R's Big Day

After a year of planning, yesterday was the big day......

R is now officially Mrs Li!

Congrats, to my friend of 20 years.  I'm happy for her, and it's an absolute honor to be part of her big day.

Unfortunately, for me, now that R is Mrs Li and is officially moving to their new home, I've "lost" my friend.  She'll no longer be 20 houses away, and it'll be much harder to have spontaneous ice cream meetups and cheesecake sharings.  I'm gonna miss having a friend so close by...

A year ago, when R asked me to be one of the bridesmaid, I couldn't say no.  How could I possibly reject a friend of 20 years?  (After all, how many people has kept in touch with a friend for 20 years?  Not many.)  I had agreed right away, knowing full well what I was getting myself into.  My biggest "challenge" in all of this, of course, was the dress code.  But from the moment I had said yes, I knew I would have to put up with whatever was thrown at me.

Having to put on a dress for the first time in a good eight years was extremely awkward.  On top of that, it was a short, pink, strapless dress.  And, of course, to go with that, was the hair and makeup.  It really doesn't get more "extreme" than this, by my standards.  The first 10 to 15 minutes was awkward, but after that, I knew I just had to put on a good show and I was way too busy to even think about what I looked like.  All I knew was I had to make sure that nothing goes wrong and give my friend the best possible wedding.

For the most part the day went smoothly.  At the ceremony, we had some technical difficulties.  I guess the high-tech approach they were depending on was a little risky.  Thankfully, everything worked out in the end.  In the evening, there were also technical difficulties.  Again, tech is bound to fail.  At least it wasn't anything too important.

The people......

During this period of time, I've met two people that I've heard a lot about in the past.  The first was the groom's sister.  I have to admit that from her FB profile, I was expecting not to like this person.  But I guess we got a long pretty well and she's actually quite different from what I was expecting.  The other person I met was one of C's best friends, RK.  I've always heard of this person and, in fact, have seen her many many times.  After all, (1) we went to the same school, (2) she was a client of my former boss and (3) we live on the same street.  But it wasn't until these few weeks that I actually met her.  We actually hung out quite a bit on the night of the party two weeks ago.  It was actually more natural hanging out with her than with some of R's other friends.

Now that I think about it, it's actually kinda cool.  R, C and J are siblings.  They each have a good friend (namely me, RK, and RK's brother, respectively) who are the same age and literally live around the corner.

The highlights......

The touching part:  R was in tears when she was saying her wedding vows.  C was in tears when she made her little speech.  I've known these two sisters forever.  Both were touching to me.

The crazy part:  The DJ played Gangnam Style twice and, of course, everybody knows the dance.  With R's partying cousins and BA group, it was a pretty funny sight.

The worst part:  We were outside for 2 hours taking pictures in the freezing cold.  We were in our dresses and the guys in their suits.  The rest of the world in their winter jackets! =_=

For the whole day, I was partnered with R's younger brother, simply because I'm the tallest girl and he's the tallest guy.  It wasn't until today that I realized how much he has grown up.  I still remember when he came over to my house way back then and (literally) ripped my basement apart.  Today, although he was the youngest among the groomsmen, he was quite the gentlemen.

The disappointments......

J didn't come over from HK.  To me, this event was a little incomplete without J.  R, J, M and me used to always hang out together.  Way back then, we joked that R would be the first one to get married.  And now it's really happening.  How could J be missing from such an important event?

I was a little frustrated with some people in the bridal party.  Some had clearly not looked at the schedule or their assigned duties.  Some were sort of standing around not doing much half the time.  Some left before the guests.  Seeing as I don't want anything to go wrong, I picked up the slack whenever possible and was one of the last people to leave.  I don't want my friend's wedding to be ruined by some irresponsible people.

The rather amusing parts for me......

There was a table of BA people, although not from my year.  I recognized most of them and some of them recognized me.  If they didn't recognize me, they definitely recognized my name.  When I "introduced" myself, their reactions were quite amusing.

At one point in the evening, M came to me and said, "F asked S to ask me if you're single." My reaction was OMG =_=".  F was some really tall guy I had just met in the morning.  Apparently, he went to BA also and was in the year before me, but I have absolutely no recollection of this person.  Nor would I ever be interested. =_=  Thank goodness I'll probably never see him again.

After that, M tells me I should consider F.  I said no, and she tells me to consider the Taiwanese photographer (who everyone thought was a nice guy) instead.  When she said this, I wanted to laugh.  If my instincts are correct, that photographer was a TB!