I knew less than half of the attendees when I first walked in - Kristina, Azizi, Chelsea, Mariah (Josh's roommate and whom I met the same night I met Liz) and Lourdes, of course. I met the other bridesmaids when they brought Kacey in blindfolded - Kirsten and Deborah - plus several of Kacey's guy friends were in attendance. Amanda is the photographer friend who flew in from California (along with Kirsten).
We played a game where we took turns answering questions about the bride and groom, or taking dares to do certain things. I correctly answered what Becker does that annoys Kacey, but couldn't remember their first meeting (which Kacey has told me, but I just forgot). Lourdes couldn't guess Kacey's favorite color (yellow) but sang a sweet made-up song to her. Mariah sang "hickory-dickory-dock" in the funniest voice you can imagine, and Chelsea did two dances - an interpretive dance describing the couple's love and a bit of Gangam-style when dared to choose a popular dance.
But the highlight of this game was when Kacey drew a card that dared her to prank call the groom. She borrowed Chelsea's phone and patched it through her Google Voice number so he wouldn't recognize it and put the call on speaker. She pretended to be a census worker and asked Becker demographic questions, mispronouncing his name and asking if his cats, Leo and Theo, were children in the residence. She tried to disguise her voice but didn't do a very good job, but he played along and answered her questions in a very serious manner while we all struggled to stifle our laughter.
Finally she wound up the call and said goodbye, and he said goodbye, but added in a complete deadpan voice "I love you." We all exploded with shrieks of pent-up laughter - it was the silliest and most romantic moment I've witnessed in a long, long time.
About 10 minutes later, Chris called back on Chelsea's phone and Kacey put it on speaker. He was pretending to be a pizza delivery person, but Kacey was having none of it and just said "I love you too" before she hung up.
There were also some gifts given, including a silicone sex toy and a deck of D/s cards, plus a very nice riding crop that was used to shatter a penis-shaped pinata (Lourdes managed it after everyone else had failed). Lourdes gave Kacey a book of old-fashioned wedding advice; we took turns writing our own messages into it before Kacey arrived.
Saturday morning was the wedding rehearsal, so I met Kacey's father Richard for the first time, plus Becker's parents Elly and Louis, and his Uncle Bill, plus Joan's husband Bruce - all waiting outside for the Baha'i Center to open. Eventually we went to the Argo Tea to wait, along with Storm and her boyfriend Daniel and sister Hannah, plus Rijard and Derek, and just about everybody from the bachelorette party, plus Becker and Jonathan (Foggy), the best man. Plus, I met Illona again, who was at the engagement party and is doing the video for the wedding.
Once we finally got inside there was a great bustling about with setting up lights and decorating with paper flowers, plus Storm, Daniel and Hannah rehearsed their music (violin, piano and cello, respectively). I went around and made sure I knew how everyone in the wedding party wanted their names pronounced, but mainly just took photos and chatted with friends.
One of Kacey's friends I met was Emily, who is doing Kacey's makeup. I've heard a lot about her but we've never met before. Kacey has always told me I need to meet her and now I see why - she's beautiful, charming and a wonderful touch communicator. We sat together and talked for a while and she was lightly touching Rijard's head, who was sitting next to me in front of her. I said I loved the way she touched him and we enjoyed a lovely little interplay of touch between our hands and arms. So it was quite a memorable first encounter with her.
The highlight of the rehearsal was when we were doing the first run-through and Kacey slipped on the stage steps. I was sitting in the front row and managed to catch her a little to keep her from hitting her back on the edge of the stage. Hopefully that won't happen tomorrow! She wasn't hurt, so we were able to laugh it off but it was a close call.
After rehearsal, we all went to a restaurant called North Square at the edge of Washington Square Park for a private lunch. I sat next to Kirsten and got to know her a bit more. I also got to see Joan again - we saw each other randomly at the Watson play that Katie, Kacey, Becker, Derek and I went to see last month. She's doing a site-specific play called Bitten starting next month that I want to see.
As we left the restaurant, I walked Lourdes to her car and we had a nice chat. She's dealing with some relationship drama so I suggested that she come to my women's group meeting on Monday to talk it out. She gave me a lift for the short distance to Union Square so we could keep talking and dropped me off at the subway station. I did some grocery shopping and made a hair appointment for tomorrow before going home to clean up the apartment before Puck arrives tomorrow for the wedding.
