A Week In St. Lucia

Wedding Dinner

   Okay, so the next part of the wedding is that during this time of day, we would be allowed to relax for about an hour or two. This basically means that all of the wedding guests are allowed to go back into their regular clothes and do what we like for a little bit before the dinner that starts usually sometime in the evening. So right now, my family and I are getting a ride back down to where the lobby was. Once the employee stopped his vehicle to let us off, we all headed back up to our suite. Tuan, Tina, Bao and I said bye to our dad as he started making his way to his room in a different direction. For some reason, my family decided to take the longer way by walking through the foyer, go to the back where the eating areas are, walked up the curved stairway that leads us to our deck. And there it is! I see the backdoor to our suite. As we're almost nearing the door, I looked and noticed a boy with brown spiky hair wearing sunglasses relaxing in the pool on our deck with his parents. The boy seems to be either the same age as me or possibly younger. He saw me and my family just returning and we both waved at each other.
   Once we all entered our resort suite, me, my mom and Tina went into our bedroom to change out of our wedding attire while Tuan and Bao, with Elizabeth, went into their room. A few minutes later, I came back out of my room wearing a light blue t-shirt and shorts and sat down on the living room couch. It definitely feels good to get out of my wedding outfit and get comfortable for a little bit. And the living room has a ceiling fan running, which keeps the whole room nice and cool.  After a couple minutes later, my mom decided she wants to go downstairs and walk around in the lobby and also get a little bit of something to eat as a snack. Before we left our suite, my mom went over to Tuan and Bao's room and ask them they wanted to come with us to get a little bit of food. They both declined and decided to stay in their room to relax.
   My mom and I left the suite and made our way down to the lobby where everyone is either chilling or walking out and about. We came across Dragonfly, a restaurant where we get breakfast. It's apparently not open for lunch hour, so we head over to Embers, hoping that it is open. Luckily for us, the doors are still open, so we went up to a female employee standing at the podium. She greeted us and let me and my mom enter the restaurant. There's a few people left that are still eating. My mom and I decided to look for something light to eat as there's gonna be wedding dinner with everyone tonight. I decided to get some croissants, butter and chocolate, to go.
   I had to use a small plate to carry and bring them around rather than holding them with my hands. My mom got what seems to be coffee and a muffin. She asked a man standing behind the counter if we can get some bags for our pastries. He took out a small clear bag, took the muffin my mom gave him, dropped it in and tied the top closed. I then handed my plate of croissants to him and he did the same thing. When the man was done, he gave us the bags containing our pastries. We thanked him and left the restaurant. We then made our way back up to our suite and then ate and relaxed a little while we wait for a couple of hours.
   Finally, more hours has gone by and it finally time for us to get dressed again. I put on a a white long-sleeve collared shirt that has a lot of small light pink stripes on it and a celeste or aqua colour shorts.
"Wow, Anthony, you look really handsome!" my mom told me as she came out of the bathroom door, fixing her second wedding attire.
"Thanks, mom!" I responded back as I buttoned up my shirt.
Tina once again donned her blue dress on she had earlier today. I assume that since Bao will be wearing the same thing, maybe the bridesmaids have to wear it since they are sitting with the bride. When I asked Tina about this, she confirmed it. 
   After waiting for everyone in the suite to finish getting ready, we all finally made our way down the steep, but small sidewalk. As I looked around on our way down, I noticed that the sun is going to set in a few hours. Suddenly, Minh and Anthony came up to us from behind. We greeted them as they joined us and Minh began talking to her sister during the way. When my family made it to the lobby, we walked through crowded area and all the way to the back where this big, white tent was set up on the beach. A few guests were already there, while the other guests arrived the same time as us. Upon entering, I saw Sandie and Sebastien there too. They were just finished talking to some other people. My mom taped me on the shoulder and asked me to call for Sandie, wanting me to let know that we have arrived.
Right away, I called out "Hey Sandie, we're here!" and I also gave a wave.
Sandie and Sebastien heard me and they both turned around.
"Oh hey Anthony!" Sandie greeted me back. "Hi guys! Good, glad you all made it!"
"Hi Sandie, hi Seb!" Minh and Bao said simultaneously.
"Hello Sebastien! you look nice!" My mom said, as she and Sebastien went in for a nice hug.
   And right away, we started looking for our tables. While browsing and scanning, I noticed each ones have a rectangle piece of paper with guest names place in front of each chairs, letting people know where they sit. I looked for mine, which surprisingly did not take long to find. I saw a paper with my name on it. Then I went circling around the table to see who is sitting with me. Turns out, I'm sitting with Sebastien's parents, my parents and my brother and sister in-law. And on the back of the list says "Portage" in cursive writing. I'm not really sure what that means.
