My Best Friend's Wedding

One of the most memorable experiences in my life took place this weekend - my best friend got married!

It all started about 5 years ago when my boyfriend and I invited both of our best friends to come along with us on a number of excursions. By some stroke of luck and fate, our best friends fell in love. And so it came to be that both V. and I were groomsman and bridesmaid for their wedding.

At 5am I headed over to the other bridemaid's house to get our make-up and hair done. It was amazing to see how 4 sleepy heads could transform into 4 lovely maidens. Then we drove over to the bride's family home to have breakfast and to prepare for the games and the tea ceremony. In Chinese tradition, the groom must overcome a series of obstacles and tests set out by the bridesmaids before he can claim his bride. The games that we had ready included everything from romantic serenades to eating wasabi popsicles (ugh!). Once both the groom and groomsmen pass their tests satisfactorily, they can enter the house and greet the bride.

This was the first time that the groom had ever seen the bride in her wedding dress and he looked so blown away. She glowed and beamed at him and he twirled her around and couldn't stop smiling at her. It was really quite cute.

Then two pillows were set out in front of the couch, and they kneeled to serve tea to all of the relatives. In return, the relatives would drink the tea, give them their blessing and well-wishes, and give them gifts of money in red envelopes. Some of the relatives gave gifts of gold jewelry to the bride. Many tears were shed in happiness over the moving occasion.

Then the boys settled down for some home-cooked breakfast while the girls continued to primp and preen in preparation for the church ceremony.

Suddenly, "Ooohs" and "Aaahs" were heard - a white luxury limousine had pulled into the driveway. It was a surprise from the sister of the bride so that the whole wedding party could travel in style together throughout the day. We had originally planned to travel in 3 separate cars. The bride hugged her sister in delight and we piled in to enjoy the chilled champagne and roomy leather surroundings.

From that point on it was a whirlwind of picture-taking, waiting, and smiling. There were so many special moments to remember - the bride looking at herself in the tall oval gilded mirror and looking nervous as she waited for her moment to walk down the aisle, the pixie-like flowergirl so sweet and so innocent, the bride and her groom looking into each other's eyes and looking so completely entralled in each other and the moment.

The church bell rang long and loud and they were now married.

We headed to the reception hall for free-flowing spirits and a sumptuous buffet, and dancing, dancing, dancing that went on into the early hours of the morning.

"Would you do this again?" one bridesmaid asked. "Definitely!" we all answered. It had been so much fun.

Busy starting fires

Sorry for my absence lately! I've been busy, busy, busy with preparing for two big weddings coming up this weekend and next weekend.

There have been bachelorette parties and wedding showers, dress fittings, make-up trials, shopping for presents, shoes, and accessories... the list goes on. I have been having SO MUCH FUN!

My favourite day so far has been my best friend's bachelorette party. We went for a luxury pedicure and paraffin wax treatment in the morning and it was soooo relaxing. We sat on a big comfy elevated couch with lots of fluffy pillows and soaked our tired toes in hot soapy water. The estheticians went to work scrubbing our feet and calves with grapefruit exfoiliant scrub, massaging with soothing scented creams, and wrapping them in hot, ultra-relaxing paraffin wax. Wrapped in warm towels, we chat about girly things and giggled over the up-coming wedding. Then the estheticians trimmed our nails, buffed them to a shine, and painted them with our choices of pretty colours. All smooth and prettied up, we shuffed in our slippers and towel robes to the dining area where we enjoyed a scrumptious chicken salad, champagne, and chocolate dipped strawberries. Cheers to the bride-to-be!

After the spa, we headed out to Robson Street for some shopping. My dear bachelorette was dressed to be teased with a large "the bachelorette" sash across her chest and a magic fairy wand. I had also pinned an elaborate tuule and ribbon creation onto her head so that it was hard to miss her irregularity, heheheh... People stopped to stare at her, and other passed by whispering, "bachelorette party". One young girl stopped and asked, "Is it your birthday?" Whereupon, the bachelorette had to answer, "No, it's my bachelorette party" and point to the large sign across her chest.

