A Winter Wedding
Mark and Karen’s wedding will be in the first week of December, and they had their bachelor and bachelorette party in Las Vegas on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Las Vegas was a blast. That was my first time there, and I made the most of it. We went to an Adele concert, which was terrific. We went to several casinos where I did some gambling while drinking shots with the guys. We went on a tour of the Hoover Dam, and it was an incredible experience overall. The week of the wedding came, and Karen was nervous and worried at the same time. She wanted everything to be perfect, but it is normal for a bride to want her wedding to be perfect. The wedding ceremony will be held at Karen’s childhood church in the city. At the same time, the reception was being held in the grand ballroom at the Ritz Carlton Hotel in Manhattan. The day before the wedding, Lisa and I accompanied Karen to the church because she wanted to make sure her church was decorated the way she wanted.
The church was decorated in her wedding colors of silver and white. The aisle that leads to the altar was lined with her favorite white flowers on each side of the carpet. Each church pew had large silver bows with white ribbons running along each pew. Each inner corner had large white and silver floral bouquets with silver ribbons. Karen was happy with how it turned out. She didn’t want to go to the reception venue because she wanted it to be a surprise when she walked in with Mark. Karen had told Lisa and Mark precisely what she wanted it to look like, so their responsibility was to make her dream come true. Lisa jumped at the challenge head first and worked day and night with the vendors and the wedding planners to ensure everything would be perfect. That night, we didn’t get much sleep. The rest of the bridesmaids and I stayed up with Karen watching the movie ‘Bridesmaid.’ Before we knew it, it was morning, and we were all madly tired from the night before.
Karen and Mark’s mom bulge into the bedroom and find us all sleeping all over the bed and floor. They woke us up so we could rate breakfast and start getting ready. The ceremony will be at eleven o’clock, and the hair and make-up team will be there at eight. We all got up and moved so slowly that their moms started treating us like we were in boot camp. Needless to say, that got us moving with a focus. After we freshened up, they only gave us twenty minutes to eat before we were placed in front of the hair and make-up teams. Even though the morning was chaotic, it was good because we were laughing and playing around the whole time. Karen loved all the Disney princess movies, so her dress was a princess ball gown. The dress was a sleeveless ball gown with a sweetheart neckline and a cathedral train. It was white with silver sequin from the sweetheart neckline to her natural waist.
She looked gorgeous in her dress. Her make-up was flawless, and her hairstyle brought the princess's image to life. The hairstylist braided her long brown hair on each side and pinned it in the back with a fancy, neat design. She wore silver two-inch silver heels under her dress. Her bridal bouquet was a medium-sized round ball of white roses with several medium silver and crystal stones. When she was walking down the aisle, Mark was smiling from ear to ear while her mom was crying. They were a beautiful couple, and the ceremony was filled with love. When they walked into the reception venue at the Ritz Carlton Hotel, tears started running down Karen's cheeks. Lisa really outdid herself; it was precisely what Karen envisioned with a little flare. The whole night was magical, and everyone had a great time. They left for their honey the very next morning.
The following weeks after their wedding, Kyle got the wedding bug and was overly excited about making ours perfect. When we return to Greece over the winter break, we will visit all the wedding venues we saw online. We even took a wedding planner from New York with us so they could work with the wedding planner in Greece. This way, everything will be kept from chance or falling through the cracks. We chose the La Maltese Estate for the ceremony and reception venue. The breathtaking views from the island of Cyclades were to die for. I couldn’t be happier with our decision to have a destination wedding. Seeing the estate in person, plus the staff were so friendly and welcoming; we couldn’t help but fall in love with everything about that place. Kyle was ecstatic and not ready to leave when it was time to return home. I kept teasing him, calling him groomzilla, and he would tickle me until I took it back. Every planning aspect of our wedding was fun. The biggest challenge I am having is finding a dress I love.