The Wedding

The big day: what better place to have a wedding than in a brewery?

My gorgeous wife to be, escorted by her Dad, came in glowing in a crimson dress skillfully hand-made by her mother. Veiled, Rachael stood in front of me as the officiant commenced the ceremony. Soon it was time to exchange our vows, overwhelmed by happiness, our voice slightly quivered and our hands slightly shook as we expressed our never ending love and promised to support each other.

We both said “I do” and embraced each other with a kiss, faced our family and friends as Rachael and Andre Chen.

The wedding continued with good laughs and warm wishes and we were treated with fabulous food from Oklahoma Joe’s barbeque, wonderful cheese cakes,  and of course, pints and pints of brew.

So our journey and adventure as husband and wife began, having each other to laugh with, to live for, to dream with and to love.

Groom's Dinner

So the time came for the bachelor to host dinner with his family to be. Rachael suggested that it would be great to have home cuisine from Trinidad, but I was skeptical since I don’t consider myself to be a cook. 

However the idea was great and soon we were off planning the menu. The final course of meals which had us in the kitchen from morning consisted of Geera pork (seasoned with roasted cumin), macaroni pie, callaloo (a soup blend of spinach with crab), christophine/chayote slaw, chow (seasoned mango and pineapple), coconut sponge cake and rum punch. 

Everything turned out well (I surprised myself with the callaloo) and the food was much enjoyed by everyone.  The rum punch was particularly popular.

Hash Wedding Barbados

After a long hash with breath taking views in Haggatts, St. Andrew, Rachael and I stood with heavy hearts in the circle for we knew this was to be our last hash in a long while with the BH3.  

Brigitte, the HM stood in the center of the circle calling out the usual newbies and violations, but to our surprise our names were called as well.

Made to kneel and dressed in wedding attire (no blindfolds this time but our hands were chained), we had our second hash wedding ceremony. The HM instructed us on the vows of a proper hash husband and wife which was followed by the hashers singing ceremonious but suggestive hymns. With beers chugged, we sealed off with a kiss.

Bachelor/Bachelorette BH3 Run

Andre is quite the experienced hare.  Engaging his boy scout skills, and armed with maps and a compass, he headed out to tackle planning two trails in and around Miami Beach for our epic Bachelor/Bachelorette Hash.  I stepped in to finalize details on the Bachelorette trail, but largely credit for planning all belongs to Andre. 

And this was no ordinary Hash.  With two trails, a scavenger hunt involving 6 rum shops and a beer stop, we certainly had some work ahead.  On Saturday morning, we mixed flour and Phagwa powder (the Hindu festival Holi is called Phagwa in Trinidad), created secret envelopes for the scavenger hunt, mixed rum punch and prepared snacks.  Then, we set off in opposite directions, armed with bagsful of pink and blue flour to mark our respective trails.  Once the trails were set, we back tracked in the car to the different rum shops to buy beer and rum in preparation for the scavenger hunt.

 

Just down to the wire, we arrived at the starting point with hashers already gathering.  The new concept was at first (and all along for some) challenging to comprehend for the Barbados hashers, but most successfully went in their respective directions to attack each of the separate trails.  In the end, at least a few groups of folks managed to piece together all of the bits necessary to complete the wedding scavenger hunt riddle: something old (expired cans/jars of food) something new (condoms) something borrowed (misc buttons) something blue (blue ribbons) and sixpence (six EC cents) in your shoe.   

The run was well-received by all except a few men who apparently only run on the hash to tail women, and the bar was busy all night.All in all we think it was a success.

More photos!
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Barbados Engagement Party

We invited 50 of our closest friends near and far, organized catering from Flindt Patisserie and Bistro, hired two bar tenders for our fully-stocked awesome bar and even supplemented it all with our own dips.  Folks flew in from North Carolina (thanks Anne and Dave!), and joined us from all parts of Barbados.  We all had a wonderful time, enjoyed the delicious food, and fantastic cocktails.

Hash Wedding, St. Lucia

Relaxing with beer in hand and talking with fellow hashers at the end of a long and heated run in Casablanca Bay, St. Lucia,  Rachael and I unknowing were asked to step aside from the Circle only to find ourselves blindfolded and dressed in foreign objects.

The intense anticipation was made even more so by the soft screams and laughs from Rachael who was somewhere on my right and when something was made to dangle beneath my legs. Soon we were lead into the tyranny of the hash crowd who casted rice on us and hoisted us up onto a table to be displayed to all. The chanting of the wedding theme was loud as we had the Religious advisor from Cairo announce our vows. With rings on our fingers and sealed with a kiss, we were made hash husband and wife.

The night ended perfectly dancing on the beach to the sounds of techno from one fabulous DJ underneath the glowing rays of the Super Moon.

Engagement Party: Trinidad

After all the planning, inviting, and RSVP-collecting, the day finally arrived--our first big celebration, the Trinidad engagement party.  Andre found an amazing venue--Chop Chops bistro on Mucurapo in Port of Spain--with fantastic staff who have been really helpful throughout the planning process.  Chef George Aleong prepared a menu packed with deliciousness:  sweet baked brie/blue cheese/goats cheese/sage cheese platter, rocket/prosciutto/parmesan pizza, killer bruschetta, melt-in-your mouth crab filo cones, lamb/herb/feta/grape skewers, veg/grape pizza, stuffed chicken with saffron rice, and these to-die-for mini cheesecakes. I think everyone enjoyed the party, including Andre and me.  Thanks to all who shared this wonderful event with us.  More photos online.

POSH3 White Dress Run

The Port of Spain Hash House Harriers organized a fantastic White Dress Run in our honor on Thursday, June 13.  All dressed in white--and many in white dresses--we started from Invaders Pan Yard at 5:30 in the evening and ran around the city.  Through the streets of Port of Spain, the Queens Park Savannah, near the U.S. Embassy, and back to the pan yard again, we ran as passersby cat-called this strange group of runners.

Andre was supposed to wear a white dress, and I a tux--all we could find for Andre was a pair of white disco pants and a veil (which was quite a sight, really), and I wore a shirt and bow tie.  Loads of POSH3 friends came for the run and even more came for the lime afterwards.  Our trusted culinary expert from the pan yard, Rosa, concocted a beautiful fish broth to help cut through the beers.

What a wonderful way to start our series of wedding celebrations!  Many thanks to the awesome hashers of POSH3!

More pics online.

Wedding Meets Blog

We're getting married on August 24, 2013, and along the way, there are engagement parties, white-dress hash house harrier runs, and other fun events we would like to share.  Hopefully all the good news will be online as it happens.

The background of this blog is the Nylon Pool in Tobago.  We met in Tobago in 2011 at a big Hash House Harriers weekend away--so this will always be a special place for us.

More fun stuff to come.