About eighty-five people came to the Vietnam Vets' Hall where the ceremony took place. My mom told me that the hall was, originally, a church built in the 1800s. It was an intimate group of family and friends.
Our two readings during the ceremony were as follows:
From the I Ching:
When two people are at one
in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.
in their inmost hearts,
they shatter even the strength of iron or bronze.
And when two people understand each other
in their inmost hearts,
their words are sweet and strong,
like the fragrance of orchids.
And from Song of Songs, chapter 2, verses 10 - 13 (also a reading from my parents' wedding):
- 10
- My lover speaks; he says to me,
"Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come! - 11
- "For see, the winter is past,
the rains are over and gone. - 12
- The flowers appear on the earth,
the time of pruning the vines has come,
and the song of the dove is heard in our land. - 13
- The fig tree puts forth its figs,
and the vines, in bloom, give forth fragrance.
Arise, my beloved, my beautiful one,
and come!
After the ceremony, we all pigged out on a BBQ buffet provided one of Kansas City's best BBQ houses: Jack Stack. There were three kinds of meat: beef brisket, burnt ends, and turkey. There were also a few side dishes of vegetables and such. I heard rave reviews from just about everyone I talked with on the food.
To accompany the food, we had a half-barrel keg of Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat Beer. I figured the delicious brew would satisfy my more alcoholic friends while at the same time placating the attendees who aren't in to drinking really heavy beer. We also had Budweiser and Bud Light bottles, although hardly anyone drank them. And for wine, we had Red Diamond Shiraz from Washington state and Cavit Pinot Grigio.
Our "first song" was "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong. This song was also prominently featured in our Chinese wedding. Everybody should know this song. It is, of course, amazing. I'm not sure music gets much better.
Instead of hiring a DJ for a hundred bucks an hour, I asked three of my friends to help DJing. To kick off the dancing part of the night, I compiled the first few songs in hopes of getting a dance party started:
Get on the Floor - Michael JacksonA few people got out for these songs. Unfortunately, we had a technical problem with the sound all night and the quality was pretty horrible (it had something to do with the sound board being "mono" and all of our laptops being "stereo")
Hey Ya! - Outkast
Burning Down the House - Talking Heads
Stay Forever - Ween
There were people out dancing all night despite the sound quality. Qian and I were certainly out there cutting rug all night.
At about 11PM when we only had an hour left, I took control of the music again and put together a pretty ridiculous set of music. It was awesome (to me):
Star Guitar - Chemical BrothersIt was just a hardcore dance party. Was so great.
Sex Shooter - 6 Appollonia
Stronger - Inez
What's the Difference - Dr. Dre
Otto's Journey - Mylo
In My Arms - Mylo
Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough - Michael Jackson
So Easy - Royksopp
Timmy Tucker - moe.
At the end of the night, a couple of our friends took us to Kansas City's Intercontinental Hotel on the Country Club Plaza. The hotel is one of the nicest in Kansas City. That, too, was amazing.
I'm going to wrap this post up. I've left off so much. Overall, there was just so much warmth and happiness in the room. I had a great group of family and friends there celebrating the love between Qian and myself. I'm pretty sure the love and graciousness from everyone in attendance are the things Qian and I will remember most from the evening.
I'll post some pictures when we get them from the photographer.
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2 comments:
Sounds awesome, congrats again!
Would love to see videos posted of the two different ceremonies to see how similar/dissimilar they are.
Geesh, that food spread sounds incredible.
I'll get those videos from the Chinese one up to the net soon. It's on my list of things to do.
We don't have a video of the US wedding. But have tons and tons of photos, so that should be good enough.
The food spread was indeed incredible. We had people in from LA, San Fran, DC, Chicago, St. Louis, Texas, Nebraska, and Oklahoma, so we figured they should be rewarded for their travels with some of the best BBQ KC has to offer!
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