You Are What You Eat...

Happy Thanksgiving!

In honor of this special holiday, I thought food would be a fitting topic for today. And besides, who doesn’t want to talk about food? Food connects us all and transcends language and culture. Food brings everyone together (as proved by countless family gatherings across the nation today), and it has the power to help people communicate even when they don’t share a common language.

When I was in China, I shared many meals with both my American companions and my new Chinese friends. One evening during dinner, a very friendly Chinese man sat with us. He couldn’t speak any English (with the exception of “I’m full”), but I was able to communicate with him because of the food that we shared. He wanted to teach me how to properly use chopsticks, so instead of using words, he used his hands and the food on our plates to communicate with me. And we understood each other—my chopstick hold has improved and I think of him every time I use chopsticks. 

Lots of yummy food we had in China. (Learn Chinese: "I'm full" -- 我饱了

。

Wǒ bǎo le.)

So the moral of the story is that food is international, and it brings people together. Well, that’s exactly how we want our wedding to be—our theme is internationality, and the celebration of our partnership will bring many people together. We feel that the food at our wedding should be the same way. And because mine and Keegan’s taste buds reside on completely different planets, we plan to serve many different kinds of foods—from all around the world.

We’ve come up with a sort of “Venn diagram” of food, if you will. On one table, there will be Keegan’s favorite food—Mexican. We’re not sure on the specifics of what we’ll have, but we’re thinking along the lines of things like burritos, nachos, tomales, etc. On another table, we’ll serve my favorite food—Asian. I’m hoping we can have sushi and other side dishes like spring rolls or edamame. And yet another table will feature Italian food—this is where mine and Keegan’s taste buds overlap. I thought lasagna would be a pretty good Italian dish to serve. And since I’m a vegetarian, I’d love for there to be a veggie or all-cheese lasagna in addition to Keegan’s meat lovers version. Plus, this would give my vegetarian friends some more options.

So as you can see, we’re planning on serving a wide variety of food at our wedding. It fits with our theme, our taste buds, and I think it will give people plenty of options to eat something they’ll enjoy.

I had an idea on how to decorate the tables that will be holding the food. To go along with our theme and to represent each of the different foods, I thought about either hanging a flag from that food’s country on the table or just using tablecloths in the pattern of the flag. And yes—they actually make those (although I’m having a hard time finding one for Japan—though it would be easy enough to make). See for yourself:

Irish Flag Tablecloth 

And if you were wondering, we are planning on having all of this catered, but we haven’t officially booked our caterer yet. Our university actually has its own catering branch, and because we’re students, we get discounts, which is always great! So our university’s catering service is a major contender—we just haven’t had the time to make it official yet.

Once we do figure out our catering plans, I’ll be sure to talk about them in another entry.

Again, I hope you have a Happy Thanksgiving and enjoy this time spent with family and friends.

-Paige

You Saved My Life Once

Car Chaos UPDATE: Both Keegan and I are currently searching for good, used, cheap cars… I’ll let you know if we have any luck.

And now we continue with our discussion on music.

I want to carry over our theme of internationality from the ceremony to the reception and play all kinds of music from all around the world. There will, of course, be techno songs included since we’re having a dance (Sandstorm is a given). And I’d love to play music from lots of genres (and nationalities) all across the board, including techno, K-pop, J-pop, big band/swing, smooth jazz, alternative, indie, Icelandic, Celtic, and more. 

Credit: "Bagpipe Player under an Archway" from iStockphoto on thinkstockphotos.com

When I went to Japan in '08, some friends and I stumbled upon this lovely Japanese singer. She was quite good, and I decided to capture the moment (I think I even took a video, if I remember correctly).

I want to play music that Keegan and I both love—regardless of our guests’ musical tastes. Their opinions are important to us, of course, but we want to dance to songs that we love, even if the audience doesn’t recognize them. I can’t really imagine myself dancing to stuff like “Don’t Stop Believing” and other mainstream songs I can’t stand. I’ve written a lot of random song ideas down as they come to me, but here’s a sampling of my ideas for the reception:

-I'm God by Clams Casino (techno)

-In The Mood by Glenn Miller (big band/swing)

-Light Outside by Wakey!Wakey! (indie)

-The Suffering by Coheed & Cambria (alternative)

-Morning Dance by Spyro Gyra (smooth jazz)

-Ponponpon by Kyari Pamyu Pamyu (J-pop)

-Sæglópur by Sigur Rós [an edited version to fit the dance] (Icelandic)

-Titanic Set by Gaelic Storm and/or Swallowtail Jig (Celtic)

-Gangnam Style by PSY (K-pop) (<do I really even have to link you to this one? You know you've seen it a thousand times and have it bookmarked on your browser.)

So we want a lot of flavor for our reception, and not just in the food but in the music as well.

I think I would like to include the traditional couples’ dance and the daddy/daughter dance, and I have some ideas on the music for that, too. As I mentioned last week, Titanic is a film that both Keegan and I thoroughly enjoy (Keegan bought the new super-mega-pack edition of the Blu-Ray/DVD). Another one we also love is P.S. I Love You. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched it, but I can tell you that I cry every time. Anyways, I also own the film’s gorgeous score, composed by John Powell. The first track on the album is entitled “Make Up Kisses,” and I can imagine Keegan and I slow dancing to this song. You can listen to it here:

Make Up Kisses

As for the daddy/daughter dance, I was considering another soft instrumental tune. But then one day I was listening to my Phil Collins Pandora station (yes, I have a Phil Collins Pandora station), and “You’ll Be in My Heart” started playing. Then I knew that song was the one to dance to with my daddy. Disney’s version of Tarzan is yet another great film, and the soundtrack complements its greatness. Tarzan has a special place in my heart when it comes to thinking about my dad.

When I was seven, before my parents got divorced, we went on a Disney cruise. There were tons of things to do on the ship, and one night, Tarzan was playing in the ship’s movie theatre. So we went—I remember us getting there a little too late because it was already dark and people were flooding the seating and sitting on the aisle’s steps. So we had to sit/stand/move around for the entire movie, but this was a fun memory that stands out when I think about my family pre-divorce days. 

Dad and I also share inside jokes from the movie. They’re not exactly inside jokes I guess, since there’s no particular personal story behind them, but we went through a phase for a long time where Dad would say “Oh, I see” like Jane does in the movie after I would say something somewhat interesting.

Then, of course, there’s the music. “You’ll Be in My Heart” is particularly special to me because I would listen to it whenever I missed my dad after moving to Oklahoma. The song, as well as my dad’s infamous moon analogy, reminded me that we were never too far apart as long as we kept each other in our hearts.

All that to say, I think this would be a really special song to dance to with my father.

If you have any other suggestions as to music for the ceremony and/or reception, please feel free to leave a comment.

Let’s take a vote for next week’s entry!

-Your suggestion: what do you want to hear about?

-Invitations

-Food

-Registries

-Paige