This past weekend has been such a joy, the wedding of Jenny and Patrice ended up being much more than just a wedding. I felt like I was on vacation for the first time in a long time. Thins went smootly, I didn’t have to worry and I was able to just enjoy the gorgeous scenery.
First, I arrived in Annecy on Friday night and had enough time to straighten out the situation of the hotels for the other bridesmaids. There had been confusion of who was staying where and luckily I showed up just as the hotel was telling Hanna that there was no room for her at that hotel and no vancancies. Later that night we went for the rehearsal dinner where we got to know some new people and I was able to catch up with my friends Tamara and Lesley, who were just married a week and a half ago.
Saturday was wedding day and we started the day at about 7am. The bridesmaids had to be ready to get our hair done. Jenny arrived shortly after i finished my hair and before I was dressed and had makeup on and said that we had to leave that moment for the L’Abbey Talloires where she was having her photos taken. It was wonderful to be there to help Jenny prepare for her wedding and put on her dress and make up. Unfortunately her sister was not there as planned to do her makeup for her because of a fight the night before. I really enjoyed watching Jenny and Patrice getting their pictures taken, it was the first time in a while that I had seen them so relaxed, in love and enjoying themselves.
We rushed back to the city center for the “emergency” rehearsal that her sister insisted on having so that we don’t discrace her family with how unorganized we are. It just seemed to be a whole lot of a big deal for just walking straight ahead if you ask me. But her sister insisted upon it. So after she was satisfied with the arrangement, Tamara and I whisked Jenny off to the hair dresser to have her veil put on and to touch up her hair. It was pretty odd to walk down the street all dressed up like that holding the back of her dress!
The ceremony was over pretty quickly. The priest only 2 or 3 days before the wedding announced that he will not marry them because Jenny is not a catholic but they had already undergone all of the necessary religious preperations. Luckily their priest in Paris had left a note that was necessary to have them be married. He reluctantly complied but then announced that there must be more religious scriptures read and more hymns sung. They tried to explain that the majority of the guest are not French and do not understand. He didn’t care and said it is a French wedding and will be in French. We were forced to sing along with these hymns which I have no idea what we were saying and I just started to sing vowels and stretch them to make some noise. After the first time he insisted that we sing it again but louder, right, so I made my noises louder and even more inarticulate. I thought that was pretty rude of the priest. Luckily I do understand a bit of French and new at least what was going on when they did all of the important moments.
As we filed out, all of the bridal party rushed about to distribute the butterflies that we were going to release. Last week we had to take all of the cocoons and place them in these small cardboard pyramids and wait until they hatch. It wasn’t quite the effect Jenny expected I think but everyone got a kick out of it. We then headed over to the canal to our boat tour that was going to take us over to the castle for reception.
The reception was a great deal of eating fantastic things and some of Patrice’s friends had arranged very cute games during the reception to let people know more about the couple. During dancing, the bridesmaids and I teamed up with Sonny, a relative of Jenny’s, and she was teaching us some moves. She is probably in her 40′s and a party animal! We were doing all sorts of things like pretending to be pushing a shoping cart, to the sprinkler, driving cars, etc. My favorite moment of the night was to see an older French man and an older Korean woman dancing like Pulp Fiction. Dancing really must be an international language because they couldn’t communicate with words but once that music came on BAM, everyone was culturally mixed. My dancing for the evening was put to an end when a rowdy crowd of French dancers slammed on my foot which instantly swelled up and turned blue. In a room full of Korean doctors I was certainly in good hands and within seconds had ice for it. Luckily it was shortly before the bus was to take us back to the city center so I didn’t miss too much of it.
Sunday morning there was a brunch at L’Abbey Talloires and it was the perfect ending to a fantastic weekend. The weather was perfect, warm and sunny with a slight breeze. The food was fantastic and I managed to swipe some of the small jam jars from our table for gifts for the Filipinos. It was the perfect wedding, it makes me look forward to mine even more. I also found the house of my dreams but more on that another time.
Countdown to the Philippines: 13 days
Thanks Rasa, for all the little details. I almost felt as if I was there with you.