Nebraska Wedding

I realized today that I never posted a blog about my cousin Chris's wedding in July. It was sort of like Mags and Spencer's wedding, in that it served as a wedding and reunion. It was really great to see everybody again. I got to see my two cousins Dawn and Neela along with their husbands and 4 children (Dawn has a daughter and son, Madison and Townes, Neela has twin daughters, Kendall and Natalie, that were born on my birthday). And of course, I got to see Grandma, which was good because I hadn't seen her in two years, and she's 86, the only grandparent we have left, and she probably won't last too much longer.

The wedding ended up being quite the international affair. And it took place in Nebraska. Which is an odd combination. See, my Aunt Celie is half-Puerto Rican, and her sister ended up marrying and staying in Spain, so we got to see the four Spanish cousins. Plus, Hidemi, Chris's wife is Japanese, so her mom and sister came over from Japan. And Dave and Sara flew in for the wedding, and Sara is half-Iranian. Apparently, the night before we got to Nebraska was Hidemi's birthday. The Spanish cousins were already there and it was a pretty crazy night. They started off drinking Spanish wine, then saki, then champagne for Hidemi's birthday, then finished up with beer and Jim Bean. I"m still not sure how my cousin Scottie was able to pick me up at the airport the next day...

The wedding was short and sweet. Chris and Hidemi got married in Kearny, where they went to school, and they knew a laid back priest that was fine with marrying them (Hidemi is Buddhist, and I always thought both people had to be Catholic for a Catholic ceremony, but apparently not?). The reception took place in the hotel where we were staying, so that was handy. Oh, and one of the Spanish cousins wore the same dress to the wedding that I did. Considering that the 3 Spanish girls had tried on about 100 dresses (it's always hard, since female sizes tend to change from store to store or brand to brand, but the European size system is completely different, so that also threw them off), it was pretty funny that we still managed to wear the same dress. We got a huge family picture of absolutely everybody, and if anybody ever emails it to me, I'll post it.