Monday, May 28, 2012

Open Bar Happiness

I always forget how much I love Indian weddings. They are seriously the most festive things ever... it's literally just one huge party for two to three days at a time.

After much anticipation, Neha and Eashwar's wedding extravaganza FINALLY took place this weekend. I feel like more than a few of us have been eagerly anticipating this event to end all events for weeks, if not months, and I can safely say that their wedding did NOT disappoint.

The adventure started on Friday, with the Sangeet. The Sangeet is typically an evening of dance performances, put on by family and friends to honor the couple. Now, I've been to a Sangeet or two in my lifetime, but I can safely say that this Sangeet was the most... well, different one I've been to.

Let me back up a little though. So this wedding spectacular was taking place in Louisville, about a 5.5 to 6 hour drive from Chicago. I was planning on driving down late Friday afternoon, in order to arrive just in time (and/or a little after) the start of the Sangeet festivities, scheduled for Friday evening. So, come Friday around 3:30 PM, my other coworker/friend and I began our delightful little road trip from Chicago to Louisville, eagerly anticipating the festive weekend ahead.

Welllll... who knew how long a drive from Chicago to Louisville could feel?? Thank goodness Katusha had decided to join this little road trip... there is NO DOUBT I would've gotten lost and/or fallen asleep at the wheel otherwise! Needless to say, by the time we arrived at the Louisville Marriott (where the majority of the guests were staying and a lot of the wedding festivities were taking place), we were so ready to...

Well, celebrate.



GOD, have I shared how much I love the concept of open bar? It seriously is one of my favorite things EVER (and I don't even like drinking all that much!). It's just... well, it's just so FREE. How can one resist??



In short, we couldn't. So we went a little out of control with the open bar... I can't even tell you exactly how many drinks we were having, because we were just trying to cram as many in as possible since the bar was going to be closing sooner rather than later (darn coming in late!).

But I digress. The Sangeet itself was AMAZING. It was literally like a scene out of a Bollywood movie- a huge dance floor/stage for the multitude of performances, humongous movie screen type things to project the dances (and/or excerpts from Bollywood films when there was a break in the dance performances), yummy food and... well, about 600 of Neha and Eashwar's closest family and friends. Haha. I'm actually not exactly sure what the latest headcount of their seemingly neverending guest list was, but it certainly FELT like about 600 people, that's for darn sure.

Sadly, I actually didn't snap any pictures of the Sangeet itself... I know, I know. Who am I? I can document all things open bar but I can't document the Sangeet itself? Ridiculous, I know. In any event, after the Sangeet, some of the guests decided that the night simply couldn't be over just yet... so a few of us decided to embark on the streets of Louisville. However, I still had a beer from my open bar yet to consume and, well, if you know me and open bar, you know that I have a very hard time turning away free beverages.

When in doubt... why not just take the beer with me? Now, I don't know WHAT the open container laws are like in Louisville, but quite frankly, I didn't care at that point. My Bud Light and I were not parting ways.



And I have to say... I LOVE LOUISVILLE BARS!! Not only did they let me bring my beer into not one, but TWO bars with me (we ended up leaving the first bar after like two minutes to head across the street), but the bartender at the second bar actually set my beer bottle up with a napkin-coaster type thingy! It was all so very delightful. I couldn't believe how well they were treating me and my dear Bud Light. They must've understood the bond that had formulated.

In any event, Friday night ended up... well, as you would expect any Friday night filled with some serious open bar-ing to end up. No need to divulge any real details, right? Right. All I have to say is... it was one simply delightful start to the rest of the wedding weekend.

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