A wedding of our own
It’s been almost 8 years since we’re together and exactly one year since we’re married, and I can say that I’ve never been happier. Especially today, while remembering how we went about the wedding and all, I really want to share this story, so if you’re into this kind of stuff – read on!
So, what is important to remember, is that me and my beloved husband were never very fond of following the rules of the «society», meaning that the traditional way of… everything wasn’t exactly exciting for us, starting with the fact that the proposal came after we decided that we’re getting married and even where and when! Yes, I’m not kidding. I don’t exactly remember how it happened, but I know that at some point we knew that we’re getting married on September 15th on Cyprus, but there was no ring on my finger yet. The proposal came later and it was most unexpected. I was sitting at my computer, paying taxes or something, so I didn’t even notice how V. came into the room and did the «one knee» thing. I think he even had to wait a bit for me to notice him. We had quite a laugh about that and no tears, even happy ones. Oh, and the dress, well, that one we bought together, there wasn’t any surprises about that as well, after all, we’ve been together for almost 7 years by then, no need to play coy now, right?
As to the wedding… In my line of work the weddings long since have lost the magic, I’ve seen so many of those, that all this hustle became mundane, so we thought of eloping. After we thought about it more, we realized that this scenario will not work out, because our mothers would be very disappointed, and we wanted them to be happy, so our solution was to create an adventure for everyone! Here’s what we decided – to get rid of all the traditional, expected, mundane things, we decided not to tell anyone invited that there’s going to be a wedding. It was so hard to keep my mouth shut! Damn! But it was worth it, a surprise wedding! So, all in all there were only a couple of people that knew why we were going to Cyprus – Leonid, who helped us organize everything there, my niece with her boyfriend (now husband) and my friend Polina. We have invited some family, but told them that the reason of why they really need to go to Cyprus was to see me perform with an amazing pianist Daniel Kramer and an amazing basist Anton Gorbunov, which was also true, and well, almost all of my family lives in Israel, so it’s only a 40 minute flight to Cyprus, and a pretty cheap one, why not take a weekend trip and spend some quality family time? Surprisingly there wasn’t a lot of resistance and they all came.
Then operation «wedding» reached its final stage. It took a bit of planning, but somehow we managed to pull if off! We told everyone, that since there was a concert, there was obviously not a lot of partying involved, so we really need to have a family lunch, before everyone went back home. My friend Polina is a photographer, so we used that fact to create a reason, that since we’re all together and there’s a photographer, we need to do a family picture, so everyone should dress up in white and look pretty for our lunch date. I guess the «white» was the thing that really threw the guests off, because I think that secretly they suspected something fishy, but since they never expected anyone else, except for the bride to be dressed in white, they believed that the concert is the sole reason for our gathering on Cyprus.
Now, September 15, THE lunch…
I remember being on Cyprus a couple of years ago, when Leonid gave me a tour around the island, he showed me this amazing place called Kourion – an ancient city, that is now a museum. It is situated on top of a hill, and at the bottom of the hill is the coast of the Mediterranean sea. Lucky for us, there is also a restaurant at the foot of the hill, and that was where we reserved a table for 12 people (us, relatives and friends). So, we arrived there, took a seat, ordered the food and then Polina made a suggestion – why don’t we take a group photo while the food is being prepared? So we did exactly that, and after the first picture was taken a man stepped out from around the palm tree, saying something like: «It is so great to see you all gathered here! I really wanted to talk to you about happiness…» and yada-yada. As you have already guessed, that was the master of ceremonies who came to get us married, but of course no one except for Leonid, the happy couple and the witnesses (my niece and her boo) knew that, so the moment he stepped out from around the palm tree, wearing nothing less then shorts and a shirt with some Hawaiian prints, the mutterings started. Someone thought that this weird person was «some dude who wants to sell us drugs» or «the guy, who’s probably from a cult, wants to sell us some Bible»… And then the cherry on top of the quote pie came from my mother, of course, who whispered in my ear something along the lines of: «you little brat! Couldn’t you tell me that it was a wedding? I’d wear something beautiful!»
Basically that’s the grand story of it. All in all the day was amazing, it was full of laughter, jokes, signing marriage certificate on each others backs, trying to fit the rings in September heet, happy tears, and even one present, that we called «the brick of love». It all ended way too fast, but it was perfect. I wouldn’t wish for a different wedding!
No, we didn’t have a decorated hall with an arch and white chairs and a live band, instead our decorations were the mountains, the waves were our music. No, we didn’t have our first dance, but in all honesty, we didn’t need one, because I can still remember how we danced together for the first time in real life, and we still dance in the kitchen when we’re in the mood for that. And no, we didn’t have a cake to cut together, instead we shared an ice cream, I didn’t throw the bouquet, because I didn’t have one (I prefer having flowers stay with me so that my cats could eat them all while I’m not looking), we had nothing that is supposed to be on the propper wedding, but that is exactly how we wanted it, we had the magic, and we have it still.
As a conclusion I would really love to wish all of the people who are only planning the wedding – guys, do it for yourselves. Don’t listen to what everyone tells you, this day should be spent the way YOU want it, so that the only memories left were the happy ones, with no regrets and bitterness. Do it for your way, be special!
Oh, and this is me and Polina, who’s the author of the pictures here, in this post :)
