1. Extreme Awareness/Fidgiting Stage... You are very aware of the clunky new object on your left ring finger. It's hard to get used to and you consciously turn it over and over or take it on and off your finger repeatedly.
2. Mild Awareness/Unpurposeful Fidgeting Stage... You are less aware of the ring, but you find yourself fidgiting with it without realizing you had started to.
3. Fear of Loss Stage... You are so used to wearing a ring that you are very nervous of losing the ring without realizing it. It feels as natural to have it on as it does to have it off, and therefore, you think, you could lose the ring while washing dishes and not even notice.
4. Naked Without It Stage... If you have to take your ring off, your hand feels strange and you itch to put it back on. There is no longer a fear of losing the ring, because you know you will realize as soon as the ring falls off your finger.

Our thoughts and prayers are with Uncle Dave, Aunt Nancy, Heather, and Meredith. Aunt Clara will be greatly missed...

As the woman was typing in the information, she said that her records do not show that I am a U.S. Citizen! I certainly remember that sweltering Fourth of July day when my family and Christine watched my naturalization ceremony at Monticello (how patriotic can one get?) Intelligent grad student that I am, I had thought to bring along the certificate of my Naturalization so she corrected the record. I will have my new card within two weeks!

I then proceeded to the Leesburg DMV, filled out a form, and waited about 15 minutes for my number to be called. (All the info that says to bring every document with your name on it is incorrect, btw. All you need is your driver's ID, marriage license, Social Security card, and if you have changed your name several times you should have documents with those names on them to prove you are one and the same.) I did not realize it but I had to take a photo again- yuck. Well, I'm stuck with this shot for a while.

My name has been through several changes. The Vietnamese write the names in the reverse order: last, middle, first. So on my Vietnamese birth certificate, it says Ly Thi Ngoc Huyen (the Thi part is like "Van" in "Van Winkle" or "Da" in "Da Vinci" as far as I know).

The Thi got dropped when I moved to the U.S. Then when Mom remarried and I got my citzenship I officially changed my name to Huyen Leigh (people kept mispronouncing "Ly" and it bothered me) Campbell. I've also had mixtures like Huyen Ngoc Campbell and Huyen Ngoc Ly. I dropped the Ngoc because no one could say it and I thought my first name was strange enough. I guess I was going through a phase where I didn't want to be different. I realized later that the meaning of my name is significantly lessened without the Ngoc.

"Huyen Ngoc" means a beautiful black rock in Vietnamese (Mom doesn't know what type of stone it represents). Apparently "Huyen" doesn't mean much by itself. (Is that a metaphor of some sort?) It is the name of one of the accent marks, or as the French say, the accente grav. Too bad it didn't mean beautiful. Ah well, I have reclaimed the "Ngoc" and added the "MacMichael"- quite a combination.

I've heard of couples who have combined their last names and created a new family name. Huyen Ngoc MacCampbell and Ryan Adam CamMichael or CamMac (except I would change it to be CammaC or MaccaM so it's a palindrome- reversible). Has a nice ring to it. It would be a hassle to do a name change process with those! I think I'll stick to Huyen Ngoc MacMichael.

So, what about the actual wedding day? I think that the wedding day was the most relaxing day from Wednesday through Saturday. I mean, I was up at 9am (I slept in a little and could have probably slept a little later) and I didn't have anything else to do. No more preparations left. At that point, if it wasn't being taken care of, it was too late to worry it. I ended up playing with our flower girl and niece Julianna (who was the life of the party). The morning of the wedding, the bride was playing with Play-doh! I ate a little, I picked up our rental car (a nice Lincoln LS with sunroof and 6 CD changer), I watched a part of the movie Destroy All Monsters with Ryder, the best man, and I got my hair done in our kitchen (Good job Aunt Andrea- it stayed up all day and one of our friends even took a picture of the back of my head since it was so gorgeous!). Ryan also said he was the most relaxed that day- he even got in a 15 minute nap!

Everything worked out beautifully! No wedding is ever perfect but everything that was important worked out the way we wanted. So in essence, it was perfect for us. We had absolutely gorgeous weather- low humidity, 80's, sunny. Our church music was wonderful (thanks are in order to the beautiful voices of Aunt Nancy and Chris Jones), our ushers were perfect (I know Brian was worried he would trip and drop the wine or something), our attendants were beautiful, Pastor Daphne provided a wonderful homily about how Ryan and I are counter-cultural revolutionists (We loved it- thanks Pastor D!), and Father John literally tied the knot around our joined hands with his stole. There were quite a few memorable moments for me... receiveing kisses from my parents before they sat down... linking hands with Ryan... passing my bouquet to my best friends... hearing Pastor Daphne sharing her insight on our relationship history and future and telling the congregation that it is their duty to stick their noses in our business... hearing Ryan's pledge to me and making my own vows to him (by heart! I'm so proud of us for memorizing them!)... Ryder handing over the rings... sharing the peace with my husband and our friends and family...looking across at my honor attendants Katherine and Christine and seeing their eyes water... trying not to cry by reciting fruit and vegetable names (suggested by Kay, our church wedding coordinator) ... watching our wedding party kneeling at the altar to accept communion (for some reason, that really touched me and brought tears to my eyes. Ryan would occassionally whisper a few vegetable names to help keep me from bawling my eyes out) ... and listening to amazing renditions of songs like The Lord's Prayer (Go Aunt Nancy!)

To us the wedding ceremony really went by fast! I was worried that the ceremony was a little long but I am really glad we had a full service because it gave me more special moments to remember. The church does not allow video or photos during the service but I'll keep these memories in my heart.

And the reception afterwards was wonderful- it was a perfect setting. Ian, our DJ was really popular (maybe it was because of his British accent or maybe his sense of humor- we're still laughing about Ryan dancing the mother/daughter dance), the lighting of the unity candle (thanks Aunt Lillian!) had a lot of sentimental and symbolic meaning for us (joining families, joining lives), Half Pint's wonderful voice serenaded us for our first song- the lyrics to "Giving and Sharing" sound like they could have been written for us! My dad teared up at our dance while he told me how proud he was of me- it means a lot to me that he was touched by the day too. The food was gobbled up (I think that means it was really yummy!), our cake was breathtaking especially when the sun was setting (thanks Mariel!), Ryder sounded natural giving one of the funniest and best speeches, and the photographers did a wonderful job of getting everyone together quickly (thanks Sarah and Mauncy!) for huge group shots. Ryan and I wished we had more time to spend talking to all the friends and family who came from near and far to celebrate with us. We are so touched and hope that everyone will take Pastor Daphne's words to heart and stick their noses in our business ;) Thank you for sharing in our joyous occasion; we had a wonderful day and hope that everyone else did too.

One love... Huyen MacMichael

Thanks so much to all the friends and family that came out and supported us. When an event of this magnitude (for us) comes together, it's hard not to feel utterly and completely touched.

Thank you all and we'll have a report and photos up here soon, so be sure to check back!

I got a four or five hours of sleep last night, so I'm mentally alert, but I know by the time the night is over, I will be ready to crash.

It looks like the weather's going to hold out, with all reports calling for partly cloudy skies, and it's sunny outside now. Looks like all that finger-crossing helped, because today, it seems, will kick off a week of nice weather in Northern Virginia.

It's been an amazing experience... one that I enjoyed wholeheartedly, even with all the stress, but one that I wouldn't necessarily want to repeat. :)

See you at the wedding.