Bridesmaid Diana just emailed this to me, and gave me permission to post it since she doesn’t blog anymore. I had to edit it very slightly, but here is her experience in her own words…
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the day before the wedding, cindy confirmed that sandy and i needed to be at the make up place at 11 am. as i am often late to appointments (because i am always underestimating how long it takes to get things done and get from place to place), i wanted to make sure that i wasn’t late for this. with la traffic, the travel time was even more unpredictable. so i left a full hour to travel a little more than 30 miles. and i was 15 minutes early! well, better be early for something like this.
sandy was also very punctual. but we actually didn’t meet until about an hour into the appointments. i was getting my hair done first, and she was getting makeup put on. the stylist was chinese, and had frizzy hair with a purple-ish tint, and a different color bangs. i was a little nervous as to what she will do to my hair. she asked what style i wanted and a few general questions, and i decided that i would take a chance and let her choose, as she would be much more familiar with hair styles than i would. as she started to work on my hair (curling it first with a curling iron, and then put it up), she made various comments about my hair in chinese. my chinese is decent, but she was using words i didn’t really understand, but i got the general impression that she was unimpressed with my hair style. rather than defending my hair, i figured it was more important that she makes it look good for today.
the style took 20+ pins and maybe half of a can of hair spray. every time she sprayed, i closed my eyes and held my breath. by the time she was done, i was pretty impressed. the style suited me well, and my dress.
sandy was done around the same time, and as we switched rooms, we “met”. but then she corrected me that we had met about 10 yrs when she dropped her cat, adidas, off at cindy and mine place at ucla. i remember that cat – i fed her cheese. and cindy told on me. but cats like cheese and adidas was so cute. and i also tied a string to my little rubber ducky and tied the string to the back of a chair, and let adidas chase it. she liked it. ok, enough digression.
getting make up applied was a whole new experience ( at least i have had my hair done before, for junior prom)! the first thing the make up artist did was apply this thin plastic string to the top lids – i guess they are supposed to make the double lids seem more double, and visible even when eye liner is applied. i also thought the air brush foundation was cool. it was a mist and felt light and well, airy. she went light on the eye make up because i told her i dont wear much make up. and luckily, i brought my own lipgloss so she put that on and i was able to reapply all night. (yeah, reapply, something i never do).
as sandy and i were finishing up, we heard cindy and vicky come in. also cindy’s mom and [Mr. W’s daughter]. we had brief exchange and then it was their turn. but not before i went to cindy’s car to get my qipao. i grabbed the dress and was walking toward’s sandy’s car (since she was giving me a ride to hang out at her place until wedding time) about 30 feet away. and something sharp poked me in the left food. something really sharp.
CRAP! i knew right away it was a nail. i looked, and it had poke through my flip flop and punctured some skin on the bottom of my left foot. it hurt, but not that bad. so i just pulled it out. i limped to sandy’s car, and asked if she had a tissue (it was bleeding quite a bit by that point) and she handed me a roll of toilet paper. it was pretty funny, and sufficient for my purpose. i cleaned off the blood and held the tissue in place for a bit. i guess there are no arteries or many veins in the bottom of the foot, because it stopped bleeding pretty quickly.
as i cared for my foot, sandy and i chatted. this is thefirst time we really ever had extensive conversation, and i quickly learned that she is pretty hyper, direct, and open. I had said I was hungry so she accommodated and drove us to a thai place in LB to get take out.
We ate back at her apartment, which is basically on the sand and over looks the beach. I love the sand of the waves crashing in to the shore, and the ocean breeze. We continue to chat, tried on the dresses and shoes, and just chilled before we took a cab over to the wedding site.
We got there at 4 pm as cindy had planned. But cindy and her group were running a bit behind schedule, so it gave sandy and I a chance to hang out more. we looked over the site, saw that everyone was working diligently in setting up, and then talked to the florist and DJs who came earlier than the scheduled time. Everything was really in order. All we needed were the bride and groom.
Cindy and [Mr. W] and rest of the wedding party actually all arrived around the same time. And things continued to flow smoothly. It was helping everyone get dressed, pictures, and more pictures. I was really excited for the main festivities to get started.
When the coordinator told us to line up for our walk down the garden path, she also informed me that I would be the first to walk (since I would be the farthest from the couple during the ceremony). I said “oh no! I was hoping to follow the other girls.” So I had a few last minute questions – “where do I stop? Which way do I look?”
All I had to remember was not let my arms drop too low while walking and holding the bouquet, and do not trip during the walk. And smile at the camera. And smile at the guests. And don’t fidget while watching the rest of the bridal party make their entrance.
I wondered if I would cry while cindy walked down the aisle. That would suck. I mean, it would ruin my make up. And if I cry, other girls might too. As she walked down the garden path with her dad, with her beautiful, simply elegant dress (which I totally voted for), I felt the tears coming in. But determined that I would not let that happen, I had to think funny thoughts. Not merely good thoughts, but funny, silly thoughts. That worked, and the urge to cry quickly passed. And it was all smiles from that point on.
The ceremony was short and sweet. We took more pictures, this time in the night time setting, as the with the garden lit up softly. After that we were “excused” and got to hang out with guests during the cocktail hour.
The rest of the night I didn’t have to do much, except for stand behind the couple during the toasts. Both vicky and jeff were great. And this was so refreshing because I was just telling cindy how usually people who give toasts are bad, and some, awful. Often they can’t speak in public (and some just can’t speak english), or have bad presence, and/or don’t share good substantive stories that the guests would enjoy. Jeff was totally prepared, and clearly practiced, and was funny. Vicky didn’t even need notes and was also very funny. I was laughing the whole time.

