Did i die somehow in the last 3-5 weeks?
Well, for sure i've been inactive but i do have my reasons.
Saturday a friend of mine FF (J's sister) got married with her boyfriend of 8 years and i happen to be chosen as one of her bridesmaids with 3 other girls. It's my very first time being a bridesmaid and therefore i got stressed out by all the responsibilities and work that is entitled. In the first weekend of May we had FF's polterabend and went out to do some paddle surf and archery for fun. We ate super good sushi, played a funny board game and by night we sang karaoke till 4 am before heading separate ways. It was quite a succes and so was the wedding. Planning the polterabend was a heavy duty because every single one of us were afraid to do something that the bride didn't like. Also it happened to be the two girls who know the bride the least that planned the most, of whom i was one of.
Wedding was Saturday and friday was spent on decorating the venue and prepare stuff like a Photo Booth, a table reserved for gifts, fill the refrigerators with drinks etc. We finished by 22, came home by 23 but slept by 02. 3 bridesmaids slept together with the family in their apartment in order to help her and the family get ready in the morning and we had to get up by 6... I realised after i finished in an hour that i did not need to get up that early because the groomsmen would come by 8.30 for the bride... By the way, the bride and groom is Chinese, so we had to do a lot of Chinese traditions like gatecrashing and tea ceremony. The "audience" and the groomsmen were supposed to arrive by 8.30 but came 8, saying they woke up late and had to skip breakfast to make to the apartment in time. The last bridesmaid hadn't come yet so while waiting for her, we had to prevent anybody from getting inside the building.
Groom and his friends, family and groomsmen
We finally started the games and we had our fair share of fun; challenging and humiliating the groomsmen with absurd quests. Each time we think they didn't succeed or perform well enough, they would have to bribe us with a red envelope for us to allow them to continue their task of getting the bride. When we came to the the door of the apartment, the last quest was for the boys to sing loud enough for FF to hear from the other side of the door. We picked "I swear" for them and they sang so loud that the neighbours had to check what was happening outside. After the song, we made the guys give up the rest of their envelopes and suddenly there was a change of plans. The grooms side decided to have a tea ceremony in the car, which meant he had to go downstairs with his family and let all the guest and such stand in front of the door in the hallway... for 10 minutes staring awkwardly at each other.
Finally the groom came back and we got inside to the living room where the bride would be revealed.
(FF, me, HA and Chinh - also bridesmaids)
They did some praying and then we realised we finished too early because the wedding ceremony would be in 1,5 hour.
Waiting in the waiting room for the wedding to start took around 3 times the time of the ceremony which was only like 15 minutes.... shortest wedding in my life... and funny enough had the groom taken his wife's last name as a middle name but the bride kept her own name with no changes. It happened to be a mistake and they need to get it corrected later. After that there were full 5,5 hours before the party so i went home to relax and get something to eat. I sat at joe and the juice for 1 hour, getting the most out of my overpriced juice because I have by mistake given J my keys to my apartment. J told me that we had to be at the venue by 15 and so we did, only to realise there was no need to be there that early, because there were nobody else than the chefs. We sat on some chairs, trying to nap a bit but it was really cold and uncomfortable.
last bridesmaid : Lili and I ^^
2 hours later guests started to arrive and guess who was in charge of seating people ? ME.... and i dont even know anybody. I had to guess that who should sit at the bride and grooms table and who should sit by the other family table and who are friends. Did i say that it was a Chinese wedding ? Yes, and guess who doesn't speak cantonese ??? ME! -.-
Luckily all the old people could speak vietnamese so that made everything a lot easier for me.
Starters, dinner and dessert was super good and the chef is actually working at a two star michelin restaurant. Normally i'm more detailed about the food, but not this time since the food was just an explosion of flavours in my mouth. IT WAS REALLYTHAT GOOD!!! and the pictures speaks for itself. and if you are wondering, we did not have the traditional 7 course wedding banquet asian weddings are famous for, but kept it simple with a 3 course scandinavian dinner.
Afterwards i had to give a toast on the behalf of the bridesmaids and i totally ruined it because i got so nervous that the blueberry i did not chew, came up and was stuck in my throat...
After that we started to make some games for the couple, dance and drink a lot. I got to make up with a girl whom i haven't seen for years because of a misunderstanding and got too much to drink. I also have taken a lot of awkward photos in the Photo Booth and puked in the parking lot.
The day after i felt fine, hungry, exhausted but also sick. I have been sick for the past week and this time it just got worse. Yesterday i took the day off because of fever, headache and vomiting every 4 hours. Hopefully i will get better but besides being sick, i had an awesome experience as a bridesmaid, even though it was pretty tiring but in a good way. It means a lot work and dedication.
Overall the only thing i wished was different was the communication or the the lack thereof. I got so pissed every time there was something that the couple had planned, involving the other of us but without telling or just briefing us about it. Or other changes of that matter. It would be so much easier if they just had told us what they had in mind, but many things happened to be last minute decisions and luckily we had the means to execute them.
Wow, i'm tired now, just thinking back... gonna nap now ^^
One of the bridesmaid just sent me a really awkward clip of me yelling through the whole "eternal flame" song on karaoke.....
