Wedding day.

So Rachel can be a low-information friend, meaning, she doesn’t quite tell me what is going on or what is going to happen. I think this can be a cultural thing as my family can be a need-to-know-basis (my parents often go to the hospital and don’t tell me until everything is resolved) and Jeremy’s family will go into deep analysis of logistics of very small things, like comma placement in emails. So as I slid into the car on Friday morning at 4:30 am with a strange driver, I did not question it. Was it a friend? An uber driver? An additional guest flying with us? I did not know and I did not ask. And Rachel had insisted on sharing a room with her at the hotel, but I was not quite sure if we were renting a car in Miami or if I was going to be able to check into the room while she was at the rehearsal. Was I expected to attend the rehearsal? I was not sure. Also, I had at some time been under the impression that I was supposed to attend the rehearsal dinner (usually reserved for family), but, again, unsure. This was a little problematic because usually, I have no problem wearing the same dress to all the weddings I’ve ever been invited to, it was not possible to wear the same dress to three different events on three consecutive days with the same people (there was a morning-after brunch as well). I was also under the impression that Pat had local family and was going to be staying with them. Anyways, why did I not ask about clarification of these things? Well, again, it felt very culturally familiar – Rachel is about 10 years older than me and calls me her little sister and kind of bosses me around. So I was enjoying watching how things unfold. And one of the unfoldings was that as we were checking into the hotel without Rachel because she was at the rehearsal, I realized that there were two beds for the three of us (Rachel, Pat and me) and that since Rachel was the mother-of-the-bride, naturally it meant that she got the bed to herself and so I spent the weekend sleeping with a woman I had never met before. It was great that Pat and I got along so well that on Friday night, while the rehearsal dinner was happening, we just got a quick bite to eat at the Whole Foods next door to our hotel and we changed into PJs and were in bed by 9 pm (together, of course) – her planning out the next day on her iPad and me trying to fall asleep because I had gotten up at 4 am and spent the day on the beach with the sun leeching energy from my body at an accelerated rate. At 10 pm, Rachel bursts into the room with her other non-bride daughter, the boyfriend of said daughter and Joon, the brother-in-law to find us 2 PJed women in bed together. I’m not sure what they thought of that – I was like – Rachel, you need to send a text! I need to at least get a bra on (though I told Jeremy, no one wears a bra in Miami, so I guess it was OK). We made some introductions and chatted for a while (Pat, bemused, sat in bed the whole time, nonplussed). So then everyone else left besides Rachel, Pat and I and that night, before the wedding, was hilarious and funny and really, was one of the highlights of the wedding for me. We made sure all of Rachel’s outfits fit, that the Spanx worked it magic wonders and we fell asleep at 11? 12?.

The next day, the women needed to be at the venue at 10 am for a 6 pm wedding (!). I have no idea how hair and makeup can take 6 hours, but it does apparently. We went to breakfast with Rachel’s brother and wife who came in from New Jersey.

Joon wanted to spend the day resting, so Pat and I were let loose on Miami by ourselves. We went to Wynwood Walls by taking the free people mover and walking.

Pat loves to try restaurants, but actually can’t eat that much solid food because she has issues with her mouth from a biking accident years ago, so we ate “lunch” like three times – each time ordering drinks and only one dish which sometimes was just an appetizer. At the first place, we ordered a pizza for one, she had one slice and I had the whole rest of the pie. The second place we ordered only fried pickles and sangria (for me) and cold brew (for her). So I did drink a lot (based on my baseline) on this trip and I did not feel tipsy in my usual way after half a drink and I chalked it up to weak drinks or the heat or that I was eating a lot. But I think it was weirdly dampened by the Effexor.

Between the restaurants, we went to the paradox museum which was a funny optical illusion museum.

Look at this gorgeousness from the bridal suite.

We got to the wedding and here we are pre-wedding in the courtyard adjacent to the outdoor space where the ceremony and reception were going to take place. I stopped taking photos at this point because it felt like everyone else was taking photos including a very professional three-person crew with large cameras slung across their bodies. It’s a bit ridiculous to stop taking photos, but I did.

Anyways, it was a lovely ceremony and dinner (Rachel was like – OMG the servings were sooo small! Everyone ate everything! In Asian cultures, at weddings, one must always have too much food, so no one leaves hungry – if everyone finishes everything, it means that you didn’t provide enough food. I told her it’s the opposite in the US, the more expensive the food, the less you get of it.). I had heard whispers of a surprise at at the reception and boy, it was it a surprise. Here is the video. Mind you, it was the bride’s idea for this entertainment. I bet this has never happened at any wedding you’ve gone to. It was, honestly, a lot of fun and fun to party in Miami. I love weddings because it reminds me of my own marriage which I’m so happy to be in. To a lifetime of happiness!