sick sad world of the tram

The Aftermath

2008-02-15T15:16:00.000-08:00

So it has been more than a month since I've blogged. Time has been crazy and hectic. Lets start off with marriage is pretty calm and cool. Who would have thought being tied down was this nice. This post is going to be pretty long since I'm going to review the wedding and the next post about the honeymoon. I'll leave everything else after to the next post.

Let start with the wedding. Jeesus it was expensive. I never want to get married again, til death do us part is going to be true here and it's not the fact that I love her. It's the fact that it cost so damn much to go through a divorce and/or getting married again.

Skipping that drama. CHECK!

None the less Castle Green is a beautiful place to have a wedding at. The building in the background gives it a lot of flavor. The ceremony started on time. Everyone was fine. No, I did not cry during the ceremony. Wind blew some dirt in my eye. Here is a shot of the ceremony.

Professor Song was a fantastic MC, I mean pastor. He was funny and more importantly fast. No one likes a long ceremony. Then boom straight to drinking apparently. Tina and I had to take all the family portraits and what not. By the time I got into Castle Green people were already smashed. Jeez, a little tolerance wouldn't hurt. I guess open tab for 7 hours was a little excessive. Once inside I sort of hid from people so I can grab some snack. The fruit and vegetable displays were really good. Duxbury Catering was fantastic. Not only great food, but their service was pretty impeccable.

After happy hour, we started the reception with the first dance. Check out picture from below.

The reception went fairly well. It wasn't so bad, things of course aren't always perfect. The DJ didn't get the last minute detail on the cake cutting song nor the tribute song for our memorial table. The chicken we ordered wasn't exactly the chicken we picked. My grandma couldn't exactly eat the food since it was little salty for her taste.

There was definitely a lot of drunk people. They really took advantage of the open bar. Gary did a pretty fantastic job of taking our pictures. I was pretty stoke on a few shots.

I will post up more of shots once we decide which pictures we like to get printed out and what not.

The Westin screwed up our cake, so we don't have the top tier. Most of the day and night blew by pretty quickly. I didn't get a chance to slow down take another shot.

But here is a cute picture of me drinking.

I survived the night, survived rounds of liquor. More importantly survived a wedding I couldn't afford. What I couldn't survive is late night hunger. So Tina, Ed, Julie, and I walked down to California Pizza Kitchen to grab a late night snack. But they unfortunately were closed. So Julie goes well we can go to Coco's it's just a few blocks that way. It was not a few blocks that way, more like a few miles that way. We ended up walking there and Coco's was closed too. We settle for the Del Taco across the street from Coco's. There it was, Tina in her wedding dress, me in the tuxedo and us eating at Del Taco. Must have been an interesting picture, but Ed didn't bring his camera. Poopoo ED!

Picking out our wedding band

2007-12-18T16:56:00.001-08:00

So Sunday we dropped off Dez and Carly at the airport for their European vacation. Congrats to them, sounds like they will have a very awesome time. After that Tina strolled with the rest of my family (mom, sister, older sister, brother-in-law, and nephew).

We ventured to where those crazy Vietnamese people hang out, Little Saigon aka Westminster. My mom found it a good opportunity to get some bling bling for Tina, a tradition in the Vietnamese culture to give your future daughter in law a gift for joining the family. Since we were already there I figure we could pick out our wedding bands too. Good gosh I hate jewelry shopping, just give me a damn ring already. After searching all the stores I picked out a simple white gold band and got Tina another sapphire band to go along with her engagement ring.

After the jewelry shopping we also stopped by the Westminster Mall to pick up some Chuck Taylors for Ray. I also picked up a nice pair of Air Jordans for him too. Ray has a little fetish for black and red shoes. He even pointed to a pair of Lebron James shoes and I was like, "Hell no, you ain't getting a $139 dollar pair of shoes!"

I would say it was a very productive day in general as we got more stuff done for the wedding and even ended the night with some Korean BBQ. YAY! I need to kick back on the heavy appetite.

Rock Band

2007-12-18T16:52:00.000-08:00

I really wasn't a big Guitar Hero player, but after playing Rock Band at Robin's house. I was sold on how much fun it is, so Ed, Kam, Robin and I formed a very un-PC named band for which I will not say here since this is public. Rock Band is definitely the alcohol type game in which grown adults with no rhythm can sing and act like a band. My favorite song so far is Foo Fighters - Learn to Fly and Yeah Yeah Yeah - Maps.

Over the weekend activities part 2 - Sunday

2007-12-13T16:30:00.000-08:00

Wow, you thought Saturday was a long day. Sunday trumps Saturday like it ain't no thang. You like that don't you. Slang running through blood like what. Back to reality Tram, so Sunday we had to go meet with the Florist, DJ, and pickup the rest of Tina's fabric since one of the places closed on Saturday yet they are open on Sunday. We start out 10 minutes late going to meet Christine in Alhambra. Christine is super nice and has the best prices on flowers on our wedding ever. Thank you Kristen, I don't know what I would do without you. We decided on a few things but the most important thing was that I don't have to wear a boutonnière. Yay, one victory for Tram. I think Tina was a little upset about it though she never ever really shows her emotion, I guess that's a good thing. Talking about flowers really made me hungry, still curious how that works. Donna also attended the flower meeting with us. She has been quite the dandy helper for our wedding.

