Paul & Nedda's wedding

Not sure how to approach writing up my thoughts on Paul and Nedda's wedding.  Too much of what took place will fade away for me if I don't put down some details.  But writing about an event in too much detail can also be bad - tends to displace what does remain in memory.  And I definitely don't want that to happen - the memory set for this event is entirely too wonderful.  So I'll try to walk the line here, so to speak.

(Unfortunately it's already April 6-7 when I'm writing most of this (in my usual late-night mode), so recall already is weakened.  At least this is better timing than last year's wedding - my work pace blew up during and after the wedding weekend and it was five or six weeks before I could reflect back at all.  Ugh to that.)

Overview:  after two recent first-hand experiences - I'm getting a better perspective on how many elements go into a wedding - and they all came together marvelously for this one.  In order of importance:  First: it starts with the couple getting married:  Paul and Nedda are two unusually fine folks; everyone "knew" this wedding was coming (for years now), everyone was happy it was coming, everyone was more than ready to celebrate.  Second:  the families - we have been close friends with the Reghabis for years now and their extended family - some of whom we were meeting for the first time - were just as gracious and fun as could be.  Then there was just a great turn-out from my siblings and their families - they travel extremely well! and were great fun to have around.  My mom and dad made the big trip; Babanazi (phonetic sp) traveled all the way from Iran; etc.  The siblings of the bride and groom - these folks were the best - drove so much of the activity, looked out for everyone to be included and have a good time, nice.  Third:  the friends of the families - OK, we didn't have a ton of room for friends on the guest list for the wedding itself - but those that were able to be included at the wedding (or showed up at the Wednesday, Saturday or other events) - added immensely, great support in so many ways.  Fourth:  the logistics - what could be planned, was planned extremely thoughtfully and effectively.  Just a few examples.  Picking MB to run the ceremony = inspired choice, she set the right tone and did a great job.  Marriott at McDowell Mountain - lovely venue.  Persian Room for catering - such a treat.  Table decorations, flowers, ceremony set-up, all the stuff I don't even know about - all worked.  Fifth:  what couldn't be planned or forced also worked - fantastic weather every step of the way - this matters.  Also:  the way the guests from all corners of the guest list made it their business - in an entirely unbusinesslike manner - to get to know and interact with one other throughout the various events - this accounts for much of the intensely warm feeling about the events that folks seem to be left with as they departed.

Chronological summary:

Weekend of March 16-18 - the wedding party did some bachelor/bachelorette event stuff around town.  Sounds like folks had fun but thankfully it wasn't the kind of partying that movies are made of (with one possible exception).

Wednesday March 21 - most of the out-of-towners arrived from the Midwest or wherever else they live.  CPG, PJr and I went to Costco in afternoon and loaded up on party food and drink.  Put the house together, set things up, then hosted a mix of visitors and locals at our house for dinner.  Beautiful evening, a chance to light the fire-table, pleasant as can be.  Also a good opportunity for the two families to become better acquainted.

Thursday March 22 - checked into the Marriott in mid-afternoon.  Somehow we managed to be 100% busy right up to the time of leaving for the hotel - pulling together prep items, clothes, rehearsal dinner final details, on and on.  Rehearsal at 5p - all shaping up beautifully.  Those of us in the "procession" focused on getting down the staircase without tripping.  Decided to delay the next day's start-time a few minutes to avoid sun-blinding and to benefit from more of the sunset lighting during the ceremony (very successful decision).  Got to hear Babanazi work on his speech.  All good.

Slideshow 1:  rehearsal, rehearsal dinner (view any slideshow full-screen by clicking on it and following the prompts):


Then to La Hacienda at Fairmont Scottsdale Princess for the rehearsal dinner.  Last-minute shuffle of many table seating assignments (mostly to tighten things up) (thanks N&K for help with this).  PJ and I felt the planning and location choice paid off.  Beautiful hotel grounds to walk through; nice luminaria setup leading to the private patio for cocktails; gorgeous evening and fine conversation on the patio.  Moved into dining room - we were happy to have made the last-minute add of the guacamole/salsa/chips; food delightful, service great, wines turned out well, the room was warm and inviting - and very private from the rest of the restaurant.  Served 45 or so.  A great evening for the families to get to know each other even better.  But my favorite part of the evening was the opportunity for folks to wish Paul and Nedda all the best in an intimate setting.  We had wonderful participation in this, and wonderfully thoughtful remarks.

Here's how I know I was having a great evening:  completely lost track of time.  When the valet brought up our car and the clock showed 11p, I was near-shocked.  It felt like 9p.  Certainly hadn't thought to check a watch all evening.

Then folks were nice enough to sit around at the hotel bar later into the evening for some fine chit-chat.

