Concluding my big fat, half Greek, half German wedding

I had every good intention of writing a cynical and jaded column reviewing 2011. I was even going to tear into Justin Bieber for committing the biggest crime of the decade…releasing a movie and a book about his life (because he has obviously experienced so much in all the three years he has been around on this planet for).
However, this was apparently not good enough. Instead I was conned into writing the final installment to my wedding saga.
It’s not that I am not excited about my own wedding. It was the best day of my life. It’s just that, after being exposed to constant wedding talk, plans and preparations for the past few weeks, I am somewhat exhausted. However, I wouldn’t want to deprive my readers (aka my News Editor) of all the deviant details of the day, so with no further delay, I present to you a review of my big, fat, half Greek half German wedding.

My story begins a few days in advance…on Christmas. An old school friend, came over with a bottle of tequila. This almost immediately enticed my brother, my second cousin,  and my other cousin, into drinking. And so what started out as a small festive gathering, soon became a three-day party. Well for them at least. My mother forbade me from going out late at night and gave me a curfew. It felt like I was 16 all over again. However her reasoning was solid and I couldn’t argue with her. Apparently I needed to catch up on beauty sleep.
The following day cousin came to pick me up  and took us shopping for last minute wedding things. However, we ended up making a turn at a pub and spent the rest of the day there. By five my mom was frantically calling. I had missed my curfew. So reluctantly my cousin took us back home, saying he was going to a ‘small braai before going straight home to sleep before my big day.’

As a wedding gift,my cousin had made an appointment with a hairdresser for me. On the morning of my big day he arrived looking bleary eyed to take me to the hairdresser.
“Did you get any sleep?” I asked him.
“Ummm..no. We were at the braai, and suddenly they started playing drinking games and next thing I knew it was morning,” he said sheepishly.
I love my cuzzie.

The rest of the morning was a whirl. I don’t remember much else. My cousins were faffing over me. Another friend of mine,  came over with her camera and made me dress up all 1940s for a pre- wedding shoot. At one point I walked into our kitchen and the Tequila was out again (cue for my stomach to lurch). At another point, I started feeling so nervous and ended up crouched over my brothers Ipad, in my wedding dress, watching Black Swan. And then they were hustling me into the car and to the venue.

We were right on time, however, true to my family’s nature, everyone else was late. So, instead of having guests welcome the fashionably late bride, when we arrived I ended up having to welcome all the latecomers.
Then they were hustling me to the aisle. And yes, all that mushy stuff they say in movies is true. Time really did stop when I saw my future husband standing there waiting for me. And yes, I did choke back tears as my brother walked me to him. And yes, we did both almost cry when we said our vows. And that was that. We were married.

My mother did a really wonderful job of putting everything together. She made sure that every finer detail was perfect. And it was so wonderful to see family members who I had not seen since my father’s funeral ten years ago and to meet the childhood friends of my new husband.

Towards the end of the night the Greeks took over the party. There was no plate smashing unfortunately, but they did manage to Greek-ify the entire event. It really was the best day of my life. And so, there you have it. Now I can revert back to my jaded and cynical column reviewing the year of 2011.