Left Coast Contessa

Final Boston Post: The Wedding

July 27, 2011 at 5:04 am 4 comments

The entire purpose of my trip to Boston was to attend the wedding of one of my closest friends, Shahrin. I have known Shahrin since my sophomore year at Simmons. She’s been an amazing friend to me over the years and is an overall good person. I was so excited to not only have the opportunity to see her marry her partner of 9 years, Dan (who is equally awesome and smart) but to also be part of the wedding party. The wedding was beautiful, unique and reflected them as a couple.

The day before the wedding the girls all gathered at Shahrins family’s house for a henna party. All the girls in the wedding party had henna done and we got to eat delicious food that her Aunt prepared.

The bridal party girls had simple henna on our hands. My friend Sharmin did mine and it turned out beautifully!

Because she was the bride, Shahrin had full henna on both sides of both arms and all over her hands! She had her initials on one palm and Dan’s on the other palm. She started the henna around 3:30 pm and wasn’t done until 11 pm! THAT is dedication.

After the henna I headed to Dedham to have a ladies sleep over with Catie, Kat and Robyn so we could all get ready the next day bright and early. I’m low maintenance so I basically took a bath, hung my dress and made sure I had my accessories in order.

Simmons Women: We’re Prepared.

The next morning I woke up bright and early, got a huge latte in preparation for the excitement and got dressed. Even though we were in the bridal party we were allowed to wear whatever we wanted! I don’t know that I will ever have a more flattering bridal party dress ever again. Shahrin is a bright personality and I knew that others in the wedding would be wearing colorful saris (Shahrin was born in Bangladesh) so I chose to wear hot pink. I also picked a strapless short dress. It was a dress that I would typically never purchase for myself and I had such a fun time dressing for this wedding. My Mom helped with accessories. I had oversized pearls which were doubled up. For shoes I wore simple gold sandals. I knew I was going to be on my feet all day and I wanted to be able to dance freely! I wanted the dress to be a west coast interpretation on preppy but I think it just ended up being preppy, which is totally fine. It didn’t help that I drank gin and tonics all afternoon. I was in New England. I didn’t have control of my preppiness.

Here is what I wore: wedding edition!

Dress: hot pink strapless dress with a sweetheart neckline. Purchased for the Neiman Marcus close out store for $40 <- BE IMPRESSED

Shoes: DVF gold sandles, DSW for $30

Necklace: Oversized pearl necklace, doubled up.

We loaded into the car and headed to the wedding!

Kat looked cool on the way to the wedding.

The actual wedding was held at a country club in a room overlooking water and islands. It was very New England and quite beautiful!

We were early because that’s how we roll. I took advantage of the free time by snapping pics of the venue.

The cupcake tower was already in place. Obviously, this was the part of the wedding I was most excited about.

Pretty soon the bride arrived and we hustled around helping her. I do not lie when I say that Shahrin was absolutely stunning. I have never seen a more radiant bride. Shahrin radiated happiness all day and I am so so so so happy to see her happy.

So beautiful!

We briefly practiced the processional and then the wedding got underway.

The bridal party processed in after the families. I came in with love letters the couple wrote to each other and a wooden box that they plan to store them in. In 10 years, or if the going gets rough, they are going to open to open the letter and read them. The wedding was non-religious and performed by a justice of the peace. He had sat down with them and talked about each of them separately and together. He also shared words of wisdom about marriage. The ceremony felt like them and I cried several times. They also wrote vows for each other. Shahrin’s were touching and funny. Dan studied creative writing in college and his vows brought me to tears. The ceremony went by quickly and before we knew it they were married!

After the ceremony we went for group pictures. I took the opportunity to assault a cater waiter, shovel 8 spring rolls into my mouth and order and GT from the open bar. I also grabbed my table assignment card.

Is that not the best table assignment card ever? It matched the invite!

Pretty soon the reception started and I turned into a terrible blogger because I was enjoying the party. I did snap a few pictures.

Catie and Sharmin (who did my henna!)

The couple arrives at the party.

First we enjoyed toasts. The toasters were a well selected group of family and friends. They did a great job of picking people from various parts of Shahrin and Dan’s life. Catie gave a toast to the couple that was really touching. It made me tear up.

After toasts we ate:

Then we went to the bridal suite to take more pictures and enjoy cupcakes!

<3 the firm

Obviously I tried all three flavors of cupcakes that were available: dark chocolate mocha, strawberry and lemon!

Kat is demonstrating how delicious the strawberry cupcake was. It was my favorite flavor. The frosting was super light and fluffy. They were from Kick Ass Cupcakes in Sommerville.

Finally Shahrin changed into a white shift dress for dancing! She and Dan kicked the party off with a tango that turned into a dance inspired by a bollywood movie. The dance reflected them as a couple and was such a fun way to kick off dancing.

And then the party really got started. There is nothing in life that I love more than a dance party where my killer cheesy dance moves are encouraged. I raised the roof like it was 1996 and bounced my shoulders to the bollywood beats. It felt like 5 mins went by and the wedding was totally over! I was so sad to see it end but it was absolutely the most fun I have ever had at a wedding. Shahrin was beautiful and I am so happy that she is able to spend her life with her best friend.

I had one more day left in Boston after the wedding. Kat, Catie and I made our way to Simmons, where we spent our college years to visit old professors and take in our old stomping grounds. My camera actually died as I was walking up the steps of the school but this picture Kat took was too cute not to share and, I think, is a fitting way to end the Boston posts…

Simmons women represent!

That’s it for my posts from my trip to Boston. Here are the other posts if you are catching up:

Welcome to Boston

Bridal errands and Harvard Square

Revisiting my favorite restaurants and the bachelorette party

Brunching at Zaftigs

I will be back to regular posting tomorrow.

OK LADIES! Time to fess up… I got to wear a beautiful bridesmaids dress in this wedding but have you ever had to wear a hideous bridesmaids dress? What did it look like?

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