Oh hello! I had a rather crazy late April/mid May between buying a house (!) and moving into said house, and MY BABY SISTER GETTING MARRIED! First, about that.
First of all, my sister decided her fur babies must accompany to her and their father’s wedding. So, she (and a very kind bridesmaid) drove from Louisiana to northern Virginia sharing a single vehicle with two cats and a dog. NUTS.
My mom was nice enough to host Mearl (L) and Tina (R) along with her own cat (fortunately Billie Jean the dog stayed elsewhere). Tina is my sister’s latest rescue, found on the street. She is tiny and adorable and really quite skittish and weird too.
I drove up to my mama’s house the Wednesday evening before the Saturday wedding. The following days involved lots of little last minute activities. Picking up altered clothing, selecting photobooth props, and a great deal of work related to seating charts that my mom, my mom’s best friend, my sister, and roughly 10,000 other people seemed to be involved in but I fortunately was not.
The funnest of the wedding prep activities was definitely mani pedis for me, the bride, and my mom’s goddaughter who was visiting from St Louis for the wedding (who I think of as a four year old but in fact is now a young woman getting ready for college!)
I figured to go for something more exciting than usual for my nails since how many times does one’s sister get married?! So I did both the french manicure and the nail art (!) at my lady’s suggestion.
The day before the wedding we had the rehearsal dinner which was at Seasons 52. When I ordered lasagna I received this fascinating deconstructed item which was REALLY yummy. Lots and lots of veggies in the pasta rolls, and a cool ricotta on top. Mm.
As for the wedding day itself it involved everyone getting G.L.A.M.O.R.O.U.S. My mom knew a lady who’d done makeup/hair at work events and hired her for her, sis and me. They set up a whole studio in the dining room and kitchen.
My sister had some deeply fabulous old Hollywood waves.
I ended up with more loose waves. But perhaps I should’ve just stuck with this fetching updo I had midway through the process? Lololol.
My sister got all of her bridesmaids these sweet charm necklaces, each of which had a different theme. I looooved my *Protect* one. One because it definitely describes my attitude toward my sister… and two because of the dope snake charm!
As for the wedding itself… I managed to take a whopping one picture, of the appetizers hahaha.
Guys, I am garbage at writing sentimental things.
I did my best to write a good toast about the happy couple as the maid of honor (which would have been much improved if 1. I hadn’t been immediately preceded by Eric’s brother’s 100% sincere, unsnarky, tear inducing speech– mine was playful and jokey and would’ve been a better preamble!– and 2. If I hadn’t immediately poured champagne all down my front immediately before the toast— for the record I was stone cold sober, I guess just nervous and reaching for my salad fork at the wrong angle?!)
But talking about my sister requires summarizing a 27 year relationship into something pithy and it just cannot be done.
My sister is the funniest person I know. She’s caring, and weird, and very smart. She will get me better than any other person in the world in very key ways because we are the only people who have ever been raised by our parents. Celebrating her marriage to Eric, who I’ve also known for quite awhile (they met freshman year of high school, 13 years ago!) was a consistently surreal experience. But it was very very lovely.
I also have no idea if I’ll ever get married but can state very confidently that if I do I want nothing to do with a wedding. So I have to further extend gratitude to my sister and mom and everyone else who made the wedding happen because I got to be in a big room with basically all of my loved ones! Mom’s side of the family, dad’s side of the family, a bunch of old family friends some of whom I haven’t seen since I was a tiny thing… all too often the occasions that bring people together are sad ones, so it was really nice having people fly in from literally all over the world for a joyful reason.
I will leave you with a picture… The rain was a bit on and off on Malindi and Eric’s wedding day. As we all proceeded from the church to the reception I realized it’d be wise to get the bride and groom an umbrella. Pinterest friendly it was not but they still look pretty damn sweet.
Crunchy in Carolina 