Rachel and Shay's wedding!

On June 12, we drove out to Long Island for the wedding of one of my college roommates (and one of the very first people I met at Princeton), Rachel!  The wedding was held at the DeSeverky mansion, a former DuPont mansion and one of the most beautiful wedding locations we've ever been to.  If it weren't a 2.5-hour drive away, I would seriously consider taking Joshua there just for a photo shoot!  It was an absolutely lovely backdrop for a beautifully romantic wedding.  (For some truly amazing photos, check out the sneak peek from their pro photogs here -- and check it out, Joshua made it into the sneak peek!)

Rachel and Shay really did have such a lovely wedding.  They met in Israel while Rachel was posted in Tel Aviv with the State Department, so they officially got married there back in April.  But I personally was very, very glad that they had a ceremony close enough for us to drive to in a day with a toddler.  ;)  Joshua had SO MUCH FUN celebrating -- he played with a fountain off to the side during the ceremony, was enchanted with the hora, clapped along after all of the toasts, and generally charmed the pants off of all and sundry.  And we had a lovely time being there for Rachel and Shay and catching up with dear old friends.  We all really should get together more often!!

(And this was the first big event I got to use our new 70-200mm telephoto lens -- I looooove this beast of a lens!)

A bridal shower for Rachel!

The Sunday before Thanksgiving, I got to go up to Queens for the bridal shower of one of my old college roommates!!  Rachel is working in the State Department these days, and is currently posted in Prague (after having been posted in Tel Aviv), so it's rare that she's in the States.  So you better believe I made the time to make the trek all the way out to her parents' house for this beautiful bridal shower brunch!

Rachel and Shay are such a cute couple -- they're really perfect for each other, and it's so beautiful to see that.  And it was so much fun getting to celebrate Rachel with other dear friends!  We had quite the roommate mini-reunion -- it was SO good getting to see all of these girls.


Princeton girls!  Karen, Diana, Yashih, Rachel, Shauna and me
The shower itself was lovely.  Hosted by Rachel's mom and sister, there were so many sweet little touches -- including a surprise guest at the very beginning!  Rachel was given a little gift to open, and then was told to guess who from her past had come to celebrate with us at the shower -- it was a favorite teacher from grade school, who had apparently made a huge impact on Rachel's life.  Which says something sweet and nerdy about our dear Rachel.  :)


The clue: a little flamingo figurine


Surprise!
We played silly games, ate delicious food, showered Rach with gifts, and had a wonderful time together.









Rachel, you're so beautiful -- can't wait to see you on your wedding day!  Much love to you and Shay!

Anna and David!

The second wedding of the day on June 26 was Anna and David's!  Anna was also Princeton '03, and is part of what I think of as my extended roommate friend circle -- so we got to catch up with the girls I lived with or near all four years of college!

David is a post-doc at the Institute for Advanced Study, a center associated with the university, originally created as an intellectual haven for Einstein back in the '30s.  So Anna and David had their wedding on the grounds of the Institute, right next to a beautiful little lake.

Again, no photos of the reception, but here are some from the ceremony!


String quartet on the banks of the lake


David and his mother, with the bridal party in the background

Anna makes her appearance!

Anna and her beautiful wedding gown

They look so happy together!

I really like close-up hand shots at weddings  :)

The first kiss!

Dr. and Mrs. Shih!

So Ed proposed to Elaine on the banks of this lake.  When we asked them where exactly he had proposed, this is what happened.  :)

Elaine, me and Diana -- senior year roommates!  (Yashih had already gone inside, I think; I should try to photoshop her in!)

Anna and David, it was such a beautiful ceremony.  Thank you so much for inviting us!  We're glad you're sticking around in Princeton for at least a little while longer!

Hello there, due date!

It's a bit after 7am on January 25 as I start to write this post -- we made it to our due date!! So I'm sorry, Anna and Rachel, but it looks like your guesses in our baby pool that Eggi would arrive early ended up not being correct... And I was so hoping you'd be right!

But in some ways, it's a good thing that I haven't gone into labor yet. We got to do a lot of things this past weekend that we would have been sad to miss...

