Saturday, September 06, 2008

The Wedding That Wasn't

Last night, Frenchy and I attended our seventh wedding of the summer... kind of. It was to be our first wedding in Spain, our first Catalan wedding, and our first wedding for someone in Frenchy's class at IESE. So even though we were both exhausted, we were also pretty excited. I rushed home from work, we both rushed around showering and getting dressed, and then we rushed out the door.

We had arranged to drive to the wedding in Terrassa with Jess and Sergio, another IESE couple of confusion (she's from Mississippi, he's from Aragon and their strange conversations rival the ones I have with Frenchy) and met them around 5 for the ride out of town. The wedding started at 5:30, and when we hadn't actually left Barcelona yet at 5:20, we figured we'd probably be a bit late. Frenchy even bet me that we'd arrive at 6:15. We shook on it, but never determined what the winner would get.

Around 5:45, well outside of town, Sergio looked at the invitation, which was written in Catalan, and said, "Joder tio, the wedding is in Barcelona and the RECEPTION is in Terrassa!"

Whoops.

It was too late to go all the way back to Barcelona... we would've arrived just as everyone was leaving the church and throwing rice. So we decided to head to the reception site to see if we could have a drink there. Nope, they were still waiting for the caterers to arrive. So we headed into "town" (Terrassa is small and, unlike most Spanish towns, not particularly cute in any way at all) and found ourselves a terrace and had a few drinks. While we waited and chatted, we found out that a few other people had missed the wedding as well... one had to work late, one was stuck in Madrid airport after a few cancelled flights. So at least we weren't the only ones.

Frenchy and I had to laugh because after traveling so far for so many weddings, being late to nearly all of them, and even hitch-hiking to one (Juanra's, in Belgium), we never expected to miss the one in our very own town. I got a message from my friend Gemma at one point while we were waiting for the reception. She, too, was stuck in Madrid and a little grumpy about it. I told her, "Well, imagine us... We just missed a wedding because we went to the WRONG CITY." I'm always happy to help people put things in perspective! As Sergio would say, "Joder! Que fuerte."

The dream team waiting for the reception

Finally it was time to head to the Masia for the reception and dinner, all of which were stunning. We'd all agreed to leave "early" because we were tired and Jess and Sergio had to get to another party, and yet somehow it was well after 3am when we finally got home, after a lot of excellent food and a little post-dinner dancersize workout. It was the best wedding I've never been to. :)

Jess and I got stuck in the grass in our heels, but this fortunately happened at the perfect location for hors-d'oeuvres procurement and consumption

This doesn't even do justice to the magnificent location... it was incredible

The bride and groom make their entrance. That is indeed a white napkin at top right... everyone gets a little nuts with the napkin twirling.

4 comments:

Xavi said...

top 10 things not to do in your life:
-#1: go to the wrong city for a wedding...

for the other numbers, well, let's see with the stories you will provide in the future !

mortel !

NoellieBellie said...

#2: Allow Jess & Sergio to "organize" something.

Anonymous said...

Went to a wedding on the wrong day- We showed up just in time for the Post-Wedding-Brunch. Awkward. This is when day-drinking is essential.

NoellieBellie said...

No way.... that is RIGHTEOUS! And so embarrassing. But so funny!