pocket full of diamonds

becca sent the link to the professional photos of her wedding and i'm sharing some of my favorites. first, let's just marvel at what a GIANT i am:

the ceremony room was so beautiful and i'm glad they got this picture of it because it was impossible with a regular camera.

same with the reception room
the photographers were what you would imagine indian gangsters would look like. fedoras. odd facial hair. kinda gangly. anyway we were all trying to be very serious when they were having us take these 'fun' pictures..

and the rest are pictures where you can just seeee the love between bec and nirav. so sweet.

(these two are my favs)

grand finale

these are some of my favorites of the remaining pictures.
john, becca, andy, abha and i have been friends for foreeeever. we've been through picnic lunches, many zilker park trips, boyfriends and girlfriends, diets, etc. hard to believe high school was 7 years ago!
the ring pillow had the real rings on it :)
super beautiful reception room


that's my bouquet. and my faaavorite picture of all is below:
perfectly sums up the day/marriage.

today was crazy at camp. i left for the rental car place at 4:30 and just got back at 10:30. we ended up having to go through a car wash, wait to renew the rental, get an oil change, then drive into austin to pick up a staffer whose car broke down. kind of a nice break, kind of hard to sit in a car for 5 hours. but i was with one of my favorite people, so it wasn't too painful.

one more week of camp! hard to believe summer is almost over. then back to real life. kind of excited though.

hindu ceremony

the wedding day was an extravaganza.

in the morning, we all woke up early to say hi to becca before she went to take pictures downstairs. then we all got wrapped in our saris which was pretty funny/challenging/involved bazillions of safety pins. (below is marissa, who's 8 months pregnant).

so once we were all wrapped and ready to go, we went downstairs as the barat was happening. nirav rode in on this horse:

(those are some of the wedding planners) and there was a little ceremony with a coconut and stealing of his shoes, so that later, during the ceremony, when the veil is dropped.. he won't see becca (for the first time, traditionally) and run away.
we weren't allowed to be part of it.. so we peeked through the windows as the parade passed us. it was pretty funny actually because my high school friends were standing right outside, so we were knocking like crazy on the window until they saw us through the curtain and waved.

we all agreed that the indian ceremony is much more interesting than the christian one. it's all in sanskrit, there are lots of different parts, they get up and walk around, race to see who can sit down first (becca won, which is supposed to symbolize that she'll wear the pants in the marriage).
we all commented on how now we want to marry in to another culture. so much more interesting. and look at her new extended family!

mehndi

five henna pictures.
it took 5 hours to do becca's hands and feet and all of our hands.
then we all had to sit and let it dry without touching anything for two hours. it was a challenge for all of us, but most of all for the pregnant bridesmaid, marissa.
very pretty! bazillions of strangers asked me about it when they'd catch a glimpse of the inside of my hands, and then when i got back to camp, all of the kids asked. they knew to look for it though.
so weird to be back here. trying hard to get back into the swing of things. i think i'm teaching my class tomorrow. that will be a jump start.

wedding

hi! i'm back! turns out you can't use majjy's power cord with my laptop.

i need to leave for camp right now so i get there before bedtime, but here's a taste of the wedding week. i'll post by category for the next couple of days :)

a la derecha

becca's bridal shower was today in austin for all of the ladies who won't be able to make it to the wedding. lots of moms of friends and teachers from high school were there. it's always fun to see them, but odd to realize it's been 7 years since we were in high school. it often feels like we were just having pool parties and picnic lunches and going to football/soccer/baseball games in giant groups.

i am an amazon, apparently.

this week i made becca's ring pillow and noww i can show the general public since i gave it to her this morning. i think every wedding needs some handmade touches, and becca and i have always been crafty together, so it feels like "us." she sends a handmade valentine every year.

i hadn't embroidered anything since i took a sewing class when i was in 5th grade, so i was a liiiittle nervous to stitch everything, but it turned out fine.

tonight we went to an international music/dance festival thing that benefited a local nonprofit. there were these amaaazing dancers who hoisted themselves 15 or so feet into the air, holding onto two draping pieces of fabric hanging from the ceiling. then they did choreographed dances and sometimes they'd be hanging by their feet or they'd be holding on with one hand and their body was in this graceful pose. it was unreal. and it lasted half an hour. it was a fun night.

p.s. i knoooww the ring pillow has no way to attach the rings at the moment. i experimented with ribbon but it makes it look really country or something so i'm brainstorming. i'm thinking maybe a leaf with a hidden snap or something. it's kind of tricky now that i've sealed/stuffed it.. anyway, if anyone has any ideas, please let me know.

you know i will be comin' home to you, darlin'

craaazy day, universe.

it's strange to be somewhere in the morning and somewhere else in the evening. i'm back in austin.. where it's gone from being snowy to 80something in the 3 weeks i've been gone.. and now it's rainy and in the 50s. just like DC was. luckily it's supposed to be back in the 70s later this week.

just when i had given up on smiles found in nature! see him?

my family had a little chat about CSAs and big farms today. everyone needs to see food inc. it will change your perspective on food. i think most people want to give farms the benefit of the doubt and believe that farmers are making money. not so. the companies that own them are making the money and the farmers are just getting deeper into debt. anyway jeffy and i are thinking about being migrant farmers abroad. sorta.

p.s. it makes me laugh to even think about posting another bridesmaid dress picture, but now we're all back to wearing the same dress. but not the first dress.

this is it! knock on wood.

here comes a feeling you thought you'd forgotten

spent a good chunk of the day making ringtones for the iphone. last time jeff and i tried it, we couldn't quite get it to work, but today i used this website and it worked like a charm. occasionally, itunes would make a new folder for a song which made it a little confusing. you just have to check for it. so noooww i'll actually hear my phone when it's ringing.

tonight we went to the brickskeller in dupont. they literally have hundreds of kinds of beer. i had a couple of snakebites.. which to them meant half cider half 'lager'. better with blackcurrant. but i guess it's true that as you get older, your penchant for sweet drinks fades. maybe the snakebites of 6 years ago would be too sweet for me now. it was fun though. a lot of john's friends from college, a lot of our friends from high school. two were visiting from out of town. john wore the ladycoat and everyone loved/commented on it.

time for bed! we're hosting brunch tomorrow.

p.s. we changed our minds on the bridesmaid dresses. now they're all different dresses in the same color/fabric which will be nice. i thiiiink i'm wearing this one

you are the best thing

today was a bridesmaid dress extravaganza. this is what we chose:

pretty, simple, comfy. it'll be good. now to find silver shoes.

i am so sleepy. i think i might be delirious because i chose to stay home to watch the sunday morning show in the morning instead of going to the final cake tasting. but i don't think i need any more cake in my life for a little while after seeing myself in the full length mirror in the dressing room, and the morning show is interesting/a faj & megan tradition even though he can't watch it anymore since they got rid of the cable at the lake. i'm the torchbearer of the morning show.