31 Years of Waiting

(I love the verse. It reminds me of what George says to me all the time.)

(I am a sucker for beautiful letter press!)

One of the things I love most about planning is finding ways to incorporate the past into the wedding day. Take this beautiful gardenia brooch for example.

Gardenias are my mom's favorite flower for a couple of reasons. She always says whenever she smells them it brings her back to all the memories of her youth. Growing up, my parents would often talk about their crazy nights in Manhattan. Often times they would end up at Trader Vic's, a bar that used to be in the Plaza hotel. My mom would always order this one particular drink because it came with a gardenia. She would carry it home with her and keep it next to her bed until she could replace it with a new one. When the time came to pick flowers for her wedding, she incorporated gardenias into her bouquet. While on their honeymoon, my dad purchased the brooch above for my mom. It just happens to be that the dress I chose came with a big brooch. We are removing the one it came with and pinning this gem to the front of my dress. I will also have gardenias in my bouquet to keep the tradition alive.

We have also found ways to incorporate my grandmothers handkerchief, some of my mom's wedding dress, her veil, and pearls my grandfather brought back home after the war. I wonder if my future daughter will use this vintage brooch my mom and I found when she gets married? I will be using it as a hairpin during the reception.

I think we all know who this is referencing!

My mom recently taught herself how to use her camera phone and text messaging abilities. Granted, on a phone she has had for the last 5 years. The sole reason she taught herself how to use the phone was to talk about my dad without him realizing. Anyway, during the wedding planning this has been a life saving tool. We can instantly see what things look like, make quick decisions, and share our vision. That is, when Annie Leibovitz takes the picture correctly.

The shadow will look beautiful on the girls, don't you think?

I'm not the only one in the family who is excited to receive wedding gifts! The following conversation happened this morning when my mom called to tell me her neighbor brought a gift over.

C: Ms. Smith brought over a wedding gift for you this morning.
M: Oh, that was so nice of her.
C: It really was. Do you want to know what it is? I already opened it.

One of my mom’s favorite wedding stories to tell is about the day we found my dress.

After the violent Claire Danes cry over finding THE dress, we called my dad to share the news. François, as excepted, was thrilled but is always thinking like a businessman. He asked my mom to try and work with the consultant to lower the price. My mom tried to explain that you can’t haggle a wedding dress. Needless to say, my dad was not pleased and still thinks we should have at least tried.

As some of you know math is not my strong point. I try to avoid basic mathematical reasoning at all costs. This infuriates George and my dad.

While I was home, I realized I am not alone in this boat. In fact, I inherited my math gene from my mom. The two of us were trying to figure out how many boxes of each welcome bag item we would need to buy from Costco. Our first guess was two flats of water, two boxes of pretzels, one box of granola bars, and three bags of chocolate.

After filling the first 18 bags we ran out of everything but the candy. We went back to Costco and purchased the remaining boxes we thought we needed. After filling the remaining bags, I never even touched the last box of two boxes pretzels or granola. Once we realized the obvious miscounting (again) we debated on whether we should eat all of the evidence or pretend we over counted on purpose.

The remaining goodies now sit in my pantry, staring at me, silently laughing.

There was a formal lunch with fine china, crystal, and crisp linens.


This was a homemade cake, complete with sugar flowers, and colors to match the wedding!
My mom surprised me with a complete set of my formal silverware.

Amoung all the goodies I opened that day, I recieved two of my crystal goblets.

My mom truly has some wonderful friends!

This is why I love my mom. Somehow, and I really don’t know how, Carol convinced the post man to let her hand stamp every invitation so they would not be run through the machine. Her fear is that the cards would get torn or smudged. I mean, she has a point, when they look this beautiful how can you blame her…

But the best part is my mom made sure every single invitation had the Feb 14th stamp visible. That way everyone can see each card was stamped with love!

My parents and I were going over the final touches of the invitations when my dad came out with his own cutting corners idea. My dad couldn't believe that we needed to add a stamp on the return card as well as the formal invitation.

Francois thought it would be cheaper if he brought the invitations to work and ran them through the meter. As if someone said, "Release the Kraken!" my mom from the other room screams, "NOOOO!! Ab-so-lute-ly NOT!!"

We all caught our breath for a second, and slowly changed the subject.

My mom and I were going over the information for my engagement picture in the newspaper. After going over the different dimensions and prices we thought the $128 fee was too much and nixed the idea.

When we told my dad we decided not to do it because it was too expensive he said, "Really? That's where you decide to cut corners. Really? A hundred dollars? Out of everything you could have done without, that's where you say enough is enough."

He has a point. My announcement will be in the paper next week. :)

My mom is a member of every club in town, or at least it seems like it. She is involved in Garden Club, Death By Chocolate Murder Mystery Book club, The No Danielle Steel Book club, Friday Knitting Group, and The Knit Wits, just to name a few.

The last time I was home, one of the members of Knit Wits invited my mom and I over for a champagne toast. The entire Knit Wits group was there! As we sipped on the bubbly, we went over every detail of the wedding. I have to say, it was so nice to be in a room full of women who adore my mom. It was definitely a memory, and a feeling, I will never forget.

I got an email from my mom the other night. The message simply said, “HE wants to make the seating chart tonight. God help me.”

I can't seem to walk away from the computer or put down a bridal magazine. Over the last two weeks I have sent my mom over 100 emails about the wedding. Feeling bad, I thanked her for letting me bombard her inbox. Her response was, "You know you can never call or email enough." Isn't my mom the best?!? I love her!!

I noticed some writing on the bottom of the paper. Upon closer inspection I saw this…