Ryan and Angela's Wedding Pictures, Taken By Brad Bonner
These pictures were taken by my friend Brad Bonner, "The Consummate
Photographic Professional." These are the official wedding pictures. I've
not posted all the ones that he took, but there are still quite a few. As you can see, even despite my presence in them,
the pictures are extraordinary. If you'd like to see more pictures from Brad,
check here.
Anyhow, the pictures are obviously from him, and the occasional smart-ass
comments to help you enjoy your stay are provided by yours truly.
Angela and I arriving at the church. We didn't believe in the
superstition about not seeing each other on the day of the wedding before the
service, so I gave her a ride to the wedding. That's what makes me a caballero. And
yes, I'm carrying her purse. Dammit. Already whipped at hour one.
I like how this one kind of looks old fashion-y.
In front of the church in Zaragoza, a district of Palmares.
I like how the church sort of looks like it's from the
Caribbean.
Kissy.
The beautiful bride.
Angela.
Aerial view.
Brad said that for photographs, Angela had "the best smile."
He's right.
Angela and I.
Me, doing the "finger gun," the internationally-recognized
sign used by all tools and goons.
Here is a couple of pictures with one of us in focus, and one
of us out of focus. Watch and learn.
Angela in focus, me out.
The happy couple.
Angela. This picture makes me wish I had a better razor.
I'm not sure what's going on here, but I like this picture.
Sad mom.
Me with the folks.
"Sad dad."
Trying to confiscate his handkerchief.
Me and dad.
Me and my brother Paul, the best man.
Me with my brother Paul and my sister Diana (Di).
Me and Di.
A picture with Angela, me, and our ring-bearers. The boy is
Maikol, Angela's nephew, and the girl is Yoselin, Angela's niece. This picture
was run in The Coloradoan, the paper in my hometown, and apparently it made it
seem as though these are our kids. Which, based on appearance alone, could
probably be true, I suppose.
Angela, me, and my mom.
Me and mom.
Antonieta (Toni), who was Angela's maid of honor, with Angela,
me, and Paul. Brad had to go through great efforts and lots of miming in order
to get a good smile from Toni.
The two of us with Angela's immediate family. From left, her
sister Teresa, her mom Cecelia, her dad Honorio, her, me, her sister Toni, and
her brothers Arnoldo and Ronald.
A classy B&W pic for ya.
A nice-looking necklace.
Angela pinning the corsage on me.
(Angela doesn't generally pin many corsages)
Trying to make a last-minute escape.
This picture is great and would be kind of flirty, if these
two weren't so young (and, you know, cousins).
Me and Angela.
Another.
This picture is hilarious. I once had a dog that also did that
if you scratched him behind the ears.
The two of us with my family. From left, my cousin Katie, my
grandma Barbara, my cousin Kiersten, my brother Paul, my mom Phylis, Angela, me,
my dad Clarence, my sister Di, my uncle Bob, my aunt Kathy, and my cousin Brian.
The two of us with my parents.
Maikol is usually a good person for pictures because of his
picture smile, in which he prominently displays his aluminum-capped front teeth,
but he's even better in this one because it looks like he's about to break into
a spontaneous dance. Speaking of those teeth, when Brad was taking these
pictures, he made a side comment to me: "When I first saw that kid (Maikol), I
thought, 'Does that kid have 'Grillz''?" Damn right, he does.
"The Wedding Party," I believe they call it.
I like this pic because it looks like I'm yelling at kids to
get off our front lawn.
Dancing.
Walking. This is one of my favorite pictures from the day.
Interrupting the walk to make out.
Man, I'm so hilarious and charming.
"The dip." (with Angela)
Nice pic.
The back of Angela's dress.
Detail of the front.
Di. I think here she's doing what those lizards do before they
either spit venom or run across the water or something.
Paul snickering.
Andy (aka "Chorizo"...an explanation later), Bobby Majzler,
Davey Majzler, Abuela, Deyenera, and Naomi. Davey looks especially dynamic in
this picture.
My grandma with my dad.
Trying to figure out what to do when the wedding begins. It
was basically improvised, but it all worked out.
Last minute adjustments.
Angela entering with her parents.
Katherine, one of our nieces. She read some passages from the
Bible during the service.
The priest doing priest-y things.
Mariela, Toni's daughter. She also did some reading.
The inside of the church.
Angela and I, with Christa Balderson Jimenez in the back. She
interpreted part of the service, and did a great job, especially considering the
circumstances (as I said, the whole wedding was pretty much improvised).
At the altar.
Happily married.
Honorio offering his congratulations. After the wedding,
everyone kind of mobbed us, giving us hugs and taking pictures.
I think this is a flamenco. Or lambada. Huh?
Us with the inlaws.
Us with the kids.
Us with the maid of honor and best man.
A surprise twist: Ronald was also a best man or witness, and
Di was also a maid or honor or witness. I'm not entirely sure, but they were up
there, too. At least they were all able to coordinate with some pink.
Kissy in front of the side door.
Wedding hands. Yes, people here often wear their rings on the
right hand, and we're not just clueless.
There was a bit of a drizzle when we left the church, so Brad
loaned us his umbrella for some killer pics.
Didn't I tell you Brad was the Consummate Photographic
Professional?
Getting into our chariot. The RAV-4 chariot.
A toast at the reception. I only had about a half glass of
wine through the whole evening, which, on the scale of Wedding Reception
Drunkenness, gave me a rating of "Mormon."
Somebody must have said something funny.
The first dance.
Another of the first dance. There were two guys playing live
music, and they did a great job. They sang in both English and Spanish, and got
in a lot of Salsa and Merengue (if there's a difference between the two), as
well as Cumbia and a bit of light rock. Good stuff.
