Our Wedding Story

This past weekend, my husband and I celebrated our third wedding anniversary.

Some of you may recall a previous post of mine, explaining my thoughts on marriage. I never wanted a husband, and I swore that married life wasn’t for me.

But then Alan and I eloped.

I thought it would be fun to share our wedding story with you all, since we never had a big wedding, and we kept our marriage a secret for some time before telling our family and friends.

The details and moments leading up to the not-so-big day are considered to be quite entertaining, and (I guess) a bit romantic.

You be the judge.

It all started during a night out on the town. I digress. Actually, Alan and I went on a double date with my cousins to watch a movie. The film: Furious 7.

We went out during Furious 7’s opening weekend, on April 4th, 2015. It was my first time back at the movie theaters, after having my son the previous year. I was long overdue to watch a movie in peace, and I just had to get out of the house.

I should note that after having my son, I was an emotional wreck. I became that hormonal mother who would cry over anything and everything – a song, a commercial, or Everest’s old pair of newborn socks – reminding me how fast time flies on by; thus, resulting in tears at any given moment.

There were times throughout Furious 7, when my cousins or Alan would look over, and they would witness me and my ugly cry in all its glory. Snot, heavy, staggered breathing.

The entire thing was pathetic.

Later on that night, I asked Alan what he thought about the movie. He said something about it being alright or cool for the most part.

Then we began to talk about our favorite scenes.

Spoiler alert: If you haven’t watched Furious 7, I am about to mention a pivotal scene from the film. You have been warned.

I then brought up that moment when Toretto is trying to help Letty remember their past relationship. A necklace was involved in this scene, and after Letty touches it, we immediately are taken back to Mexico. Except, this memory that Letty recalls is something that was never brought up throughout the entire Fast and Furious series, up until this moment.

Toretto and Letty were married!

They eloped in Mexico, and I will assume it was all pretty spontaneous since neither of them had come prepared with wedding rings, and no one else from their circle of friends and family were in attendance. Toretto takes his necklace off his neck and places it on Letty as a symbol of their love and marriage.

All of a sudden, Letty remembers everything and they can finally move forward in their relationship, after a few bumps on the road (pun intended).

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Going back to that night, talking about that particular scene, I asked Alan what he thought about it. He may have said it was nice. I honestly don’t remember, because me being overwhelmed with so many emotions, I immediately asked him,

“What do think about us doing something like that?”

“Get married?”

“Yeah. And elope.”

“Okay, sure. Why not?”

“Okay, cool.”

And that was that.

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The next day I made sure that Alan was really serious about the whole thing, like I was. Low and behold, he was all for it.

We wanted to elope, because why the hell not? We ain’t getting any younger.

I called the Santa Clara County Clerk’s Office to schedule an appointment for our wedding. We decided on a Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015 because our dating anniversary is December 22nd, and the 22nd is a date that the both of us already remember.

Nothing special, really. Although we will soon learn about the significance of April 22nd in the near future.

*You have to stay tuned for all the details on our wedding date in my next blog post that is coming up tomorrow.

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This was all very spontaneous, and we didn’t have any concrete plans, besides the fact that we wanted our sons to be there.

I really wanted someone to attend as our witness and to have our pictures taken to document this special day, so I reached out to my good friend Carolyn Seng who happens to be an amazing photographer, and asked if she was available. And yes, she was!

At this point she was the only person who knew about our secret wedding, and it was beginning to feel real.

Since our pictures were going to be taken, we thought that we should at least get a little dressed up for the big event.

That weekend, we took the boys shopping, and found a couple button-ups and slacks for all of them. It just so happened that each outfit had some hints of blue; so blue (by default), became the color theme for our wedding.

I also was able to find my wedding dress during this shopping trip. Thankfully it was around Easter and Spring, so I saw tons of white dresses on the clothing racks. I found my dress at Forever 21, for less that 20 bucks. Score!

I then booked an appointment at Drybar in Santana Row, to get my hair done on the morning of our big day. Alan also told Devin that he had a dentist appointment to get him out of school early.

Everything was nearly set.

A few days before our wedding date, we decided that we really wanted our mothers to be there. In fact, I think they would have been totally upset with us if they weren’t, and we would never hear the end of it. It was important for us to have them in attendance.

