Tina Terada
Jerry Santos
August 24, 2001
Woodmark Hotel, Kirkland, WA

ABOUT THE BRIDE: Just Gorgeous! From Mercer Island, Washington but has lived in Hawaii, California, and Arizona.

ABOUT THE GROOM: From New York City, grew up in upstate New York.

HOW WE MET: New Employee Orientation at Microsoft. It happened to be Microsoft's 25th Company Anniversary that day (September 5, 2000). I got her e-mail address along with two other people's so that we could hang out sometime. It ended up just the two of us at a bible study on a Friday night. Yep, Bible study on a Friday night. Can you believe it? A single guy none the less, a Stud-Muffin.

ENGAGEMENT: Valentine's Day 2001 at the church altar (after hours at 7pm) with our love song playing in the background. I planned it all out... she knew it was coming... I got on my knees and pulled out a small glass jewelry box filled with ocean blue marbles and in the center was the stunning 1.6 carat diamond ring.

PLANNING: We worked as a team, day and night, and weekends. Collaboration and understanding is key.

ATTIRE: White beautiful gown filled out! Traditional Tux.

THE CEREMONY: Quoted from our guests: "Laughed one minute and cried the next." "It was the best wedding, I have ever attended!"

Wedding Rehearsal Highlights

At the wedding rehearsal, the bride played a joke on the groom. On the last run, she came out wearing a motorcycle helmet and mini black leather dress with a black whip. Wynonna Judd's Old Enough to Know Better for background music. The helmet was removed to reveal the bride; the bridal party donned sunglasses and removed their sweaters and suit jackets to reveal black jeans and shirts and began to back up the bride's "solo" song and dance. Needless to say, everyone was shocked (Pastor, parents, kids... groom.)

Wedding Highlights

The wedding ceremony was fairly traditional with some special touches in the Pastor's script (written by the bride and groom), which included entertaining stories of the couple, as well as tear-jerking vows read by the bride and groom to each other.

After a little tension searching for the wedding ring, it was delivered by UPS (a bell-man in a UPS jacket). The bride and groom were then asked to sign several release papers, which caused even more laughter. Upon opening the Express box, the groom proudly displayed a huge plastic wedding ring, which sparkled perfectly in the sunlight. By that time, the audience was in an uproar. After the celebratory first kiss, the groomsmen surprised the bride and groom by displaying scores of 2, 3.5 and 2. The groom promptly dipped the bride and gave her a passionate kiss, resulting in scores of 10, 10, and 10.

Reception Highlights

The bride and groom conducted the traditional Japanese sake ceremony, where the top of a ceremonial barrel of sake is broken by mallets by the bride and groom and their parents and the sake inside is shared with all. Garter event with a twist: To the music of "Mission Impossible," the groom reached under the dress in search of the garter and instead pulled out a rubber chicken, candy for the kids, Microsoft CDs for the adults, a cowboy hat. Then uncovers more hats and even a whip and feather boa. All of a sudden the groomsmen move in and don the hats -- the crowd groans in laughter and disbelief as the groomsmen line up in their police, cowboy, construction, and Indian hats, the music changes to YMCA and they begin their dance. Once the song ends, the bride confronts the groom about the garter, pushes him into a chair and pulls up his pant leg (to the crowd's astonishment and horror), revealing the garter. She then pulls it off with her teeth. He then places her in the chair and gets the real garter (so the groomsmen won't be reluctant to catch it...)

Bouquet toss with a twist: Before the bouquet toss, the video is shown of the bride's joke on the groom at the rehearsal dinner. The bride then tosses a whip instead of the bouquet and then, following tradition, tosses the bouquet.

HOW WE PERSONALIZED THE WEDDING:

• Recited our vows to each other in the ceremony
• Presented a short video clip of us growing up side by side
• Making the guests laugh (see above) to give them a good sense of what we are like
• Honoring and giving toasts to our parents.

Wedding Professionals

Photographer: Alex Studio
Videographer: Gary Burlingame
Wedding Cake: Hoffman's Fine Pastries
Flowers: Fina Flowers

If you have questions or comments for Tina and Jerry, please e-mail them at Santos_jerry@hotmail.com.