I do.

I could sum up my entire feelings about my wedding day simply by saying that I was so incredibly happy. I couldn't stop smiling, which was a good thing because there were a million cameras snapping every second. If I could re-live this day again, I would in a heartbeat. It all went by so fast.

The morning of
In the morning, I was woke up thinking....OMG I'm getting married TODAY! It was a very surreal feeling. I was calm the entire morning. I walked alone to my hairdresser's house (he lives down the street from me) and sat on his front steps waiting for him to arrive. The air was cool, the sun was shining and there was not a cloud in the sky. Paulo's CRV drove into the driveway about 3 minutes late but I wasn't worried. Paulo doesn't speak much English, and after I showed him what hairstyle I wanted, he did my hair in almost silence with a little Pulse 24 playing on the TV behind me informing me not to bring any liquids on my airplane carry-on. I closed my eyes and just felt totally at ease. I did not have a good hair day that morning when I woke up and I regretted sleeping with wet hair the night before. However, I was so happy when I saw the results of the hairdresser's artful hands. Paulo never fails to impress me. It was just what I wanted.

My auntie Anita picked me up and drove me back to my house, where her daughter Ruth was waiting to do my makeup. The house was oddly quiet as Ruth skillfully applied my makeup. My dad was showering, David was helping to set up decorations at the golf club, my grandparents were getting ready in the guest bedroom and my mom was on her way to Paulo's to get her hair done. I felt serene. By the time, Ruth was halfway finished my makeup, the energy in the house started to pick up as one-by-one, more people arrived....My mom, Winnie, Karly and then Mandy. Karly, with her filmmaker's intuition, assembled her camera quickly and started filming the bubbling events.

Ruth finished my make up, and I went up stairs to change into my gown. I took a moment to take in the reality of the day upon catching a glimpse of myself in my mirror. When I came downstairs, everyone ooh-ed and ahh-ed as they paused applying lipgloss and dusting on loose powder.
Excitement started to bubble in my stomach.
Amanda, always perceptive of my unspoken feelings, spoke words of comfort from her vat of wisdom, "Kim.....just don't think about it."
Everyone paused looking at me in my wedding dress, and them in their wedding outfits.
Amanda's face crinkled a bit as soon as the words left her lips at the sudden realization of her absurd advice. SHe looked around to see if anyone bought it.
Everyone laughed.
Amanda always knows how to make me laugh in any given situation.

Eyes on the clock at twenty past twelve, we realized that it was finally time. We loaded into the car and made the 3 minute trip down to the church. We pulled into the parking lot filled with gleaming cars, and I took a deep breath. My first steps out of the car were greeted with flashing cameras. The ceremony was about to begin.

The Ceremony
When I emerged from the car, I saw a few friendly faces in the parking lot...Bella, Charlene, then Jen. Jen looked like she was about to cry any second. Her face was flushed and she gave me a smile with her eyebrows pointed to the sky. I quickly summoned her over and gave her a hug. Amanda and Winnie helped me carry my dress around so it wouldn't get dirty. It felt so good to have my friends around...they helped me feel at ease. Tristan greeted me in the parking lot and said I looked nice. I asked him about Sharl..."Is he here? How does he look? Is he nervous?" Tristan gave me a shrug and a smile and said, "I'm not saying anything...You'll see!" As I stepped into the church, I saw more familiar faces: Steve, Nadia, the old Woodlands crew, some co-workers...The greetings and hugs and pictures came in a blur. I heard the string quartet playing lovely classical pieces. Then before I knew it they had commenced playing my dad's song. My wedding march. It was happening.
David and Winnie lined up, then Mandy and Tristan, then my mom and dad and me. I specifically wanted to wait at the side of the door way so Sharl wouldn't see me until I was ready to walk down the aisle. When it was my turn, I looked up ahead to where Sharl was standing.

I was so happy to see his face. He was smiling. He didn't look nervous. He just looked so happy. I looked around at all the guests. It was so nice to see all the faces of family and friends from all stages of my life there in one room.
My mom and dad kept pace, and I hugged both of them before joining hands with Sharl.


