Visions of Oahu

More pictures in my effort to catch up, this time from Oahu, Hawaii.

West side of Oahu

View of Kaneohe from Pali Lookout

Surfer at the North Shore

Hang Loose

View of Downtown Honolulu from Ala Moana

Lil' Surfer Dude at Makapu'U

Sunrise near Koko Head State Park

Sunrise at Waimanalo

Senor Frog's

Kath and Danny's Awesome Hawaiian Wedding

Kath and Danny’s wedding was really gorgeous. They had it over on the west side of the island in this area called Ko’olina, right behind the JW Marriott hotel out there. There was a grassy patch of land, overlooking a private beach and some stunning cliffs where they had both the ceremony and the reception afterwards. It was the first real “destination” wedding I’ve been to, although not the first beach wedding. I’m really not sure why everyone wouldn’t want a destination wedding (although, admittedly, it would wreak havoc on carbon footprints and global warming). They are however, really relaxed and amazingly gorgeous. Hawaiian shirts, flip-flops, khakis –the very fact that we were overlooking a beach made it sort of ridiculous for me to be in my suit. I actually wish I had decided up front to dress in local styles at each of the weddings. Too late to change now, but it would have been fun.

In any case, Kath and Danny had one of the most creative weddings that I’ve seen. They went to the same university, and many of their friends as well, so they had little references to their alma mater sprinkled throughout the ceremony and reception. They even integrated it into their vows. The ceremony generously short, maybe no more than 10 minutes, and the walk-out was planned beforehand for the bridal party to each dance their way out. With both of them being chemical engineers, they used this theme throughout the wedding also. They had this great periodic table seating chart with everyone’s initials representing as elements, tables that were named after famous scientists, and a cute pre-game dinner where guests at the tables had to identify some of the contributions of their scientist in order to go and get food. It could have been nerdy and dorky, but instead it turned out to be smart, creative, and fun. I loved the fact that they decided to do cupcakes instead of a big cake and that they had the cutest little luau couple as their cake top.

Obviously, there were a million ways in which this wedding was different from Son and Trang’s, but one of the biggest and most important for me was the fact that many of my relatives were here. It was of course nice to catch up with all of my relatives, and my cousin thoughtfully seated me and Young at a table with all of my cousins. Getting family gossip is always an enjoyable way to pass the time. Seeing my aunts and uncles, and also seeing their reaction to my cousin getting married was both sweet and interesting. It made me think about how my parents (and my relatives!) might react to me getting married, and no doubt this was on their minds also as all of my aunts pointed at me and intoned “you’re next!”

I may not actually be however, as instead of the traditional garter toss, Kath and Danny decided to change things up and have the guys do a football toss. People who were not successful in throwing a football through a hula-hoop were tasked with publicly sharing their worst pick-up line, and presumably be in the running for being the next man married. Unfortunately for Danny, most of his friends are not so great with a football in their hands. Indeed, I was the only one who managed to throw it through the hula-hoop, eliminating me from both the embarrassing pick-up line routine and perhaps from being the next non-single man around. Oops.

I was surprised at how small I felt the wedding was, even though there was over a hundred people there. I think I have been at so many big weddings of 250 people or more that those numbers are what I feel is normal. More and more I think I may end up having a huge wedding, just because my notion of regular is so much bigger than it was before. Yet at the same time, I think it might be fitting to have a destination wedding – after all, who should have a destination wedding, if not me, this crazy wandering world nomad? Yet, its probably fair to say that I’m getting well ahead of myself. We all know that my opinions don’t really count when the time really comes, so I’ll stop hypothesizing and just leave the real planning to my un-found wife.

Wedding in Oahu

Well, today is the big day! I arrived in Honolulu early yesterday morning, before he sun was even up, after a long 8 hour flight. I didn't do much the whole day as I was tired from both jetlag and just not enough sleep. We did take advantage of my super early arrival (5am!!!) to head out and see the sunrise. What beauty! I'm still a bit jetlagged now, but hopefully I'll be able to make it through the entire reception without crashing.

I have been really bad about giving information about the couples prior to the actual weddings, so I thought for today I'd at least try to do a quick bio before heading out to the wedding! Danny is actually my cousin. So today will be not just a wedding for the project, but also a family reunion. I am however, the only representative from my family. Danny grew up in Taipei but moved to the US in middle school. Both he and his brother, one year younger, adjusted quite well and were typical American teens by high school. They ended up at the same university as me, so we actually got a chance to hang out a bit during college.

Kath is Danny's college sweetheart you could say. She, like Danny, is an immigrant to the US although her path took her from Korea to Hawaii, where she grew up. She went to the "mainland" for university and has stayed in the Bay Area since, but her family is still here in Hawaii (thus the wedding on Oahu!) Both Kath and Danny are well educated and gainfully employed - ideal representatives of the American Dream for both them and their parents. Although different from Son and Trang, who are the immigrants themselves, Kath and Danny are still part of more than one world and rooted in more than one place. There have been countless times when I've sat in envy of Danny as he moves seamlessly between Chinese and English - a level of literacy that I've never been able to achieve.

The aftermath of the immigrant experience (and the experience itself) is something that I think a lot about, especially given my relationship with my parents. It's something I'll no doubt talk more about, but I'll save that for the future. For now, I have to toss that suit back on, grab my camera, and head out to the wedding. Pictures and more words soon. Mahalo!