Thursday, July 19, 2007

Weddings

So, I'm going to two weddings in the next couple of weeks and I'm really excited about both of them.

First of all, both couples are AWESOME! You know how sometimes couples are together and everyone is always (behind their backs, of course) like "wtf? why is she (or he) with him (or her)? She (or he) is way too good for that schmuck!" This is not the case with these couples - I can honestly say that I'm totally happy for both of the brides, who are getting awesome husbands, and both of the grooms, who are getting awesome wives!

Second, these two weddings are going to be about as different as can be. The first one is a traditional Indian wedding, meaning that I'm going to four different events, spread out over a week and a half, some of which will have 700+ guests. There's a pre-wedding reception thrown by the bride's family, a party where all the girls get hennaed, a wedding ceremony (plus a ceremony for leaving the parents's house and another one for entering the new house) and the reception thrown by the groom's family (and probably ten thousand other things I don't even know about). I've never been to an Indian wedding before, so I'm very excited to experience it all (especially, the food! I *love* Indian food1!)

The second wedding will (most fittingly for a bride and groom who got engaged after climbing the Chief and who registered their wedding on the gift registry at Mountain Equipment Co-op) be outdoors on a property out in Langley, and many people will be camping out that way that night. I tried to convince the bride that she should do a keg stand at her wedding, but apparently it will be cans of beer, not kegs, so that plan was foiled! There certainly won't be 700 guests (I think it's something like 100-150, but I might be totally making that number up). And no guests are allowed to attend that haven't met the bride and/or groom at least once (i.e., no bringing random dates just so you can have a date!). The idea is that the bride and groom want a great party with their family & friends, which is very in keeping with their personalities2.

All of this talk of guests and whether or not the bride and groom actually know all the people at their wedding is sort of getting mashed up in my brain with recent conversations I've had about Facebook (i.e., how some people only add their actual friends, whereas other people add anyone and everyone they meet (and sometimes people they haven't even met)). And so I have a question for you, blog reader:

How many of your Facebook "friends" would you invite to your wedding? 100% of them? 50%? 10%?


1I was talking with Dave the other day and mentioned that the bride & groom are vegetarian, so I'm going to get a wicked good Indian vegetarian dinner, and he said, "Nice to see that your dietary lifestyle choice will be met." (This was a reference to the MC at his & Sarah's wedding, who cracked us all up when he said, "Vegetarians and vegans, please inform the waitstaff of your dietary lifestyle choice."). I replied to Dave, "Yes, and my other dietary lifestyle choice too. Open bar."

2 OK, as I'm proofreading this post, it almost sounds like I'm slagging on the one couple because they are having a less ornate wedding and/or slagging on the other couple because they are having a huge wedding with a lot of people that aren't close friends there... but I'm so totally not doing that! I really am excited about the two weddings and just think the contrast is very interesting, not that one is better than the other.

2 comments:

JB said...

Who needs to even invite one's Facebook friends to one's wedding? I'm planning on sending cel phone pics from the ceremony directly to my profile and all of my friends can share the joy on their news feeds ...

Actually, we'll see what happens first - JB getting married, or JB going on Facebook. :P

Beth said...

JB, I can't imagine you either getting married OR joining Facebook. Both of those possibilities are so patently absurd, that I'm sure that hell will freeze over first!