this was the perfect weekend for a perfect wedding, with the greatest friends.

the first of us trin girls got married...we gave bashley away on saturday...and i don't even know how to start to describe it. this sounds weird i know, but describing the event here is hardly adequate, and describing it feels like it would somehow dilute the thing at the heart of it...

so i'll just describe how gorgeous bashley looked, and see where it takes me from there...
bashley looked stunning...like a japanese princess, we all agreed. a satin dress with tiny pearl beads and sequins decorating the bodice and the hem in little flowers and delicate vines, off-the-shoulders and a train and silhouette to rival cinderella's own...and of course, a tiara (ashley, when describing her plans to get a dress before, would say "yeah, a dress (ho-hum)...AND A TIARA!!!!")! the rehearsal the day before did not prepare me for the real event. bash came to the rehearsal in this punk-rock-ish -type shirt with a pink lace stuck diagonally across the thing, and jeans, looking totally like the wife of a rock star or looking like a rock star herself, and it was funny watching her come coolly down the aisle, her dad making funny remarks ("jal-ga!") as he mock-gave her away to adam, us girls wobbling down the aisles, looking back for support with perplexed and apologetic looks on our faces...what a difference one day makes. my eyes were welling with tears just 5 minutes into the ceremony...

we had a good old-fashioned korean dinner in koreatown (which included, among other spicy roots and shrubs, animal intestine bubbling in a very spicy vat of broth) (and picky-delicate serena trying the concoction with caution at first, then asking for more, and more...), and then spent the rest of the night sorting out shoes, hanging out at the 7-eleven, shopping at the 24 hour IGA for teddy grahams and other goodies, and did our nails using the latest teflon-shine mixture sally hansen had to offer. it was past midnight before the bridesmaids got to sleep, the bride sleeping even later, fretting - or rather, just trying to finish the many things she had to do...drifting off to sleep with graham bears at our heads, and to the sound of whimpers (hahaha reese), having difficulty staying asleep due to the erratic breathing of rolo (is she dying? when is she going to take her next breath?), and waking up to the musical flatulence of peunice...makes me giggle when i think of that night...

anyway, make-up (she looked like nia ver-whatever from my big fat greek wedding) and hair came to the house the next morning, and one by one we all become transformed, in parts, into bridal babes. at around 2, we stuffed the bride into an SUV and went to the chapel, alma mater trinity college...

i enjoyed the ceremony so much! it is so different actually being in the wedding party. i didn't tell bash at the time, but i was so nervous, and it wasn't even my wedding. my stomach was doing flip flops and reese apparently had almost-onset diarrhea...(aaaahahahahaaa!!!!). despite my well-tuned ear, i couldn't walk down the aisle in a rhythm....a mistake i attribute more to the organist who seemed to have an erratic sense of timing. but anyway, we all got through it, and it was a wonderful ceremony. the groom's grandfather presided over the ceremony, making the union especially poignant. the groom and the groomsmen looked so handsome, of course. and that party...was such an interesting one! during dinner (which was held in strachan, and thus looked like the dining room of Hogwarts), we were introduced, and the bridal party sounded so....conventional! very conservative, very geeky. for instance....peunice - law school, rolo -architecture, reese - policy analyst and U of sorbonne-headed, katharine - financial advisor, me - dentistry...but the introduction of the groomsmen was so exotic, so fun, so interesting. let me try to recount...Sean - an "amazing artist and a drummer in a punk-rock band", Daniel - a chess champion and entrepreneur, jon - an entrepreneur (of Subway fame, i think) and computer programmer as well, dave - in the army, studying to become an army chaplain, ryan - U of T law school...anyway, let me tell you, i was sitting beside the chess champ, and people wanted to come up to the head table and specifically talk to him about chess! dinner was prepared by our old friends marriot (of "pineapple pork ball" fame) - mounds and mounds of chicken and roast beef upon potatoes done three million different ways, and a three-tiered cake with hans solo and princess ashley on top. and to put the finishing arthurian touches on the head table, a massive sword (which looks like is cutting the throat of our dear peunice in the official pictures) atop wine glasses...

a long white limo whisked us off to a champagne party at a hotel, and when we left the new bride and groom to their flower-petalled, candle-lit, jazz-music'd gold-level room, we headed to reese's place. it was a bit too late to go clubbing with our fantastic hair and faces, so we did the next best thing, and went to rol san to pig out on some crispy beef (my influence, as you can tell)! i love toronto late at night - walking through the entertainment district; not only did our bomb-proof hair look fab, it managed to attract guys from woodbridge ("hey sweetness!....you're from woodbridge, aren't you...hey i saw that smile..." - words all slurred, of course).

our little bashley getting married...the event of the year!!!! and so we finally debriefed the stress and strangeness of it all over beef, and into the next morning, with big breakfasts at overeasy. and into the afternoon - coffee after latte, while perusing through vuitton and the sale table at holt's...and over the new lara croft movie...without bashley, alas ("uh...maybe adam can come to our slumber parties....").

well, there's a quick description of what was really the best weekend. i'm already lamenting the end of it, lamenting the changes that might or will occur, but just the same, this was such a happy weekend, and such a special, beautiful occasion. although we toasted their happiness many times over - with the queen in tow (dave's toast...nevermind), as well as the nation of korea (that was a very interesting speech - somehow endowing bashley with 4000 years of ancestral wisdom ;) - it won't hurt to wish them, again, a beautiful, happy life together. as we speak, the new couple are already on their honeymoon.

i just got back myself, and i'm back in hicktown. the preparation of friday, the fun of saturday, and the debriefing on sunday has me tired but restless, excited. it'll be hard to return to work tomorrow. i'm afraid i'll forget the details, although the rest of them, i know, won't let me forget. there are so many moments running through my head, and i wish i could describe them, permanently have them down somewhere, like an entire movie script. anyway, the point of that is, you have to be choosy about what you write down, what you disseminate. you don't need a detailed list, a record of everything. some things are better remembered as one might uncover a long lost box of childhood toys, a la amelie - anyway, this whole jumbled, awkwardly-written thing - i just considered deleting this, but it's too big and too many words now (life of its own) - i apologize. anyway, nite.