The day has arrived! Unfortunately, it wasn't just raining, it was pouring buckets with roaring thunder and crashing lightning on the day of my cousin Angelo's wedding. The weather was absolutely terrible and I felt bad for the bride, this was the sort of rain that can make any bride lose her mind. I had gotten my hair blown out straight the day before but because of the humidity, became a wavy, frizzy mess. Not wanting to look like I just rolled out of bed, I pinned it back in a low bun and threw a brooch in it to dress it up. I chose to not take my mother's suggestion of wearing my prom dress since I was already recycling the date and ended up wearing a bell-sleeved mauve 1950's vintage lace dress with hand sewn ribbon detail. I bought this dress in San Francisco 15 years ago for 10 dollars and even back then, I knew it was a steal. Whoever owned the dress before must have been tiny because I had to double up with high spanx underwear and a spanx slip for it to look right. I was vacuum-sealed in for the night and had to watch my champagne intake other wise I'd probably implode.
I picked up Simon, my high school boyfriend who was doubling as my wedding escort at the train station and we went straight to my grandparents house for champagne and groom's pictures before heading to the church. We were the first to arrive and Simon, who hasn't seen my family in years was greeted with hugs and kisses from my grandparents. After the Simon excitement settled down, my grandfather looked me up and down and asked me if 'they' still made girdles. Busted. Even my grandfather good tell that I was sucked in. My cousins, including the groom arrived shortly after and we posed for pictures or rather we stood around, sipping bubbly and every time the photographer came by we'd cock our heads back and laugh. 'Action shots'. Simon was the perfect companion to bring. He's outgoing, funny and speaks English. If Monsieur Flâneur came, like it was originally planned, I would have been exhausted from translating all night. So, it was nice to be with someone who didn't rely on me for communication. I guess that's the silver lining...
We arrived at the church and it was like a high school reunion. You could sense the confusion from our former classmates as they would look at Simon and I, look at my ringless ringer and then look back at us like we had been together for over 10 years and he was holding out on me. We chuckled because we knew that was exactly what they were thinking. My suspicions were confirmed later that evening in the ladie's room when I overheard some girls that I graduated with saying that they couldn't believe that we had been together since 1999 and we're still not married. High school never changes. Simon, being jewish had never been to a mass in a church before, enjoyed hearing the priest sing and wanted to know if the organist was going to break into 'In Da Godda Da Vida'. I told him that we weren't in that Simpsons episode.
Josephine looked absolutely beautiful as she walked down the aisle wearing my mother's veil. I'm happy that she decided to wear it. It worked perfectly with her dress and I know that when my day comes, I will be able to wear it too. It is now part of our generation's tradition. I never understood why people cry at weddings but I do now. It was the first wedding that I have been to where the bride and groom have been a part of my immediate family. Within minutes, my makeup was running down my face.
As we were leaving the church, we bumped into the bride's sister, who incidentally was the valedictorian of our graduating class. Not only did she looked at Simon with disdain but she asked him what he was doing there and then looked at me and said she heard that I had given her sister a hard time about the veil. Simon and I stood there dumfounded. "Isn't this supposed to be God's house?" Simon asked after we had been insulted. She walked away clearly not amused with his attempt to break the ice. "She was uptight in high school and she still is. Good for her." Simon said while laughing at how ridiculous the previous 30 seconds were.
The bride's creepy sister aside, the first part of the wedding was absolutely beautiful, the rain had stopped and we were all ready to head upstate for farm party time...
