Natasha and I want to thank everyone for coming to our wedding. It was a wonderful experience and we are so overwhelmed with the love and support from our family and friends.
A special thank you to everyone who helped so much in the participation and preparation for our wedding. We could not have done it without each and everyone of you. The day was made extra special because of you.
Updates, photos, videos, etc. will be coming as soon as possible. We need to unpack first and get a little settled. Links to follow soon.
We’ll also finish a couple of stories that need finishing on the site, as well as provide some stories from the wedding.
Turns out that there’s a chance that we’re going to be on television for a brief clip on the WE network. We’ll give you more details as things get finalized…
Some of our local friends here in the Bay area were very generous in setting up both a Girls Night Out and a Boys Night Out night out yesterday. With our schedules and circumstances, we didn’t have much time to party it up, but our friends did a nice job of getting us to forget all our To-Do’s for a few hours.
We all started at Lava Lounge in San Francisco. The girls had drinks and ate dinner there, while the boys went to the Thirsty Bear for beers and MEAT! After some great meals, Natasha had to be the center of attention succumbing to all the peer pressure for a kiss-and-tell session. There was also something about a gorilla and a belly dancer…ahhh….y-e-a-h…Then, onto a new dance club for a little fun dancing.
Ed’s bachelor party was full of fast cars and fast women…ok minus the fast women. They went to the GoKart races. These weren’t the normal GoKarts…these mean little machines sped to as fast as 40 mph and had some hum. Everyone had to dress up in jump suits and get off to the races. Ed came in second in the first race, but dead last in the second.
All in all a fun night…pictures to come soon…we promise!
We completed the gift registry website with Honeyfund.com. Go ahead and click on this website www.honeyfund.com/wedding/tashanded or type it into your browser URL address. We hope you enjoy the website…please give us feedback by clicking on the “Comments” link below on this webpage.
OK, we did not exactly go down to the courthouse or to the chapel, but we did get the paperwork started for our marriage license today at the Alameda County Clerk-Recorder’s Office. All that’s necessary is for the officiant to sign the document and for us to mail it back to the Office, and we will be officially husband and wife…
…of course, we still have a wedding to plan and to hold. It should be a lot of fun and a memorable day. We’re so looking forward to seeing so many friends and family.
This past weekend was a whirlwind trip down to the LA and O.C. area. The main goal was to take our engagement photos so that we can have some photos of us prior to the wedding. We also had a chance to go through our floral arrangements, do a fitting for Natasha’s wedding gown, purchase Ed’s wedding band, make adjustments for bridesmaids dresses, and schedule a few make-up sessions for Natasha. In addition we saw many friends including Yi-chun & Thanh and Vi & Thang who we didn’t realize lived so close to where we were staying in Palos Verdes. Special thanks to Dave Macmillan and Cindy Martin for letting us stay in the guest room of their house in PV, and for the wonderful BBQ we attended on Sunday evening at the beach with so many wonderful friends.
As soon as we have some photos developed and put online, we’ll add them to our photos section of this website. We took our engagement photos at two locations – Hsi Lai Temple in Hacienda Heights as well as Laguna Beach near the Montage Hotel.
Hsi Lai Temple 9-8-2008
Here’s a picture of the Temple grounds back in 2008. For our engagement photos, we wore traditional Vietnamese wedding garb that we plan to wear for the tea ceremony during our wedding weekend. It was a little hot that day, and both of us were sweating a bit. Luckily our photographers, Joe & Mirta Barnet kept us in the shade most of the time.
After we finished at the Temple, we changed and drove about an hour down to the beach. It was quite overcast there but we managed some great shots. It was a little more comfortable there. Ed got a little drenched taking one series of shots as high tide has a way of finding unwary pairs of jeans.
As you may have already heard, Ed’s mom, Susie suffered a severe stroke on June 6th, 2009. She has been making slow progress, yet remains in the hospital. Both Ed and Natasha have made trips back to the East Coast to tend to her care. They’re both praying for a miraculous recovery so that Susie can attend the wedding that she so wanted to attend before the stroke.
Preparations are continuing although a little delayed. For example, this website was to be more fully developed by now to give all the friends and family more information about the upcoming event. Both Natasha and Ed wish everyone remains happy and healthy, and they look forward to seeing everyone on Sunday, September 6, 2009 for the wedding!
