my mehndi is starting to fade a little bit. it's time to write about my bestbud's wedding. it was a very special day.

i woke up early to shower and finish my maid of honour speech. i had a special time preparing it. it was an honour to do so and an easy thing to praise her. after i was done, i went about gathering the various things i would need for my day: the lobe stretching earrings, the bangles, my make-up stuff just in case, food for us to eat, and food to leave in the room, yadda yadda, the sari and blouse. then i went to church.

my hands were quite the topic of conversation at church. actually they've been a topic of conversation everywhere i go. i sat in the back row so i could easily slip out when i needed to. i had an excited, expectant feeling--you know the kind. i had to leave before the choir sang which was too bad. we were singing be still my soul accapolco and i really enjoyed practicing it.

i parked in the underground at the pan pacific and without much ado found my way to fatima's room. leo (wedding planner) yelled at me for being in the middle of the hallway but he shouldn't have. fatima and moninder were already in the room. and the room wasn't the bridal suite. it was some other room. fatima told me that when they arrived they were told the bridal suite wouldn't be ready until 4pm. 4pm was the exact moment she was getting married. eventually they us the substitute room to use while we waited for the bridal suite.

what followed was a prolonged conundrum on how to text numbers from my phone. no one could figure it out so i ended up texting the photographers an incomplete message. shrug.

not long after that the hair/make-up artist that was doing me and moninder arrived. her name was jennifer. it's not jennifer's fault, but she wasn't well informed. because the other lady was in an accident or something, jennifer came in last minute--two days before, in fact. 'is your hair already done?' she asked us. we were confused. we looked at each other and back at her. "is your hair already done?" she repeated, probably wondering if we were developmentally delayed. it came out that she was told that we wanted our hair down and curly so since we both have curly hair and it was down she thought our hair was done. this is when i got a little bit of a bad feeling. she obviously wasn't given the picture i had printed out of my taylor swift low loose side bun.

we tried to explain it to her. she did me first because moninder's special make-up was coming with fatima's make-up artist mel, who wasn't arriving until a bit later. i wasn't facing a mirror so i didn't know until my hair was done that it wasn't right. this is when i should have said something but i have this disability. i didn't want jennifer to feel badly. i didn't want to make a big deal about it. i didn't know if we had enough time to fix it. it was severely pulled back not loose and soft like i wanted and parts were already straightened. so i just went with it. it's my one regret from fatima's wedding because the more the day went on, the feeling of not liking it grew. moninder benefited from my hair and told jennifer she didn't want hers tight like mine. her hair was more of what i wanted. but, i told myself, it's not my day. it's my bud's day. and that's what i focused on.

we ate turkey on multigrain ciabatta buns with humus and smoked gouda. i also brought some lindt chocolate balls but i'm the only one who ate them. no prob-bob.

my bud looked like audrey hepburn--indian version. moninder and i tied our saris. well i didn't tie mine. moninder did and then mel pinned me but she didn't pin me flattering like on top so i got moninder to fix it. we rushed about pel-mel taking all the stuff to the bridal suite, checking on the groomsmen and their outfits. daman looked super handsome in his indian wedding attire. someone told him he looked like a prince and he really did. fitting for his indian princess bride. i could tell daman was nervous and highly strung. he asked us to check on him mom and sister and so we did. then we rushed back up to the bridal suite to get our photos taken while helping fatima with her final touches. not that i did much but hover. i'm no expert with the indian attire. luckily moninder-ji is.

leo called to pressure us. 'they won't start without you.' i assured fatima. i feel like i've said this phrase a lot in my life. i guess i've known a lot of brides. the venue was changed from the pool terrace to ocean rooms 5, 6, 7 and 8 which was still beautiful and light with a nice view. but the view everyone would be raptly looking at was the bride and groom.

i didn't trip on my way down the aisle but according to picture records, i smirked. fatima came out with her dad and my eyes stung. she stood there sparkling and gorgeous and her dad took her down the aisle and her parents gave her away.

it was really special that jordan performed the ceremony. he gave a beautiful speech about what real romance was about, namely service and sacrifice. he made everyone cry. my nose started running but the puffs plus hidden in my sari was for fatima's needs so i sniffed and discretely (i hoped) dabbed at my nose. sarah and i agreed that jordan would make a wonderful temple sealer some day. fatima's mom and daman's mom lit candles in memory of those who had died and couldn't be there, her dad gave a blessing and daman's niece katherine read 1 corinthians 13:1-13. then jordan married them. then we signed the license. then they were introduced as mr. and mrs. beatty. they stood there and people cheered. i leaned forward and reminded them in whisper that they were supposed to kiss again. so they did. then we all proceeded out. i was on the arm of liam--daman's cousin.

once outside was when fatima lost it. it was the hugging of people that put her over the edge. that's when i whipped out my puffs plus. :)

then the wedding party and the family had copious pictures of them taken in different variations and groups. the excessiveness of the variations was fatima's fault and she admitted it freely.

then the wedding party took off for some photos but not before the best men threw oliver, daman's nephew into the pool. if you want to see some sneak peeks of the wedding pics, you can do so here: http://katchstudios.com/blog/?p=913

then came the frenzy of changing fatima over to her western bridal outfit. leo wasn't giving us much time but mel worked wonders.

moninder and i walked in to the reception to 'can't touch this'. there were lots of good eats. too many in fact. my plate was piled super high and i was not ashamed.

i'll admit it--i thought there were too many speeches. "people are going to be bored" thought i. but nothing was boring. there were some musical numbers and everyone's speeches, i thought were really heartfelt and good. moninder almost threw up before hers. i almost cried in mine. fatima and daman both gave beautiful speeches.

after all the speeches and the first dance, moninder and i snuck up to the room to prepare it for the bride and groom. leo gave us a bunch of roses which i proceeded to denude on every available surface. we arranged little this and that's took all the garbage etc and left. moninder had to leave and i went back to the party which was winding up. sarah and i participated in the last dance with vigor. then i hugged everyone and we left.

this is the bare bones of the wedding. i had a marvelous time. it was heart warming to see my beloved best bud off on her lifetime journey with her true love.