Yay! we’re married. We just got back from our glorious 2 week wedding/honeymoon celebration. We started in Portland, OR for one week (where 20 of our close family and friends joined us) to celebrate the VooDoo Donut version of our “holy matrimony”! Then we travelled all the way to Kauai, HI for a 1 week honeymoon, in probably the most gorgeous place on the planet (as far as we know).

First, lets talk about the wedding. It was an intimate affair, of 20 family members (most of them mine) and friends. We stayed at the Hilton right downtown Portland, and spent the first few days getting acquainted with the city, as Jake and I have never been there before now. We wanted to check out the venue (VooDoo 2) and do a tour of some of the local hot-spots. We also got to visit a musician-friend of ours (Wizard Boots) and watch them play a show at a Dive Bar in the city…which was a ton of fun!

When the family arrived, we took right to sight-seeing and planning the big day. No one really knew what to expect, as most of the family was thrown by our choice to get married in such a …. unique…location. We had a ball getting ready for the big day. I got to spend some quality time with all of my closest friends who attended (Goober and Nessa, Christine, Kristy, Julie, Joe, Aunts & Uncles, Jolynne and Wendy — Jake’s Mom). It was really nice to share the experience of a new city with these people because it was totally new to all of us!

We went to the rose/japanese gardens one afternoon, and it happened to rain the entire day, but we still had an awesome time. We went out to LOTS of great restaurants, and we even went to the local flower show to buy my flowers (which were amazingly beautiful for being so inexpensive).

The big day came and we all got prepped and glamoured. Vanessa came as my personal makeup artist, and she did an amazing job! We took a shuttle to the VooDoo Donut’s location, because there were too many of us to drive or train, and we didn’t want to get our fancy clothes dirty! From the start, it was an ADVENTURE. It rained the entire day until we arrived at VooDoo, in which the sun peaked out from the clouds for JUST enough time so we could get pictures outside at the location. We had some wacky shots, and an even wackier wedding ceremony! It lasted about 15 minutes, and was anything but traditional.
I can’t divulge everything, but in summation, we had to summon voo doo spirits to ensure our compatability, we had to jump over a rickety broom and we had to do a circle-dance to Kenny Roger’s ghost. Our wedding cake was the traditional Voo Doo donut (which is a raspberry filled donut shaped like a person with a pretzel sticking out — you know because its VooDoo doll!). We also got “Toast” donuts made for the reception….but i digress.

After the ceremony, we talked and danced and had a mini reception of donuts and coffee for about 30 minutes, took pictures in the photo booth, played the video game machines, until they reopened the shop for the general public. There were about 50 Asian tourists waiting to come in and they were all so excited to see the wedding and take pictures of us…we felt like movie stars.

Soon after, we headed for the fancy reception at a super swank french restaurant (which is sadly no longer in business) called 10-oh-1. It was PHENOMENAL EATING. We all laughed, drank, ate (too much) and celebrated the awesome occasion. All-In-All, a very happy wedding for both of us!