Chapter 30 Mimosas, Make-up, and Maya
Leah didn’t sleep. She watched the rain outside, she listened to her sister breathe peacefully beside her. She rationalized with herself in her head about the day ahead. If it would just stop raining, everything would be OK. If Gabe’s rash went away, but it was still raining, that would be OK too. Everything would be fine once they made it to the tent in Central Park. There was no way the rain would keep up.
Somewhere in the early morning hours, Gabe let her know that he and Kyle were on their way home from the ER with stronger antihistamines and a number of theories of the cause of the rash. Could it be bad seafood? An omen to stop eating seafood! Leah thought. Or the new clothing? Or the intense weather, or maybe there was mold in the hotel carpet and air. It didn’t matter. One pill twice a day for five days and it would all clear up.
They didn’t have five days, so Leah then texted her makeup artist who was supposed to meet them at the hotel early that morning to paint the faces of Leah, her bridesmaids, and her mother. In her text, she explained the situation, Gabe’s allergic reaction, and asked if there was anything she could do with makeup.
No problem! The response came almost immediately. I’m on my way and will see you at the hotel at 6!
Six a.m. was when they were starting hair and makeup. It seemed an exaggeration for a wedding that started at 3:00 p.m., but once you calculated 30 minutes for each bridesmaid and the mother of the bride and another 45 minutes for Leah, it didn’t seem to leave much time for pictures or getting to the park.
At 5:45 the phone in the room rang. It was the wake-up call they had requested from the front desk. A woman wished them a good morning and happy wedding in a voice so cheerful, Leah thought it must have come from the other end of the world where the time zone was already in the afternoon.
Shira stretched and looked out the window. “Still raining, huh?” she said and rolled over to Leah. “Don’t worry. Rain on your wedding day is good luck. Your first good omen!”
Leah couldn’t help but laugh. “I think that was made up by disappointed brides like me who have to get married in the rain.”
Fifteen minutes later, Savannah knocked on the door. She was in a nightgown and her hair was a mess. “I don’t think I’ve woken up this early since you girls were babies.”
“Evelyn loves waking up at this hour,” Shira said. “Today was almost like sleeping in!” Shira had left Evelyn with a babysitter who would bring her to the hotel later that morning. “You look like a mess, Mom!”
“Well, I didn’t see a point in taming my hair when I’m paying so much for someone to style it in a few hours!” Savannah responded. “When is everyone getting here?”
There was a knock on the door and Leah opened it to receive a delivery of coffee, bagels, fruits, eggs, and other foods that would supply the bridal party with sustenance while they got done up for the wedding. Another tray rolled in with champagne and orange juice. Leah eyed the food, wanting to lather a bagel with a thick layer of cream cheese, but also feeling sick to her stomach.
Shira used the door’s lock to prop the door open so that the rest of the bridal party could come in without knocking. First Sarah arrived, then Maya, and then the other bridesmaids trickled in.
“Wow, it’s such a good thing I stayed in the city last night!” Sarah commented. “It would have been so hard to get in from upstate so early!”
The girls made mimosas and giggled while Leah handed out matching robes that she had bought for everyone to wear while getting their hair and makeup done. With everyone in their matching robes, it was starting to feel like a wedding morning. Light was starting to come through the window, even though the sky was still gray.
Leah accepted a mimosa and tried to relax. By the time she had her second mimosa, she was getting nervous. It was already 6:45 and the makeup artist and hairstylist, who worked as a team, had still not arrived.
“Do you want me to call?” Shira asked and immediately found the number in Leah’s phone. Leah watched her as she held the phone in front of her mouth and put it on speaker.
“Hey! Oh my gosh, I am so sorry!” the makeup artist said when she answered. “There was a crazy accident on the George Washington Bridge and we are stuck! We haven’t moved in, like, forever! We’re trying to figure out a different route. I’m so sorry! We’ll work in turbo mode to make sure everyone is beautiful!”
Shira hung up. “I guess we all could have gotten a little more sleep!”
“That would mean less time for mimosas!” Sarah giggled and raised her glass, to which all the girls cheered.
Another hour went by and Leah’s phone rang. It was the DJ company they booked for the party that afternoon. Leah had just confirmed all their songs with him the day before. Shira answered the phone.
“Hey, is this Leah? This is Marc, from Music Man Entertainment. Look, the DJ we booked for your event broke his hand last night at a club. We’re looking for a replacement, but it’s so last minute,” he said. “I’ll keep you updated.” And then he hung up the phone.
