Monday, April 27, 2009

Three or More Tuesday and Thoughts on Weddings





Tam at The Gypsy's Corner graciously hosts Three or More Tuesday each week. Many of you share things you collect...plates, family heirlooms, plants, and sometimes even children or pets. My offering today is a little nontraditional. If you have read my blog more than once you probably know that I am dead in the middle of planning a wedding for our one and only daughter. Not only that, but, having three children in their twenties, Beloved and I are invited to a lot of weddings....I mean A LOT of weddings. What started this whole idea was cutting these three roses to put on a bedside table. The red rose, so perfect and beautiful, has long been the symbol of love. These three roses got me to thinking about some things I've learned and some observations I've made during the whole planning and attending process. If you are like me and have been involved recently in planning or attending weddings, you may have noticed some of the same things!


There was a time when the only requirement for a successful wedding reception was that the punch and the mints matched the exact shade of the bridesmaids' gowns. Life was simple-- pink gowns, pink punch. Green gowns, lime sherbet punch. This is definitely no longer the case! The trend is stations--carving, pasta, and seafood. Then there are ethnic stations--Mexican with margaritas, Italian with wine, sushi with Saki, barbecue with beer, you name it! And my favorite are sendoff stations--milk and cookies, Advil and bottled water, or jelly beans and chocolates.


  1. There should be a law requiring anyone, especially vendors, who receives a telephone call containing the words "my daughter" and "wedding" be required to return that call within a twenty four hour time period.

  2. Mother of the bride dresses can be very tricky. In my search I found that unless I was very careful, the dresses often fell into one of three categories: 1. old 2. trampy 3. old tramp. Somebody should tell these designer we mothers don't have any desire to upstage the bride, but neither do we wish to look as if we have never watched the red carpet arrivals!

  3. The nicety of replying to invitations is an almost dead tradition. RSVP has become a meaningless addition to invitations in most cases.

  4. Tissue paper in formal wedding invitations has outlived its original use and is now used only to torment the poor person left to assemble the invitation--me! It does not slide easily and will wrinkle, crease, and tear at the drop of a hat!

  5. We have a new dirty word our house--favor. Beloved who has been a real trooper throughout this entire process went temporarily insane when we were pondering what favor we should buy for the guests as a memento of the event. I can't really repeat what he said, but we got the impression he thought they were unnecessary. We're still having them; we just renamed them.

  6. Finally, this is probably one of the best and most exciting times of our lives and if we're lucky, we'll live to tell about it!

Now head over to Tam's at http://gypsycorner.blogspot.com/ and see a some great collections of three or more!

21 comments:

  1. This was just too funny!! I'm not the mother of the bride or anything close to it but when I try to buy a dress for a special occassion~yes, they all fall into one of your three catagories!

    Thanks for making me smile! :-D

    xoxo
    Jane

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  2. Oh how I do remember my daughter's wedding, then both of my sons were married locally and her parents were in another state, so I had those weddings also. You would think you would become a pro at them, but that doesn't happen. Too many choices, demands and decisions. You will live through it and the day will be perfect and you will have a life time of memories. In the meantime, have something cool to drink, take a deep breath and some Advil. lol Such a perfect post. It made me smile with sweet memories. Hugs, Marty

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  3. I have only begun to plan my oldest daughter's wedding. I am coming to understand what you said even though the wedding is a year from now. I'm shuddering to think, after this wedding, we have 2 more daughters! I'm new to your blog and will have to peek around to see what other news you have had of this event! I'd love to see your ideas. BTW, when is the wedding?

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  4. Very funny...but said and true too! Happy Three or More Tuesday ~ Susan

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  5. You are so right....weddings are productions now! We enjoyed our children's productions, but are gld to be enjoying their productions now - grandchildren! Oh, I have forgotten to reply to a shower invitation! Gotta go do it now! Linda

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  6. I feel for what you are going through - my son ws married last fall and his bride wanted me to help her on everything since she didn't like her mothers "taste" in things! It was fun and exciting but for my last son there are three words I will relay to him and his intended..."Private Destination Wedding" lol
    Best of Luck to you!

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  7. Your roses are very pretty, and I love that silver container that they are in.

    I hope that the wedding planning does not get way to hectic for you.

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  8. Your roses are beautiful... and I am right there with you on wedding thoughts... Why oh why... I also long for the simple life... I was the wedding coordinator for my daughters wedding three years ago... Its all still so fresh in my mind... But let me tell you this:

    After it was all said and done... At the end of the reception the bride (my beautiful daughter) came and joined me sitting on the edge of the stage, she kicked off her pretty satin and jewled shoes and leaned her head on my shoulder and whispered "This was the best day of my life".

    That was all I needed...

