Sunday May 25, 2003

Missy's big fat Slovenian wedding

This morning I woke up exhausted, my brother woke up hung over, and my childhood friend Missy woke up married. It was an eventful day, May 24th.

The morning started out with Stephanie fighting my rebellious locks, smothering and yanking them into submission. After an hour and a half of curling irons, quadruple mega-hold super spray, and about 38,417 bobby pins, my hair finally looked wedding-worthy. My 'do made me about 30 minutes late to the church, but I'm sure no one remembers that today (I hope).

The ceremony actually started two minutes early, but ended late thanks to the priest's endless rambling about gas station prices (and other things I paid little attention to). The guys looked handsome (yes, even my pubescent partner), the parents looked classy, and Missy looked beautiful. During the exchange of vows I kept looking at her thinking, it feels like we're 9 years old again, playing dress-up in our mom's closets, but this time it's for real.

Marriage. Whoa.

Afterward we took some pics in the church and at Squire's Castle in the Cleveland Metroparks. Dresses ripped, clouds rained, and shoes killed us, but we smiled anyway. We were happy. It was, after all, Missy's big day.

The reception at the Slovenian hall started with a little drama (has any wedding reception ever been without drama?) when the guests outnumbered the seats. Soon enough, though, people were smiling and shaking their booties to pop and polka, probably with the help of the open bar. My friend Lou provided some in-house entertainment by grabbing the moms in close proximity and starting a dance floor frenzy. He can shimmy like no other.

I was among the first to leave since I had Steph's graduation party to hit afterward. My brother (who is a friend of the groom) stayed glued to the bar for a while longer, and my friends all waited until most folks cleared out. We're all beat today from the late-night booze-and-boogie celebration. I could go for a nap right now, but I'm still up thinking about yesterday. Missy is married. Whoa.

Whoa.