She Thinks We Hung the Moon

Can I just say, right off the bat, that when a soon to be bride looks at you and your Wedding Coordinator partner and says, with tears in her eyes, “I just don’t know what I would be doing without you.”……well it just makes my day.

Because I am crazy and because I love my coordinator partner Marj, I signed up to be one of the coordinators for two weddings at the end of December. Well, one is New Years Eve and one is January 2, 2015 but they are almost back to back so I think that counts. We met with both brides today, one this morning and one this evening. Marj and I have been doing weddings for a while now, Marj MUCH longer than I, and we are confident in what needs to happen and the flow of things. As we say to all the brides that we meet with, “Starting the minute you walk in the door on the day of your wedding, we are your “worry women”. We take care of all that needs to be taken care of so that you can just be the bride. Nothing surprises us (generally) and we do not panic.”

Tonight was the first time that I think a bride looked at us after that and burst into tears of happiness at the thought that there was someone who was there to go to bat for her and help her along the way.

Not all brides react that way, mind you. I had two brides earlier in the year who were just about the most organized and determined women that you would ever want to meet. They knew what they wanted to happen and when and how and there was no going back. I love that kind of bride because it makes life easier in a way. We coordinators just follow the preset plan, with a nudge and suggestion here and there and hopefully everything goes according to plan.

There is the occasional bee stung bride who is allergic to bee stings and you run around until you find benadryl. But that doesn’t happen TOO often….you hope.

And then there are the brides who look at you like you hung the moon and that she wouldn’t be able to get through this process without you.

And that is why Marj and I do this.

Oh fine, and because we love working together.

Dang, I love me job.

It’s Déjà vu All Over Again

Just about a year ago we were doing this on a warm and muggy Thursday night….

Practicing for a wedding that is happening the next day, rain or shine.

A year later………

I find myself at the same place, at almost exactly the same time….only this time I am the wedding coordinator and not the Mother of the Bride. Even the pastor performing the wedding ceremony is the same!!

You can’t see it here but the bride is beaming with enough joy to light up an entire city.

Look at what everyone gets to take home. A little succulent plant. So cute. So Pinterest.

They even have a table set up at the reception for the little kids.

They are going to need it.

Let us just say that the flower girls are very energetic and leave it at that.

We ran through the practice twice and the first time M & E made it down the aisle without parental assistance. But not the second time. Mom was worried but I said to just walk them down. Tomorrow they will do fine………

I will let you know how it goes.

And just look at the E. with her purse over her shoulder. Be still my beating heart.

Another LAMMA Wedding

Folks it has been that kind of day. I will tell you about it sometime.

I really need to think happy thoughts at the moment. So lets talk WEDDING! Weddings are happy things.

And I love weddings where someone has thought outside the box so to speak. That was yesterday when Lyn and Russ got married at the Cleveland Botanical Garden.

I realize that you may not care two hoots and holler about the next bazillion pictures and explanation.

But….yeah, you know I am going to write the blog post anyway.

The wedding was in the middle of the afternoon on a TUESDAY. Needless to say, HHBL could not attend. This is my “date”. She happens to be the momma of TMO’s BFF who is pictured below practicing for her musical part in the wedding.

I think I have told you before that Al and TMO took one look at each other across a crowded 1st grade room and decided to be BFFs. And then they went home and told their moms that they had to be BFFs too.

And we are.

And that was ENTIRELY too many acronyms in one paragraph. I apologize but YOLO.

Can I just say total and complete lens envy. She had superior camera bodies which doesn’t bother me as I am completely in love with my 7D. But I might perhaps have thought of mugging her in the parking lot for the lenses. I restrained myself because she was very nice…but it was a near thing.

TMO and Al breaking the tension of the moments before the bride appears.

So typically Lyn. A BEAUTIFUL dress, no veil and her bouquet! Guys, her bouquet was made out of succulents!!

So unusual, which would then be so Lyn.

And the BACK of the dress! The number of wedding attendees was small but you should have heard the OOOOOOs and AAAAAAAAHs from all the women when they got a good look at the lace and buttons in the back.

Russ had eyes ONLY for Lyn. He looked like someone had koshed him over the head when she walked in the door. I am going to assume that he never looks that way when he flies a plane, just when he gets married.

