone left SD around noon and then spent several hours driving around, hitting the outlet mall 30 minutes South of the venue, or stopping for a leisurely lunch.) Nghia, his wife and daughter, Nick, and I then spent a good hour and a half wandering around the River Center while staff was running around getting everything set up. At least it gave me a chance to get some people-free pictures!

As we walked in the front gates, there was a small courtyard and steps down to the main gardens. You can see a fountain and some tables and patio heaters in the main space:

There was also a beautiful fountain in this small courtyard that perfectly reflected the architectural style of the whole place, early California mission revival-style.

Inside the main garden, looking back at the courtyard, a large fountain was center-stage. You can see many tables set up around the fountain - thankfully, Minh-Ha put us at the table closest to the bar and kept my clutzy arse farthest from the fountain!

Yeah, see, not such a good idea to have me sitting this close to wet and slippery tile:

After wandering for a bit, we located the courtyard in which the ceremony was to be held. It was all set up for the wedding, and we truly had our run of the place for a good hour before other guests started trickling in!

The "altar" was designated by a small table featuring a floral arrangement and kumquats. I'm guessing the kumquats have some sort of special meaning for the Vietnamese culture?

The bouquets along the rows of chairs were too photogenic to resist:

After a little while, Nick got a bit antsy and found a stairwell that reached the balcony area overlooking the ceremony grounds. This was also the location of the bridal suite: thankfully, Minh-Ha wasn't in there yet. (good one, honey)

I didn't see that stairwell at first, but once Nick pointed it out to me, I noticed that a huge bougainvillea bush was attempting to push on over and beautify an otherwise austere stairwell.

Just around the time the ceremony was to start, commercial train rush hour must have commenced, because trains started passing every 5-10 minutes. We joked with couples sitting near us that the delay in starting the ceremony must be by design and the wedding coordinator was just waiting for a trainless window. Sure enough, no trains passed by during the ceremony!

I caught this precious look on Minh-Ha's face just as she rounded the corner, with the coordinator still fixing her train!

Jon walked down the aisle to meet his bride once she got close to the altar.

Exchanging the rings:

After exchanging rings, Jon, in a spontaneous and very sweet gesture, took her ringed hand and kissed it, sending all of us ladies in the crowd into tears. I had JUST taken the camera away from my eye when it happened, but here's an image taken half a second afterward:

And then, of course, a kiss to seal the vows:

This might be my favorite shot of the day, right as they started walking down the aisle together. Look how happy they are!

It had threatened to rain all day but thankfully the clouds held it back. Here you can see the dark sky over the venue:

Once it was dark, the patio heaters were fired up, the lights in the trees started twinkling, and the River Center was transformed into a very magical place for an evening wedding.

We had a great time at the wedding. It's so wonderful to see the people you care for truly happy, and Minh-Ha and Jon were on cloud nine that day.