~following Him!!!~: Cali- August 12th (aka Wedding Day)

Today Derek and I woke up at 6:30a, because some dolt programmed the TV to turn on.

So I shut it off and immediately fell back asleep to be awoken at 8:00a by the alarm clock, so that I could take Derek to his parent's hotel so he could get ready for the wedding with them. But before we did that we headed down to the lobby for the continental breakfast after Kimmy showed up.

After dropping Derek off at the hotel, I headed back to the hotel and Kimmy and I went down to the hotel pool to swim, catch some rays and just relax. Then we went back to our room and got dressed for the big event. Me in my tux and Kimmy in the dress she brought with her. And as beautiful as KT looked, Kimmy was still the most beautiful woman there, in my opinion. And I am sure Derek will disagree, but he is entitled to his opinion.

I had my first taste of Dirk's world famous chocolate chip cookies. And they lived up to their billing!

We arrived at the church and went in to see the bride. KT was pretty excited and was about ready to get her make-up on. I then headed over to where Derek was and started assuming the duties of best man for the day. Basically, I get to boss everyone around for Derek, so that way he doesn't have to worry about things. About 15 minutes before the ceremony we took our places in the chapel behind the altar. There was a couple of people in there praying, so we had to be fairly quiet as we waited.

Then came "show time" and we got ourselves ready to step out and get ready for the big event. We walked down to the front just as his parent's walked down. Then we stood and waited as the rest of the bridal processional came down the aisle. Then the big moment arrived as KT stepped out with her brother on one arm and her nephew on the other. And then I realized that I failed as a best man, because I forgot to grab some tissue.

But fortunately Derek's sister had some and reached forward and handed me some, because tears were actually coming out of Derek's eyes. As if there was any doubt that there would be.

The ceremony did not go off without a few funny moments and the first was when the mom's went to go light the candles and whomever lit the other candle's didn't put the lighter back in the right place. So Father Jerry went off into the back room to go look for it. Only to come out saying that he couldn't find one. And then the young man who lit the candles came up and found it.

But Father Jerry was really cool and laid back. I love priests or pastors that are that way. The ceremony was very nice and I think very fitting for Derek and KT. Which to me is a sign of a good wedding. Derek's dad even took part in some portions of the ceremony, because he is a minister. Very nice day, but it wasn't over yet.

Kimmy and I took Derek and KT to a local park where they got some pictures taken and then over to his brother's hotel for the tea ceremony. The tea ceremony, to me, was one of the coolest things that we witnessed. The Chinese have a tradition where after a wedding ceremony the newlyweds will serve tea to the oldest married couple on down to the most recent. This is to show honor and respect to their elders. And each time they do the newlyweds are handed a red envelope, which contains some kind of a gift. And traditionally the mother of the groom will give the bride a gift of jewelry. After all of that, the bride and groom sit down and then they are served tea from the single people that are there. And the newlyweds hand them red envelopes also. It was a really neat thing to see, not only for the tradition, but the honoring of one another. My favorite part of the whole day!

Then of course we headed off to the reception where we enjoyed some very good food, a great cake and a night of dancing. But the biggest surprise of the day came as they brought the bridal party in. KT had arranged for all of us to bring light sabers, because Derek is a huge Star Wars fan. So as we wlaked in we were handed our light sabers and when Derek & KT came in to the Throne Room song from Star Wars we whipped out or light sbaers and held them out for them to walk under military style. Derek was really surprised!

Unfortunately Kimmy and I did not get a chance to slow dance, but we had fun none the less. Derek put together a video presentation with pictures and it was really cool. Unfortunately, the audio was not working but the picture were worth a thousand songs.

As the evening was winding down we noticed that KT's brake lights were on, even though no one was in the car and the key was out. So we tried to figure that out for a while and then Derek decided to just pull the fuse and worry about it when they got to North Carolina. So we loaded up the presents in their car and ours, and we headed off to their apartment. They asked us to stay as they opened up their presents. So we hung out there and Kimmy kept track of the gifts and who gave what for them and I helped keep the cards and gifts organized. Then we left the happy couple to.... well.... you know!