tinderizing.

So I officially crashed a wedding Saturday night. Believe me, it was as shocking, spontaneous, and utterly adventurous as it sounds.

It all started about a month ago when I downloaded this free app on my phone called Tinder. For those of you who aren't familiar with it, let me just say it's absolutely ridiculous, addicting to the extreme, and more shallow than the kitchen sink. I'm thoroughly embarrassed to be enjoying such a silly thing. When I first heard about it a few months ago, I scoffed in incredulity. It seemed like merely a means of 'hooking up' as the kids call it these days. A few weeks ago one of my roommates encouraged me to sign up, and said it's all what you make of it. It doesn't just have to be about hooking up. So the way it works is like so…You create a profile, which doesn't involve much creativity at all. You post up to 6 pictures of yourself with your name, age, and a 'tagline.' The tagline can include any number of things…who you are, what you're about, what your intentions are, or you can just leave it blank and be ambiguous as most tend to do.

From there, once you've taken the three minutes to set that beauty up, you get to start tinder'ing, which is basically yay or nay'ing men by the hundreds according to their physical appearance. Here is what it looks like…

Meet Andrew...

By tapping the photo you can then scroll through the rest of his photos, and then you can yay him by clicking the heart, or nay him by clicking the X. If you both yay each other, it connects you, which looks like this…

From there, you can send a message and set up a date if you so desire.

So I had been chatting with a fella for a bit and didn't actually agree to meet him until a few weeks after being in contact through Tinder. We exchanged numbers and agreed to have dinner together and then our schedules didn't collide until Saturday night. I sent him a message asking what he was up to that evening….his response involved attending a wedding in Santa Barbara. He lives in Camarillo, which is about 45 minutes away so it was a silly coincidence that he should be down the road from me when I reached out to him. I proceeded to ask him if he was tied up through the night or if he'd like to meet up after the reception. The message he sent back was classic…

He went on to quote Barney Stinson and called me Mosby, which I found to be very endearing. I agreed to go and showed up an hour later as the reception was hitting 'full swing' mode. Open bar, traditional Spanish dance, and 8 year old flower girls bustin' moves for days, all made for a very enjoyable experience. I pinned $5 bucks to the groom as I slow-danced with him during the dollar dance. He said to me and I quote "I'm sure Justin has told you so much about our friendship." I smiled and nodded as clearly this gentleman had no idea that I was meeting his friend for the very first time at his wedding. 

I was centimeters away from catching the bouquet and thought it appropriate to let that one go. The barely 5 foot-ish young woman next to me clearly wanted it more as she dove to the ground to grab it after I let it slip through my fingers intentionally.

The whole thing was so sweet and wonderful as weddings tend to be. Justin and I had a blast dancing to Icona Pop and Rihanna amongst other Top 40's jamz. I approached one of the flower girls as she was breaking it down, asked her name and if she'd been practicing her dance moves. She replied with an emphatic "No!" as she booty popped away from me. Truly wonderful. I can only hope my future daughters have as much rhythm and are just as fearless. 

As Justin and I were leaving the wedding to head out for some pool, he drops the bomb. "I never told the bride and groom you were coming." I lol'ed. Literally. The whole time as I was getting ready and heading over to the reception, I was thinking to myself, it's not really crashing if I have permission from the bride and groom. Little did I know I was crashing in the truest sense. The look on the brides face as I said goodbye really said it all. Her face as she shook my hand shouted "Who the hell are you and what the fuck are you doing at my wedding?!" But she kept her composure. My favorite was when the groom hugged me and thanked me for coming. You're so welcome sir. And thank you, for letting me make a very fond memory that will be a fantastic story to tell for ages to come. 

Justin is an awesome dude. Clearly very adventurous. So thanks Tinder. For 'matching' us. And for letting me cross "crash a wedding" off the bucket list.