My Best Friend's Wedding - 7.25.2014

In the last post I was nervous about my maid of honor speech, so I figured I'd dedicate a post to Jessica's wedding. 

The weekend of July 25th, 2014 was fabulous. We stayed at a big house with Jessica & Neil in South Lake Tahoe. Ate awesome food, drank and hung out. This is the happy couple the night before the wedding. :)

Jessica handled it all like a champ, zero nerves, totally chill and it paid off. Everything went off without a hitch and the few glitches along the way were handled by her new and awesome family. Let's also mention that the weekend of their wedding was during a heat wave in Tahoe and I hate heat. So we were all a bit nervous about the outdoor ceremony on the beach. 

Here are the highlights and some of my favorite pictures from their big day:

Once we mellowed out, getting ready was ok... not the world's greatest make up artist since I had to fix Anali's, mine and Jessica's eyeliners and she sucked with applying fake lashes and totally didn't do our make up like the pictures we showed her. All of our hair looked great however. 

Getting ready: 

Here's the first look, it was a beautiful moment:

We then took some pictures at the house and got onto a big party bus that drove the 4 of us, Jessica, Neil, best man and myself to our horse and carriage which took us to the beach for the ceremony. This is when we all cooled off since there was a good breeze being in that carriage.

Ceremony was awesome... some of US cried because it was awesome and sweet! 

Yay and they got married, here's the KISS:

And another YAY, they're married!!!

Then we took more pictures:

Hubby & I

Dima, Sara, Neil, Jessica, Me, Pavel

There was an amazing breeze right when the ceremony started and no one even broke a sweat. The reception location was perfect. Jessica did a fabulous job on the details: 

We took some more pictures before the actual dinner began, here are my favorites:

Here come the guests of honor:

They dance:

They kiss:

And BAM, I have to give a toast. I didn't rehearse it much and didn't memorize it because I didn't think anyone would be listening since the weddings I have been to previously, by the time the maid of honor speech would come, the guests were drunk, rowdy and busy socializing to each other. I really didn't think anyone would be listening. I didn't realize Jess and Neil would only have myself, the best man and Neil's sister give speeches and would all be in the very beginning while everyone is very alert, looking at you and listening to every word. I got super nervous, I stuttered, lost my place since I was reading off my phone, but here are the pics of me giving my toast and the speech itself! This person is my sister by choice and we grew up together so I had so much to say, but I kept making it shorter and shorter in order not to be too boring. I wrote the speech in the spirit of mine and Jessica's favorite show: "How I Met Your Mother". :)

Hi, I’m Alla and I have known Jessica for almost two decades. Everything in life happens for a reason. Jessica was very popular growing up. So I knew who she was when I approached her in school one day to ask for a beedi, for those of you who don’t know, it’s a little Indian cigarette, but what I didn’t know at the time was that I was meeting someone who’s going to be my friendship soul mate, my forever friend, my sister.
We have been through everything together. We ended up going to college together and were true partners in crime. As Jessica was graduating college, I convinced her to apply at my current job at the time and made sure she was hired. So then we became coworkers, hung out daily and were inseparable. Everything in life happens the way it is supposed to. I’ll break it down for you in the true fashion of one of our favorite shows: had I not gotten a job at InfoIMAGE, had I not helped Jessica get a job there too, and had I not approached her that one day in school, she would have never met Neil. So I’d like to take some responsibility for this wedding!  
But enough about me and on a more serious note, I want to give some credit where credit is due. Neil, for finally putting a ring on that finger and being Jessica’s true soul mate and best friend. And Jessica, for planning such a beautiful wedding while staying so calm throughout the whole process. Neil, you’re now my brother in law and I couldn’t be happier. Thank you for taking such good care of my sister. Jessica, I can go on for days about how much you mean to me. I remember way back when you and I were talking about our future, we had no idea how everything was going to turn out. Throughout all of these years, so many things around us have changed, but the one thing that has remained constant, has been our friendship. I’m so happy for you and wish you a lifetime of happiness as you start your new life together as husband and wife. As time will pass, today will become a distant memory. The one thing you should always remember and never lose is the love you feel for each other today. Congratulations! Love you guys! Cheers!

He sang at the end of his awesome and heartfelt toast, an excerpt from "Coming to America" movie! Awesome!

 Our awesome table:

Sara & Dima:

Anali & Andrew:

They cut the cake: 

All the other wedding festivities were done, I can't capture everything in this blog post that is already ridiculously lengthy. At the end we danced...

And just like that a fabulous day came to a close! I am so happy for my best friend, it warms my heart to see her happy and in love! I can't wait to see her as a mom, she will be beyond amazing. She's so fabulous with my girls and they love her and will always know her as their auntie. I can't imagine my life without this girl and that's why this blog entry is for you, Jessica. She's on her belated honeymoon right now in Orlando, Florida, this is the picture she posted today:

In closing, I wish you all the best, Jessica! We weren't sisters by birth, but we knew from the start that fate brought us together to be sisters by heart!

Til next time...