On Saturday, we got to spend time with Jason and Damara! It's been ages since we hung out with the two of them... Jason, of course, was one of David's college roommates, and was best man at our wedding (and the one responsible for the public airing of our "Keddiebear" nickname). And his girlfriend Damara was also a part of that close-knit group of college friends. They used to both be in the New Brunswick area, which is a short drive away, so we'd hang out with them to watch "Lost" and just spend time together. But now, Damara's doing med school rotations down in Philly, and Jason's up in NYC pursuing his dream of being a starving artist, so it's harder for us all to get together. So when they offered to come out here for an afternoon, we jumped at the chance to see them! It was such a fun afternoon/evening of just shooting the breeze with old friends, making dinner together, and finishing off the evening with an impromptu ice cream sundae bar. :) Thanks for coming out to visit us, guys!

Then yesterday morning, we attended the baptism of the daughter of some dear friends of ours. Jukka and Laura are in our Tuesday night small group, and they had their second baby on December 18 -- and she's such a cute little thing! According to Finnish tradition, the parents won't reveal the name of the baby until her baptism -- so we'd been waiting over a month to know what her name was! We would have gone to her baptism anyways, but finding out the name was a nice additional incentive for us. :) Aliina Liliana's baptism was a sweet time of dedicating this little one to the Lord, and standing by her family as they committed to placing His Word in her hands and her heart.

After the baptism and a quick lunch, David and I headed over to the PEF office to finish working on the booklet for the PEF/Manna winter retreat this week. This is a project that always takes longer than we think it will... I stayed behind in the office to figure out formatting issues and printer settings while David went off to the first Perspectives class for the rest of the afternoon. (Perspectives is a 15-week course on missions, which is being co-sponsored by PEF and spearheaded by our friends Erik and Andréa; from what I've heard, the first class was excellent!) Printing out and stapling 125 copies of the retreat booklet ended up taking almost 6 hours all told... At least I had L. M. Montgomery to keep me company! (That's right -- at least once a year, I turn back to my childhood "comfort food" books and reread the "Anne of Green Gables" series...)

And now, David's off getting together the pre-retreat breakfast -- it's something like 9 dozen bagels, 3 dozen donuts, 6 gallons of juice, 50 bananas, 3 boxes of clementines, 32 oz. cream cheese, and 1 pound of butter. Gotta love buying in bulk for these events... I'll be heading out in a few minutes to pick him up and see off the students and staff. It's the first winter retreat David isn't going on since 2002 -- we're definitely disappointed to be missing out on it. (And I'll feel a little guilty if Eggi is late and doesn't come until after everyone gets back...)

But we're looking forward to this week of being home together! I'm still working, so as to save up my maternity leave for after the baby's birth, but I'm working from home from here on out -- so I've met my goal of not having my water break in the office! And it'll be nice to put the finishing touches on our nesting and really hunker down to prepare as much as we can for little Eggi, and the many changes he'll be ushering into our lives...

Hopefully he'll be here soon! We'll keep you all posted!

Brian and Diana Chang!!

Last weekend, we went up to North Jersey for the wedding of my college roommate (and bridesmaid) Diana Chang, to her college sweetheart Brian Chang. That's right, Diana doesn't have to go through the hassle of changing her name, the lucky dog... :)

It was such a beautiful wedding weekend! I was a bridesmaid (bridesmatron?), so we got to go up for the rehearsal dinner, and then had a lot of fun primping and prepping for the wedding itself. The ceremony was slated to take place on the grounds of the Manor at West Orange, so we were all keeping a somewhat anxious eye on the weather -- it was threatening rain pretty much all day, but it held out! Which Brian mentioned as an impromptu aside at the end of his wedding vows. :) Though it was an overcast afternoon, the setting was really lovely, and the ceremony was beautiful. (And clouds make for better lighting for photos anyways, right?)

