Upon our departure from Brazil, we flew directly to Arizona for Thanksgiving and to celebrate Vinay & Thu’s wedding, but our first stop was to Hidden Valley for a few days of bliss.
Colt & Papa feeding the ducks.
Colt getting into Michael’s old train set at their new barn.
Morning colors.
Finn learning about the ducks.
Front yard aka the orchard.
Colt & Dad swinging.
Colt learning all about the joys of the leaf pile.
After a few days at Hidden Valley, we headed back to Phoenix for Vinay’s wedding celebrations. Vinay is one of Michael’s dearest friends from growing up – I think they met in 1st grade. Vinay is 1st generation Indian American and Thu is 1st generation Vietnamese American. Both families obviously have strong cultural traditions surrounding wedding practices and instead of pick & choose, the couple honored both families and just did EVERYTHING. The celebrations were pretty extensive so we didn’t attend everything, but here is a look at all of the weddings and events that we did go to!
1) Traditional Vietnamese ceremony at Thu’s parents’ house.
Some of the cute greeters.
Beautiful bride & groom.
Awesome Vietnamese food after!
2) Sangeet which included tons of amazing, choreographed dances by all of Vinay’s cousins and the wedding party (the groomsmen did great!) and even a solo sung by Thu to Vinay. This is right about the time when I was wishing I was Indian…so much fun!
Wedding party.
My GORGEOUS clothes were borrowed from my very generous friend, Amy Kapoor.
Colt’s clothes were borrowed from Amy too (minus his embarrassing white-boy sneaks).
Toast time!
Groomsmen dance!
Watch their dance HERE!!
Henna + dance moves.
Colt & Chambo!
3) Baraat followed by main Indian ceremony.
Again, amazing sari was borrowed from Amy. THANK YOU AMY!!!
Vinay’s parents had beautiful outfits made in India for Michael & the groom’s party.
Brophy Boys.
BYOShoes…
Wedding party!
4) “American” white dress, tux ceremony & reception
Perfect couple, perfect night!
It was such a blast and an honor to participate in all of Vinay & Thu’s beautiful wedding celebrations. They are an awesome couple with such warm, welcoming and FUN families. Congratulations again to Thu & Vinay!
The wedding caused us to delay Thanksgiving until Saturday but after a jam-packed few days, it was great to just relax with family.
From Arizona, Michael and I flew together to Washington DC at which point I continued on with the kids to SC and Michael went down to Brazil! More on that next!
Jeans & A T-Shirt 
JUST BEAUTIFUL. REALLY SPECIAL THAT YOU GOT TO GO TO THAT WEDDING! DID TOM AND CLARE JOIN YOU ALL FOR THANKSGIVING? I HOPE YOU ARE SAVING ALL THESE WONDERFUL PICS FOR THE BOYS WHEN THEY ARE OLDER. BEST OF LUCK IN D.C. LOVE, JOANNE oldroadjo@aol.com
Hi Joanne! My grandparents celebrated Thanksgiving in SC but we went to SC for December and they came out to Arizona for Finn’s baptism which was very special. Love, Ashley
Sharon what a joyous occasion! Love to see the photos of your precious grandsons ! The fall colors are gorgeous! The Wedding was something out of a movie . Lovely , Barbara Weiss