Mike and Tara's Wedding (7/12/03)
Last updated 7/19/03
Russian translation here
Our friends Mike and Tara, now Mr. and
Mrs. Gill (or most formally, Mr.
and Mrs. Michael Gill... we live in a wonderful, chauvanist society),
had a beatufiul wedding on July 12th which we were honored
to attend. See pictures below (none of ourselves - those didn't come
out, and anyway we weren't the important people in this event).
The wedding was held in a lovely park (Prospect Park, Redlands CA) - I
didn't even know such pretty places existed around Riverside where I
spent two years of my life! The lawn in front of the wedding gazebo was
lit with sunshine and surrounded by gorgeous trees, and a large
lemon-yellow butterfly fluttered its long wings against the backdrop of
greenery just as the marriage ceremony was being performed. Judge
Spitzer, the father of Puneet and Mike's high school friend Chris, led
the ceremony and did a fine job of it. He gave such a personal,
touching speech, that I couldn't help crying. It's good to be reminded
once in a while what the marriage is all about and what you said in
your own wedding vows. By the way, we heard the rumor that Mr. Spitzer
is quite picky about the marriages he agrees to officiate; he always
meets the bride and groom, talks to them, makes up his mind about the
prospects of this marriage, and only performs the ceremony if he
belives the couple has a future together. And lo and behold, not a
single divorce in the couple of dozens marriages officiated by the good
Judge! Mike and Tara, you guys better hold up his reputation.
Daria's had her say, so now my 2
cents on the wedding. First off, congratulations to both Mike and Tara
on this most wonderful wedding (that sounds so much like something out
of Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure --- "Remember to be excellent to
one another"...) and may they share great joy in the coming years
together. The wedding itself was beautiful and brought back fond
memories from our own wedding. Looking at Mike and Tara running around,
trying to pose for the photographers, mingle with guests, etc. I was
reminded of just how trying an experience it can be for the bride and
groom and was impressed by how well our friends held up under the
pressures of the day. In fact before the wedding I looked at Mike and
his brother Nick and noticed that though Nick was sweating, Mike looked
pretty relaxed -- you'd have thought that their roles were reversed
that day. Before I forget, great toast Nick (nice, unpretentious and
funny!).
I also wanted to thank John and Carol for their generous hospitality
while we stayed at their place in Riverside. They also have 2 wonderful
dogs (though I'm partial to Harvey, a very agreeable beagle, while
Sabrina is a generally male-hating beagle -- can't buy her love with
doggy treats, that's for darn sure). Also a very special thank
you to John for the pointer about having better, hi-res pictures...
everything from San Diego onward should be nicer to view online and
certainly off-line due to John's helpful advice (2 mega pixel normal
mode, 1600x1200 seems like a good size/quality compromise).
Being back in Riverside allowed
us to visit a lot of family friends, and I wanted to thank all of them
for their hospitality in the time spent at their places (Dr.
Singh, Priti and Ashok, Madhu auntie, and Indu auntie).
Parting thought: It's
kinda scary when a significant fraction of your friends from
high-school are now married... it makes you realize just how old you
are. One of them is even a house-owner, so there's that added sense of
responsiblity and "adultness" floating around. Anyway, enough of that,
and onto the good stuff ... the pictures
Pictures
Mostly Mike and Tara, also Chris with Stephanie and John
with Carol.
Mostly Mike and Tara, also Chris with Stephanie and John
with Carol.