Epic Wedding Recap

I'm back in Louisville, THANK GOD! THE WEDDING IS DONE! Over the summer, I've had want-to-have-a-wedding-right-now syndrome really bad, especially looking at all the awesome weddings featured on OffBeat Bride. I have been cured thanks to this is experience with my aunt's wedding. I know Dustin's mom and Tamela (my bestie) are currently bemoaning this. I'm sure it's only temporary, albeit a LONG temporary period of not wanting to have a wedding.

Going to recap the wedding & post wedding events now:

We woke up around 8:30 AM and ate half a bagel when my mom got a call from my aunt Hien telling her we have to be ready to go at 12:00PM. We were going to my aunt Hanh's (bride) house to help her get ready for the wedding. Being three women sharing one tiny hotel bathroom, my family and I rush to get ready. We're showered, made-up, in dresses and accessories by 10:00.

We attempted to put wedding gift in gift bag purchased day before; doesn't fit. Decide, well we have time to spare; mom and sister go to Saveway across street to get wrapping paper & stuff, while I stay behind in hotel. Mom & sister got back a little after 11:00 (which made me a little nervous). Had the present wrapped and ready to go a little before noon. Go down to the lobby and called my aunt, told her we were ready and waiting. She was ten minutes late. Seeing my aunt in plain clothes,  my sister and I thought "Maybe we weren't supposed to be dressed for the wedding yet, just have our stuff together." So we ran to get extra clothes from the hotel room. We  jumped in my mom's car and followed my aunt to the house.

My aunt Hanh was sick (with a cold or something she caught two days before) and stressed and a nervous wreck. She's normally super bossy, but that day she was even moreso. She was freaking out because the hair & make-up stylist wasn't at the house yet. My aunt Hien called him to find out his location; he was stuck in traffic. My aunt Hanh managed to calm down some, and said she was grateful for us being there. She showed us the dress (beautiful of course). She asked if we're hungry and offered us food. My mom made my sister, me, aunt Hien, and herself delicious ham sandwiches.

Hair/make-up guy arrived; blatantly homosexual and Vietnamese too. Finished just a little before the time we're supposed to leave to go take pictures. Everybody, except the bride, changed and gathered stuff together trying to help my mom and aunt Hien out. We left for the garden where the wedding would take place. We arrived at Elizabeth Gamble Gardens and went inside the house where my aunt would get ready. Her friends Kitty and Carmen, and my aunt Hien all helped her into her dress and get her accessories on. My sister, mom, and I watched; afterward, my sister was put in charge of my aunt's Hanh's blotting sponge, and I took hold of her purse.

My aunt went to go take private pictures with the groom, and I went to chill with my family in the sitting room that lead to the garden. It was so hot, everyone was sweating and fanning themselves. Thankfully, ice water was provided. Then we all moved outside to the area by the tea house to take photos. Eventually, ceremony time hit. We all got seated after a little confusion about who was supposed to process before the bride. The ceremony was very simple, elegant, and beautiful and SHORT! Everyone moved back to the tea house to talk and take more pictures. My sister and I wandered around the gardens more and took lots of pictures.

Finally, the time came to head towards the reception. We went to a fancy French restaurant called The Plumed Horse. We wandered through the fancy dining room, past a giant wine cellar, went down the elevator to a private dining area. We were greeted with champagne and hors d'oeuvres (however the hell you spell it). There were lots of delicious fancy, petite foods--my faves being the mushroom cream soup, caviar on a coin-sized pancake type pastry, and crab cakes. The menu for the main meal was as follows: corn soup with sturgeon and caviar; caramelized onion tarte with duck confit, frisee, and truffle vinagrette; wild Alaskan Halibut with herb crusted potato, piquillo pepper OR braised beef Danube with purple potato puree, haricot vert (I ate this); and almond vanilla poundcake with hazelnut chocolate mousse or raspberry mousse (which the menu failed to mention; I got the latter).  The meal was delicious! The soup was funny because at first it was just a big bowl with a tiny portion of corn and fish, with cream sitting in the middle. I was thinking "WTF?!" My cousin Theodore brought up the idea that maybe the waiters would pour the broth afterwards; he was right. I wish I'd gotten a chance to eat the chocolate, hazelnut cake, but the raspberry was very good.

I drank a two glasses of champagne, a little white wine, and a couple sips of a white dessert wine. Then it was dancing time to mainly late 70s and some 80s music. My aunt and her husband started out with a formal, slow first dance then switched to a choreographed disco dance. We ended the night with the Chicken Dance apparently which most of my aunts were not familiar with. My aunt Hien's boyfriend kept requesting it all night, and the DJ finally played it at the end.

Overall, the wedding was highly stressful, super fast, really fun, and great. A few negative things here and there: my mom getting a little upset after the ceremony thinking about Neal, being snubbed by my grandfather, getting blisters on my feet after dancing and walking up and down a hill carrying wedding presents to put into my aunt Hien's car, so she could take it to my aunt Hanh's house later. So glad it's over. The next day we went to a low, key picnic/barbeque at New Brighton State Beach. Ate organic, beef imported from both New Zealand and Australia! Pretty good. My sister and I were bored for most of it, since the water was too cold to swim and there wasn't anybody really to talk to that we knew. My cousin Jonathan, aunt Hang, and uncle David kept us company for a little while. They left early to fly back to Arizona though. 

Eventually, my family and I left with my aunt Hien and her boyfriend. We went to her house, so I could root through her wardrobe and take the expensive, designer clothes she couldn't fit or didn't want anymore. Then we went to an awesome local, Vietnamese restaurant called Da Lat for dinner. On the way back to the hotel, I rode in my aunt's boyfriend's BMW convertible. It was pretty fun.

My sister and I finally got to go swimming in the pool at the hotel. We switched between the pool and hot tub. We swam for maybe 45 minutes before going back to pack and sleep. Packing was a mess, I was afraid all my stuff wouldn't fit, but it did. We got up early the next morning to eat, return the rental car, check-in and get to our gate. 

I got home around 10 PM Louisville time; I was really cranky, tired, and ready to rip some one's head off when my flight arrived. I'll admit, I was a super bitch to Dustin when he picked me up. I was craving pizza. We tried to go to Wick's which is usually open late; however, they closed at 10 on Sundays. We went home and ordered Pizza Hut, I ate, piddled around on the net, then crawled under the bed covers and crashed. Apparently, I kept kicking Dustin hard and telling him to turn the TV volume down and mumbling about the bears. I had a dream about bears and lions mauling and eating people.  

Now this epic blog post about this epic wedding is done. Bedtime. Got to finish reading for class tomorrow and Wednesday.