Cynthia Writes:
Hello everyone!! I can't believe it's been 9 months since we've blogged!
As you know, the wedding was September 10th, 2o11. For the most part, everything was pretty much how we imaged our big day would be. There were a few things here and there that we would have liked to change, but they were things that were out of our control.
Overall, it was a beautiful day and I think that our guests really enjoyed seeing the mesh of both cultures. First we had a Japanese ceremony (San san kudo) where we were both dressed in traditional kimonos. San san kudo is a formal and ritualized drinking of a small amount of sake, which is a ceremony of binding. My attire consisted of 3 layers, undergarments, kimono and uchikake. Wearing the uchikake was like wearing the most beautifully colored and embroidered heavy blanket ever! Luckily, this ceremony was held indoors. I believe the temperature was in the mid 90's that day so I probably would have fainted if it had been outside.
After the Japanese ceremony there was an hour long intermission during which the mariachi played. At this time we changed into our traditional suit and bridal gown. Right before the traditional ceremony began, I sent my sisters to surprise Tim with a gift. It was cowboy boots, a belt and a tejana (cowboy hat)! I told them they could give him the option to wear it during the ceremony or just for the reception. Of course, Tim being the "true Mexican" that he is, wore them for the ceremony and the rest of the night!
At the reception, our wonderful mariachi played during dinner. One of the last songs that they played was "Nube de mar (Kawano nagareno yoni)", which was half in Spanish and half in Japanese. It was perfect! Our centerpieces were small zen gardens that Tim and I made with a vase that had bamboo and cherry blossoms and our favors were chopsticks with personalized sleeves.
It made me so happy that people noticed all of the small details and work that I put into everything and it was nice receiving so many compliments! Like I said, both Tim and I worked on the centerpieces, my sister designed our invitations and I assembled them, I made my own bouquet, the boutonnieres for the guys, my hair pieces for both ceremonies, hair pieces for the flower girls, ring pillow, lazo, origami cranes for the cake, my mom made 200 miniature cranes (one to go along with each pair of chopsticks), and Tim's parents made our 1000 cranes!
It was a beautiful and memorable night. Thank you to our friends and family for sharing our special day with us and a special thank you to our parents and bridal party for all of your help!
So what do we have planned now?! Well, a week from today we start phase one of our honeymoon! (We originally had a 6 week honeymoon planned, but we split it up over the next year). December 3rd we leave to Costa Rica for 9 days. We hope to backpack through Europe for spring break, visit my family in Chicago in the summer, and if possible go to Japan toward the end of the year! We are very excited to travel and spend that time together, because once all of the traveling is done... we plan on starting our family!