So with just a few days to spare, we asked both our mothers separately if they could baby sit Everest that afternoon. Both said yes. My mom was going to come home from work early, and we were going to “drop off” Everest at Alan’s mother’s house in the afternoon.

Our plan was in motion.

I remember feeling completely giddy the night before. The amount of excitement we were both experiencing was quite intense, to say the least. There was no turning back on our big surprise.

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Early the next morning, my friend Carolyn arrives and she accompanies me to my hair appointment. Hair blow dried and styled, we walk back to the car and I notice the flower shop around the corner.

And it hit me, I don’t have a bouquet!

Did I originally want flowers for this wedding? It never crossed my mind. But as soon as I saw the flower shop, I figured it doesn’t hurt to check it out and see what was available.

I asked the shop keeper if they had any bouquets that I could purchase. They didn’t. If I wanted a bouquet, I would have to place an order. That obviously wasn’t going to work, and we headed towards the door.

I immediately saw a dozen red roses and asked if it would be too much for them to wrap it up for me. The shop keeper found some ribbon and prepared a simple bouquet. Nice!

Time to go home and get ready.

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My cousins Chantel and Christine (who lived with us at the time – and are the same cousins we went to see Furious 7 with) were at the house that day, and didn’t go to work because they just came back from their vacation. I knew they were suspicious with all the activities taking place. My hair was done, I was doing my makeup, and my friend was there taking pictures. Very odd…

They both kept asking me what was going on, and I kept dodging their questions and told them that nothing was happening today. I even offered them to “join us for lunch” later on with the kids and my mom.

No big deal.

Alan picked up Devin from school, and as soon as they got home, he told him to change to his nice outfit we bought him the other week. Now he was beginning to wonder…

My mom arrives from work, and finds that we’re all home. We told her that we wanted to have lunch before she “babysits” Everest. She sees us all dressed up, and I know she’s a bit confused, but agrees anyways.

So we all hopped in our cars, and headed over to my soon-to-be mother in law’s house. She’s completely thrown off by our entourage, expecting that we were just there to “drop Everest off.” We told her to get ready, because we’re going out for lunch.

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Everyone follows our car as we head to the Clerk’s Office in downtown San Jose.

Once we all parked our cars, we met our little wedding party at the front of the building and yelled, “Surprise! We’re getting married!”

My cousins figured it out, but Devin, and our mothers were completely caught off guard. They knew something was up, but had no idea that this was it.

Thankfully we were welcomed with smiles, hugs, and laughter, and we knew that we made the right decision of including them in our wedding.

Alan and I checked in at the window, and we paid $80 for our ceremony. Since we didn’t have any wedding rings, they offered us some cheap bands for $20. I got one for Alan, and decided to keep the Tiffany’s ring he gave me as a gift on our first Valentine’s Day together back in 2008, as my own wedding band.

We waited in the lobby with everyone else. There were a few couples a head of us, so we had some time to spare, and took some pictures in and around the building.

Once our names were called, everyone joined us in a little room, that had an alter, and some fake flowers set up – the standard wedding ceremony decor. Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious. We loved it.

The entire ceremony took less than five minutes, and on April 22nd, 2015, we officially became husband and wife.

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We had an impromptu reception at San Pedro Square Market. After all was said and done, we ended up having that fictitious lunch we mentioned earlier with everyone in the end. After our meal, we walked on over to the Old Wagon Saloon and Grill, and took some pictures in front of their brick wall.

Once our little photo shoot was finished, we all went home and enjoyed the rest of our Wednesday off.

And that pretty much sums up our wedding story.

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This is hands down one of the best decisions we ever made, and we have no regrets. We wouldn’t change a thing.

Our wedding and all the events leading up to it were unconventional, mostly unplanned, and definitely spontaneous overall. And to think, all of this happened because we went on a date to watch Furious 7!

In retrospect, I believe our wedding story is funny and romantic in its own little way.

I truly hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I had a pleasure of finally sharing our beautiful journey toward marriage with you all. It’s only the beginning.

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Congrats! You made it to the end of this blog post.

Here’s a photo diary of our big day!