Dakilang Pilipina

The Weekender's Wedding Weekend

A huge congratulation shout-out goes to the newly hitched Sacramentos! Their wedding this past weekend was one of the most anticipated shindigs of the year simply because Mrs. Weekender is one of the last of our lil' group to be married. Yup- saved the best for last!

And what a wedding it was!

The bride was beautiful and elegant; the groom was handsome and GQ'd. They make for a disgustingly good looking couple! The ceremony was held at Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church in Oakland right on Lake Merritt. 'Tis a beautiful church! It doesn't boast the typical huge architectural features of many of the Catholic churches I've been to; this one was quite modern.

I loved the enormous stained glass windows and how the altar was in the middle of the church with pews and chairs encircling it. It provided a more intimate setting, especially when the immediate family was called to join the bride and groom for the wedding vows.

I have to say that the tears started flowing as soon as the Weekender walked down the aisle. I saw her get ready at the hotel...hair, makeup, gown, shoes, jewelry, the whole sha-bang...but when she walked down the aisle accompanied by her brother and her mom, my eyes filled up. From where the bridesmaids were sitting, I had a good view of the groom from behind. When the Weekender stepped out from the side corridor, Etch-A-Sketch was blown away. It's like he took one look at her, probably said something like "hot damn!" (or not!), and had to shake his head in disbelief at the beauty of his bride. It was classic and from that moment on, they both had these huge ass smiles painted across their faces for the rest of the ceremony.

After the "I Do's" were said, the wedding party headed across the street to take some pictures along Lake Merritt and from there, we were off to the reception.

The reception was held at the Boundary Oaks Country Club golf course in Walnut Creek. Because there was this whole movie theme going on, the tables inside the hall were named with some of their favorites that included Sixteen Candles (one of MnM's fave!), Blue Hawaii, and An Officer and A Gentleman. I was seated at The Wedding Singer table. They even had this huge movie poster of them that also served as their Save The Date flyer to everyone. As soon as I found our table, the bag that I was holding accidentally pushed a fork off the table and wouldn't you know it, the damn thing fell straight downward and stabbed my toe! WTF?! What a way to start the evening- LOL! Anyways...just had to share that lil' tidbit. Moving on...

Directly behind my seat, there was a chocolate fondue fountain.
The sweet smell was enough to get my going, but in actuality, I was completely paranoid the entire time because it didn't seem that the table it sat on was stable! You could hear this rattling noise and if you watched the candles that surrounded it, it was clearly shaking. Once the waiters placed stacks of serving plates, I was seriously just waiting for the moment for the table to topple over me. First my toe, then a chocolate covered bridesmaid. That definitely would've made for a memorable moment, yah? (NOT!)

On the other side of the dancefloor, they had the wedding cake on another table. It was a chocolate layer cake with chocolate and caramel with toasted pecan filling. Yum! After all of the running around, taking polaroid pictures of the guests, receiving the gifts, and directing guests, I was feening for something sweet to reenergize. Isn't it so pretty?

Aside from the normal wedding reception activities (i.e., slideshow, money dance, toasts, and speeches), one of the most sweetest and memorable moment was when Etch-A-Sketch serenaded the Weekender. It was a surprise that we all had to keep away from her and it paid off! Etch-A-Sketch had emailed us requesting the bridal party to help him out singing "Sweet Caroline" (c/o Neil Diamond...OR, think the Fever Pitch movie...). He started off with his thank you list to the guests and then turned to his bride and said the first line from the song. Then he started singing it a cappella and her tears started flowing! During this time, some of the groomsmen were passing out a copy of the words to the song and by the time Etch got to the chorus, the entire ballroom joined in- it was awesome!

"Sweet Caroline...pum pum pum...good times never seemed so good! I've been inclined...pum pum pum...to believe they never would..." It was so touching to see her crying that it had ME crying...happy tears, of course!

One of the other most memorable moments of the wedding reception was seeing a lot of old familiar faces. It was a major San Francisco State and PACE reunion in da house! We had the "old crew" back together again! It's very rare that we are all together in one place and coming for the Weekender's special day made it even more special! Not to mention that the resident Doctor is getting married himself later on this year...congratualtions Dr. SI (that's "super-intern"...inside joke!)! AND, I just have to mention here that Dr. SI's former galpal and my good friend B is ALSO getting married later this year as well! So congratulations to you Bern! We all went down memory lane and whenever we do that, it's always a guarantee to end up laughing our asses off. Oh man...good times...good times. Here are a couple of pics: