I am a lucky bride. Not only because I'll be marrying my soul mate when I walk down the aisle some undetermined time from now, but also because I've had an inside view into wedding planning quite recently. You see, I was a bridesmaid in my future sister-in-law's (we'll call her Katerina) wedding which took place in September. Because I volunteered to help her with her planning projects, I was really able to get a sense of what planning a wedding is like. It actually helped me figure out some of what I wanted for my own wedding, even though this was before Mishka had "put a ring on it" ;). Therefore, I will give you a brief recap and finish with a description of how her wedding will influence mine.
It was quite a weekend. Literally, it was go-go-go since Mishka and I got off the bus the day before the wedding. Katerina and S (her then-fiance, and current hubby), who had rented a car (something slightly bigger than a mini cooper) and already had themselves and 3 other bridesmaids in the car came to pick Mishka and I up at the bus terminal. And did I mention we had luggage? Needless to say it was a tight fit. Mishka sat in the front seat with S and my large orange suitcase at his feet. Katerina, myself and three other bridesmaids squished together in the back seat with my backpack, Katerina's rehearsal dinner dress, her mom's wedding outfit and the wedding dress. I was praying we didn't get pulled over, but it was a really good bonding experience, and I think Katie enjoyed the silliness of it.
On a side note, this was also my first time meeting Mishka's grandparents. They don't speak any English, so there was a lot of translating going on. But I think his grandmother really liked me. It seemed like everytime she saw me throughout the whole weekend, she would hug me, or grab my arm, and say something along the lines of soon it'll be my turn. In fact, there was one very sweet moment the morning of the wedding where Mishka wasn't there to translate since all the girls were in the bridal suite while Katerina took some bridal portrait photos. His grandmother walked up to me, linked her arm with mine, pointed to Katerina, pointed back to me, smiled, and said something in Russian which I'm absolutely certain meant "That's going to be you soon". It really touched my heart.
Anyway, back to the rehearsal dinner. The rehearsal run through was pretty quick.Their officiant was an interfaith minister Elinor who seemed very nice, though she did struggle a little with pronunciation. But after the rehearsal came the rehearsal dinner! Katerina and S had me sitting at the "family" table with them :). The food was served, but before we could eat there were some speeches that needed to be made. There were a lot of wonderful things said, but the most moving was, perhaps, the poem which Katerina and Mishka's grandmother wrote especially for the occasion. I can't help but hope she writes one for mine too :).
The food was delicious, as was dessert. Katerina got a globe shaped cake to surprise S with that said "come travel with me" because of their deep love of traveling and the role it has played in their relationship. He seemed to really like it. Then we went back up to the room and went immediately to sleep.
The next morning the girls had to get up bright and early to drive 45 minutes to the place we were getting our hair done. But Katerina treated us to breakfast at Starbucks which definitely perked us all up :-D. Only 3 of us could be "prettified" at a time including Katerina and her mom (who had a special bridal stylist) so the going was slow. In fact, it went so slow that we started to really get behind schedule and they had to have a 4th stylist come in just to do me (I was supposed to go to the bridal stylist after she finished with Katerina and the MOB. Can I just say that I wasn't going to make it to the wedding if that happened ;) ).
Afterwards, it was time for make-up and since the Mother-of-the-Bride is a make-up professional she offered to make the bridal party as well as herself and her daughter look gorgeous. And she did an AMAZING job. I thought I looked GORGEOUS. I would include a picture, but if I can convince her to do my make-up for my wedding as well I may be doing the same thing so I'll keep it as a surprise :). However, it was slightly stressful having one person do make-up for seven women, so I would understand if she decided she didn't want to do wedding make-up a second time around.
When the bridesmaids were beautified we packed up the car and headed for Mansion where the wedding was to take place. The bridesmaids were all dressed up at this point, but Katerina still didn't have her dress on and didn't have her make-up done yet. We were saving that to do in the bridal suite of the Mansion. If possible, while her photographer was taking pictures for the ever-popular "getting ready" shots.
Once Katie's make-up was done it was time to fit her into her dress. She really did look beautiful. It was right then that her photographer arrived and got to take some photos of the bridesmaids helping Katerina into her dress. It was actually a pretty simple process but we made it look meticulous and time-consuming for the camera. Then Katerina started taking some bridal portraits in the bridal suite before it was time for their "first-look" to begin.
In a few minutes, Katie was called down for the first look. She had lied to the photographer and told her I was already Mishka's fiancee (not too much of a lie though ;) ) so that I could reasonably be included in the family pics. So 5 minutes after Katerina went down, her mother, grandmother, Mishka, and I headed downstairs and outside to the front lawn for the family pictures. I was designated "train wrangler" (my name for it) so I set up Katerina's train for every shot. I was included in about 2 family pictures before the photographer took the bridal party off to another area of the mansion grounds for some bridal party shots. We took some really fun ones with some creative poses that I loved.
Then it was time to go inside for the "pre-ceremony" Ketubah signing. From what I understand, they are often designed in some way so that it is like a work of art that the family would hang in their home. Katerina and S's was very beautiful. It looked like stained glass.
Afterwards, we had only to wait until the ceremony began!