 

Now lets EAT!

And may I say that……

A wedding reception that serves me Cold Beet Salad, Grilled Asparagus, Profiteroles stuffed with goat cheese and drizzled with honey, Gelato, cupcakes and all other manner of yummy delicacies is a wedding reception that is well done in my humble opinion.

They had me at Cold Beet Salad.

Of course we had to take a picture or ten of LAMMA. You know…..

Lyn
Ashley
Meghan
Molly
Alison

TMO’s wedding.

Al’s wedding

And then all the LAMMA mommas. Dang I love these girls.

As a final we had to have the leaping up in the air photo that LAMMA ALWAYS seems to need to do. The official photographer got the better picture, but she acknowledged that it was my idea and that she hadn’t ever even thought of it but would employ it from now on.

I can live with that.

And then I went home and had a glass of wine to recover.

Shoe Queen and Slim Jim Get Married

Oh goodness, I meant to write this earlier in life. But then that pesky move got in the way. But it is now almost three weeks post celebration orgy and I think I had better let all of you see what an absolute blast we had that day.

We worried a bit about the weather. You see, the wedding ceremony was scheduled to be outside. I KNOW!! We are wild and crazy people who raise our fists at the sky and exclaim…

DO YOUR WORST! It’s August and there won’t be any rain.

{{{Insert Dope Slap Here}}}

And for a time I thought that the sky and the weather might actually win. It rained on Wednesday. It rained, a lot, on Thursday. The ground where chairs were going to be set up and where the bridal party would need to stand was, shall we say, damp. And when I say damp what I really mean was that when you stepped on it the water welled up around your shoes like the crude that Jed Clampett found in the Beverly Hillbillies. We were worried. And even on the morning of the big day, when we had to go over to the venue early in the day to drop things off and set up some flowers….it was misting. But Ken, the owner of the venue, assured me that if we could get a bit of sun then the ground would dry and all would be well.

By noon the sun was out and the grass was drying off and we were on countdown for a 6p ceremony. Well, almost.  There were some minor glitches. When the DJ’s came to set up at 3:30p they couldn’t get into the venue even though I had been told (by the owner) that they could. And we couldn’t get in either to do some last minute set up. But Rebecca, my “worry woman” (wedding coordinator) took control of all of that and I didn’t have to worry and Shoe Queen didn’t have to worry. There was supposed to be electricity at the gazebo where the DJ’s needed to set up for ceremony music….but it wasn’t working. So Dan and Tony (our AMAZING DJ’s) improvised with strung together extension cords…which at least one bridesmaid tripped over.

Sigh.

Can I just say, as an aside, that one of the BEST BEST BEST BEST things that we did was to hire a day coordinator for the wedding.

BEST.

Becca’s mom is an old and very dear friend who for many years was a wedding coordinator so I knew that Becca would know her stuff. And she did. If it was a problem that needed to be handled on that day or something that needed to be done I handed it to her.

You know what. I am just going to show you pictures. And for the most part I didn’t take ANY of these. Photos started showing up in my email about 8 hours after the ceremony. And in recent days Photographer Erica (from Three Knit Sibs Photography) has been teasing me with photos.

OK, I made up that name but really that is what we are, Three Knit Sibs Photography.

Back on track Deb.

Here is what we did that day.

I got to spend some time with someone of my favorite daughters. I miss seeing them. Please ignore my ever present double chin.

The MOB and MOG were equally smart on this occasion and wore comfortable footwear. In other respects I suspect she is smart than I as she has a Master’s degree and a Doctorate, is going for another Master’s degree and is a college professor.

And we all know what I am….I think.

TNG came out from NYC to meet all of us and hang around with Cartoon Girl. Aren’t they cute!!

Everyone stood around at a distance and watched “The Big Reveal”. I can hardly wait to see those pictures!!

There was some last minute hanging around and waiting. A time of prayer. And then it was ON!

You can be assured that we danced the night away. The wedding was a reflection of Shoe Queen and Slim Jim. Simple, full of humor, perfect.

And you can also be assured that when the pictures from Three Knit Sibs are ready then I will do another post. I can hardly wait to see the photos.