Bridesmaid Dispatches - Part I

Last December, during my birthday party at Tommy’s Mexican Food, my college roommate and her handsome Chilean boyfriend told me they were engaged, and promptly asked me to be a bridesmaid in their wedding. Honored to the tips of my toes, I willingly agreed… Now, after ten months of planning, showers, bachelorettes, and fabulous Chilean food at their apartment, and only two days after their nuptials, I am in the midst of an all-too common condition among people my age: the post-wedding blues. Weddings are funny things. People take four days off from work, extending a one-day event into a party marathon. You’re forced into close companionship with the other, never-met-before best-friends of your best friends (the ones getting married,) and after the first night of too much alcohol, you realize why your best friends love their best friends so very much because now they’re your best friends too. After a day, you’ve known them for years and never want to let them go. And then in the blink of an eye you’re at the Sunday morning brunch at the bride’s family home, wondering if you’ll ever know or see any of these incredible people ever again. It’s a depressing moment, not unlike a champagne hangover - the bubbles have you up so high that the fall is traumatic.

I will say that the upside to this downside is the fun, frolic, and romance of discovering new best friends. And isn’t that why we go to weddings?

Wednesday… (or why I’m broke & why we should all buy stock in beauty companies…)

I am driving the bride some two-hundred or so miles south of San Francisco to her hometown of San Luis Obispo, CA. We plan to leave the city at around 1PM, but I’m running late and the bride has to finish work. I start to pack, and pack, and pack. I need dresses, sexy shoes, casual clothes for luncheons, manicures, cocktails, etc…and workout clothes to go running. (I’ll explain.) I also need cosmetics. I start to pile things into my trusty chocolate-striped Henri Bendel makeup bags, and then things really start to pile up. I realize that I need everything. All of my NARS colors are the easy part, but then I grab the NARS Skin. I’m planning to give myself a soothing mud mask facial at some point before the wedding, so I pack my NARS mud mask (divine!) and my Caudalie exfoliator. Moisturizing is a very important consideration, so I pack my NARS cream, Oil of Olay SPF 30, and Decleor Baume de Nuit for the nighttime. Then there’s the question of body moisturizing. I’m bringing Bliss Spa’s in-shower Vanilla & Bergamot Body Buff, as well as L’Occitane’s Lavender Shea Butter which I love. And, since it’s fragrant and lovely, I threw in my Hermès Jardin Sur Nile lotion which came with my perfume. (I’m planning on having lots of groomsmen touching my shoulders so this is important.) Then I go for hair stuff: Sebastian Body Double shampoo, mousse, hairspray, and Potion 9, as well as Bumble and Bumble’s pomade to smooth frizz. Then I go for the hangover necessities and make certain my Advil is in abundance. I also grab things like bandaids, Clearasil (just in case,) a razor, perfume, Q-Tips, and any other thing within reach. Nothing is too much. Apparently that's the same attitude I've taken when purchasing beauty products. I begin to add up what my Henri Bendel case might be worth and decide to leave that thought right where I found it.

When it's all said and done, five days worth of stuff fills two carryons on the large-size. How can this be? I go to New York city for five days and I only need one of these things. Whatever. I'm late. 

At 2PM, I collect the bride at her place of business downtown. She comes to the curb with an overstuffed roller-bag.

Bride: “Ugh! Ohmigosh! This bag is so heavy, but I swear I packed every single beauty product I own!”