15 May 2016

The Day G Became a Bride

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I’ve been wanting to write this post for a couple of weeks now since the wedding actually happened, but like most important posts in my life I’ve come to the realization that it’s always better to wait a bit before putting my thoughts into this editor. Gelesia got married on Saturday, April 23rd and she wasn’t the first of my high school friends to get married, but the first that was closest to me. It seemed like it was just a week before that I had been in Mexico with her sipping on Miami Vices for breakfast and then all of a sudden, we were on a flight to LAX and driving to Ojai to see her become a wife.

Don’t worry, we’ll still write a post about what we did/saw/ate in Ojai and talk about what we wore to Gelesia’s wedding, but this right here is all about Gelesia.

A couple of weeks before I left for the wedding, Mandi and I were having one of our hangout days and I kept saying “I can’t believe it’s happening. It hasn’t set in yet!” Her and I have talked a lot about Mandi’s upcoming wedding and Gelesia’s for that matter and we both knew that they were going to be pretty different. One is in Ojai. The other is in Yosemite. One friend is from high school. The other is from college/post-college. Then Mandi said something to me that was pretty eye-opening – she told that it was really cool that I get to attend the wedding of one of my close friends from high school because I probably know her family very well and not only do I get to spend time with Gelesia at the wedding, but I get to catch up with them too. After all, I’ve known Gelesia for about 9 years – the same amount of time I’ve know her family. With college friends, it’s not like you know their families as well as you do with high school friends so in some ways, this is really really special.

And Mandi was absolutely right.

I actually did spend the first night in Ojai at welcome drinks with the guests of the wedding chatting it up with her family and catching up with her mom. Similar to how you feel when you catch up with an old friend after years and nothing has changed was the exact feeling that I had with them. We reminisced on past birthday parties, family parties at Grandma’s, our favorite local joint – Pizza Bank and how I would always go to G’s house when I just didn’t feel like being at mine!

Gelesia has grown into such an amazing woman – a wonderful friend through the years and now she’s going to nail it at being a wife. It can be hard when after high school your friends and you all take separate paths, but I’m very grateful for the years we had in high school together and seeing how we manage to stay close as we both take these next steps in our lives. Isn’t she just the most darling bride?! Also, as a bonus, here’s a photo below of a time when we weren’t so grown.

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