Wedding Pictures
August 7th, 2007 at 09:39pm We're back from our honeymoon (was awesome), I've started my new job and I've got a bunch of wedding day pics up in my gallery now check em out. Pictures from bachelor/bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinner and honeymoon will be up soon. Wedding Gallery4 Hours
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:13pm I'll be married in about 4 hours and I have been looking forward to this day for a long time. I'm excited to start a new life with Sarah and I'm not really nervous. I've been getting lots of "your last days of freedom" comments and I'm slightly confused by that. Not sure if people are just joking around or if that's how they really view marriage. I only see positive things happening by getting married. You can probably get a good idea about someone's attitude about marriage by analyzing how they would handle finances. Are accounts and paychecks kept separate and each partner does whatever they want with "their" money after the bills are paid? Or are the financial identities of the partners merged into one where all money earned goes into a pot and both agree on how it should be spent and saved. Financial independence in a marriage just seems strange to me. See ya all at the wedding or stay tuned for a plethora of pictures when we get back from Hawaii.The Sibling Post Trifecta
July 18th, 2007 at 11:59am Been a month since my last post and much has happened in that time period. Since The Blarg and MRI both updated I'll finish things off with a sort of sibling blog hat trick if you will. First off I left my position with the consulting firm I had been with for the past year. My last day was July 6th and I'm taking a month off before starting up at LA County with their Web group. I'm really looking forward to the change, hopefully the work will be more challenging and rewarding. The benefits are excellent and you can't beat a 2.5 mile commute (I was doing 25 miles each way to Diamond Bar and my gas bill was approaching $180 a month). Wedding stuff: 4 days and counting and nearly everything is done. Taking time off helped since I was free during the day to do whatever needed to be done. Took some late engagement pictures last week and got those printed up (thank you Richard!), printed up place cards, table numbers, programs and made favors. Our new place: With my sister, MRI, moving to San Diego they needed to rent out their condo. With Sarah and I getting married we needed a place to rent. To say the least there wasn't much debate about what we should do. Sarah is already moved into the condo and we're getting settled in. We have the 2 most important things already: a bed and a HDTV. Previously mentioned HDTV: My new toy is a 42" Panasonic Plasma and I'm loving it. We've been watching TV on my 20" LCD for about a year and I was ready for something really nice. Cashed in credit card rewards and got a free HD-DVD player (would have had to spend $100 on a player with HDMI anyways) and I've got the receiver already. OTA HDTV and DVDs look gorgeous. Pics of the setup will definitely be posted once I receive my speakers. Honeymoon: I just need to do some last minute confirmations but everything is booked and we are picking a few things we want to do. I just kind of want to explore and take a bunch of pictures. Kauai and Maui here we come. Photography experiments: My goal is to come back from Hawaii with a bunch of awesome pics to print and fill our large empty walls with. One of these pics I want to be a nice big panorama and to facilitate that I'm taking a tripod and new gadget to make sure it is perfect.
- Homemade rear speaker stand made from metal bookshelf end spray painted white and screwed to wall.
- Box with water bottle wrapped in paper with line and nail in front, Panosaurus calibration equipment.
- Phone which hasn't actually been plugged in for several months for some reason.
- Numerous pictures of soon to be wife.
- Cluttered desk
- Bookshelf. Normally top shelf dedicated to SNES game collection and other video games. Next shelf dedicated to miscellaneous literature: Greek mythology, WWII and Vietnam books, fantasy and sci fi. Next shelf would be almost completely dedicated to a mostly complete Star Wars book collection. Next 2 shelves are filled with math and programming books. Wow that all just screams nerd.
- Boxes in living room ready to be moved out.
- Boxes in bedroom ready to be filled.
- Wardrobe consisting mostly of t-shirts, that might have to change soon.