After meeting with Christine, we then went to Castle Green to meet our deejay, DJ Lee. A super nice gentleman he is. We walked the grounds with Donna and DJ Lee to make sure everything was up to par and they can do their job. Everything seemed to went well there, so Tina and I ended up eating lunch at the Barn Burner in Pasadena. Damn their food was pretty good, decent prices too. For about $15 bucks a person you can get a drink, a dinner meal with two side orders and free peanuts to eat and throw the shell on the ground. Awesome atmosphere with a little arcade and air hockey table. They had a few 50' LCD flat panels hanging so you can watch the games.

Being happily fed I had to go face the downtown traffic to pickup the rest of Tina's fabric. We made our way to the place on Maple street. I decided to drop Tina off in front of the store and do circles around the block instead of paying for parking. It paid off as Tina was quickly in and out of the store on my 2nd lap around the block. FUCK YOU white 06-07 BMW 325i, how you like them apples. It is called courtesy, just because there is room on the left hand side doesn't mean you can just ram up there and cut me off.

Thanks for listening to that part, I really needed to let it out. Doctor says it is good for me ... kekeke Dr Tram that is.

Well you thought it was over right? WRONG!

After we did all our wedding activities, Tina and I drove down to Irvine to do a photoshoot with Isaac and all of his motorcycle buddy. Actually, I lied it was just me doing the photoshoot. Tina hung out with Hurley inside the house. Pictures can be found here and here.

Some of my favorite shots of the night.

Well afterwards we were all supposed to go Korean BBQ in Garden Grove, but some shit hit the fan. Thank you for ruining an absolutely great time one person who threw a hissy fit over something that shouldn't even matter. FUCKin get over yourself. Sounds a little mean but no one ever supported me neither.

End of rant #2.

Over the weekend activities part 1 - Saturday

2007-12-13T15:55:00.001-08:00

So last weekend was pretty interesting. I know I am supposed to live to my fullest, but it's starting to get a little tiring. On Friday, Tina and I attended the Teleflora company party. Nice to be invited even though I'm a contractor. However, I was on the "Do not receive raffle" list. What evers so I could have an opportunity to win a free flight anywhere in the continental US or an iPod nano. None the less had a few drinks and some pretty good food at Akwa. Afterwards hung out with Desmond and Carly at Literati. Really dig the atmosphere there and their hazelnut coffee was pretty damn delicious.

Saturday was another hellish day in downtown since Tina's seamstress gave her the wrong orders . Seamstress said 60 yards of one fabric and so Tina got 60 yards of that fabric, but really she's supposed to get 20 yards of 3 different fabric that equals 60 yards. So besides overpaying for an extra 40 yards of fabric we had to go back and deal with getting some more fabric. Our wedding coordinator Donna Wisdom decided to roll with us too to pick up some centerpiece items. Along with Donna we got Ed and Kam to come along to take pictures too. Some pictures can be found here.

Kam being my model test subject for the day:

A nice shot of downtown LA.

Ed and Kam hanging outside one of the stores to pick up centerpieces.

After downtown district, we stopped by Samy's Camera store on Fairfax and near 3rd street. That place is just absolutely horrific, 4 stories of camera/camcorder equipment. I wouldn't be shock leaving that place with a $10,000 dollar bill. Instead I settled for picking up a couple flash hot shoe holder for lighting stands, a Canon STE-2 wireless trigger, and a carbon fiber Slik monopod. I am absolutely disappointed with the Canon STE-2 wireless trigger and I am going to return it. That thing has absolutely have no range, instead I am going to pick up a Pocketwizard. Overall it was not bad, they Samy's had a no tax sale going and Ed also picked a Canon 50mm f/1.8 lens along with the same carbon fiber Slik monopod I got.

Note: Sorry Kam, that was a lame parking ticket.

Afterwards to celebrate our terrible spending habits, we stopped by the Grove on 3rd street. Tina's never been there and I have only gone to eat at Woodranch. We stroll around and took some pictures on the roof as you can see below.

That was just Saturday. Stay tuned for what happened on Sunday.

30 days 5hrs 41min till our wedding

2007-12-04T09:20:00.000-08:00

WARNING: The following blog is potentially damaging material for being a man.

So, time has come to get married. The first thing and probably the thing I most cared about was the bachelor party. I know it was selfish, but damn it was a lot of fun in Vegas with the boys. Wish some of the other peeps were able to stay a little bit longer, but unfortunately they couldn't. I'll leave Vegas at that.

Now that we have about a month left before the wedding happens. Let's review what we have done so far. Venue is at the Castle Green in Pasadena. I think it was a happy medium for what we wanted and what we needed. We also had a lot of friends so we were not sure if everyone would have fit at Yamashiro in the Hollywood Hills. That place was pretty effin nice.

If you need to book a room please do ASAP at the Westin in Pasadena... link here!!!

Caterer/Decorator we have Duxbury's Catering. Mark has done a tremendous job in helping us with the food and decoration needs. Mark is a very well spoken gentlemen and can pretty much make anything you want happen. I have been quite impress with the ideas for the wedding. Tina can tell you much more about the theme, color, and ideas. I can tell you that it is just expensive because it is burning a hole in my pocket as I type.

Photographer we have Gary Cheng who also did my cousin Kristen and Peter's wedding. You know I do a little photography on the side and Gary's pictures always impresses me. Gary has quite the experience and portfolio to follow. Plus he gave me a really good deal on the whole setup.

None the less we still have plenty of things to deal with. Getting the rest of Tina's dress in order. Finalizing all the deals with the vendors and setting up the rehearsal time and dinner. Thank god we picked up Donna Wisdom who is going to be Wedding Coordinator. I think we got very lucky with getting Donna to help us out. This is going to relieve a lot of stress off of Tina.

Now to see if I have the money and energy to go to Disneyland at the end of the month.....