Last Saturday, May 2nd, Bridget Engman and I were married.
 
Being good (?) Catholics, we were married at St. Pius X Church in
Tucson, Arizona. They tell me the wedding mass was lovely, but I don't
really know myself. I was too busy looking at my gorgeous bride to
notice. She wore a white silk cheongsam dress with a veil and flowing
train. I had seen this dress often, as I watched Bridget embroider the
dragon and butterflies upon it every night for weeks prior to the
wedding. She finished hemming it with only thirty minutes left before
she was to walk down the aisle. I almost felt guilty wearing my
practically effortless (but still sharp) rental tuxedo.

I'm not sure if my hand was shaking more than hers when I took it in
mine. Everything was a blur. For those of you familiar with catholic
weddings, you know they aren't short, and yet in no time it seemed that
we were walking down the aisle together as Mr. and Mrs. Wilde. The only
part that really stands out in my mind were our vows. Particularly the
"in sickness and in health" part. Bridget had come down with tonsilitus
only five days before the wedding, and I came down with a milder case
the day after her. It was hard to keep from laughing at that.
 
The reception was chaos. Wonderfully fun chaos, but chaos nonetheless.
We were paying for everything ourselves, and being too poor to cater the
event, we did it ourselves. Somehow we pulled it off. There was plenty
of oriental style food (the beef siu mai was particularly liked), and
plenty of liquor. I guess that's all you really need. The rest is
ego-candy. The six cases of homemade beer that I had made over the last
two months was wiped out, so my ego was well and truly stroked.

An old shipmate of mine from the submarine sent us a Japanese wedding
kimono to display at the reception. He had bought it in Japan on the
deployment I missed when I left the Navy. It was gorgeous. Take note
wedding fanfiction authors: it was heavy (at least 20 pounds sans obi
and hood), hand embroidered white silk in fine single stitch thread over
80% of the material, and absolutely stunning. I can only imagine what a
wedding kimono that a sailor couldn't afford to buy on a whim would be
like.

Our wedding waltz was "I Don't Need Any Promises," the Main Title for
the anime "Vision of Escaflowne."  All I can say is that I am glad that
still photography cannot capture just how bad a dancer I am... And that
it must be love, because Bridget didn't actually make me try to waltz.
(The guests kindly held up score cards following each dance. Don't ask
me what they were.) Soon afterwards, Bridget and her Bridesmaids danced
to the "Nekohanten Menu Song" off the Ranma 1/2 Calender album. This was
quite a sight, as her bridesmaids were dressed in short forest green
silk cheongsam dresses, and they all could dance (a plus if ever there
was one.) Because of this, I and my groomsmen were required to dance to
ZZ Top's "Sharp Dressed Man." The horror... The horror...
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And now a few factoids...

Funkiest Wedding Gift: Bride and Groom Godzillas. (Thank you, Cliff! We
would have used them as our cake topper if only we'd known sooner.) A
Godzilla and a Mecha Godzilla toy. Godzilla had a black felt top hat and
bow tie. Mecha Godzilla had a lace veil and felt flower bouquet.

Coolest Wedding Gift: A silver plated solid brass Scottish drinking cup
for two.

Best Wrapping: The hand woven ribbon that Camille made for us. (And
warned us not to cut it lest we die slow painful deaths :p)

Best Dressed Guests: Camille (for dressing in theme, ala a red silk
cheongsam with black elbow length gloves.) And my friend Nick (of the
wedding kimono fame) for dressing in his Harley chaps. Someting about
riding on his Harley from Nebraska to get here. He didn't sit down much
for some strange reason...

Best Wedding Gift: A night in the Strater Hotel in Durango Colorado for
our honeymoon. We haven't felt so pampered and spoiled in our lives as
we were that night. (Bridget was especially taken by the small bottle of
Godiva liqueur that was served with dark chocolate cups. I can see that
my work is cut out for me come future anniversaries.)
 
Longest Distance Traveled by a Guest: Scott Swanson, webmaster for the
Children's Television Workshop, New York City.

Obligatory Duplicate Gift: A Blender...
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Many Thanks to all who sent us their best wishes! Apologies to those who
were invited but didn't actually receive one. Bridget was pretty frantic
with the dress those last few weeks.
--
        Jamie and Bridget Wilde
      Just Married, May 2nd, 1998.