The lead-up

Let Sept. 6-10 be known as the California Wedding Weekend Trip Recap Week across Miles and Laurel! 

This moniker is cumbersome and not very catchy but describes this week’s posting schedule, which I planned out carefully on the generous plane ride back to St. Paul.  Get ready for a wild ride and lots and lots of photos!

On Friday morning, Josh and I flew out to San Francisco and cruised down 101 to get to San Jose in time for mani-pedis with the bridal party.  (He was pumped.)  It was the first of many moments when I felt overwhelmed with happiness to see some of my dearest friends in one place, let alone camped out next to each other at manicure stations.  (It was also my first manicure and I made it last all of 48 hours, which I would describe as a crowning personal achievement.)  After the nails, Josh went to the hotel and Nat, Emily, Ellie and I walked a few blocks over to one of San Jose’s farmers markets for lunch. 

I’ve established before on this blog that Calfornia has a fabulous array of produce, and this market represented it well.  I left with strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries--but no tomatoes, despite the appeal of this sign.

 We were all drawn to the Indian food stand and ate naan wraps (mine was chicken tikka masala) after pulling up seats on a nice piece of curb.  Before long, it was time to head over to Nathalia’s grandmother’s house for the rehearsal.  It was hot at 4 p.m. in the sun on Friday, and luckily Wedding Day would not feel as hot.  In between run-throughs, we had time to start the weekend-long photography session.  Ellie and Emily have this great knack for standing around and looking like models, which is contrasted by an equally full capacity for goofy faces. Examples A and B:

At the rehearsal dinner, I got flustered and struggled with my nametag, first identifying Nathalia and Michael as college friends before someone said it made me look like I was referring to myself in the plural.  I forgot “bridesmaid” entirely initially, too.

After rehearsal dinner, we went out on the town and met up with other guests.  The bridesmaids changed back into our weekend t-shirts that Ellie had coordinated.  We had the wedding slogan and a pair of rings printed on the front and our nicknames on the back. 

It was such a fun start to the weekend to see friends from all over the country and world trickle in one by one.  Nathalia and Michael were thrilled, too.  I love this picture of them, from that bar:

It sets the tone for the weekend perfectly.