More from the first dance.
Another.
Angela likes this picture.
The crowd watches with rapt attention as the happy couple
swirls around the dance floor.
A slightly faster number.
I like the quality of the photo. It kind of looks like one of
those "behind the scenes" type of pictures from a magazine like Life.
Chorizo and Abuela sharing a high-five.
Dad, dancing with the younger ladies.
Seidy, Abuela's daughter, with her husband Juan Vincente.
Juan Vincente in Davey's shirt. J.V. had danced like a maniac,
and he got so sweaty that Davey gave him his shirt.
On the right is Maricruz, one of me and Angela's coworkers,
dancing with her husband Franklin.
Richie and Christa dancing.
Marie dancing with McGrew.
Di with Juan Vincente.
Di dancing with Brian.
Paul and Kiersten.
Mom and dad.
Paul and Kati.
Angela with a guy on the left, and on the right is Olman, one
of our nephews.
Lighting up the dance floor. Especially Bobby, who's flashing
the Maikol smile.
Yoselin being adorable.
Some of the appetizers, which Angela's family made. They
looked really weird, but were quite tasty!
The bride at the buffet. It was good food, but I felt a bit
ripped off; they wouldn't give me a bit of both the chicken and the beef. I had
to choose one or the other. If you can't choose both entrees at your own
wedding, when can you??
Detail of the cake.
The cake, which was beginning to lean substantially at this
point. In the back is the Rey Ruiz poster that has become the bane of my
existence.
Paul and Christa, proposing toasts. They both gave very good
(bilingual!) speeches.
Listening to the toasts with Vicki, Angela's sister-in-law.
Abuela, in a serious face. Not much of a dancer, I guess.
Throwing the bouquet.
Kati, the happy catcher.
Removing the garter belt, although it looks a lot more severe
here.
Shooting the belt. The interesting thing about this picture is
that everyone is looking at the garter belt, but the garter belt isn't
there...I'm still trying to figure this out.
Chorizo emerges triumphant.
Preparing to pass the garter on to Kati.
Yoselin and Angela.
Vicki and Ligia, Angela's sisters-in-law (who were the driving
force behind the decoration of the reception hall).
Paul must have done something sly.
I enjoy the incongruity in this picture between the
expressions on our faces. Honorio looks bummed or at least tired, but in the
end, he even danced. Angela informed me that that was the first time in her
memory he'd ever done so .
Angela and I with Abuela.
Angela and I flanked by a clutch of her cousins and aunts.
I'm not so good with Angela's relatives' names, especially
aunts and uncles (she has 35 blood aunts and uncles), but I think this is
her aunt Marianela...possibly.
Chorizo dancing with Ligia's sister. Now, I said I'd tell you
the background of how "Andy" became "Chorizo." Actually, he was a bit of a
surprise at the wedding, as he happened to be in Costa Rica the same time as our
mutual friends Bobby and Davey Majzler. I had met Andy a few other times in
Boulder, and he was nice, but we weren't too close. Still, I knew he was a good
guy. Anyhow, evidently when he was introducing himself, instead of saying "Mucho
gusto!" (like "nice to meet you!"), he was joking around and saying "Mucho
chorizo!" ("Much sausage!"). In any case, it must have stuck, because the legend
of Chorizo is still repeated to this day in Angela's family, and his presence
turned out to be one of the surprise highlights of the wedding.
The Colorado Coalition. From left, (Aaron) McGrew, Marie,
Richie, and Christa. No matter that Marie lives in Washinton now and that Richie
is from Costa Rica...dammit, they made an impressive effort to come to my
wedding, and I was very happy to have them!
Angela with her mom.
Me with Cecilia.
Brad's wife, Shani. I had never met her before, and she was
very nice. She helped Brad with his photographic equipment, and she was the one
to remark to Brad, after I asked him to take some pictures of random family and
friends: "Wow Brad, you're Ryan's bitch!" Well, Brad, sorry I made you my bitch.
If you want, I'll come to your place with a camera sometime and let you order me
around. Then we'll be even. But still, your pictures are excellent!
Angela with Adriana, our niece by way of Toni.
"Cerveza"..."Beer"..."Cerveza"..."Beer"...
Honorio giving my grandma a thumbs up for bravery, since she
travelled so far to see her grandson get married. Everyone was impressed that so
many people from the US came to the wedding, and so was I.
I'm not entirely sure, but in this picture it looks like
Christa and McGrew are about to drunkenly bum-rush my dad.
Angela and Adriana.
Marie and my aunt Kathy.
"I'll drink you under the table!" "No, I'll drink you
under the table!" Evidently, Jeffrey, Adriana's boyfriend (on the left) was
trying to get our American boys drunk, but his plan backfired and he got
sloshed, while Davey, Bobby, and Chorizo remained relatively sober. You
shouldn't take up a drinking contest against these Colorado farm boys, man! They
train at altitude! Especially Davey, who's not a farm boy at all!
Grandma with Angela and I.
Me dancing with Yoselin (or at least attempting to dislocate
her arms).
Here we are giving our "thank you" speech. I'm also
demonstrating my "teacher eyes," which I use to stare at my students who are
doing stupid crap.
Testing out some new freestyle rhymes.
As the Rey Ruiz poster placidly looks on, our bride prepares
to slice our cake.
I really, really, really, really wish I'd remember to bring my
machete to the wedding reception.
Cutting together.
I'll leave you now with my two favorite pictures from the day.
Hope you enjoyed them. Thanks again to everyone who came to the wedding, and
here thanks especially to Brad Bonner, our intrepid photographer!
If you still feel like more pictures, here are some more that
were taken by other guests: