Wrap Up

Well - it was a magnificent wedding and a magical evening. The bride was gorgeous, the groom oh -so handsome. The weather was perfect. The bridesmaids' cupcake dresses were lovely. The goody bags were appreciated. The chin hair never emerged again. The Stuart Weitzmans were never worn -- MOB wore a comfortable pair of junky sandals and danced the night away. The kipot were just fine with nary a stray thread. The food was delectable and the liquor was plentiful. The band rocked the night away. But best of all were the guests - family and friends who celebrated with us with all their heart! And that's what makes a great wedding. Thank you all.

This wrap-up will conclude this chapter and this blog. Don't be sad - you are welcome to follow the bride and groom as they make their way through France and Italy on:

http://www.beckyandsteveshoneymoon.blogspot.com/

The Bride and Groom

This morning's email from bride-alicious...

The following is the text of the email I received this morning from Becky:

yay! what does 30% few showers mean anyway? that its going to rain? that it might rain? that there is a 30% of the showers being just a "few" and 70% of thunderstorms? ive been a good person in my life and i expect mother nature to respect that!!

You gotta love that kid!!!

Grammy is always right

Although I did not actually see the movie "27 Dresses," I can't imagine what it might have been like to be a bridesmaid 27 times!! In the few times Becky and Julie have been bridesmaids, it has always been a bit traumatic -- usually because of the exhorbitant expense of buying the dress, the shoes and accessories, paying for alterations, throwing a bachelorette party, travel to the wedding, the wedding gift... So, when Becky's turn came to be the bride she did not want to burden her dearest friends with all of these expenses. "I want the bridesmaids' dresses to be very reasonably priced," said the bride-alicious.

Temi, grandmother extraordinaire (and shopper extraordinaire) suggested we take the girls to Zara's or Ann Taylor or even Banana Republic and buy pretty, stylish dresses right off the rack. "No, no, no grammy...that's not the way it's done!" the girls implored. "We should go to a bridal store and just look for something reasonable."

Cheap is cheap.

Yes, we kept the cost down for all the bridesmaids. One dress arrived ripped. All were of varying lengths and required major alterations. I was closest to the sagas of my own two little bridesmaids (maid of honor #1 and maid of honor #2.) They are perfect size 4 and 6 respectively and rarely require the services of a seamstress. These dresses required total renovation and rehabilitation and believe it or not after numerous fittings are still not done - with 84 hours left until the nuptials. (Cost of tailoring far exceeding the cost of the dresses.) Part of the reason is that their seamstress was admitted to the hospital for five days two weeks ago with chest pain (while still in the throes of re-re-renovation of the little potato sacks.) She is back at her sewing machine now, with oxygen.

Surely, they will all look beautiful walking down the rosebud strewn aisle on Saturday. However, I have learned my lesson: next time I will ask Grammy Temi to take the whole bevy of bridesmaids to Banana (how's that alliteration!) for a nice, stylish dress, right off the rack.

Forecast for Saturday: Clouds to SUN!!! 68 degrees. YES!!!

weather.com vs accuweather.com

accuweather.com

weather.com

What does this mean?

The Idiot's Guide...and The Gown

This morning I was studying "The Idiot's Guide to Being the Mother of the Bride" and I came across a great list in Chapter One: Mother of the Bride: The Job of a Lifetime. I haven't made it past Chapter One since I am very busy studying weather patterns (more on that later...)

Following are some excerpts:

Being the Mother of the Bride means many things such as:

* Your baby girl is undeniably all grown up.

* You are old enough to be the mother of the bride.

* You will inevitably be diving into your own memories of getting married.

* You will learn alot about both the similarities and differences you and your daughter have in taste, style, priorities, music, food, tolerance levels, etc.

* You will be faced with the question of financing this soiree.

* You will more often than not have to act as an Ambassador of Goodwill between your daughter and a bevy of other people.

* You will find more strength, patience, and love than you ever knew you had.

I'd like to add one: * Despite the high cost of gas, you should hang on to your SUV.

Recently Marc and I have been considering trading in our SUV for a Smart Car, Cooper Mini or maybe a Prius. However, this weekend, that SUV really came in handy. We drove to NYC to pick up "the gown." Silly me -- I though Becky would be bringing her wedding gown down to Yardley on NJ Transit on Thurday afternoon. Wrong. As it turns out, transporting a wedding gown requires not just a car, but an SUV -- actually an empty SUV.

It is really scary.

They pack "the gown" in an indescribable amount of tissue paper. They actually fill the gown completely as though there is a full bride's body in it. There are many layers of plastic bags and orders to remove the plastic bags IMMEDIATELY upon getting home. (Where it has to be hung somewhere high enough so that the full train can flow freely -- it's more work than a puppy.)

Getting back to the SUV, Marc and I were not sure whether to lay it on its back (which included a pinned up train) or its front (that didn't seem right) or to strap it in with a seatbelt. Fortunately, three of the wedding gown ladies brought it down to the car and took care of the gown-into-car-placement. And I thought she'd be bringing it down on the train. (That's why I'm reading the IDIOT'S GUIDE.)

Kipot

I could never make this stuff up.

So, the bride and groom inspected the kipot (yalmulkas) that I manged to get wholesale (complete with inscription) and announced that they were unsatisfactory. They seem to be dripping with little wispy threads (again with the tiny hairs.) See for yourself:

My activity on this rainy day will be to trim these wisps off of seven dozen kipot. My life is consumed with tiny hairs. And, for all of you who are following the saga of my chin hair -- it doesn't exist. My friend Andy from Boston says that it was clearly a piece of schmutz from the dental bib. So there!

Last night I had a wedding anxiety dream. I was using a new eye make-up remover and as I gently rubbed it over my left eyebrow, the whole eyebrow came off. Can anyone out there interpret my dream?