Make ’em laugh
Don’t you know everyone wants to laugh?
My dad said ‘Be an actor, my son —
But be a comical one!’Now you could study Shakespeare and be quite elite
And you can charm the critics and have nothin’ to eat
Just slip on a banana peel
The world’s at your feet
Make ’em laugh!-“Make ‘Em Laugh,” Singing in the Rain
Note on the above block quote (because I don’t know how to caption a block quote): My dad never said be an actor. Ha! He said: be a doctor or just forget it.
It looks like I was trying to make my new husband laugh here. He just looks scared. (His face screams: “Dancing Delusion, Party of 1!” Sorry, being around unfettered Bollywood dancing instills me with a falsely confident air!)
I receive so much feedback about my blog. While seldom solicited, critique is always appreciated. Now I don’t mean to brag, but some people hate me.
This comment was written on a post I wrote about buying Deepak a bidet-style Toto toilet. Maybe Mr. Larson was pulling the easy excrement pun? In any event, hold on while I click “approve” on this pending gem of a comment! (Also, side note – the Toto 350e is a delight. John Larson is obviously an embittered Kohler shill.)
This is not an approved bhangra move.
Major themes, when people give me blunt blog feedback: You write too many words. You venture too frequently into arcanum. And there are not enough GIFs!
Working on the last one. But a woman must crawl before she blasts off in a jetpack. So let’s start with more photos with fewer words! Here’s a selection of photos from our professional wedding photographer, along with quick memories or notes about the joy of the day!
Laughing theme! I’m so happy with my professional wedding photos, and the biggest reason is this: The foremost thing I want from photos of me is for me to look happy in them. I am a happy person! One time, at my first post-college job at Entertainment Tonight, one of my coworkers said to me, not necessarily meanly, just matter-of-factly: “You laugh too much.” Apparently this raised her hackles in the workplace, but I’m glad this element of my nature is captured here!
This reminds me of the phrase “beyond the veil.” I had vaguely thought it referred to religious wear; upon looking it up just now I seem to see that it means: “the unknown state of being after death”(?!). Well, I’ll continue to spread malapropism-like energy by applying it here, to the bridal veil.
The silhouette of my ceremony Chinese-made gown! I bought 2 wedding dresses for my wedding day (leaving out the first-ever wedding dress I purchased, discussed in previous entries. That was only used for our Save the Date video).
The group jumping shot feels so fun and true to our playful party!
My ET finger.
They told me to spin. They = the videographers, I think. This veil was also made by Chinese hands — by the same manufacturers who made my 2 dresses. I told them I wanted it to look like the Juliet cap veil with blusher worn by Kate Moss in her 2011 wedding to Jamie Hince. Yeah, that union is all but officially terminated … hopefully I can take good juju from a soured union, much like Kate Middleton’s wearing of Princess Diana’s engagement ring!
Detail of the Chinese workmanship! This reminds me of the GIF I sent to the Suzhou factory — which I stole from a promo video on the Vimeo Pro account of the designer whose dress I was “inspired” by. More on that process later.
Ah, here is the GIF I sent to Suzhou factory! Granted, these are two slightly different dresses (my ceremony dress in photo and reception dress in GIF). Still, similarly inspired and many people assumed both dresses were the same. A great chance to compare my dress to its original, which was sold for over 30x as much (yes, seriously)!
“Slow strut like she walkin’ to the altar” -Fabolous (who is my muse; also, who was the singer of my bridal party walkout song, and in my mind at least, the inspiration for the New York Times’ headline for our wedding feature)
“You & me moving at the speed of light into eternity” … after an eternity!
Preparing to exchange carnation floral garlands, or jai mala. We made the carnations ourselves (me, my mom, Deepak’s mom, my 2 sisters) in our kitchen the Thursday before. We used 200 flower heads total, purchased from Sam’s Wholesale Floral for about $0.40/apiece (including front-door delivery!).
Just married! When we visited the venue, we asked whether the statue could be cleaned. I guess it’s just the look. My mom, upon seeing photos of the venue for the first time before we’d committed to having our wedding there, exclaimed — in a complimentary way — “It’s so wonderfully louche!” There is certainly a post-opulent, history-soaked and kind of even rueful air to the Ebell, which we loved.
The couple who laughs together … was instructed to do so by the wedding photographer.
“If I fall, would you catch me??” –Tai in Clueless
Here is a shot of the dress that was modeled after the one in the GIF earlier in this post. Thoughts on its validity as a simulacrum??
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I wanted diaphanous for my reception dress! I don’t buy into the bridal modesty trend, sorry. Sleeves, lace, cover-ups … nah. So many wedding traditions were originally meant to symbolize fertility, nubility, youth — why cloud the message with a bridal turtleneck?
