Bridesmaid Dispatches - Part II

Thursday… (when I meet G1 & G2 and languages start to fly…)

The bride and I spend a lovely evening in her family home with just her mother, father, chocolate lab named Oscar, and a bottle of wine. We talk, we hang out, we sit in the hot tub. Thursday dawns with the remainder of a rainstorm which peeves the Bride greatly. Around 11 AM as I’m getting dressed, she calls out to me: “I’m making Bloody Marys!” Thus marks the hour when I begin to be drunk for the next four days.

The bride’s sister and other friend (the other two bridesmaids,) also arrive that morning and we all get to work, and drink. This is the Central Coast, home of the boutique winery and the Sideways tour. We hit up Baileyana Winery, and as we enjoy our picnic lunch, a whole rented mini van of Chileans arrive. The groom, his mother, his father, his brother, his sister, and one of his groomsmen. The bride’s family and the groom’s family form an instinctive circle on the lawn and start to get acquainted. Lots of “Mucho Gusto”s. I am introduced as “Anniewilson” like my name is one word. I find this funny since little kids I used to babysit for used to call me that.

We determine who speaks enough Spanish to translate things, who can get along just fine with hand gestures. More wine is purchased and drunk. The Father of the Bride suggests we go to the next winery down the road and continue drinking there, which we do. It is here that I really start to speak to G1, (FYI - groomsmen are numbered this way - they have wonderfully fantastic Chilean names that are all akin to Pedro, Juan, Jose, Francisco, and any other you can think of - put the names in a blender and pour.) who is an adorably-dimpled scholar living in Spain. Well, we try to talk. He speaks a few words of English, but mostly only Spanish, and since he used to live in Italy, he sometimes spontaneously breaks into Italian. Since I don’t speak Spanish, only French, with a passing understanding of Italian, this seems to work.

The groom, his father, his brother, and G1 all need to pick up tuxedos which we girls are only too happy to supervise. After translating “waiting for the flood” into Spanish at the tuxedo shop, we go our separate ways until later. I need a cat nap, and we’re going out tonight.

San Luis Obispo is a college town, and being a college town, Thursday nights are hopping. There is also a fantastic Farmer’s Market that draws quite a crowd. Everyone from both families gathers in the downtown section to walk the market, eat some local ribs, and drink more. This is when I meet G2, the groom’s other brother who is the Best Man. G2 and the bride’s other brother both arrived at the airport that evening. The groom has been wanting me to meet G2 becuase he thinks we'd be good together. G2 is a winemaker in Chile, but has been working in France for the current harvest. He speaks more English than G1, but we dabble in French as well.

After one bar, the parents decide to leave us to our own devices. Entering the second bar, sans parentals, Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy” comes on the stereo and the college crowd explodes. (In my day it was Tom Petty’s “You Don’t Know How It Feels” that got this response.) We continue drinking Firestone ale and G1 and I have our knees pressed against each other. Then I switch chairs and start to talk to G2 about his winemaking, France, and whatever else comes to mind. After a while the girls say it’s time to go, so we leave the men to drink more. They say goodnight with sweet kisses on the cheek - one cheek, which I find confusing since the French like two or three cheek kisses. It's hard to stop at just one. G2 smiles at me and says "Me gusta Anniewilson..." and kisses my cheek again.

Between the college bars and the linguistic nonsense, I was content to get to our little bed & breakfast and drop into dreamful sleep.