Thought you all might enjoy some pictures (ok, a ton of them- but it was next to impossible for me to narrow them down) from the wedding of our friend Chula, who you can’t seem to take a bad picture of.

Seriously, how gorgeous is she?

Jenny and Brad have been friends with her family for quite some time, long before they moved into the same neighborhood and she began babysitting Kam. He adores her and gets so excited whenever he gets to see “Chu-wa”. It’s no wonder, as she is one of the absolute sweetest people ever.

Her side of the family is Cambodian, so there were lots of traditions to follow. Although, as one relative explained to me, this was actually a shortened version. Back in Cambodia, it lasts 3 full days, instead of the one and a half days of near constant activity that this one entailed.

My favorite part was the blessing ceremony that took place the night before the wedding.

(Joey and Kam preferred the view from above since it was easier to see everything that was going on.)

The day of the wedding, we walked from their house to the reception hall, carrying plates of food and presents.

I had no idea how heavy a plate of mangoes and lychee fruits could get.

They had two wedding ceremonies that day and then fed us some of the tastiest food ever. We loved it and our kids loved it, but the three other Americans at our table passed on most everything that was served, even the jell-o that, I swear, tasted like chocolate.

How sad for them.

By the end of the night, the kids were on stage dancing in front of the strobe lights, the girls twirling and shaking their booties, the boys doing the robot.

(Joey never again gets to tell me that she’s shy if she can get on stage and do this.)

All in all, we had a blast.

More pictures can be found in Jenny’s Flickr photostream.
Cambodian Buddhist Blessing Ceremony
Wedding Day