Chris and Bettina's Wedding
Since BEJ and Wenxian got married, it looks like this group of friends is getting married at very quick pace. Erik and Mary technically lead things off a year or so before, and while Bej's actual, formal wedding was almost a year before his wedding in China... the gap between Bej's "formal" wedding and then Mike and Emily's wedding was pretty quick. The time to Chris and Bettina's wedding was even more quick.
Crazy. *grins* But it seems to work for them!
I'm not sure how many people made it of the 444 guests originally invited, but Chris and Bettina had a lot of guests. The Church of the Chimes in Sherman Oaks was large enough to fit everyone-- but it was definitely full! Three pastors officiated the ceremony in a setup that worked surprisingly well, although I'm not sure why they decided on such an unusual setup. The music, lighting of the unity candle, and everything else seemed to go well; nothing unexpected is always good. *grins*
The bouquet toss was held outside right after the ceremony, probably so Bettina could toss it nice and high and not worry about smacking the ceiling. It was also obvious after we got to the restaurant that having the bouquet toss outside meant it was a much bigger space for people to gather. For some reason the garter toss happened inside at the banquet-- we stopped asking questions and just went with the flow!
Over to Empress Harbour for the banquet. We had two hours to kill, so Erik, Mary, Grace, Kevin, and I grabbed pearl tea (somehow at a different place than Tara, Eugene, BEJ, Camille, Francis, Heather, and the rest), then wandered over to the Starbucks near the restaurant. By the time we arrived, we found that BEJ had already started up a game of BANG... ummm, yes, I'll leave it at that. We wandered inside after the sherrif (Tara) won, found our spots among the 32 tables, and waited for things to begin.
Mike and Jen-- the emcees, introduced the wedding party as they came in, then Chris and Bettina took over for more introductions and then the first dance. No, not a traditional one, unless disco is traditional!
Food was delicious as one would expect from Empress Harbour-- they seem to do a better job with banquets than with dim sum-- and the fried beef/taro ball was interesting. Slightly non-traditional, but in a wedding where it was themed with sunflowers and surfboards, no one was surprised!
Eventually Chris and Bettina made it around for toasts and 8-claps (being Bruins and all...), although Bej's 8-clap got usurped by another table so we had two. The obligatory slideshow of pictures and music to tell the story of how the bride and groom met was surprisingly well done and not too hideously embarassing. Best Man and Matron of Honor speeches by Henry and Erin somehow didn't get too embarassing either, although finding out about the "Chris for Boyfriend" was, umm, inventive. *grins* Then the usual insanity of cake cutting, cake smeared everywhere, , and the garter toss. Chris made a great show of coming up for air a few times as he strugged to remove the garter, and Bettina's facial expressions were, as usual, very expressive. No wonder they get along so well. =)
Some more pictures, wedding cake, and by the time we left I think it was 11pm or almost midnight. Congratulations, Chris and Bettina!