   "Did you find your table?" someone asked me.
I looked up from the list. It was Anthony.
"Yeah, I did. It's this table." I told him, pointing. "Did you find yours yet?"
"Actually, Minh found it. I'm sitting across from you guys." Anthony explained, showing me
the table next to us. 
"Wow, we are really close!" I told him. Then suddenly, Minh called Anthony over to ask him something.
   With Anthony at his table seeing what Minh wants, I took my seat. Elisabeth sits across from me and Yvan sits on her right.
"Hey Elisabeth, will we eat soon?" I asked curiously, talking over the noises of the other guests chattering.
"Pardon?" Elisabeth asked, not catching what I said. Luckily, Yvan did and he repeated what my question was to her. Then he turned his attention to me.
"Yes, we will be eating soon. They will bring out for menus for us." Yvan explained, referring to the waiters and waitresses.
"Yeah, they're coming," Elisabeth added.
   So while in the middle of waiting, I decided to check on my Facebook for anything new as my mom came to the table, sat down next to me and begin talking to Elisabeth and Yvan for a few minutes. Moments later, a waitress came and handed all four of us four different menus and placed the remaining ones in front of the empty seats for the others to look at. Looking up and down at the menu, there's a few stuff I wasn't too familiar with, like Seafood Creole, for example.
But when I look at the other items, I saw there's something that I might like eating, for example: Tomato & Mozzarella salad, Vegetables and bean chili, and for the dessert section, one of the following option is Coconut cheesecake. I might get that after! My mom asked me if I knew what I wanted to eat. Before I told her, right at this moment, a different waitress came up to us and greeted us. She then asked us if we're ready to order. I went first, so I told her that I decided to try the Calypso Chicken. The waitress wrote down my order.
   "Do you want anything to drink?" she asked.
I thought about it, trying to decide. "Uh....can I get a ginger ale, please?" I told her.
"Sure!" the waitress said, also writing that down. Then she moved on to my mom, Elisabeth and Yvan next and they told the waitress their order one after the other. The waitress writes them all down and then leaves. A second later, Bao and Tuan arrived at the table with their daughter and greeted us as Tuan sat down with Elizabeth next to me, but Bao is going to sit where Sandie was.
"Did you guys order already?" Bao asked me.
"Yep, we all did. But the other waitress also left menus for Tuan and dad." I explained, pointing to the ones in front of my brother, and an extra empty chair where my dad will be sitting.
Tuan proceeded to pick up the menu and looked through it. My mom then wanted to hold Elizabeth, so she asked Tuan to bring her over to play and hold her while he prepares to order his food. Tuan passed baby Elizabeth to me as I handed her over to my mom, but not before saying a quick hi to my niece.
   At this moment, more people have already arrived and began to take their seats. Bao is already seated at the front with Tina. Once everyone is sitting, Sandie and Sebastien did a wedding toast, then gave their own speech for a few minutes. When they were done, everyone clapped. Suddenly, the sounds of utensils clinking on wine glasses started grew louder as more people clinked on their glass. I quickly joined in and did the same with my fork, even though the wine glass in front of me is empty. Sandie and Sebastien then kissed each other, and everyone clapped again.
   Several minutes later, mine and my mom's food, plus my drink arrived. It was brought to our table by one server while Yvan and Elisabeth's was brought over by another server. When the server that gave me and my mom our food finished putting them down on the table, she went to help take Bao and Tuan's order. They told her what they wanted and she wrote them down on a notepad and left. Pretty soon, everyone is now eating our meal, including my dad, who is sitting in between Tuan and Elisabeth. My plate soon became empty after I took the last bite of the Calypso Chicken and the rice that went with the meal. I then washed it down by taking a sip from the straw of my Ginger Ale. My mom actually finished her food seconds before I did. Tuan was halfway done. This made sense since his meal came later. I looked all the way across the tent for Bao. It seems like she was almost done eating. Soon, I saw Sandie and Sebastien suddenly standing up from their seats. They got everyone's attention first before they took a few moments to thank us for attending the wedding and how much fun they had, then did a "Cheers!" The guests did the same by holding up their glass, then took a large gulp of the wine.
"And also, my sister Tina here would like to say a couple of things!" Sandie announced, as Tina got up from her chair and got to the podium beside the bride and groom's table.