I had been trying a new brand of lipstick by MAC that is supposed to stay on all day, and we all agreed that it was holding up extremely well through all our meals and drinks that day. We entered the MAC store and one of the sweet ladies there helped us each choose a fitting colour for the wedding. Now with painted lips (and toes), we headed to the theatre for a wedding-themed movie - "Mamma Mia"!

I have to say, Mamma Mia is a great movie for a girl's day out. We laughed so hard! It's incredibly funny and the story is very sweet. Meryl Streep does a wonderful job as the mother of the bride, and Colin Firth has a lovely singing voice. Poor Pierce Brosnan, however, garnered a theatre full of snickering and giggling when he started to sing... and it wasn't a funny part of the movie.

After the movie, we headed to Chambar on Beatty Street for dinner, an almost completely candlelit restaurant. The gentlemen in the table next to us surprised us by buying us our first round of drinks. "This round of drinks is complimentary of the gentlemen over there, " said the waiter, and the guys raised their glasses and cried, "Congratulations!" We were very delighted and raised our glasses in returning saying, "Cheers!" and "Thank you!"

The food (a huge pot of steaming mussels, cherry garnished beef tatataki, and grilled scallops) was delicious and perfect for sharing, and dessert (raspberry sorbet) was tangy and extremely flavourful. Our dessert was followed by present-opening-time and, oops, a fire!

One of the girls noticed that the wrapping paper was dangerously close to the candle on one side of the table and promptly moved it to the other side of the table, forgetting that there was also a candle there. The wrapping paper burst into flames instantly, so she picked up another handful of paper and tried to pat the fire out. Unfortunately, that paper too caught fire and there was suddenly quite a large fire burning on our table top.

The girl beside me jumped to action, grabbed my glass of water and dumped it onto the fire. The guys from the other table ran with their glasses of water and poured that on top. Then the bartender ran over with a large pitcher of water and poured that on top, and the fire was finally put out. Our waiter came over and asked, "Wow, what happened here?" and we collapsed into a fit of laughter and giggling, telling him that we had started a fire. The guys from the other table moved closer after that and joined in for the remainder of our present-opening-time. I guess the fire was good for bonding, lol.

Wedding Shower

I had great fun today attending my friend's wedding shower! There were lots of fun/humiliating games, a silly costume for the bride-to-be, and lots of time to bond with each other and the bride-to-be. A very good time was had by all!

As you can see, I brought a gift adorned with one of my bookmarks. The gift was for a rainy day, so my Rainy Day bookmark seemed to be an appropriate addition. It's very pretty, no?

And, there's the bride's sister putting the seashell bra on. Ah... there's nothing like a sister to really put the final touch on your most embarrassing moments, huh? They know just the right buttons to push, hehehe... But the bride-to-be was a very good sport. What a great gal!

A Bridesmaid Dress

My friend is getting married this summer and I'll be a bridesmaid for the very first time. It's a funny feeling to have friends all around you getting married or announcing their first child... you feel like you missed a boat somewhere. You look left, you look right, and all around you are married people.

The odd thing is that I don't wish that I was getting married or having my first child. I like not being married and just dating and being happy with that. I find it far more romantic, for some odd reason. Marriage seems so confining and final. It's like the bridge between being young and free, and being tied down with kids. I feel guilty to be thinking this way. I think I should be like all the other girls, wishing for their own wedding day and dreaming of what I will wear or look like. Unfortunately, I seem to have missed that boat too.

Now, being a bridesmaid though, that seems to have fulfilled some fancy of mine. I get to wear a pretty dress, help the bride with all her happy wedding day needs and then, at the end of the day, I get to go home and still keep my last name intact. It seems almost sinful to be enjoying a wedding and getting away with exchanging no vows of my own.

Now, don't get me wrong, I am very happy for my friends. They really wanted to get married and to have their dream weddings, so I am happy that they are fulfilling their dreams. They really wanted to have kids too, so announcing their first child is pure bliss. But, as for me, I have no desire for these things yet.

Perhaps I'm just a late-bloomer.

Maybe, one day, I will gleefully announce my own wedding and you'll all shake your heads knowingly. But until that day, I am content being me. One person, one love, and happy.