Alexa leaned against the luggage cart in the baggage claim area at LAX, a giveaway that she was beyond fatigued from being on her feet for the last few days. There had been site inspections of the wedding venue and her final dress fitting. She had shopped for gift baskets for multiple guests staying in multiple locations, like Simon and his family and Timmo Lynch. She walked through Roxanne’s beach house, where her family would be staying, to inspect the linen and the bathrooms because her family was in the hospitality business and very demanding about such items. (She swapped out the hand soap, candles, and other amenities for extraordinary ones from Hudson Grace at the Country Mart.) And last night, she stood in the kitchen, baking loaves of her signature bread, her only culinary skill. Now, as she waited for her family to make it through customs, she used the cart as a barre so she could stretch out her hamstrings. She’d been obsessed with her walk down the aisle and keeping her muscles flexible for the task. She didn’t want to creak down the aisle like someone’s yaya.

Although she hoped to be a yaya fairly soon.

It was then that the Diamandis family emerged from the tunnel leading from passport control like an army of well-traveled mercenaries ready to add their energy to any event. The clan included her older brothers, Nikos, Yiannis, and Theo; their wives Thalia, Demi, and Calla; and cousins Chloe and Iris, who were close in age to Penny. (They opted to shop in California rather than ski in Italy.) Rolling their bags like pros, dressed in black puffers and Euro sneakers, they appeared to have all slept well and been fully caffeinated on the plane. The Diamandises were a force.

Alexa’s heart burst. She had underestimated the joy she would feel at seeing her family on her turf for Penny’s wedding. Normally, it was she and Penny who traveled to see them, making the thirteen-hour flight and arriving on familiar soil with anticipation of experiences to come. But not this time, and it made Alexa grateful and humbled to have her people on hand to witness the next step in Penny’s life. For the first time in all the planning, she had the feeling that this wedding weekend might actually be fun.

As soon as they spotted Alexa, the noise level rose in the arrivals area, with calls of “Yia sas!” and spontaneous cheering, as if they were in a contest to outdo the large Korean and Brazilian families in the waiting area. The Diamandises came to conquer.

After hugs and kisses, Alexa went into tour guide mode, popping up a collapsible white flag with the distinct Odyssey Vacations logo, leading her family out in the chaos that was the LAX curbside pickup. “Let’s go! Páme, páme!”