The Wedding by the mother-of-the-groom

I don’t even know where to start. It was such a new happening to me, almost equal to becoming a mother the first and second time. However this time I became a mother-in-law to one of the most special young ladies I have ever met.

Friday was setting up day, and that went so smoothly and fun, almost like a well planned party. Everything got done way before the bride and groom thought it would be and everyone was relaxed and ready for the next day. Well almost, it seems there was a small issue with three of the bride’s maids’ dresses which was quite upsetting to them. A certain part of their dresses stuck out in a funny way, and they were uncomfortable about it. (Sort of like a pair of snow cone cups were stuck inside the dress)

I said I would look at them and see if I could do anything but inside I was cringing, praying I could. One of the bride’s maids and the maid of honor followed me home and we went to work. Maid-of-honor Amber had some printing she needed done, and Nina tried on her dress. The “flaw” was quite obvious so I had her take it off and I pulled it inside out and went to work. First try wasn’t good enough so I tried again and success… no more pointy boobs. After the dress was finished and the printing done we all started getting ready for the rehearsal.

Rehearsal was on the beach and went quite well. Of course there was a lot of laughing, some joyous cheering when the two out of town grooms-men finally arrived, more laughter and even some tears, mostly from the mothers. We proceeded and receded down the beach until we had it right and all knew our places, then headed off to the rehearsal party. Everyone has a fun time, the food was great, but I just wanted it to be over so we could go on to the next day.

Soon enough it was over and I went… no not to bed…. I had two more bride’s maids’ dresses to fix.  At about my normal bed time John, my little Janome and I went to Jeff and Ali's, part of the bridal party and good friends of Mike and Kelly's, to do more alterations.  That took about twenty minutes, most of the time was talking and laughing and soon enough we were on our way home. In our house were the grooms-men along with all their “stuff,” The best part of that was listening to them talk about who was going to sleep with who and before it got too wild John and I went to bed. Of course I threatened them that if they woke me up I would not be happy, and since all of them knew how grumpy I was when woken up from past experiences they were quite quiet.

When I woke up Saturday morning the first thing I noticed was the darkness of the room… it was the cloudiest “partly cloudy” day I had ever seen. When I walked in the kitchen the guys were all up and eating… One was eating chocolate doughnuts straight from the bag, another eating a dry bagel… I reminded them to make themselves at home and eat something decent, told them where the cream cheese was and went to work hemming the best man’s pants. (FYI, it took me three times as long to hem one pair of pants as it did to fix three dresses.)

At 9:00 the guys headed out to clean up the beach and prepare it for the wedding. I jumped in the shower and headed off to my hairdresser with hopes she could do something with my hair… she did and I hated it, but it was done. I didn’t like it at all, but everyone else said it looked beautiful… I still hate it. I came home to find the groomsmen in various states of dress and confusion, trying to iron their shirts and get ready. The photographer followed me in the house and I left quickly to join the bridal party.

Let me say this… there was much more chaos in my house then there was where the ladies were getting ready. I found all them sitting in one place or another doing much of nothing…. Three were sitting on stools in the kitchen, five were sitting in the living room watching a movie (Wedding Singer) and the rest sitting elsewhere. They were a calm relaxed group of women… The three on stools in the kitchen were getting their faces air brushed (I never heard of such a thing until then). All had had their hair done and even in their various state of dress looked lovely. Shortly the photographer showed up there and so did the rain, but I seemed to be the only one who noticed it, or else everyone like me was afraid to say that four letter word.

As the photographer was taking shots of the wedding dress without the bride I heard one of the girls call out “Momma E Kelly needs you right NOW.” A sobbing bride was comforted by her mother and all I could hear was “but I sob sob sob wanted sob sob to get sob sob sob get married sob sob sob on the sob beach sob sob sob” and I knew that someone had finally admitted that the beach wedding was an impossibility. Momma E said “but you are marrying Michael and it doesn’t matter where you get married” and slowly the bride calmed down…. and I escaped to the bathroom so I could have a hold back my tears and regain my composure.

I almost lost it again when I peeked in at the photographer taking photos of Momma E and Kelly and decided I really should get dressed myself. Both bathrooms were in use, as was the spare bedroom, so I snuck into the “man room” to dress myself. I slipped my dress over my head and was pulling down the layers when my eyes fell on a photo of the man of the house and my baby in a famous (to anyone who knows them well or attended the wedding) pose and then I really lost it. It was a good thing I wasn’t wearing any makeup because it would have certainly been washed off with the tears… I tried to get myself back together, but the girls sort of noticed when I came out, and when I explained they all understood.

Soon we were escorted to the limo under a huge umbrellas that still only managed to keep our heads dry and were on the way to the wedding venue, the vineyards not the beach. The bridal party and parents did a very quick verbal run through of the ceremony so we all knew our places. Then the first look….

I’d never heard of a first look until this wedding and let me say, it was wonderful. Mike stood with his back turned as Kelly walked into the room. The photographer was directing them and snapping what must have been millions of photos along the way. He had Kelly walk closer and closer snapping away. Then she placed her hand on Mike’s shoulder, and then whispered in his ear. Then he had Mike close his eyes and turn around, then open his eyes… it was priceless and there wasn’t a dry eye there and I am bawling again all over again just typing this.


















After that the photographer took the family photos to get them taken care of and then we all snuck as well as we could back to the other side of the divided hall so the guests could go into the wedding part. (The bride was hidden behind a huge golf umbrella so no lingering guests could see her… well nothing but her feet at least.) Soon we were all lined up to proceed into the wedding hall… and before I knew it Mike and Kelly were announced married.
(to be continued…)