The honeymoon planning begins
January 8th, 2007 at 11:18pm This past weekend I spent a few late nights scouring the Internet for places to stay in Hawaii and getting a feel for what's available. I've never been to Hawaii and I know a lot of you have been and I want to hear about your experiences, tips, insights, advice, etc.. Right now I'm planning on 6 nights on Kauai and 2-3 nights on Maui. I'm reserving a secluded private cottage for the first 4 nights on Kauai but beyond that I'm still figuring things out. I bought Frommer's "Hawaii From $80 A Day" which has given me some good ideas, but personal recommendations on stuff to do is highly valued.We’re In Business
December 11th, 2006 at 09:27pm As most of you know (if you don't read down two posts) Sarah and I got engaged last weekend and we haven't been wasting any time with the planning. This weekend we spent Saturday afternoon visiting several sites to get a feel for what we might want. We had done a pretty good amount of research throughout the week and made a list of several places that looked promising and were in our price range. Turns out we only had to visit 3 places before we were ready to decide where to get married. We visited the Lindley-Scott House in Azusa, the Old Ranch Country Club in Seal Beach and the Meadowlark Country Club in Huntington Beach. Right off the bat we liked the Lindley-Scott House and by the time we left I had pretty much made up my mind. Old Ranch was appealing but I just don't dig the "country club" feel. Meadowlark was out of the question as soon as we walked into the banquet room (a little small and very hotel-ish). We spent the rest of Saturday and most of Sunday debating between Lindley-Scott and Old Ranch, trying to weigh the pros and cons of each. Since we have been together for over 5 years there aren't any reasons for a long engagement and were looking at this summer. We figured we were a little behind the curve in terms of booking but it turned out there weren't any Saturdays open at either places and Sundays were even a little scarce. That took most of the trouble out of choosing a date. Fridays were eventually ruled out because of the inconvenience to our guests having to leave work early and battle Friday traffic and a Sunday gives us more time to enjoy the day. So as of this afternoon we are having our ceremony and reception at the Lindley-Scott House on July 22 at 4:30pm. Ceremony will be outside in the shade and reception will be inside the "Carriage House". Woohoo! One big thing down and now just smaller stuff to take care of.Looks like I’m getting married
December 3rd, 2006 at 10:34pm Sarah and I have been dating for over 5 years and I've been working full-time for the past 6 months so I decided that it was time for us to begin to take the next step in our lives together so I popped the big question Saturday night and she said yes of course. So in short here's how it happened: She had been watching me like a hawk and was waiting for me to go buy the ring so I knew I had to be quick about it. I called up her dad Saturday a little before 11am, asked his permission and his help in going down to the jewelry district to a jeweler their family goes. He parked his car at the police station and I picked him up to avoid any suspicion. Went downtown, bought the ring and headed back home to continue "getting my oil changed and putting a new stereo in my truck". Getting my oil changed was a lie but I did but a new stereo in my truck. Back in town by 12:30pm. 2:00pm rolls around and jeweler calls, diamond has been set and the ring is sized and ready to go. Head down to downtown again with my dad this time, pick it up and back by 3:30pm. At this point Sarah thinks I've gotten my oil changed and am now just working on my truck and is a little bitter that another Saturday has gone by without me going to get a ring. So she is clueless at this point that I have in my possession her engagement ring. That night we were scheduled to go to separate holiday parties, Job's Daughters for her and little get together at the Clutterham's for me. This also worked out because when 10:45pm rolled around I had an excuse to come by and see her and go for a little drive to talk and show off my new stereo. I pick her up and start driving towards the Embassy Suites (our first kiss was in the parking lot of the Embassy Suites) and parked. At this point she has a suspicion that something is up but her belief that I have no ring misleads her and keeps the element of surprise in my favor. I ask if I should put in a CD and begin to reach into my center console. As I do this I tell her that I love her and want to spend the rest of my life with her. I then bring out the open ring box from the center console and ask if she would marry me. I got an immediate yes followed by hugs and kisses and to my surprise took well over a minute to actually look down at the ring. I was forced into proposing in this spontaneous manner because trying to do anything else (my actions were under extreme scrutiny) would have completely ruined the surprise and I can't think of another way I would have rather done it.
My happy new fiance
I have to figure out why I get squinty eyes when I smile
3 stone princess cut setting in white gold
New Wedding Pics are up
October 17th, 2006 at 03:25pm Last weekend Sarah and I crashed my brother-in-law's sister's wedding. Previously I have had 2 chances to take photos at weddings with my Nikon D70, one at Lori and Angelo's with the on board pop up flash and then at my brother's wedding with my newly acquired SB-800 flash on the hot shoe. First time my results were adequate but really didn't look much better than a point and shoot. Second time around my results were much better but I still hadn't really grasped some of the basics like balancing background exposure and fill flash. This time I'm definitely more pleased with the results and it is easy to see, here are the latest pics. Paul and Grace's Wedding (10/7/2006) And for quality comparison: Nathan and Stacie's Wedding (7/9/2005) Lori and Angelo's Wedding