My palms were sweaty, but I had no internal reservations whatsoever. I thought Sharl looked so handsome,and I could tell he was glad to see me. He squeezed my hands and whispered, 'hi.'
My only moment of weakness was when we began to say our vows. Sharl went first, and he started to tear a little. Seeing his face made me crumble. There was something so sacred about that moment that I couldn't have prepared myself for. Saying those promises to eachother was so humbling....but I meant every word, and I could tell that Sharl did too.


The In-Between
This is probably not the most exciting part of the story, but for some reason, no one seems to know what goes on between the wedding cremony and the reception. When sharl and I booked the church at 12:30 and the country club reception at 5, we wondered what we would do with all that space in between...nap? eat lunch? play a round of golf? Turns out that the space in between FLIES by in no time. We took about a million pictures. A lot of cheesy poses but in the end they turned out nice. I got a little annoyed with my photographer because she wanted me to do a lot of strange things like lie down on the car and hop on the side of a golf cart. I kept telling her that I didn't want my dress to get dirty. She didn't listen. Anyway, after a million and one more photos, we were able to go home for a quick rest. Sharl and I went to my parents housee at 4:15, which left us about 20 minutes to relax. And during this 20 minutes I absolutely NEEDED to get out of the wedding dress. I could barely breathe. Now my dress looked like it was made of a nice airy chiffon. However, underneath the light layers was a tight corset contraption that held everything in place. It takes about 10 minutes to get in and out of the dress because of all the lacing. I didn't care. I snuck upstairs, tore off the dress and changed into shorts and a tshirt and plunked down on my bed for a quick snooze. I felt so comfortable....but about 5 minutes later, I needed to put it back on and head out for part II.

The Reception

The moment Sharl and I stepped into the reception hall, we were greeted with more pictures and happy smiling faces from arriving guests. We tried to say hello and talk to everyone, but after a little while, we were slowly being ushered into the main room where we were introduced formally as Mr. and Mrs. Robinson. Sharl and I sat at our place at the head table with Mandy, Winnie, David and Tristan, while guests came up to congratulate us and take more pictures.

The string quartet played beauiful ambient classical music. Amanda and Jen kept running to the appetizer table to get me food, but I was so excited about the event that I could hardly eat. When dinner came around, and we were served glorious prime rib done to a beautiful medium-rare, with yorkshire puddings, roasted parisienne potatoes and canneloni, Sharl turned to me as he picked at his food and said, "In about 4 hours I'm going to look back and hate myself for not being hungry enough to eat all this food." There was NO way we could eat during all the excitement. During dinner, I changed into my red cheung sam.

This is when the program began. My brother is so amazing. He did so much to help for this wedding, and was just so accommodating. David, Amanda and Tristan shared the job of MC-ing the wedding, and it turned out beautifully. They kept the pace nice and informal yet smooth. First the speeches started. Joey, who was an amazing speaker talked about our bonbonieres which were chopsticks and how the word chopstiks in Chinese sounds like 'hurry up and have children' then on a more meaningful note, about how chopsticks were meant to function together....like Sharl and Me! Then my dad was next and his speech which made my heart hurt. He reminded us that my meeting Sharl was no mere coincidence, but a gift from God.

Tristan was next to say his speech, and everyone was moved to tears through his words and also the words he read from his parents--under African skies. We were all so sad that they couldn't make it to our wedding.

But they were with us in spirit...

Then, who better to lighten the mood than Amanda. I can always count on her to amuse everyone....and she never ceases to amaze me. She is such a beautiful speaker and her speech had a surprise ending--a video she created in tribute to Sharl and me. I was so impressed and overwhelmed at everything.
Then after some games....



The party began!!!







Sharl and I partied until the very end, until most of the guests had already left. We did not want the night to end. We were both so genuinely happy...to be married and to be spending time with all of our family and friends. Then during our quiet drive home to our hotel we reminisced the events of the day and looked forward to the next day where we would be on route to our honeymoon and the fun would continue. It was a day I will never forget as long as I live.