Chris and Simi's Weddings, Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner

"Equal and Opposite Reactions is a rollicking good yarn about complex relationships and emotions in middle-class American culture. The author has created an incredibly funny romantic comedy, which transcends the ubiquitous romantic triangle and expands it into a quadrangle, complicated by the interweaving of relationships between the children of the principal characters.  Cleverly plotted, twists and turns, and exceptionally well written, this part drama and part slapstick comedy is a tour-de-force. Bravo Patti."
- R. Bruce Logan, "The Narrative Arc"

"Equal and Opposite Reactions"
 By Patti Liszkay
Buy it on Amazon
      http://amzn.to/2xvcgRa

Chris and Simi's Wedding, Part 1: The Rehearsal Dinner

...Continued from yesterday:

    Chris and Simi at the Mehendi ceremony a few days before the wedding (see post from 6/21/2018)

   Though the the wedding celebration of my nephew Chris and his bride-to-be Simi had been going on for several days, Tom, Tommy, Emily, Callie, Theresa and I joined in the festivities at the rehearsal dinner on Friday evening.
    On Friday afternoon we met up in the hotel lobby with a number of relatives who'd traveled from near and far to Philadelphia for the wedding,

...including Claire and Miguel (see yesterday's post),

...and my sister Romaine who flew in from Portland.

     The rehearsal dinner was held at Pietro's Coal Oven Pizzeria on Walnut Street, just a few blocks from our hotel (see yesterday's post), so we  walked, enjoying the downtown Philadelphia scenery along the way.

...until we reached our destination,

​...where there were more happy reunions,

...amidst the general joy.

     Chris and Simi

​Theresa and my brother Jimmy, parents of the groom

Kashmira and Jayendra, parents of the bride

​The bride-to-be and her girls

Me with three of my four siblings

     The food, prepared by the chef, right, and her assistants,

...was out-of-this-world and just kept coming all night long, from the appetizers, 

..to the salads, which I forgot to snap, but there was a whole table full of them - here's the tomato and mozzarella in balsamic vinaigrette:

...to the entrees,

...to the desserts.

    There were lovely, heartfelt speeches full of good wishes for Simi and Chris, by the father of the groom,

...sisters of the bride,

​...and good friend of the groom.

     It was a beautiful night.

     At the end of the evening we walked back to our hotel.

     The best was yet to come.

​     Ben Franklin atop City Hall.