And the reception! Diana and Brian did a choreographed first dance that knocked our socks off. And had a custom-made wedding cake topper that looked eerily like them. And had tons of amazing food, and really sweet toasts from Diana's sister and Brian's brother. But the best part? Brian surprised Diana (and everyone else) with a serenade sequence, including "Always Be My Baby," "Brown Eyed Girl," "Too Late to Change Your Mind," "Hey There Delilah Diana," and "I'm Yours" -- so sweet!! Here's a quick video clip of part of it, taken by groomsman Mike Lee:



Love it!!

And here are some of our favorite shots from the weekend. Note that all the ceremony photos were, obviously, taken by David. :)


The happy couple at the rehearsal dinner


The girls! (Yashih, me, Diana, Elaine, and Charlin)


Diana getting her hair done while eating lunch -- always the multi-tasker!


Diana's sister Alice learning how to put in the veil
(And check out D's amazingly elegant hairstyle!)


Brian's parents are so cute!
I love that his dad wore his DSLR down the aisle!


Bridesmaids at the front
(Notice the color differences? I had to order a dress 2 sizes up three weeks before
the ceremony, and they had discontinued the original color...
Luckily, Alice was already in a contrasting tone dress, as matron of honor!)


The bride's grand entrance with her father!


Exchange of rings


Mr. and Mrs. Chang!!


The amazing first dance


We got to sit with Jon and Shauna!


Brian in his Jason Mraz hat
(Totally unintentionally awesome photo -- I think I caught the pro photog's flash?)


The B & D cake topper!


Cutting the cake, and obviously having a blast!

What a fun wedding weekend! B and D, thank you so much for inviting us to be a part of your celebrations -- it was an honor to stand up with you. We love you guys!

Full album of wedding photos available in this SmugMug gallery.

Jason's Surprise 30th Birthday Picnic

On Saturday, we headed up to the city for a surprise birthday party for a dear friend of ours -- Jason's turning 30 on Tuesday! His girlfriend, Damara, and another friend of ours, John, had planned this surprise picnic in Central Park for Saturday afternoon, and were actually successful in surprising the birthday boy!

Which was really remarkable, considering the fact that David and I managed to pull up right behind Jason and Damara on the Henry Hudson Parkway.

Later, Jason told us that he had seen a red Prius behind them for a while on the NJ Turnpike, and had joked to Damara that he thought they were being stalked by us. He then saw that the red car had NJ plates, and continued on the whole Keddie-stalking theme.

And then we ended up right behind Jason and Damara as we drove up the Parkway, and we all pulled off at the 96th Street exit. At that point, we noticed that the white Honda in front of us had NJ plates starting with UZX. I turned to David to ask him, "Doesn't Jason's car have plates starting with weird letters like that?" By then we were stopped at a red light, and it became clear to us that it was, in fact, Jason driving the car right in front of us.

I think Jason made the same discovery about us at precisely the same moment. He started waving frantically out the window, and apparently wanted to call us to see what on earth we were doing there...

Damara, thinking quickly, offered to call us since he was driving. The following conversation ensued:

DAMARA: "Hey, Keddies! We're right in front of you!!"
ME: "Wow, what are the chances, huh?"
DAMARA: "We're driving into the city to have lunch with John. What are you guys doing here?"
ME: "Umm..."

David and I thought for sure the jig was up by then. We never, ever go into the city, and seriously, what are the chances that we would all coincidentally end up at the same exit on the upper west side at the same time?

But because I'm a huge fan of surprise parties, and because Damara was still trying to play it off as a coincidence, I told her on the phone that since it was our first free weekend in a long time, we had decided to come into the city. Which, technically, was true...

Jason was all excited and invited us to join them for lunch. Which we of course accepted. :)

It wasn't until they got to Central Park and saw his mom and a large picnic set up that Jason realized that there were larger things afoot than a simple "getting together with John for lunch in the city." :)



It worked! He was totally surprised!


Damara and Jason


Some of the delicious picnic food


The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, from the day of Jason's birth
(Brought by his mother, along with a ton of other baby Jason memorabilia!)


Jason, David, and John

Happy birthday, Jason! We're so glad we could come up to celebrate with you -- and that the surprise was a success, despite our almost blowing it! :)