I was inspired by this recent post about wedding season from Turn Jacson, one of my new favs in the dating blogger meat market.
Unlike Jacson, I’ve never really enjoyed going to weddings. Mostly because my friends started getting married and having babies right out of school (I’m from Texas), so I was saddled with expenses for 5 bridesmaid dresses when I got my first job and first apartment. Then I had to get presents for showers, etc. I actually accumulated debt from OTHER people’s weddings. Plus, one of my friends decided that brocade curtains for dresses were a good fashion statement and another decided that whore-like satin and lace red dresses were the classiest thing ever. My sleeves ended up tearing off by the end of the night, which put the whole thing in perspective. (It made a great “killer prom queen” outfit later that year for Halloween, though.)
Anyway, I’ve never been a fan of weddings. This is because I usually don’t have a date. I go in with the expectation of having more fun because I’m single, and then I’m quickly reminded that I am outnumbered by all the happy couples. Especially when the time comes to stand with all the teenagers and flower girls and catch the bouquet. Nobody ever leaps for it like we see in the movies. One embarrassing time my friend actually turned around and handed the bouquet to me, just because she knew I’d duck and cover. I was red for the rest of the night, head hung in shame. Luckily, my L.A. friends don’t seem to care for this tradition.
As much as I hate some things about weddings, I have to say that I have many times been pleasantly surprised—I ended up having more fun than I thought, and not because I hooked up with a groomsman (although that helps). In fact, some weddings were more memorable than I could have hoped for, like my friend Amy’s wedding last year up in Los Olivos, in the middle of a vineyard. It was beautiful, perfect, and…cold. So cold, that I wore my coat during the whole reception, and of course I drank a bit to warm up. More than a bit. I remember 80’s music, and then watching old people dance to hip hop. The rest is a little blurry.
Long story short, I ended up making friends with a group of other singles my age, all hoping to meet someone at the wedding. While we weren’t interested in each other, we ended up staying after all the guests left and getting a taxi to an after-party which we never found. The taxi driver apparently didn’t know the town, even though it was only about 5 square miles. Something about how this house was “in the suburbs”, so he didn’t know where he was going. Then we got pulled over by a cop who insisted the taxi driver abandon us since he was driving with an expired permit. This of course meant that we were left stranded by the side of the road. The cop didn’t seem to care much about this part. Try hailing a taxi in Los Olivos at 1:00am. It’s not exactly New York.
The taxi driver ended up coming back to fetch us half an hour later when he was sure the cop left, and after several G&Ts, I guess this seemed like the funniest thing ever. We talked about it on Facebook for weeks after because everyone had a different version of the story. Kind of like playing telephone. By the end, nobody knew what wedding we were talking about.
The point I’m trying to make not quite so clearly is that wedding season can be entertaining. Maybe it’s not Wedding Crashers fun or a time to meet the love of your life (although several of my friends did meet their SOs at weddings), but likely you can get a good story or two out of it if you play your cards right. Isn’t that worth a lot?
Just have a ride lined up at the end of the night.
About Kelly Seal
Kelly is a freelance writer based in Los Angeles, CA. She blogs about dating, relationships, personal growth and what "healthy living" means to her. You can follow her on Google+, Twitter @kellyseal or through her website www.kellyseal.com.
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