In February 2002 I received an email from a couple indicating they had discovered my website in a search for content for their wedding ceremony, and were touched by my photography and written sentiments throughout the site. They wondered if I would consider covering a wedding in Washington, DC, January a year hence. Thus began an incredible journey through the nether reaches of the internet. My first question was whether they were aware that this was the Berkeley that was all the way over on the left coast - they assured me they were...

Throwing caution to the winds, I suggested that it could work if they covered the cost of air fare for me and my wife, plus a night in a hotel in exchange for my covering the costs of my time and efforts in photographing the wedding, the wedding album, and for all the film of one of my wedding packages. We would plan to stay beyond the wedding, for an extended vacation in our nation's capitol. They thought this sounded reasonable, and we soon agreed in principle it could work. We finalized a contract in early May...

An added touch was that they offered us the use of their apartment for the week following the wedding since they would be on their honeymoon, and the apartment would otherwise sit empty...

The wedding was held at the Friends Meeting House of Washington, DC, with the reception nearby at the Great Falls Grange in Great Falls, Virginia. Because no recording devices are permitted during a Quaker service, there would be no photos of the ceremony. No matter - a warm and intimate gathering of the family and friends of both men, the ceremony saw the first coming together of two families, one Vietnamese, the other full-blown southern from Texas. How great is that...? With incredible support of family and dear, dear friends, and a community of Friends, it could not have been more perfect...