going to the chapel, and we're
Cody and Becky's wedding was probably the first one that I've actually had a great time at. That's probably because I had a lot of friends there, like someone said. But I was expecting some nervousness--especially since I was playing bridesmaid--but everything went off fairly smoothly (for a wedding). I was impressed, considering several things had gone wrong leading up to the big day--David's Bridal screwing up Becky's dress, getting her the wrong shoes and a busted tiara, and refusing to fix it; forgetting to pay the organist in the midst of all the planning confusion; the hair salon canceling on them two weeks ago because someone was going to be sick, etc.
It was sure to be an entertaining event just knowing who the bridal party was. Sam, Jess, Alex, and I were bridesmaids, with Kristy as the maid-of-honor. Becky and Cody's brothers were groomsman and best man respectively, with John, Geoff, and Joey R. to fill in the rest. At the end of the rehearsal, we lined up like we would for the receiving line, and as people pretended to come down shaking hands, I started high fiving like at a soccer game. "Good game, good game, good game..." It ended up being a running joke. Whoops.
All the ladies getting their hair done were told to be at the salon at 10 AM. Being the somewhat practical and really silly person that I am, I packed my bag for the day to include my GameBoy Color and Pokemon Red (circa 1999), camera, and infamous pink-lensed, green-framed Watermelon Glasses. This turned out to be wonderful for everyone since the list had grown from four bridesmaids, maid-of-honor, bride, bride's mom, bride's grandmother, and flower girl to tack on groom's mom and aunt at the last minute, so there was a lot of waiting around. I have about 180 hilarious pictures on my camera of which I probably only took half because I left it laying around for people to play with, the Watermelon Glasses really got around, and I think everyone ended up playing Pokemon at least once. (At least I didn't have to do any of the work to beat Misty or my rival in Cerulean City.) There was one of those old-fashioned hair dryers in the waiting area that old ladies would sit under to dry their perms where everyone who opted to play in it was required to pretend to read an Avon magazine. (Even John jumped in it voluntarily when he showed up later to be very seriously reading an issue of Glamour.) I spontaneously termed people getting their hair done as "in the jungle" since there was a half wall with those decorative sticks separating the waiting area from them. (So you were seeing them through the sticks as if you were in a jungle... It made sense, I swear!) Anyway, it somehow stuck, which prompted some random outbreaks into "Welcome to the Jungle".
John and Geoff were in and out of the salon a couple times--saying good morning, checking what kind of pizzas we'd like from Sonny's upstairs, showing off Geoff's grooming for approval since he'd previously resembled a homeless bum and John's self-termed "Italian mafioso" haircut. At one point, they were coming back in after getting their tuxes in Concord as Becky was leaving to set up the hall. She asked if everything was alright with them, to which John replied, "Yeah, everything was perfect, but one question for you, Becky."
"What?"
"Why pink?"
Cue Becky gaping and freaking out for a full minute before she realizes John and Geoff are grinning at her, and she playfully threatens attempted murder.
It was pretty hilarious how clueless we girls were about make-up. Four of us were in the bathroom of the salon while waiting for Becky and Kristy to finish with a pile of products that needed to go somewhere on our faces. Alex had at least some experience with stage make-up, so Sam was wonderful enough to direct Jess and I around like the awesome people that we are, and then doll up Becky and Kristy at Becky's apartment before even getting dressed herself.
The scene at the apartment: Eight women crammed into a small one-bedroom trying to get ready without messing up anyone's hair. Four of them getting Becky into her dress where the double bed takes up the entire bedroom. Sam's still painting Kristy. All the phones are ringing, to which Becky's shouting from the bedroom not to answer them because she doesn't want to hear it, but I answer the apartment phone anyway. Becky's dad is telling me they can't find the corsage for Memere Dutil while Sam's asking if Kristy's face looks even, but we'll worry about the corsage when we get there, Becky's mom says. Mike the limo guy comes in radiating calmness and asking if there's anything to take down to the limo, and I find the missing corsage while passing him the flowers. Nick was being wonderful by taking the bridesmaids' stuff to his car because we wouldn't be back after the reception, and Becky's yelling for him to close his eyes whenever the door opens because she wants everyone to see her for the first time at the church. The photographer shows up and starts helping Kristy and I dig through Becky's dress to find the loops to hitch up the train. I'm asking if this thing came with a guide book as a joke, and Becky's laughing about how it did, and they left it in Connecticut. As everyone else heads out to the limo, it takes three of us to get poor Sam into her blue dress--Sam to hold her chest back, Kristy to pull at the zipper, and me to zip it. As we're fighting with Sam's shoes, we hear the clunk, clunk, clunk of high-heels on stairs, but it's not coming from the door. A second later there's a tapping on the window, and when I open the blinds, there's Alex in all her redheaded bridesmaid glory out on the fire escape telling us to hurry it up. When I had time to think about it later, it was the most hilarious moment in the world.
The ceremony was very nice. Becky started to cry as she was saying her vows, and as I looked across to John, we both almost lost it. Becky's hiccup in the middle of it was cute though. As Flint was holding out the rings, Cody first grabbed his own to put on Becky's finger instead of the female ring. Little chuckles. Afterward, the bunch of us were shouting, "RAAARRR!" like a battlecry because Becky's new initials were RAR, and we're nerds.
By the way, man, did John rock that tux.
The reception was a great time all around. I thought I was going to grab my camera from John's car to take pictures, but I was having too much fun dancing. The DJ was pretty awesome, and the food was fantastic. We had to cut Zach off after four glasses of wine, but at least Joe was driving. John and I must have had too much fun together because he told me later that people were walking up to him asking when our wedding was. (Not-so-secretly, I like that people noticed.) People we were afraid might not have a good time for one reason or another seemed to have fun, and there was enough of a young crowd to make the older people get up and dance with us. Cody danced with his grandmother on his knees because he was so much taller than she was. Becky's dad did the Electric Slide next to me. Edit: It was also Jess and Alex's idea to Rickroll everybody, so they requested "Never Gonna Give You Up" from the DJ, who I think was pretty clueless. Becky was all annoyed, running around going, "How the heck did I get Rickrolled at my own wedding?!" Cody thought it was funny. Everyone was saying they were going to Rickroll all the weddings from now on, but John said he was going to request it to be played at ours himself just to spite everyone.
It was just a blast. I can't even say enough about how much fun I had. As we were leaving, a couple of us laughed and said we had a great time, let's do it again next week.