Fei Li and Chris

Okay, maybe that is a little bit of an over-reaction to the business, but the invitations have finally been sent out. The US addressees went out yesterday and because I ran out of stamps, the Canada and Int’l ones are going out as we speak/type.

I have to hand it to four very dedicated and wonderful people for this:
My little sister Evelyn (bridesmaid) who single-handedly embossed 100 envelopes
My little sister Bernice (bridesmaid) who glued so much stuff
My friend and maid of honor Alicia who came up to the Bronx twice to stick labels, stuff envelopes, arbitrate disagreements and tie little strings - all the while working for the big bad corporate law world.

And finally to Chris - Indie-Groom- all the driving to various places, picking up random pieces of stationary, creative artist, printer cleaner and other such wonderful things.

So when you get your invitation in the next couple of days, think fondly of these wonderful people.

~ Fei Li

IMG_2532

Originally uploaded by phthallo.

This blog has been dying for a photo, so here’s one. Not a great shot of me, but my bride-to-be certainly looks cute, doesn’t she? This photo was taken about a year ago at the wedding of our friends Dmitriy and Monica.

Although we went home to work on wedding stuff last weekend, we did not get around to blogging about it. It’s been a crazy week, but I suppose, when is it not a crazy week? The big news is that the invitations are almost ready to go out. Just putting a few more things together. The bad news is that we ran out of the cool green paper from Chinatown… and when I went to get some more on my lunchbreak on Monday they were completely out at both of their stores in NY. In fact, to get any more, they would have to place an order with the supplier in Taiwan. So, I guess we’ll be finding a substitute.

Chris

Is there such a thing as an Indie Groom?

Lately, Chris has discovered a new website called IndieBride.com (for independent minded brides), reads it voraciously to get “good tips” on how to plan a wedding.

It is really cute to hear him start a conversation or opinion with “I read on IB, that such and such flowers…”

Ever since 1L (first year law school for those of you who don’t know) has finished for him, I think he’s been pitching in with this whole wedding business a lot more than I think most grooms do. I guess the other reason, is that I’m a bit crazed about finishing experiments before I take off for a month. In either case, I really appreciate it.

This weekend has been filled with massive traveling. We went to Ramsey and Olida’s wedding in Newport, RI, driving of course. I was a bit worried because the weather has been nuts lately. In fact, it was raining around noon-ish when we met up with a potential photographer for our wedding. But happily, the sun came out at just the right time.

The ceremony was in a beautiful little chapel and the reception was a clambake. There were a few hours in between these two events. I suspect we were the only guests who used that time to be tourists and do some needed shopping - like windshield wipers, kitchen scrubs and a shoe rack! Probably the auto parts store employee thought we were a bit odd.

After the wedding, we went to my folks’ house and literally dropped dead to sleep. Sunday morning was a meeting with another photographer - this time in Davis Sq. I’m not sure if I’ve ever been to this Square that is truly a square before. It had quite a nice neighborhood feeling - maybe if I make it back to Boston for residency, we might consider living there.

Another drive home - where my mom fed us incredible food as per usual and gave me fresh flowers (peonies this time) - and then drive back to New York. Of course there was tons of traffic so we did our usual stop-at-IKEA-until-the-traffic-lets-up routine.

Which was fun and I got a lamp. A real grown-up lamp with a lampshade. Now, I know this sounds silly but I have never owned one. I’ve always had these you know, student lamps with the goose-neck thing, very academic and well, practical.

This little lamp, with a little ball-chain switch is just right for my tiny little work desk (my big desk given over to the law student). And it is very nice - nice enough that I’m blogging at 1am instead of sleeping.

~ Fei Li

Fei Li and I had a very eventful weekend. Friday evening we raced to the craft store to get envelopes to finish off the last few save-the-dates. It was pouring rain, and we almost got there in time. Well, actually we did get there in time, but the store employee’s disagreed, and had already locked up. So we bought ice cream and then went to the bookstore instead and had a fun time looking at books that our apartment surely does not need. I confess, I bought one book, but hopefully I can find some space for it when I’m done reading it. On Saturday, we spent the full day (and some of the night) moving our good friends Andy and Michelle from an apartment in our building (in the Bronx) to Brooklyn. With two other couples there, for a total of eight, we had an impressive amount of manpower (and womanpower). Massive pieces of furniture and mountains of boxes were no match for our numbers. Perhaps I exaggerate, but it was rather spectacular. The weather was not very cooperative, it rained off and on all day, but it could have been sweltering heat, and I was thankful that it was at least rather cool. By the end of the move, we were tired and sore. In fact, my muscles are still sore now, on Monday. But it was good. We arrived home just shy of midnight, where we picked up a late night meal of pizza, wings, calamari and beer. On Sunday we slept in as long as we could manage until the phone let us sleep no longer. Then it was off to brunch and a movie with a few friends who are also Fei Li’s colleagues from lab (and a husband of one - who joined us for the brunch but was unable to attend the movie). We ate at our favorite Indian restaurant in New Rochelle, and then saw the Da Vinci Code. I was the only one of the four who had not read the book the entire book. All we satisfied with the film, save for one scene that seemed entirely pointless (did we really have to see how they got from the airplane to the car?) All in all, a good weekend was had by all. I think.

Chris

So we met with our minister this Monday. He is a self-described third generation hippy from Maine. Which tells you a lot, methinks.

In any case, we walked through the ceremony (a quasi-rehearsal) to see what we liked or didn’t like and to get to know the church (also tentative at this point). It was actually more real or surreal to be in the position of the bride, even just in this rehearsal. I was also really pleased at how easy it was to request the inclusion of some parts of my heritage in the wedding ceremony. It was easy to convey to our minister how ceremonies from different cultures actually signify very similar ideas. I don’t know why I was worried it would be so hard for someone to understand.

Overall, the experience was quite fun. I learned a lot about the church system - high church vs. low church, bishops, markets for unitarian ministers - and of course about how to people-manage a wedding ceremony. It looks like we’re going to need a person to be Quasi-Moto.

Our minister, Adam Tierney-Eliot, has a web-blog if you want to check him out.

http://eliotunity.blogspot.com/

~ Fei Li