After that we pretty much retired to our own table (sandy, vicky and I were at the same table) and enjoyed the evening with our dates. I was getting tired towards the end of night, and my feet were hurting. (not from the nail wound, just from the shoes and running around). After packing up the dressing area with sandy and vicky and the guys, we said good-bye.

I don’t mind saying good-byes when it is not sad. There is no bitter-sweet. It was just sweet. And fun.

I have never been a bridemaid before . and I am sure it can’t better than this experience – it was just very low key, no pressure, and everyone was great and helpful and got along well. Can’t wait to do it again. (ok, I don’t know about that. You know that saying “always the bridemaid, never the bride.” Can’t let that happen. Haha!).
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I had no idea until now that Diana had a pre-wedding injury. =P Sounds like she recovered well, though. Hope her tetanus shots are up to date. She was very good all day about calling me to let me know her and Sandy’s whereabouts, and to be the communication between me and the Garden and the vendors.
Oh, and the China hair stylist also criticized my and Vicky’s lack of an everyday “hairstyle”, suggesting that we return to her after the wedding so that she can give us a proper haircut and look. I think it’s just a gimmick she’s doing. Altho my hair’s pretty shapeless presently… But I loved that each girl trusted the stylist to pick a style best suited to her, and they were all different and BEAUTIFUL.

If you guys wanna read Mr. W’s brother gamer brother/groomsman Jeff’s speech, he handwrote it and framed it for us: (also included, a synopsis of MOH Vicky’s speech)

A WEDDING TOAST
First of all, I would like to thank [Mr. W] and Cindy for bestowing such an honor on me, and I would like to thank [Mr. W’s son/best man] for chickening out so I would have to do this… For those of you who don’t know me, I am [Mr. W]’s younger brother, that’s right I said younger. Sometimes I don’t know if I’m growing old before my time or if [Mr. W] is just going through his second childhood or his third or his fourth.
Cindy, I hope you know what you’re getting yourself into. [Mr. W] has been through blondes, brunettes, bleached blondes. Yep, that’s right you all know what I’m talking about…[Mr. W]’s hairstyles. So Cindy, [Mr. W] is not high maintenance at all, you’ll just have to run to the drugstore every 6-8 weeks to purchase hair treatments. And piercings…[Mr. W] has piercings in places I didn’t even know I had.
The thing I admire most about [Mr. W] is that he is so adventurous. He is not afraid to try dangerous, life threatening activities, like rock climbing, kayaking, deep sea diving, snorkeling in shark infested waters, and my favorite…country line dancing.
But seriously, [Mr. W] and I have grown closer friends in our adult life, than when we were kids, maybe it was that permed hair or the paisley shirts he wore. Maybe it was the leisure suits, no that wasn’t it, we all wore those. We did discover that we had a lot in common, mostly our passion for anything and everything computers… We’d often stay up until 4am working/playing on them, much to the dismay of Cindy and my wife, Lisa.
Really though, [Mr. W] and Cindy are a joy to be around, their happiness with each other is infectious with everyone they come in contact with. There’s a joke in there somewhere, but I’ll let it go. I am so grateful to have [Mr. W] as a friend and a brother and more than happy to have Cindy as a sister.
So in closing, raise your glasses for these two final thoughts: May the most you both wish for in life, be the least that you two get and as you slide down the bannisters of life, may the splinters point the other way. Cheers, best of luck.
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MOH Vicky’s speech was shot from the hip, but she talked about how between her and the two bridesmaids, they have known me for 64 years. How looking back, in each of her major life events, good or bad, I had been there for her through them, offering advice, support, distractions, whatever it was she needed, and how everybody needs a Cindy as their friend. And then she got teary-eyed which made me start to water a bit. So she switched gears to a story of how Mr. W convinced her that he was the right one for me. She told them how we used to have a monthly Saturday girl’s night out, not to a nice dinner and then to a bar for a few drinks, but to Bingo at our alma mater high school. As the crowd laughed, I raised both my fisted arms in the air in a proud “yay for Bingo” gesture. Vicky continued, explaining that Bingo was 4 hours, 6:30p-10:30p in our high school gym, daubing numbers which we both enjoy because our OCD personalities love looking for numbers on our Bingo sheets, although anyone we invited to come along for some strange reason didn’t want to spend 4 hours on a Saturday night listening to B-12…O-72… Until one day when I said I was bringing a friend, and Vicky wondered who in their right mind would want to spend this kind of evening with us. Turned out to be Mr. W. And for 4 hours without complaint, he sat there daubing away with us, looking for numbers, and Vicky knew right then this was a good, supportive, patient man who loved me. And then she gave her observation that ever since I’d been with Mr. W, I had been completely at peace and happy and complete. And then she toasted us and wished us the best. (Who says you don’t remember anything in your whirlwind wedding day?)