Mike and Emily's Wedding
After Bej and Weixian, Mike and Emily are the next couple in this group of friends to get married. Chris and Bettina are next month, Francis and Camille in November... o_0
Emily's mother is a pastor, and she officiated the wedding at Grace Lutheran Church-- not knowing Emily very well, I had no idea! It seems to turn out very well, although Emily became very emotional while reading her vows.
The church was packed with friends and family, and a whole buttload of people from UCLA were crammed into one corner.
The scene was largely replicated at Empress Pavilion in Chinatown, with a few tables of all UCLA friends in the corner where we could be loud without disrupting the grandparents, and the first real greetings that many of us were able to exchange with Mike and Emily.
A unique touch was a photo booth for people to take pictures; that's something I'd never seen before at a wedding! The dancing that Mike and some of his friends did at the end of the banquet was very well done and very interactive. Somewhere along the line in the last year or so, choreographed dances at weddings became all the rage, so maybe I'll be seeing this more often?
Bej, Chris, Henry, and Simeon were Mike's groomsmen and familiar faces to the rest of us from UCLA, while Emily's bridesmads were Mari, Dana, Paige, and Jeannie-- none of whom I'd ever met.
The bouquet toss happened almost before anyone realized it, hence why there's only one blurry photo. The garter was a little less frantic. As for food, it was pretty good. The mango dessert was a nice change from red bean, and who am I to argue with tasty seafood?
