Over the past month, I took a two week trip to Taiwan. During the course of this trip, my newly-wed wife and I took wedding photos - a modern tradition, met her family, held a ceremony in Taitung, where she is from, and had a short honeymoon. It was a rollercoaster of a trip.

The itinerary began as soon as I got off the plane. I got off the plane at 8PM, but had to wait another half an hour before I got my bags, which had the clothes I had prepared specifically for the photo shoot. The wedding photo agency, J2 Wedding, accommodated us, and stayed open late, so that I could pick out the suits I would wear for the photo shoot the next morning.

The next morning, the day began at 7:30AM. We went to J2 Wedding, and the makeup artist got to work. After I adamantly refused to wear makeup, she acquiesced, and only did my hair. Then, I shaved and ate breakfast while she transformed my wife. That took a while - more than an hour. Then, we packed all her dresses and my suits and left for the location for the photo shoot. The day was cloudy with light rain, so that was a minor setback.

The photo shoot, contrary to the end product, was not glamorous. Things behind the scenes are a different story than how things appear. However, we worked together well, and followed directions as best as we could. In turn, the photographer and cinematographer also did their best to capture more magic than there was. We got nearly everything we wanted, except that my wife wanted to also get some pictures with the "weeping" pine trees. Unfortunately, the day was nearly gone, the sun was going down, and the rain had made the ground too wet, so that goal could not be met. But, other than that, I think everything turned out well. Thus, ended one busy day.

The next day, we had to go back to J2 Wedding, and pick out the photos we wanted to use for the "Thank You" cards, the signature scrolls, the canvases (one big and one small), and the album. I was quite impressed by the photos. They managed to flatter my fat and ugly self, which I have long accepted. But, the selection process was itself quite painful, as we had to make some hard decisions in order to keep only 40 photos, and to select appropriate ones suitable for the other items. We methodically went through the photos wave after wave, weeding out any that we didn't want as much as the others. Finally, we were able to select the best 40 photos for the album.

Then, we made the trip down to Taitung. I am very thankful that we did not have to carry all of the wedding dresses, as that would've been torture. Instead, my wife's uncle agreed to bring all that down for us when he made the trip down to attend the ceremony. Once we got to Taitung, we began preparing for the ceremony. I'm also very grateful that the ceremony was nearly all taken care of by my wife's parents. They had planned everything out, and I only needed to be briefed on what to do and to follow instructions. For me, I only had three jobs: tell our story, sing part of a hymn, and pass out red envelopes. Then came the big day. I can't say that I carried out my duties perfectly, but I didn't mess things up too badly.

I have long held the opinion that nobody is happy at a wedding, and I think this opinion was confirmed yet again. My wife was busy changing dresses most of the night that she hardly ate anything at all. I accompanied my wife, despite not needing anything myself, so I spent most of the evening resting on the bed, waiting as she prepared. Her parents were busy making sure everything went smoothly. The rest of our families and friends were busy performing their prepared material. Special shout out to her brother, by the way, who served as the DJ, dedicated a hymn to us which he sang himself, and helped us with the parts where we needed children; he has two. The point was that despite the food being so good and the venue being a 5-star hotel (Sheraton), we were so exhausted, we were not able to properly enjoy it. By the end of the night, we were exhausted, hungry, and tired. We scarfed down the food which the hotel personnel were kind enough to set aside for us, but had long since gone cold, took a shower, and passed out.

Despite my negative view towards weddings, I'm very grateful towards all the family and friends who showed up to support our marriage. I'm very happy for each and every one who came and for everyone who helped to make this happen.

With all our goals for the trip accomplished, a great weight was lifted off of our shoulders, and we spent the rest of the trip relaxing. We spent an extra night at her parents' home, at the bequest of her mom. Then, we spent another night at a hot spring in Jiaoxi, two more nights in Taipei, and one night in Taoyuan. We spent this time doing what people are supposed to do in Taiwan - eating and relaxing.

Then, I came back. Now, I'm preparing for the events in January.