Kathmandu Wedding

Yes, the rumors are true, Catherine and i have gotten married. Back on December 12, two days before my birthday. I guess i have no excuse for forgetting our anniversary, now. Our parents all flew in for the occasion, Charlotte and Gary Carlson, George and Mary Kay Prindiville, and Phil and Sara Dalton. In addition, my sister Kelly, her husband (my brother) Tom (Reddig-Carlson) and my nephew and niece, Nate and Zoe all flew out as well.

The Carlsons and Daltons both flew out early to get a chance to see what Catherine and I looked like when we were up to our gills in work, running around frantically in our surprisingly busy schedules. We put both families in neighboring rooms at the Valley Guesthouse in Boudha. The Prindivilles arrived a few days later and opted to stay at the Hyatt Recency on the outskirts of Boudha. Reddig-Carlson Clan arrived the day before the wedding (the parental units wanted Nate and Zoe to miss as little school as possible... go figure) with just enough time for the ladies to have their never-before-seen saris fitted for the wedding the next day, and to then run to the rehearsal dinner.

It’s always nice to have a fancy rehearsal dinner. Even if there was no rehearsal. We all taxied out to the Garden of Dreams in Thamel and feasted at their Kaiser Cafe, along with friends Mort and Fuki, Arthur, James Hopkins (whose sister’s son plays soccer with Nate in NC as it turns out), Joanne, and Prachanda. We had a wonderful Indo-Continental buffet prepared and many of us thoroughly stuffed ourselves with food and wine before wandering out into the Garden for moonlit strolls. Nate wandered out into the darkness to practice his photography skills. He took some nice contrasty photos of the garden. However, we didn’t wander long, because many of us were exhausted from travel (Reddig-Carlsons) and wedding planning (Catherine and i).

On the morning of the wedding, Catherine ran off to have her hair done with an army of female support. I met her later at the Monastery where we entered the main temple hall during a White Amitayus long-life ceremony. The day before, Catherine and i sponsored the ceremony on behalf of the long life of our marriage. We sat on cushions on the left side of the hall with our parents seated behind us in chairs and guests seated on cushions towards the doors. Catherine and i walked up to Rinpoche in the center aisle and he blessed our rings, blessed us with long life, gave me a statue of Guru Rinpoche and Catherine a silver butter lamp. He then gave us a brief talk saying that we were entering into a spiritual marriage, not a vehicle for further samsara and suffering, but a vehicle for learning and spiritual development. He identified me as skillful means and Catherine as wisdom. Then after a brief photo session, everyone else came up to offer prayer scarves first to Rinpoche and then to Catherine and i. In the end we found ourselves buried beneath mountains of white and yellow scarves. Digging our way out of them was like emerging from the womb all over again. Then came the photo session in earnest. And of course tea on the monastery’s front yard.

In the evening Catherine and I drove out Dwarika’s Hotel in a heavily decorated taxi for the wedding party. We served dinner for 140 people with endless drinks and laughter around Dwarika’s sky-blue pool with stone tiger water spouts. Ryan Conlon and Prachanda’s band Inner Groove played jazz and funk in the early evening and were later replaced with Leo Brauer’s 80’s ipod hip-hop, while people danced, drank and ate themselves into oblivion. Phakchok Rinpoche and his mother, Dechen la, and sister, Mingyur, even made an appearance and schmoozzed with the guests. Catherine and I slipped away to our private room around 11:30 and it did indeed seem like we were the only people at the party who were not intoxicated. Guests called the event the Party of the Century, and the best party they’d ever been to in Kathmandu. We were pleased that it went so well.

A couple days later Catherine and i took the family to a traditional pottery village in Timi, east of Kathmandu where we saw how old school Nepalese pottery could be. Afterwards we drove up to Nagarkot for two days and one night to give our families a chance to get out of Kathmandu Valley pollution and see the Himalayas for a change. It was a nice, rustic little place and we spent our time hiking, eating, talking, reading, and drinking hot rum punch around the wood-burning stove in the main lodge. The views were Spectacular.

Then over the next few days every left for home or further travels. It was wonderful to have every one there and to spend so much time with family that we don’t really get a chance to see that often. And now that they had left, we finally had a chance to breathe. Hallelujah!