Friday March 23  - this was the big day.  Got off to a fine start with a walk to breakfast at Over Easy (east on Bell Road about a mile or so).  Spent time around the pool, then started shifting into ceremony-prep mode. Nice moments getting ready with the guys in the wedding party.  Lots of photos.  Folks started showing up for the ceremony, buzz builds.

Slideshow two:  wedding day

 

Ceremony started around 5:45p - 5:50p.  The bride was beautiful!  All the wedding party attire shopping (at Men's Wearhouse for the guys, surprisingly effective place) worked great.  MB running her first wedding - did a great job, seemed like a pro.  The little guitarist did a very nice job.  Beautiful setting, beautiful ceremony.  The words to the vows portion of the ceremony remains 100% compelling.  More photos after, fun.

Cocktail reception with hors d'oeuvres from Persian Room - interesting, delightful stuff.  Fun chatting it up with everyone.  Dinner followed - the ballroom looked great.  Dancing - mix of Persian and more typical dance music - this worked.  Saeed's toast - very welcoming and effective.  Nadia and EPG also do a fine job with their toasts.  The Persian Room food was wonderful.  I sat by Babanazi at table - a most gracious dinner companion (in addition to a fine dancer) - I enjoyed a couple cups of tea with him along with some of the desserts.  The evening flew by and of a sudden, the dance music ended at midnight.

Onto the lobby bar, a group of us then went up to Saeed's suite on a foiled Johnny Walker hunt, then went up to one of the guest rooms with the "kids," then declared it to have been a wonderful evening and PJ and I back to the room around 2a.

Saturday March 24 - a more relaxing day - nice breakfast at the bagel shop by my office, where we recapped the doings of the two preceding days.  Much milling around by the pool in the early part of the day (including a form of baseball game).  We did some picnic prep stuff (mostly PJ, Cecilia, Therese, me) including a run to our house for supplies; then over to Cactus Park.  Set up for a picnic there that started around 3p.  A nice, relaxed, event, with great turnout from wedding guests, friends, family; perfect weather; we lingered until maybe 8p?

Slideshow three:  various Scottsdale/hotel . . . 

 

Various groupings of folks played bags or volleyball, or simply sat around eating, drinking, chattering.  I had a chance to pitch horseshoes with my dad - something I didn't really expect to ever do again - Paul Jr. joined in (instructional league).  Back to hotel where we sipped some beverages around the pool, some used the hot-tub, mostly we chattered, recapped, enjoyed; ate some pizza courtesy of EPG; then security busted it up (gently) so we relocated to the lobby quite awhile.  Said goodbyes to those leaving Sunday morning.

Sunday March 25 - breakfast at Wildflower; slow process of checking out of the Marriott and hauling lots of wedding goods back to our house; then PJ and I got busy cleaning up the house as those still in town were coming over.  Other than the need to say good-byes to folks who were leaving (felt "way too early" for this), it was a most enjoyable day.  We toasted Nicole and POC on their first anniversary.  We ran through the wedding video that Charlie had taken (Mina, Nedda, Naseem were able to come over for this).  We looked at some pictures.  We munched on some leftovers.  Carol and I took a little walk from 40th street trailhead.

Around 5p we were visited by Saeed, Mina, Naseem, Nedda, Paul Jr.  At this point pretty much everyone was gone on their return trips except Nicole (who was able to postpone her flight a day), EPG (who was delaying his car trip return to LA), Carol & Jim.  MB came by.  Saeed brought over the once-lost bottle of Johnny Walker Blue.  So we started working on that with some cheeses and crackers etc.  All helped on the bottle, some (Saeed, CPG, Jim, me) more than others - this was a very fine treat.  And the Reghabis brought some most-excellent Persian Room "leftovers" from the wedding reception.  What a perfect way to end the wedding weekend, we only wished more folks could have stayed through.  Eventually played a game of hearts.  I won easily, though found card-shuffling a bit of a challenge for some reason.

Patrick drove back to LA starting at 11p.  Jim and Carol left the house at 3a Monday for their Alaska return flight (no witnesses to their departure).  Nicole left mid-day Monday.  We all started going back to work.  Paul and Nedda moved into their apartment Sunday night (and may have gone to class on Monday).

A fine weekend was over.

Slideshow four:  miscellaneous "prior to" the wedding weekend . . . 

Menu

PJr and Nedda got married!

The entire wedding experience was delightful.

I'm going to post some more thoughts (and photos) on this shortly. 

In the meantime, a photo.  The constituent shots were taken by Charlie on Sunday morning in the Marriott lobby as we were getting ready to check out of the hotel.  The right half of this was one of my very favorite photos of the entire weekend.  (The left half . . . sort of . . . complements the right half . . . sort of.)

Organ Pipe follow-on

The below item caught my eye today (mandatory armed escorts?) . . . mostly because I was just musing on my birthday that it was hard to believe we felt safe, not all that long ago, taking young kids to Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument (though that post was more of an excuse to post one of my favorite birthday photos).