Mother of the Bride notes - two days and counting

We are quickly approaching the day we have been planning for. The wedding is right around the corner. Lots and lots and lots to do. Things that are invaluable:
1. Checklists
2. Friends and family who help out and are generous providing items
3. Remembering to stop and breathe
4. Organization - feels like we have this thing wired
5. Friends whose daughter just got married who can loan items we needed!
6. Staying at a house with a jacuzzi - yeah I'll need that tonight

Excitement/Dreams/Panic/Calm

It is amazing the array of emotions as we get down to the wire of the wedding. I find myself very calm and excited during the day, at night its when I have my waves of panic. I even had a very bizarre dream that the day of the wedding everyone seemed very indifferent when it came to decorating the reception area (which now came with a wall right down the middle). The guests arrived and rearranged all the tables and our wedding coordinator decided to hand out cans of spray paint instead of bubbles and everyone was tagging the building! Obviously I must be repressing some stress!

A friend of mine (who had recently gone through similar situations) advised that at moments of panic to pray and breathe reminding myself that God is with me. Two also memorize a couple of verses to have on hand, when I wanted to kill someone. (so far I haven't needed the verses)

I imagined if I was feeling this way, my daughter (who has done the majority of planning), but also be near the breaking point. To support her we have invited her to dinner frequently and talk her through the "I have so much to do"; offering to help where we can.

So today I am calling the evasive florist, taking boxes to be mailed, creating a "what we need to buy when we're there" list, while my husband calls about linens (We found out yesterday that the facilities table covers are not floor length and - according to them - kind of pricey. This would have been nice to know - ohhhhh about 2 months ago!)

We continue to receive RSVP's. So our plan to set the date one week prior to when we needed the information was a well devised plan.

Shipping Savers

We are in the final weeks before the wedding. The dilemma of living one place and having the wedding in another is trying to items from Point A to Point B without going broke in shipping costs.

Early in the planning sample items were ordered and shipped to our home so we could see what we were ordering. Upon inspection and approval for the wedding, we ordered the items necessary and had them shipped directly to grandma's house for storage until we arrive.

Another opportunity to save on shipping came as we celebrated our other daughter's high school graduation this weekend. My sister flew here to celebrate with us and traveled light with only 2 carry-ons. When she left she carried on board the wedding dress, my mother-of-the bride dress and a checked suitcase filled with well packed candle holders I found on sale, table decorations and more. If we had shipped (and insured) it would have cost us a fortune, plus the worry of if it would arrive safely. Now we know the dress is in the destination spot and we have a suitcase available to bring back wedding supplies when it is all done.

It's done!

I have officially printed my last invitation for the wedding. As responses begin coming in from the first batch, we are now sending out (or handing out) invitations for our local celebration after the wedding.

We ran out of response cards, and after some lamenting realized we could print business cards with the same info just as easily.

Amazingly my printer cartridges have lasted through all of this.

One month until the wedding!!!!!!

Wedding Invitations and The Absurdity of Technology

If you are following this post, I apologize for the jumps back and forth in time. Some posts are of things that have already happened - some are happening now. Think of it as a "Lost" wedding episode and it may help.

We are currently mailing out wedding invitations. It is almost six weeks before the wedding and time is quickly passing. The question "why didn't we start this sooner?" keeps coming to mind. Some things we've learned:

• The templates referenced with the "make-your-own-invitations" are helpful, but sometimes need to be tweaked. Cut out appropriate sizes of paper to practice!
• Labels need to have their own mail merge created (once again when I figure out how to provide a link I will give you mine)
• Labels provided are NOT a standard label - so you have to custom make a label size for them


• Labels JAM! I spent 2 1/2 hours printing labels and unjamming them from the printer


• Double check your labels printed to your master list to make sure none are missing due to printers and labels being stupid (we were missing 20!)


• Have back up labels (of course I had to create another format for this) to print missing labels in case your printer decides to eat and/or print the remaining labels incorrectly (yes it's been a fun day!)
• Invite friends to help you assemble invitations. We could not have done it without our friends helping us - it was fun too!
• The stickers provided to seal the envelopes don't hold. We used double sided tape that you use with scrapbooking to make sure they sealed.
• Go to the post office and ask for one of their trays to place your invitations. This makes it easier to bring to them to have them "hand cancelled"

Getting Started

At a time like this I wish I had begun my Mother of the Bride blog sooner. Now I must rely on my ever fading memory. The good news is this means the redundant things have been forgotten and will not waste your time - or my memory space.

Being out of state from most family and friends meant techonology was relied on to spread the news and show the ring. Engagement photos were uploaded on blogs, websites and Facebook. His parents and family heard the good news first hand using a webcam and Skype. It was a great way to actually see their reactions.

After the engagement announcement and initial excitement, it was now time to get a plan of action:

• Guest lists were assembled and placed into an excel format (I'll provide a link when I figure out how to do it)
• We found wedding invitations we could print ourselves on sale at Michael's! Our mantra of "we can always take it back" began
• We found wooden letters (once again at Michael's on sale) that might look cute on reception tables - we could always bring them back
• Calendars were compared and the date was picked
• We began searching the Internet for "wedding budget templates"
• We learned the Internet would become our friend.....but that's another post

They're Getting Married

The announcement of the engagement was not a surprise, but a joyous occasion nonetheless.

It all started a few years ago. We moved from Southern California to Houston, leaving our oldest daughter to finish college. After making a few plane trips to visit us, she wanted to move closer to watch her siblings grow up. Only one problem.......a boyfriend. Sigh, I thought we were now destined to live across the country from each other. The good news is this was no ordinary boyfriend, he encouraged her to move and said he would follow. We knew then it must be love - and serious! No one moves to Houston to just remain friends!

So after months of Skyping and phoning each other, she moved into a place of her own and he found a job here and moved in with us. Just before Christmas he asked my husband permission to ask her to marry him, he happily gave his blessing. I told our other children a new prerequisite is that their future spouse is they must now live with us so we know the kind of person they are.

The wedding was scheduled for June - in Southern California where all the family lives and many friends. A cross country wedding plan - were we crazy? This blog will share how we did it and tips along the way.