Happiness is a Good (Bad) Wedding Outfit

Friends, good morning from rainy Minneapolis, where your good friend Sarah is going to jot a couple notes to you today and then head off to work, where the FDA is keeping me hopping.  Today’s happiness will be some sharing of more pictures from the Bad Wedding Reception party.

First, though, you need to understand something about me if you did not know this already.  My “real job” is often given the title of Compliance Officer, Quality Manager, Professor, Auditor, 3^rd Party inspector.  I am responsible for protecting the safety, rights and welfare of literally thousands of patients each year by managing multiple teams on multiple continents.  We make sure that testing on medical products is done according to each country’s laws.  We make sure the surgeons follow the rules, and when they do not, my job is to get them back in line.  Most doctors are excellent (not all…noooooo sir, but more on that later), but just because a doctor is excellent does not mean they are excellent at following the laws of ethics and research when it comes to documenting how a medical product is first tested in humans.  That is my job.  I am a detail-oriented safety freak, and if my name goes on something, you can be assured it has been done right.  I am a rule follower, and I get tremendous satisfaction in making sure all lists are complete, all boxes checked, and that all bad things are righted.

When I am not working, I need to balance out the being in charge all day with being able to play. For this reason, I cook in many professional kitchens, just for fun (but also following the rules there).  I throw parties that have elements of surprise and creative…er…shock sometimes.  I make sure the people around me remember how to be kids again.  That is what makes me happy.  This party, Bad Wedding Reception, was the ultimate, 3 year dream of mine to pull off, and thanks to some really excellent Friends, we did it, with style.  Here are some pictures.

Now, every good party needs exceptional attention to detail, and this is my Rainman-esque strength.  There will be mints in bags with varied colors of ribbon that match the wedding colors of hot pink, royal purple and black feather.



There will be programs that have an extra “oops” hole punched in them.  The paper will be crap quality, and those dang pink foil ribbons will be seen everywhere from the programs to the tabletop décor to stuck to my leg in the morning. 

There will be guest book that is ridiculously detailed, just perfectly, to make you laugh and look twice, because it is juuuuuuust that close to being normal, like all Minnesota weddings, yet is still ridiculous.



 

There will be a poofy colored toothpicks for the little smokies, and multiple flasks being passed around, and a pink gorilla (did you see him there, in the background?) that my Norwegian guests and I dubbed The Norwegian Symbol of Fertility, after they won it at the amusement park called ValleyFair when they visited this past year.

 

The gorilla is included because it is hot pink (to match the wedding colors), because Dag & Thomas could not join us in person, and because it is stupidly hilarious that they would “send” this as a gift to the “wedding.”  Many of my Friends had met them at the multiple dance parties and dinner parties I hosted this past summer, and I loved having Dag & Thomas there with us, even in pink spirit.

Then there will be costumes---planned for weeks, tweaked to be just right.  Here is a picture of my incredibly talented Friend Raymond and me, in our Christmas sweaters from the ugly sweater party.

 

My sweater was designed by our Friend Lee Ann, who has a way of just making me stop and stare in awe at her creations, they are so funny.  Below is a picture of Raymond with my “Groom,” who flew in for the wedding, he is that good of a Friend.  Raymond’s character title is “Stripper Leftover from Last Night,” and Groom’s suit just perfectly matches our bad wedding theme.  They both played their characters perfectly---confidently---which helped everyone else be able to have even more fun.  Are these not 2 of the best outfits you could possible see?  Is this picture not hysterical?!  I love these guys.

 

Then there were the bridesmaids, my Friends “Bitsy, Porsche and Ginger Claussen” (love their character names) who allegedly went to school and sorority with me t Kappa Ypsilon (spelled wrong on purpose, in order to secure the initials KY…inappropriate, I tried to warn you.)  Here they are with my Friend Mike, who is one of my biggest encouragers in swim class and who I met over foie gras at La Belle Vie.

 

Here is a picture of Brian and Bitsy.  Brian is channeling Len Gunderson, a guy whose brother was supposed to have the gig as videographer but it filling in instead.  Bitsy picked up that fine outfit at GoodWill earlier that day.

 

And then, there is a picture of me, again with Mike, as I slowly began my transition from a mixture of Courtney Love and the Queen of Belgium into Melted, Drunken Bride.

 

 

So you see, Friends, happiness is a good (bad) outfit. Happiness is being surrounded by people who are all in, who are ready to embrace the silliness of a fantastic party that raises money and household goods for homeless families.  Happiness is pulling all of these details together to create a whole bundle of energy in the evening that builds and builds and builds for weeks beforehand, then culminates in just pure fun.  That is what we had, and that feeling is carrying me through this week and so on, and so on.

I keep thinking of more things to share with you, including the inappropriate ice sculpture, which deserves a whole post of its own, because so many bad things happened.  I need to get to work, though, so I will catch up with you tomorrow.

Sending lots of love and reminder to relax and be kids more often, because it is just so much fun,

Your Good Friend Sarah