Planet Wedding, June 16-20, 2011
On Thursday, June 16, Rich, Sarah and I drove to Pasadena, California and checked into the Westin, our base on the planet. In the evening we joined the buffet at Louise Wannier (Rae's mother) and Michael Burns (Rae's stepfather) house, almost across the street from Cal Tech. We were joined by Rich's cousin Alyce, her husband Michael Mazzoni and their daughter Amanda's boyfriend, Michael Ryder (no, not the Boston Bruin hockey player) as well as my cousin Bari and her husband Bob Stanley (no, not of the Stanley cup). Others attending included Peter and Lenore Wannier (Rae's father and stepmother), their daughter Kate (Rae's half-sister), Jenny Wannier, Gregory Wannier, Timothy Wannier, Kelly Roberts (Rae's twin sister, older brother, oldest brother and girlfriend respectively), Ruth Saffman (Rae's grandmother, Louise's mother), plus …… It was a fun opportunity to catch-up and meet some of Rae's family we had not met before.
Friday morning we joined Chris and Kathy Quemore for a walk around the old section of downtown Pasadena with a stop for lunch. In the afternoon Rich and I stopped by Flintridge Bookstore and Coffee House (www.flintridgebooks.com), owned and operated by Peter and Lenore. Rich and I always love browsing through bookstores and this was no exception. The bookstore also has an Espresso Book Machine that prints, collates, covers and binds a single book in a few minutes. The machine allows readers to obtain any book title, even books that are out of print or print from a PDF file, then prints, binds and trims the reader's selection as a paperback book. We missed watching it operate but we did some examples and we are considering having the website from our previous cruising printed in paperback form.
The next activity for Friday was the rehearsal at the Rose Garden in Descanso Gardens (www.descansogardens.org), a short distance from the bookstore. The property where the gardens are located were once claimed for the King of Spain in 1769. The Rose Garden is the site for Jesse and Rae's wedding and the reception will be at the Rose Pavilion adjoining. This is a very popular place and we had to wait for a previous wedding to finish before we could do our rehearsal. We had a chance to practice walking to our places and walking out.
In the evening, Rich and I hosted the rehearsal dinner in the Card Room at the Athenaeum (http://athenaeum.caltech.edu/ ) on the Cal Tech campus. The Athenaeum was built in 1930 and the first formal dinner was held in February 1931 and Albert Einstein was one of the guests of honor. It definitely has a wonderful atmosphere. Our 32 guests included the bridal party (4 bridesmaids, 3 of 4 groomsmen, bride and groom, 3 sets of parents of the bride and groom, 2 flower girls) and immediate family, grandmother and a few out of town relatives and guests. The maître de played a chime signaling for everyone to sit down and dinner was served shortly. We were spread across 3 tables, the bride and groom circulated and shared 1 course of the dinner with each table. The food was excellent and everyone seemed to have a good time.
Saturday we all converged at Peter and Lenore's house for brunch from 10:30am to 3:00pm. They have a swimming pool in the backyard with a zip line going across it. Since many of the groomsmen and bridesmaids and their significant others as well as Jesse and Rae were staying here, the pool was a busy place. Us 'old folks' watched and enjoyed conversation. The bride and bridesmaids took time out to get manicures.
In the evening there was lots of activity. The bachelorette party was a mystery dinner. The bachelor party included a Korean barbeque and other activities I don't want to think about. A group of us had dinner at the California Pizza Kitchen. This included the Segos (Dan, Madeline, Lauren, Megan and Brian), the Hansmanns and the Quemores. After dinner we adjourned to Living Room (aka Westin Hotel bar). We were joined by my cousins Bari and Bob Stanley, Pam Ratner and Joy Johnson. Joy started us on drinking Manhattans and you can imagine where it went from there.
Sunday was the big day. Rich dropped me off at Louise's house where the bride had stayed the night and she was joined by the bridesmaids. They were taking turns getting their hair done and then their makeup. Nadine, Rae's cousin, who is training to be a skin specialist in Copenhagen (yes she is fluent in English and Danish) was nice enough to do my makeup as well. Sarah and Nadine did my hair. Rich picked me up around 1pm, then we picked up Timothy (Rae's oldest brother) along with Morgan Harris (Jesse's friend since he was 3 years old), and Alec Turnbull (Morgan, Alec and Jesse were in middle school together). After dressing Rich dropped me off at Descanso gardens so I could help the bride and bridesmaids get ready. There were only two minor crises – the veil was left at Louise's house and had to be retrieved (no problem, plenty of time), the guest books were misplaced and substitutes were obtained.
Once everyone was dressed and assembled it was time for pictures with the bride and her family. I volunteered to help organize getting the right folks in each picture with a lot of help from Gregory. Amazingly enough we got through all fifteen permutations. The bride was in good spirits even though she was briefly entangled in a low tree branch and was quickly rescued by her trusty bridesmaids. The bride was hustled off so she would not be seen by the groom. After combination of photographs of the groom, family and groomsmen there was time to relax before the guests arrived.
At 5:45pm, the guests were seated, the harpist was playing and the ceremony began. The bride was radiant as she was escorted by her father up the aisle. Jesse looked calm and cool in his tuxedo as he stepped down to meet them. Doug Hansmann did a great job officiating. Rae and Jesse repeated their vows. A few of us were getting a little teary eyed.
After the ceremony there were more photographs with the bride, groom, bridal party and families.
And then… the reception! The harpist was replaced by a jazz quartet. The dance floor opened and the party began. Unbeknownst to Rich and me, Rae and Jesse had taken dance lessons in Portland a few weeks prior. Jesse was the king of the dance floor putting many to shame. Everyone remarked on it. At one point, the band struck up Hava Nagilla, Rae and Jesse were hoisted up on chairs and we danced circles around them. Both of them clung to their chairs hoping to survive without being dumped on the floor. But survive they did and we all had a good time.
After the cake cutting, bouquet tossing (caught by a flower girl) and garter tossing (caught by Jeryl), it was time for the happy couple to depart. Peter has a vintage Model T which he used to drive the newlyweds to their hotel. Rae and Jesse sat in the rumple seat complete with a 'Just Married' sign on the back. As the Model T did not have dashboard lights, Peter had to use a flashlight to see the speedometer. Upon arriving at the hotel and extricating the pair, Peter was approached by a woman in front of the hotel asking if he would drive her son and his future bride for their wedding in September. Peter graciously declined.
Monday morning we picked up Sarah and then the newlyweds. After a quick stop to drop off the wedding dress at Louise's we drove to LAX and dropped Jesse and Rae at the airport.
Rich, Sarah and I departed Planet Wedding and drove back to Windarra at Emeryville. It was a weekend to remember and we want to thank everyone who was able to attend for helping us celebrate.
By the way, Jesse and Rae have a website on the wedding. Check this in the future for more photos from the wedding (https://sites.google.com/site/wannierjablonskiwedding2011/).
