This page has details on the California wedding (which has already happened). For the main wedding page, click here.

California

The California wedding will be held June 15th, 2002 in Redwood City, CA. The plan for the day will be:

3:00: Everyone gathers at Ben's house. We will carpool from the house to the wedding site, about a 30-minute drive. It is very important that everyone be on time; we will try to leave punctually, and it may be hard for people who are late to find the site. It is also possible that the wedding site itself will be changed at the last minute due to weather considerations; the only way you will know this is if you go to Ben's house to get the final word.

3:45: Everyone ought to be assembled at the wedding site. The site is tentatively chosen as a particular spot within Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. Here are maps and driving directions showing exactly where to go. We will gather in the parking lot as shown on the maps. If fog makes Russian Ridge inhospitable, we will go instead to Bol Park in Palo Alto (maps and driving directions).

3:50: Everyone will walk to the actual wedding site as one group. It is quite a short walk, about one-tenth of a mile, along a dirt road. It is somewhat downhill, but not particularly treacherous. High heels would not be recommended; any other sort of shoes should be up to the task. Hiking boots are certainly not necessary. The wedding site will be in direct sun; parasols will be provided for shade, although you may want sunglasses or a wide-brimmed hat in addition.

4:00: The wedding ceremony begins. It will be led by my friend and housemate, Joe Wagner, who was responsible for conducting the legal marriage ceremony back on April 18th. My friend John-Paul Mead will be the Best Man; Keewi's friend Soyoun Kim will be the Maid of Honor. We will do a fairly brief ceremony, since everyone will be standing up. Accompanying music will be provided by the Bravo String Quartet, who should already be playing when the wedding party gets there, and who will continue playing until after everyone has departed.

4:30: The ceremony ought to be over by this time. Most people will be free to leave; a few will stay to work with the photographer on a few more shots, for another half an hour or so. People who leave are free to go back to their hotels, or to a local cafe, or whatever. We would highly recommend Cafe Borrone (1010 El Camino Real, Menlo Park, 650 327-0830), which is next door to Kepler's, an excellent bookstore. Click here for a map to Cafe Borrone, with some instructions on parking and such. (Note MapQuest and Yahoo will both show you the wrong location when given the address!)

6:00: The wedding dinner begins. It will be at Left Bank, a restaurant in Menlo Park. It is only about a block and a half from Cafe Borrone, so if you're at Borrone you can just walk over. There are two locations for it; we will be at the Menlo Park location. And keep in mind that we will be ordering from a small fixed menu, due to the size of the group, not from the full menu.

7:30: Dinner will probably end somewhere around this time. Dessert will not be part of the meal; we will be returning to the house for the reception, including wedding cake, an after-dinner cheese and fruit board, and drinks. A live band, Led Airegin, will play starting at 8:00 and going until perhaps 11:00. We will have champagne from S. Anderson of Napa Valley, white wine from Silver Rose Cellars of Napa Valley, and red wine from Joseph Phelps of Napa Valley. Coffee, tea, mixed drinks, beer and non-alcoholic beverages will also be provided. A hot tub will be heated up in the back of the house for the more adventurous guests (bring a swimsuit!). And a stand-up Millipede arcade game resides in the back yard and will be available for diversion.

Late: The party will finally grind to a halt, and you will all be cast out into the cold, harsh world.

Some guidelines regarding how to prepare for this wedding:

• We will have printed copies of the directions to the ceremony and to Borrone and Left Bank available for you at the house. However, you probably ought to print out, or transcribe, the directions to get to the house in the first place; we won't bother printing these, since they will do you no good until you have already reached the house.
• There will be a short walk on a dirt road to the ceremony site from where we park, so shoes that will work for walking off pavement are encouraged. Hiking boots will not be necessary.
• Attire will be between semi-formal and semi-casual; an effort to dress up and look nice is encouraged, but the groom will not be wearing a tuxedo, and dressing better than the groom is discouraged. Similarly, Keewi's dress will not be white, and she will not be wearing a veil. Nice summery dresses, lightweight slacks, longsleeve shirts and light suit jackets should be fine. Ties are not expected (the groom will not be wearing one), but will be permitted. It will probably be fairly hot; the average high for Redwood City on June 15th is 80 degrees Fahrenheit / 27 Celsius, and it will be the hot part of the day (the average low is 53 degrees Fahrenheight / 12 Celsius, by the way). So don't overdress. It will probably be 10-15 degrees cooler (Fahrenheit; 5-8 Celsius), and possibly a bit windy, at the wedding site itself; a thin sweater, a shawl, or a light suit jacket would probably not be amiss. Temperatures in San Francisco are typically much cooler, by the way, so anybody planning to venture that direction during their visit should be sure to bring some warmer clothes.
• You should already have made accomodations. If you have not, you are on your own, since the group rate reservations we booked have expired. We recommend Yahoo as a reasonable way to find cheap accomodation.
• If you think there is even a remote possibility that you will use the hot tub at the reception, we urge you to bring a swimsuit. Towels will be provided.
• Please designate a driver, or otherwise plan so that someone sober will be available to drive at all times. We will be carpooling to the wedding ceremony, to Borrone, to Left Bank and to the reception, so you may plan to rely upon someone else's sobriety, just as long as you rely upon someone's.
• Have fun and celebrate with us!

A few other notes:

Photography will be done by Tony Coluzzi of The Darkroom. He will be shooting black and white, including infrared film, in a mostly informal and documentary style. Other photographs would be very welcome; don't hesitate to bring a camera. Some color photos to complement the black and whites Tony will take would be very nice. If anybody feels like borrowing my medium-format 645 camera, I would be happy to give a quick lesson and lend it out.

Flowers will be provided by Amanda's of Menlo Park, just across the street from Left Bank. No link for them that I can find.

The wedding cake will be provided by The Prolific Oven, a bakery in Palo Alto.