Prologue
Suddenly I feel the need to change real names. Let my classmate be Logan (though it's very unlikely to meet someone named Logan in Russia), his wife will be called Alicia, and all the other names won't be real ones too. Well, I've already mentioned Dasha, but you know her, don't you?
It's gonna be a story not fully about my photographing experience but rather about other things happened to me.
Part I. Roman Comedy
The last Saturday of January 2016. 6:20 am. I was up inspired to get dressed and filled with coffee asap to have enough time for making an excellent hairstyle. And so I did.
At 8 am, I was picked up by Logan and his grandpa and was taken to Logan's soon-to-be wife Alicia's place. Logan couldn't come to them and he only told me the apartment's number for the door phone. When I rang, I heard a female voice, "Yes?" - "It's your photographer," - "So what? Call where you need, you're mistaken". Then Logan came up to me and called the damn same number and the story repeated. Only then my classmate remembered the right number of Alicia's apartment and I was let in. I felt so sorry for the women we'd been calling by mistake! Being woken up at 8 am on Saturday isn't the best thing, is it? But when I finally got into the right apartment, I was welcomed with coffee and had all the freedom to take photos of everything. I'd never done anything like that before in my life. But the bride and her family were friendly with me; Alicia even made me a compliment about my hair.
By 10:30 am a motorcade of 4 cars had arrived, I was set with Logan's best man Serge and their another friend who was the driver of our car; after the ceremony Alicia's two friends joined us. Solemnizing nuptials was at 11 am. There were about 15 people at the ceremony. The room was neat as well as the lady who made Logan and Alicia a husband and a wife. I was the one to legitimately capture that moment. It didn't take a long time, so after taking photos outside the hotel where the ceremony took place, we went driving around the places where newlyweds usually take photos. Everything was fine if we forget about the fact that it was FROSTY AF! It was the reason my camera's battery got exhausted so fast. Of course, we got a bottle of champagne or two in our car, so everyone drank except the drivers for sure. We visited all the city's squares. We also drove to a statue of 2 deer which is located outside of our city. Usually, newlyweds put a ribbon on it and make a wish. But when we got there, the path to the deer was covered with the snow and it wasn't rational to reach them in all the fancy dresses. So the fresh husband decided to put a ribbon on a bottle of champagne and throw it in the statue. The first two times he flopped; his friend and our former classmate from a parallel class Xavier (lol don't even ask, I just like the name) went through that deep snow to get the bottle back. At the 3rd time, Logan came closer to the statue and I was an unbelievable god to capture the moment when the bottle was crashing in the statue. What a shot was it!! Everyone was impressed with the picture and Logan was like, "Ha, and you said I shouldn't wait for professional photos!" Also, we went to the park where Logan drove Alicia in her large white on a sleigh borrowed from a random park visitor. Btw, did I mention that Alicia was pregnant? 'Cause she was.
All the motorcade went to a neighboring town to take pictures there. But in fact, there weren't any fancy things to be photographed with and the newly-made wife was cold like everyone else. So the only thing we did in that town was visiting the restroom. We went to another town just to visit a freaking restroom!! Nevertheless, another reason to go around those places was to spend time before coming to the restaurant. All newlyweds in Russia do that.
The restaurant was average. Our party had a separate room. All in all, there was about 24 people including the relatives - a pretty little company for a wedding. Probably, due to my working for food, Logan's mother often came up to me repeating "Olga, eat! Eat, please". And hell yes I ate and drank a lot. I sat at the end of the table for friends; Xavier and Chloe (Dasha's co-worker and our former classmate Max's girlfriend) sat to my right and left. Other girls were at the other side of the table. Chloe and I drank red wine served by Xavier. The boys drank vodka, oh yeah. When the red wine was finished, we drank up white one from the other side of the table. Then we drank red again. Then the fate was for white wine. I still wonder how I didn't end up throwing up that night. During the party, Logan's mother organized some entertaining competitions. Of course, between gulping down another glass of wine and gobbling something delicious I didn't forget to do my job. But for one competition I handed my duty over to Chloe because she didn't want to participate anymore. I paired up with her boyfriend and my friend Max. My task was to dress him down in a particular way: Logan's mother would name a piece of clothing (a left sock, a belt, for example), I had to take that piece and put it into a mutual basin. After taking the things off, I needed to put everything on again. There were about 5 pairs in general. We were the 1st to finish the task though no one noticed that. I even tried to catch the bride's bouquet but I failed ("Of course", you would think, "You don't have a boyfriend even, why should you talk about a wedding?"). The bouquet was caught by Chloe, I was happy for her. Catching the bride's garter was way funnier. When Logan threw the garter for the first time, all the guys... moved aside from it. No one seemed to feel like getting that garter. But when Logan threw it another time, it was Max who caught it! Well, it was logical and romantic at the same time. I know Max and Chloe think about their potential wedding from time to time, so now they have stronger reasons for it. But it wasn't them who stole the show in the end...
