It's Party Time!!

We had a rather large wedding in the States. It has been about 1.5 months since that incredible day. Jeff was looking through the beautiful photos that my cousin's wife took and said, "Our wedding was so awesome! I want to go back to that day." And he is right. Our wedding weekend was amazing. My aunts and uncles threw us a REMARKABLE rehearsal dinner the night before the wedding, complete with Japanese lanterns, a tent, and Irish dancers. I never could have imagined everything they did for us. It was followed by the most peaceful wedding day in existence. There was no panic. There was no fighting. There were no disasters. At least not around me. My mother put together and planned a beautiful day that we will never forget, and it all went off without a hitch. Neither of us can think of anything that went wrong. Even the rain that we got all weekend caused us to move the location of the ceremony to underneath a lovely tent, and it turned out even better than the original location. It was a magical weekend :)

Unfortunately, because of the distance, cost and time of year, not too many of Jeff's friends and family were able to make the trip. I was honestly surprised that so many of his guests were even able to make it. If the wedding had been here, it would have just been my parents and sister. But because so many people couldn't come for the wedding, Jeff's parents threw a party this past weekend so that everyone could celebrate with us. I had forgotten how my mom had worried about things like the food and the guest list, etc., etc., etc. Suddenly there were concerns of whether the room was big enough and how many people were coming and whether the heating would be enough. Nothing major, but still concerns.

And then the day came. The hotel gave Jeff and I the bridal suite, which was slightly insane. I wish we had thought to take photos before throwing our stuff and gifts everywhere. The shower attacked me with its hot water and I literally had to have someone come up and show me how to get the water temperature down. While I stood there in a robe that was most definitely not one-size-fits-all. And unshaven legs. Interesting note: I wore the other robe the next morning and discovered that they had given us two different sizes. Did they already know that I am a midget and my husband is a bear? And then I put on my fancy dress, and the lovely pearl earrings Jeff gave me for my first birthday as his wife, and walked down the hall to meet my new relatives.

It was a fantastic night! We had a short program with a few beautiful songs and some of the prayers from the wedding ceremony. Of course, when the aunts sang again, I burst into uncontrollable tears and wished I hadn't brushed aside the waterproof mascara as though I wouldn't need it. Who are we kidding?? Makeup carnage! And then I gave a short speech, telling everyone about how this past year I was scared. And I was sad about the Bar. And then one day, I realized that God does everything for a reason. And in this case, the reason was so that I could get to know all of them. Two points is something ridiculous to fail a test by. God had a plan when He gave me that score. That plan was to give me the opportunity to get to know my in-laws better; to keep me from having that "see you next Thanksgiving" type of relationship with them. When I finally realized that, I stopped crying over that stupid test. Then there was a slideshow of photos from the wedding, accompanied by Pee Loon (which might officially be my favorite Hindi song EVAR), and so the crying started again. My face was a disaster.

Everyone danced their socks off to the DJing of Jeff's cousin, Jimmy. I, on the other hand, danced my hot, yet sadistic, 5 inch heels off. They lasted longer than I expected!! We had a surprise guest all the way from Memphis: Elvis! He performed and gyrated and got distracted by the children running around in circles in front of him. And then at the end of the night, he turned back into one of Jeff's uncles. Just like Cinderella. Jeff's aunt, Shirin, made a beautiful (and scrumptious) cake for us, complete with silhouette of Paris's skyline, and my mother-in-law made a rather large batch (or 12) of tasty mini cupcakes. The night ended with my smashing my toes with a chair that I was sitting on and seemed incapable of not sitting on while my foot was underneath it. That was a hot mess. And we all ended up in the residence bar downstairs, singing and playing music, accompanied by drunk randomers, until about 3am.

What a wonderful night it was :)