No DJ? No hair and makeup? Leah wanted to cry like the sky was doing right outside the hotel room window. She tried to remind herself what her mother told her the night before, that there were no bad omens and her fate was determined by how she responded to bad luck. She was now failing her fate, she thought, and so she stopped the tears from falling.
Maya poured Leah another mimosa and squeezed her hand. By 9:00 a.m. the girls had finished most of the morning spread and some, including Shira, were already taking naps on the hotel bed.
Leah texted the makeup artist, who again apologized and said she was doing everything she could to get there. “But it’s like gridlock here! I’m totally blocked in every direction! The only option I can think of is jumping off this bridge and swimming to Manhattan, but I don’t think my makeup bag will survive being submerged in water!”
With her mother, sister, and friends around, Leah laughed and commented about how crazy this entire situation was and what a great story this will be for her to tell their children and grandchildren. Then she went to the bathroom and let the tears fall.
Without knocking, Maya stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind her. “Are you OK?” she asked and Leah shook her head. She wanted this wedding to be perfect. She now realized that maybe she was so obsessed with the wedding appearing perfect because she hoped that if everyone saw how perfect the wedding was, they would finally understand how perfect her relationship was. But now that would never happen.
“How about I do your hair and makeup?” Maya suggested and Leah shrugged. “We probably shouldn’t do a blowout because of the rain and humidity outside.”
By noon, all the girls had their hair and makeup done. Once they saw Maya making up Leah, they all pitched in and worked together to pretty each other up. Shira even let Maya style her curls, although Leah thought she noticed Maya pulling extra hard on Shira’s hair. It may not have been professional, but the girls all looked beautiful.
“Well, it’s not the hair and makeup that make you all beautiful!” Savannah said while the girls all complimented each other. “For me, since I’m old, I actually need the makeup to be beautiful! But you all are so young! I hope you appreciate that! I sure didn’t!”
The door swung open and the wedding photographer was standing there with the camera ready to shoot. “Sorry I am late! Traffic was awful!” he said and immediately started documenting Maya and the other bridesmaids put the finishing touches on each other.
“This is so special that you are all doing each other’s makeup!” the photographer noted. “So much more meaningful! And cost-effective! And you all look so beautiful!” The girls put on their dresses and let the photographer take more photos.
Soon Leah was scheduled to meet Gabe at the park for their first look before the wedding. She hadn’t heard much from him that morning, other than that he took his medicine and was bathing in calamine lotion to try to reduce the rashes and redness all over him.
A limo met the wedding party outside the lobby of the hotel and the girls ran from doors across the sidewalk that was still wet and getting pelted with raindrops. The hotel lent them giant umbrellas that they carried even though the wind was blowing so hard that the umbrellas fell sideways. Rain still hit them in the face as though it was falling horizontally instead of down from the sky.
Even Leah couldn’t help but laugh when Sarah’s umbrella turned completely inside out and she screamed as water splattered on her hair. Sarah tossed the umbrella on the street and held the door for Maya who was last.
“I’ll catch up with you guys there,” Maya said and closed the limo door without getting inside. Maybe it was the rain that gave everyone so much adrenaline or maybe it was how they all came together to pretty each other up, but something was different in that limo as they drove to Central Park. By the time the limo pulled up to the 65 th Street Traverse on Fifth Avenue, the rain had stopped. It was still gray and the wind was still blowing, but no one got wet while they guided Leah, in her white ballet flats which were no longer white, from the car to the plastic tent set up for the wedding in the park.
The tent was already set up with tables, chairs, and a dance floor. In the far corner, Leah could see the Chuppah, the canopy used in Jewish weddings. Used to symbolize the home a Jewish couple will build, the canopy was held up by four wooden poles that their family members would symbolically hold onto during the ceremony, showing their symbolic support of the marriage. The top of the canopy was a tallit, a prayer shawl, that had once belonged to Leah’s grandfather and had been used for the Chuppah for Leah’s parents’ wedding.
It was a simple structure, but made Leah feel overwhelmed because truly, that was all she had ever wanted.
“What a day!” the woman who ran their rehearsal the night before said. “Are you ready to get married?”
Leah nodded and followed the woman to another corner of the tent decorated with flowers. “We’ll do the first look here,” the woman said. “Close your eyes, the groom is almost here.”
Leah closed her eyes and held her breath as the photographer and her bridal party watched. She couldn’t wait to see Gabe—rash or not—this was their wedding day and instead of focusing on everything that was going wrong—which was a lot—she decided she’d focus on what was going right.
She heard Shira and her mother gasp when she felt Gabe’s hands grab hers.