Jeff & Jo's Wedding! - Setting Up and The Ceremony!

Jo and I had a great time at our Wedding Feast and we would love to share our thoughts and memories with you - whether you came to celebrate with us or could not come.

This ceremony brought together two different families, two different cultures and two very different people, all with the hope and joy of two people loving each other and all trusting in that love and hope to carry through the ages. Both Jo and I know the responsibilities and dedication needed and we both are extremely willing to work with and support each other throughout our lives.

We are happy and we hope to spread as much of our happiness around (without grossing too many people our, of course!).

Anyway, without further ado....

Jeff & Jo's Wedding Feast
Feb 3rd, 2007; Noon
@ The Sun Spa & Resort in Da Keng
Taichung, Taiwan, ROC!

"Welcome to Jeff & Jo's Joyous and Fun Marriage Ceremony, Feb. 3rd, 2007"

This was written by the wife of a good friend after we told him we wanted to have a simple poster for our wedding, based on mine above. I must not have explained "Simple" enough since when we saw this, we were floored! She put a lot of work into it and we want to thank her very much! - Thanks Eva!

That design on the top is "Shuang Xi" or "Double Happiness" always used in marriages in Taiwan and China. Yes, those are red beans made into that shape, for extra good luck.

This is the entrance to our feast area, before all the people arrived - all 170 of them! We barely had enough room inside, but thankfully, the patio area was nice to sit out in due to the beautiful weather. Also, the patio is where we had our wedding ceremony and spoke our vows (as you will see later).

Here I am being busy before it all begins. Jo has not arrived yet, since she has to make up and get ready, so I am trying to organize the balloons and the other small arrangements. However, I must say a big THANK YOU to all the ALE members who came early as well to help me set things up!

Jo and I like wine a lot and we often drink various wines to compare. For the price and taste, we settled on Australia's Yellow Tail Merlot for our wedding and since Jo knew someone in the import warehouse, we got 6 cases for a very good price.
I was worried that it would not be enough, but it worked out perfectly, since many of the Taiwanese guests only had a little, leaving the majority for my foreign friends! Luckily, we did not have THAT many lushes at lunchtime.....

Ok, we can start the REAL pics now......
Here is Jo's new American family, my Mom, me, Jo, Wendy and my Dad (my other sister was not able to attend).
Notice the cool mountains in the background as well! This is where we would have the ceremony in a few minutes.

And here is my new Taiwanese family - at least some of them...
A Family Friend, Jo's Mom, Mi Fen and Ya Wen (2 of Jo's 8 neices), Er Jie (Jo's 2nd oldest sister), Jo and Me.

Here is our Greeting Table and 3 lovely Red Envelope Takers.
For those who are not familiar with a Chinese Wedding Feast, you come here, hand over your present - a red envelope with some cash - and then you sign your name to mark the occasion. Then you go eat until you can not move....

Ok, now we are moving!
After a slight delay since our minister (and my good friend) got a little lost and was late, we got ready as soon as possible (so that we could eat soon, too! - Course that plan utterly failed...haha).
We did not have music as we walked down to the ceremony spot, since we were in a rush to get going and plus it was hot out (for Feburary!). Also, you will notice, Jo is wearing sunglasses. This is not to act cool, but to protect her eyes from the sun (duh!) since they were hurting in the bright light (Jo's eyes are quite big, you know!)....

We are trying to rush to say our vows and some people are trying hard to add ambiance!

Great! We made it!
Now all we have to do is listen to Jimbo perform the ceremony, make sure Erin (my other 'sister' with the same birthday as Wendy) translates well, and not goof up our vows...of which mine are in Chinese and Jo's are in English, by the way!

Here I go...saying my vows, of which are in Chinese. We decided that I would say them in Chinese and Jo in English, since we wanted our parents to make sure of the other person's seriousness. Also, if I spoke English, Jo's mom could not understand and if Jo spoke Chinese, my parents could not understand, so we switched and it ended up not too bad!

This is what I said: "I, Jeffrey, take you, Josephine, to be no other than yourself, in all the ways that life may find us, taking care of you in sickness and rejoicing with you in health, as long as we both may live."

Now it is Jo's turn and she did a great job. She also said the same thing, in English. Notice my mom and sister looking intently on...
.

Next is the exchanging of the rings. Again, as we were putting the rings on each other's fingers, we said things in our opposite languages so that all could understand.

Here is what we said: "______, Wear this ring forever as a symbol of the strength of my love and all that is unending, so that it brings peace and happiness to us in all we do."

Well, now we are talking....I mean kissing....and you know what that means!

Yes, Please welcome the newly married Mr. and Mrs. Angelovich!

Yeah, I guess you can say we are kinda happy!

Ok, Now let's go to the Activities Inside!

Keep Reading on the next post!