Today we attended a wedding of some long time family friends, Charissa Wong and Patrick Godfrey. The Wongs have known Ray forever. He is the one they call when the clocks that are up too high in the house need their batteries changed or when the eight foot Christmas tree needs to be decorated and straightened. Mrs. Wong has plied Ray's favor over many years by providing his favorite fried rice and inviting us to countless BBQs and Chinese dinners.
The wedding was aboard the Spirit of Ethan Allen II, with the ceremony outside on the bow of the boat. While it had rained earlier in the day (thunder and lighting) by the time of the ceremony it was just over-cast, but nice enough to have it outside, as planned. Ray and I bouced back and forth between the second and third decks, trying to get a good view of the ceremony. While Patrick and Charissa had technically already been married in Miami in June, that ceremony was more for the air force paperwork requirements, and today's wedding was what they had been hoping for and planning for a while.
Even though the breeze off the lake made it a little cold, and blew out their unity candle, they were all smiles! It was on everyone's face how happy they were for Patrick and Charissa and how proud their parents were.
Ray managed to captures some great shots just after the ceremony!
After dinner was served there was the traditional cutting of the cake! Patrick and Charissa had decided that they didn't want to smash cake in each other's faces. The bridal party did not agree. So right after they fed each other, the maid of honor (Heather, Charissa's sister) and the best man each took a finger full of frosting and smushed it on the faces of the bride and groom! 
Charissa then changed in to her traditional (red) Chinese wedding dress for the Tea Ceremony.
As part of the Tea Ceremony both Charissa and Patrick each served tea to her parents, his parents, his grandparents, and her grandparent and great aunt and uncle. After Patrick and Charissa had each served both members of each couple they were given gifts (necklaces, bracelets, etc) and red envelopes (rumor has it with monetary gifts). The ceremony was beautiful and it was great to have Nick (Charissa's older brother and Ray's good friend from high school) explain some of the finer points.
Then it was time to par-tay! The DJ got the music going, Patrick and Charissa had their first dance, the bridesmaids almost killed each other over the bouquet, the garter toss saw less enthusiam and the boys did a wonderful and soulful rendition of Bohemian Rhapsody.
Ray rocks out!
The proud parents of the bride!
I even got a dance in with Nick!
The most brillant thing Patrick and Charissa did was to set up a Flickr account ahead of time. They included the address and log in information with the thank you note in the favor (yummy Lake Champlain Chocolates). They asked everyone to upload any digital photos taken at the wedding. This way anyone who attended could browse and download photos. It also means that they will have quite the album when everyone is done! Ray got his photos in order first thing when we got home. We went to bed while they were still uploading to the site. Brillant!