The Setup I proposed to Sandee on May 11th of 2000.  We immediately decided to get married relatively soon, and started looking for places available in early September.  We went through a number of different options and had reservations for at least two places before we changed our minds and decided to elope in Europe during our previously scheduled vacation in July. But logistics became a nightmare and at some point during the process we decided to put the whole thing on hold until later.

Since we wanted an outdoor ceremony, we started looking at our options in spring 2001.  After planning and then discarding two or three other venues, Sandee finally came up with the idea of the lake-house.  It was perfect!  But we had to wait for a couple of weeks while we checked for availability.  We eventually announced our intentions in early April, only a month before the wedding date on May 5!  It was going to be a hectic adventure.  Here is the announcement we put on the web for the invitees.

The Buildup

I now know way too much about:  Diamonds, ripping CDs, photographers, florists, officiants, country roads in central Virginia, banquet rentals, the wedding march, toules, ribbons and other miscellaneous decorating materials.  I hope to forget most of this new-found knowledge in the very near future.

Small weddings have their good and bad sides.  On one hand, you don't have to deal with a caterer, the wedding party and rehearsal dinners, on the other hand, those little details that the professionals know how to handle become a series of minor crises during the buildup to the ceremony.

A couple of examples:  The grounds of the lake-house needed a "make-over", so I ended up having to start a push-mower, a riding mower and a weed-whacker that just did not want to be woken up from their winter slumber.  I was pumping my fist like a Formula 1 champion when I finally got the riding mower going. Sandee had her own adventures with the missing manicurist a few hours before the ceremony at the honky-tonk hair salon (she said it, not me).  She had to go scrounging around the tiny town of Orange, Virginia for a late substitute.

Sandee's mom made an incredible fried chicken lunch on the day of the wedding that was good enough to make a vegetarian see the light.  She spent the rest of the day giving out the recipe.

Despite a threatening thunderstorm moving a few miles away (just to make it a bit more exciting), nature cooperated as well and the ceremony began more or less on time.

The Ceremony

The actual ceremony was performed under an arch (made by me) on a platform at the end of the dock.

We tried to mix Iranian and American traditions so we had set up a small spread, or sofreh, on a side table.  The officiant (Harold Brown) did a little explanation of the Iranian ceremony as well as a description of the "something old, something new, something borrowed, something blue" tradition.  Shokraneh and Casey read a poem that I had sent Sandee a couple of years ago in Spanish and English and then we read the vows that we had written for each other.  I do's, rings, the kiss and the presentation of Mr. & Mrs. Minovi came after that.  I say it nonchalantly, but both of us were absolutely focused on each other during the whole ceremony and were floating a couple of feet above the ground (or dock).

The Partay

A brief cocktail hour was followed by a delicious dinner of roast lamb and shirin polo, an Iranian rice dish, both made by my parents.  There were the usual series of rehearsed and impromptu speeches and then we started the dancing.

Our first dance was to the tune of Kind and Generous by Natalie Merchant which is one of the many of "our songs".  I'd spent a whole day ripping a few CDs for the occasion and it all seemed worth it when the mix of American, Latin and Iranian music spanning 30 years or so kept everyone movin' and groovin' for a few hours. We cut the chocolate mouse on hazelnut crisp cake (yum!!) during a lull in the dancing and eventually rode off to the nearby Littlepage Inn.

Perhaps unromantically, most of the guests followed us to the Inn as they were also staying there for the night.

The Aftermath

Predictably, gossiping about the previous night's events was the main feature of the morning activities.  Hossein and Shokraneh provided a "just right" breakfast (and lots of coffee) to give everyone the energy to think back through the fog.  The cleanup of the lake-house didn't take that long, but fitting the leftovers in the trunk of the cars was a job by itself.  We were eating roast lamb and baked beans for a week after the wedding.

There were many people involved in helping us make this wonderful day become reality and Sandee and I would like to thank them all for all their support.  Don't worry, we'll send you thank you cards too.

There were also quite a few touching comments that we heard from you recently and we've put a few of them on a separate page.

Please call, eMail Sandee and Babak or post on the message board if you have any questions or ideas about the wedding pages.