At 8 pm live music started, and the singers performed the same old restaurant songs. I danced to fast ones, but when the slow music started I had no one to dance with and left the dance floor to have another drink. Once I was fed up with that, I straightly made Xavier aware, "The next time a slow tune is one, you'll dance with me, ok?" As a true gentleman, Xavier couldn't refuse. But when we got on the floor, we danced to the slow version of the song I hate the most. Then we and other guys ran dancing to almost all the songs. And during one track Xavier and I made the crowd jaw-drop when they saw us kissing! The thing is Xavier and I had never spoken to each other before. I mean, when we were at school, we knew about each other existence but we studied in different classes, so we weren't friends or something. We ran across at big parties but again we never talked. And now, that January night we were slow dancing to a lively song, lip-locking, making everyone stop. I felt that it was kinda awkward, so I suggested going out. It was certainly freezing outside, but man, we were so hot. I can say only one thing: I'd kissed only one man who did it better than Xavier. I sorta have a list in my mind and Xavier's placed second. Good for him, I guess? Around 1 am, one guy, Xavier and I decided to go home. When Max and Chloe told us good-bye, Max was like, "I'm so shocked with you, Olga! Don't do a mistake" and my answer was something like "Never mind, all the mistakes have been already done". Xavier and I got off the taxi near my house, and that other guy continued his way home. Xavier took me to the porch but we couldn't let each other go that night so we headed to his place. We went to the shop where we ran across... the husband and the wife! We didn't talk to them much. But when Xavier and I were walking to his home, I told him everything that came up to my mind. During the party, we learned that we were both Libras, and now we figured out that he was 8 days younger than me lol.
I came back home at 8 am, right in 24 hours after I had gone. How crazy was that! The last thing I said was "Has a girl ever left you at 7 am?" I caught Xavier thinking but I quickly made it easy for him continuing, "Now one has".
Part II. Greek Tragedy
When I returned home, I sharply retold my parents what had happened to me (except for the last part), had a life-giving shower and had a 3-hours nap because later I was expected at my music school to watch the musical instruments' contest. After the contest, Logan called me inviting to go on partying but I was definitely not up to it. Then he got interested in the photos and asked to send him the coolest ones. When I finally arrived home, I uploaded photos from the second microSD on my laptop (we had to use 2 microSD's 'cause we ran out of memory. We even used 2 cameras because we ran out of battery). But when I took the first microSD which had been used from the very morning of that day until the start of the wedding, I saw it was a little bent. I fitted the adapter but the laptop couldn't read it. I lightly pressed the memory card and it... literally broke in two halves. The world stopped that moment. The connections looked saved, so I tried to put that part into the adapter but it never worked anyway. I ran to Chloe's work thinking maybe she could help me. She also tried to use some adapters but all was in vain. A couple of guys told us that was it and no information would be saved. I was in panic. (And typing it in almost a month I still am when remembering about that) I called Logan to explain everything to him. He calmed me down a bit though I burst out crying speaking to him. The next day I went to some tech services and they only laughed at me. I was as full of grief as the newlyweds were because all the amazing photos I took including the ceremony, riding the sleight and crashing the bottle in the statue, everything was gone!.. GONE!!!
Logan asked me to give the microSD to him. He said they had found someone who was ready to look at that mess. I felt so awfully. As I hadn't given them any present, now I felt the fault and the need, so I gave them a money present. To tell the truth, I was afraid to face Alicia again because a) she could be furious because of the loss of the photos; b) she was pregnant so she could be twice as furious. But when we finally met, the both of the guys weren't that happy, of course, but they were fine. They were going to put some legends on their rings and they even asked me what they could write.
But it didn't go for good - that morning I woke up with a sore throat, it hurt so bad. Mom said it was because of that huge stress. For sure, it may have happened because I drank a lot and probably didn't zip up the coat when we went to Xavier but I don't remember that fact, tbh. I got over a sore throat only in a week when I was in Vladivostok already.
Prologue
I don't know if the guys found a way to restore the photos. I should ask for the news. I still feel really bad about that situation, so I didn't publish any photos from the wedding party which were from another microSD (except for one picture I published on Facebook and that's gonna appear in the end of the post).
I never met Xavier after that night. We aren't even friends on any social network. And you know what? I feel extremely fine with that! It was like a true one-night stand. I'm known to easily get attached to people but I don't feel anything about the guy this time. You may think, "Of course, you don't feel anything, you spent only one night with him!" Oooh, you don't know me then! So I followed all the heartbreaker rules that time without breaking hearts, I hope.
That's probably how karma works. Only I thought how great everything had been, then the shit happened.
lol
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| I really like the photo perhaps because it's me and all the boys. Mom didn't recognize me here. I'll leave it to you to guess who's who. So yup, write me your guesses about who's Xavier, Max, Serge and the guy we went home with on this photo. |
Be brave!
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