norm, teri, the wedding cake, and a sword

I flew into San Diego late last night for the sole purpose of attending Norm Hamson and Teri' Sulpizio's wedding, which took place today at Quail Gardens, in Encinitas. Norm's entire wedding party consisted of childhood buddies, all of whom I knew from high school. The ceremony itself was actually fairly strange, because everybody I knew there (except for Adam's girlfriend Diana) was in the wedding party, so I sat there in the audience, alone. Luckily, the ceremony was short and sweet. In fact, it was possibly the shortest planned ceremony in history; we were out of there in ten minutes, ready for photo time. I really liked Teri's dress. Eryn said that the taper in her gloves made her look like a superhero.

norm and his groomsmen: mike harriff, jarom pollock (best man), grant ingersoll, dan smoot, adam spragg, chris abbott	norm's dad	exchanging rings
cute little girls on the hamson side	norm and teri	adam and one of teri's bridesmaids

The next hour was spent taking photographs, the participants being assembled in every possible combination of groups. The entire gaggle of ceremony attendees stood in the sun while the photographers photographed us from high up. They didn't use a fill-in flash for the large group photo, so I'm wondering how they're going to turn out. I was having a hard time metering and getting sharp photos because the sun was very strong and was shining directly overhead. Most of my pictures are slightly blurry. :(

preparing for photos	teri's father, telling me to go away. just kidding. :)
the fair hamsons	teri and someone i don't know	teri and norm
unhappy girl!	the hamsons	teri

After the general attendee photos, the wedding party retreated to the ceremony area for more photos. They were a very sharp looking group, in my opinion. :) The two hired photographers were annoyed that someone else with a nice camera was taking photos as well. They called me out: "we don't want them to look at the wrong camera.", and were pretty good about trying to stand between me and the party whenever they could. How juvenile! grrrr...

Oh well. I consider myself "at peace" with my camera. I don't want my camera to prevent me from really participating in events, so I snap shots when I can and don't feel bad if I miss a good shot.

the entire wedding party	norm and teri
		photographer tried (in vain) to get between me and the wedding party before i could snap this shot. you can see part of his rig in the lower-right hand corner :)
		oops! :)
	dan's wife, and grant's g/f

A large reception was held afterwards in a huge tent that was erected on the San Marcos City College campus. While the ceremony was held in a small, intimate setting, the reception was rather grand. I was told that 350 guests were in attendance. The ethnic make-up of the crowd was not very diverse (roughly 99% caucasian), but it didn't feel strange at all. Perhaps it was because I was with old high school friends? Anyway, it was like a little Torrey Pines High School reunion! Besides all the groomsmen (Mike Harriff, Jarom Pollock, Grant Ingersoll, Dan Smoot, Adam Spragg, and Chris Abbott), TPHS grads Bobby Stephens, Dax Shifrel, Mike Stuparich, Iwan Thomas, Eryn Roston, John Yarris, Greta, Kevin Christie, and Diana (Adam's girlfriend) were all there. It was nice to see them again -- I used to hang out some with this crowd, and have only managed to keep in contact with them sporadically over the last eight years. Incidentally, Greta has become quite striking since the last time I saw her. :)

first dance

availability of balloons draws kids to pop them...

The cake was monstrous. I think I counted eight separate cake layers. Anyway, I've never seen a wedding where a sword was used to cut the cake.

never turn your back on a man with a sword.

It was fantastic to see old friends again, and it was really great to see Norm so happy. During the family/wedding party photo shoot, Norm called me up to take a photo with him, which was very touching. However, when I left the wedding, I couldn't help having feelings of loneliness creep in to mingle with my feelings of happiness. I've heard that weddings will do that to people who attend alone. When I'm playing for a wedding it never happens, but attending the wedding of a good friend is very different, especially when 90% of the other people I knew arrived happily attached to another person.

me and norm!	diana, adam, norm
hollywood screenplay writers dax and bobby	greta, bobby, bob's g/f, dax, dax's g/f