    Best wishes to the Bride and Groom
    And I wish you strength...
    ~Really Rainey~

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  9. Susan, congrats on winning Tam's giveaway! And that is a funny post. Poor dh! LOL. You're scaring me in doing my daughter's! Granted I have a few more years, but you know.... ;-)

    Will be joining the fun soon!

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  10. I sure can identify with your post. I do not understand how the same sit down dinner can cost $50 pp for a birthday party & can cost $100 pp just by putting the word wedding in front of it? Why is it $50 extra to place your own veil and crown upon the head of the bride after you are already paying triple to have her hair done up when all it requires is for you to push in a comb that already comes sewn onto the veil? Why are alterations so $ for a simple hem of the Mom's dress and then have the entire hem fall apart during the wedding? I think the Mom's dresses have not changed in 50 years and are all frumpy but I prefer your adjectives better:) I can definitely do a complete stand up comedy hour on just my experience with the florist alone. My husbands only question to the florist was can his guests eat the flowers since they were so $$$ and would the sky fall in if we did not have ALL the flowers flown in from Holland as suggested but rather use flowers from the the good old USA? OK I rest my case. That felt good to vent after 5 years now:)

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  11. Hi Susan,
    I so loved your post (I am still laughing) My
    kids are 20,18 and 14....so I am sure my days
    are coming - thanks for the warning ! I think from all the stories that I have heard, I will just offer the kids money to go and get hitched (naw, just kidding - I am sure there are lots of GOOD things about the wedding preperations..LOL)Your roses are beautiful and I have never thought of putting some on my nightstand...will have to do that- I love three or more , don't you ? Thanks for your funny thoughts and have
    a great rest of the week !

    Hugs ~ Kammy

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  12. I've been the mother of the bride AND the mother of the groom. It's rough but a lot of fun.
    Congratulations on your win with Tam. Happy 3xTuesday.

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  13. Enjoyed your post! I have been a mother of the groom. I made my own dress. I am wearing it in the little profile picture that goes with my comments. It was funny, the mother of the bride and I did not consult with each other, yet we had similar style sleeves, her was a dress and mine a skirt and top. And our hubby's were coordinated with us and both wearing khaki pants. Pictures turned out pretty good because of that. No tuxes for the guys at this wedding, it was more of a casual style wedding. Very nice too. Son was married in Florida and we are in California. So I did not have to do much except to get there and we paid for the rehearsal dinner. Daughter lives out of state also, but no wedding in the works yet.

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  14. Oh my! Your post made me giggle! I do not have a daughter, and my own wedding 35 years ago was so very humble. But one of my niece's got married last summer, with another one this summer, and oh the DRAMA!!

    Blessings ~ Eileen @ Star's Fault

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  15. I have sons. Hopefully I will skip the drama.
    I love your descriptions of the dresses.
    As for your family tree if you email me from my site with a bit of info I will help you get started. Believe me once you start you will be hooked. Thanks for coming by.

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  16. Funny post! I sold bridal gowns when I was in college -- oh my, the drama! And those mothers' gowns? My advice is to ALWAYS say you are the Mother of the Bride --- the stores save the REALLY awful gowns for the poor Mothers of the Groom.

    My girls are approaching that age -- in their early 20s -- and I'm hoping they'll elope. Without telling us.

    Cass

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  17. That was great!!!! Too funny! I know what you mean about weddings today, they are almost over the top. Everyone trying to outdo one another. I got married about 3 years ago in our backyard. It was a very simple, yet elegant wedding. Almost everyone who attended said it was the best wedding they had attended in a long time because it was not over the top. It was very relaxing & enjoyable. We had a Victorian garden theme. I only spent $2000 for my wedding. It was everything I dreamed it could be and I didn't spend a fortune. We called our wedding our "ebay wedding". Most everything was purchased from ebay (including my wedding dress) or I bought using money for items I sold on ebay. I hope you survive your daughter's wedding & find a fabulous Mother of the bride dress.

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  18. Thanks for stopping by to visit my small disaster.

    The Raggedy Girl

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  19. Oh this post was GREAT!!! Very funny but so true. My boys are 21 and 19 and I still have a little time. Wonderful 'Three or More' post thank you for playing along.
    Have a wonderful evening,
    Tam

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  20. OMG--you need to be writing a book. This wedding list is just a hoot. I was reading this and shaking my head 'yes' in total understanding--especially about the Mother Dress. I was the mother of the groom, but we split the cost of the wedding with the bride's parents and had a great deal to do with the actual plans. Weddings have gotten totally out of control--but we did live through it, as you said, and had a great time. Now we have a great DIL and a wonderful gr. girl!! The payoff! Dana

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  21. Too funny!!! SOOO true!!! My daughter is very close to starting down this road. I am a little worried after reading this;). We are trying to keep the ideas simple...one can only hope and pray!!! Thanks for sharing your amusing tale...loved it!!!

    Have a wonderful day!!!
    XOXO
    Cathy

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