wedding details

Ceremony

The ceremony will start promptly at 4:30 pm. The garden will be open to guests beginning at 4 pm.

Passed hors d'oeuvres and drinks will be served right after the ceremony.

Reception

The reception will begin at 6 pm. Dinner will be served via two food stations. We encourage our guests to mingle and explore the garden!

All of these were written by our wedding party!

Ladies

Beijing Kara Huang - Maid of Honor

Kara met Joy during frosh camp at Caltech and they were inseparable through their 4 years of college. Like Joy, Kara majored in Chemical Engineering so they often worked on psets/projects together into the wee hours, with Kara sleeping over so much that she kept a spare toothbrush in Joy's room. In their free time they would go to San Gabriel for food, waste hours playing random computer games, and admire Joy's vast collection of stuff animals. Currently, Kara is working towards a PhD at MIT.

Tanya Xingchen Liu

Tanya's known Joy for as far back as she can remember, and counts herself as lucky for growing up with such a great role model to look up to. She is a recent graduate from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is currently working on her Master's at MIT. She still enjoys passions from growing up, such as video games, art, and video games, and surprisingly has found a newfound appreciation for dance. She is incredibly excited for Joy and Matt on their special day!

Jenny Jie Sheng

Jenny is Joy's one and only younger sister, who is often said to be "just like Joy," to which Joy and Jenny say in unison, "ugh, no." Though seven years apart in age, they are close despite living apart for many years and having very different mindsets. Similarly, however, the two sisters like both the arts and the sciences, love gaming, enjoy putting off exercise, and have fun merrymaking. Jenny is starting her second year of college at the California State University, Long Beach two days after the wedding as a civil engineer major. She requires more luck and good wishes than the soon-to-be very happy married couple.

Gents

Thomas Oren Gwinn Jr. - Officiant

Tom met Matt and Joy when he was an excitable Lloyd House freshman. He has enjoyed their friendship and company ever since. He enjoys fishing and professional beer drinking, and can often be found making semi-inappropriate jokes.

Vamsi Chavakula - Co-Best Man

Many moons ago, Vamsi befriended a scared and helpless Matt Lew (Lewcy) who had just left the rural village of San Antonio, where citizens spend their free time watching the subpar play of the hopeless amateur Spurs basketball team, to start life as a budding electrical engineer at Caltech. At the time, Lewcy was feared for his "heavy breathing, loud typing, and hard walking." They spent many a dark and stormy night in the dank electrical engineering laboratory in the Moore building, a time infamously known as the "dark days of Mooredor." Following college, Vamsi trekked to the east coast, where he periodically emerges from his igloo. He drills holes in people’s heads for a living.

Vivek Narsimhan - Co-Best Man

Vivek first met Matt during freshman year of college, when they were next-door neighbors in Lloyd House. Although they didn’t talk too much during their first year (both lamely did homework...), they got to know each other much better in their sophomore year, when they both ended up moving off campus to the same apartment complex. Their friendship soon blossomed, and they bonded over their love of TV shows, NBA basketball, and general shenanigans (especially involving Vamsi). By the end of college, they were roomies and best buds. Both of them ended up in grad school together, and they still remain great friends, watching football games at Stanford and hanging out with college buddies.

Vivek luckily had the fortune of knowing both Matt and Joy throughout the years, and he can say that both are some of the nicest, most wonderful people he's met. He knows it sounds like a cliché, but they are an amazing couple who are truly meant for each other. He is incredibly happy and honored to be a part of their wedding, and he greatly looks forward to it!

Derek Chang

Derek grew up in the warm suburbs of Los Angeles where the sun shines and summer fires blaze. He was an avid tennis player and spent much time in the sun. For college, he moved a whole 40 minutes to Pasadena, another sunny suburb of Los Angeles, where he studied Electrical Engineering. At Caltech, he became good friends with Matt and shared a common love for optics, basketball, and chamber music. They both did undergraduate research in optics, followed their NBA basketball teams with a passion, and spent many hours playing together in a piano quartet - enjoying the wonderful music of Dvořák while fending off insensitive viola jokes by other quartet members. A couple years later, Matt and Derek's paths crossed again in graduate school at Stanford where they both, unsurprisingly, continued to followed their passion for optics, chamber music, and basketball. Both of their Ph.D. research take a deep dive into understanding light in various contexts. They continued to play in a piano quartet by expanding their repertoire to include Schumann, Schubert, and Brahms. Most importantly, they maintained a healthy dose of verbal jabs when Matt's San Antonio Spurs played against Derek's Los Angeles Lakers. Although Matt's Spurs convincingly and deservedly swept Derek's Lakers out of the first round of the play-offs this year, Derek can sleep well and night knowing that Tim Duncan's 4 championship rings take a back seat to Kobe Bryant's 5. Derek feels greatly honored to be a part of Matt and Joy's wedding and wishes them much love and success in their life together. He also hopes that he and Joy will continue their winning ways over Matt and Vivek in the card game of spades!

Jonathan Duk-Sing Lew

Jonathan is Matthew’s younger brother and is currently an Electrical Engineering undergraduate student at the University of Texas at Austin. Being born into the same household, he has always had to deal with Matthew, but he first met Joy after visiting Matthew at Caltech during the summer of 2007. He plays the cello and also enjoys family fishing trips, playing Ultimate Frisbee, and video games.

Parking

If you're not staying in a hotel that is within walking distance of Memory Garden, there are several city parking garages and lots near the venue. For more information about the location, hours of operations, and rates of these parking facilities, visit monterey.org. If you are consulting the Waterfront area parking map, our venue is located near the Scott St and Olivier St intersection. The Downtown area has several less expensive parking alternatives.

Weather

Click for weather forecast

Please keep in mind that our entire wedding is taking place outdoors in late August. There are four gorgeous magnolia trees that will provide some shade, but it is a good idea to bring hats and sunglasses, and don't forget proper sun protection!

Since Monterey is by the ocean, the evenings do get cool. We recommend that you bring along a jacket or wrap for when the sun goes down.

Shoes

The floor at the Memory Garden is packed dirt, so it could be a little dusty.