Laotian wedding at the Rhodes on the Pawtuxet – Lynda + Souksanh

Back in college when Jason and I first started dating, I thought ice skating would be a cute date. We’d trot along. We’d hold hands. We’d stop for hot chocolate. It’d be perfect! Jason grew up in Hong Kong so I figured that he wouldn’t have been exposed to many winter sports. I also assumed he’d be falling quite a bit, and I, meanly, thought it would be perfect. For the first time ever, I thought I found something that I thought I’d be better than him in. Oh, how wrong I was… on so many levels.

We jumped in our car to head to the ice rink and he threw a duffel in my trunk. When we got to the ice rink, I pointed to the rentals section and he said, “No, it’s cool. I’m all set”. I wasn’t sure if he thought he could skate in sneakers… but I left it at that. After I got my rentals, I saw him pull out black skates with green alligator skate guards. He started lacing up. I started getting suspicious. He shrugged off all of my very direct questions. (i.e. WHERE DID THOSE COME FROM?) We did one loop on the rink and the announcer man exclaims that it was time for the zamboni to resurface the ice. I head for the gate and he responds, “No, it’s cool. I’ll be right there”. I stumble awkwardly off of the ice to the foamy padded area, turn around, and there Jason is – skating backwards (rather quickly, I might add), spinning, turning, and then LEAPING – like triple spin off-the-ice-in-the-air kind of jumps. WHAT IS GOING ON?!

Jason is an international figure skater. He’s been training since he was young. He’s competed all over the world, and placed in many of these competitions.

This guy is ridiculous.

I made him buy me dinner that night.

and we’ve never gone ice skating since. (It was 6 years ago).

After being friends for many years at the University of Rhode Island, Lynda and Souksanh’s first date was dinner and ice skating. I asked if they had a great time – and coincidentally, their date ended up how I thought my date would’ve gone: super awesome and pretty damn cute. I connected with their love of marathon-ing of TV shows and loved that their relationship emphasized so much on pushing each other to reach their own goals and common values: honesty, support and trust.

I loved everything about their gigantic 600-person wedding at the Rhodes on the Pawtuxet in Cranston, RI.