Marian, dragonmom is right! And also, weren’t you worried about her family being judgmental about your efforts? THEIR side provided the only screw-up. Tee hee! B-)
Well, yes, @Consolation, it was kind of nice to see them screw up, and I did enjoy it a bit. :))
I wouldn’t have enjoyed it if the incident had upset the bride and groom, but they didn’t seem to realize how cold it was outside, and they were distracted by the photographer, who considered this a good opportunity to take some extra individual shots of each of them.
I am looking forward to hearing from @runnersmom. Wasn’t her wedding this weekend also?
I’m sure it was lovely!!
I just walked out of our bedroom and seriously thought our house was on fire.
I checked all about until I realized it is from the fires in Oregon.
Oregon has well over 300 fires blazing and the Eagle Creek fire is so close that we have
ash on our cars and deck. The moon was a blazing orange.
I did have to check around as my eyes are as if I am walking though a fire.
This is a very popular trail that has chains and hand holds alone a narrow cliff trail well well
above a canyon. 150 had to be evacuated.
We are not in danger as it is at least 40 miles away. But this area has been our stomping grounds
for 36 years.
Makes hair and make up seem not such a big deal.
We are not in danger at all but for the air quality and the smoke that blinds the local beauty.
Feeling worried about our even handful of guests flying in and for first time visitors.
Dang. Right now I cannot even imagine D and FSIL having the 30 minute ceremony they are
planning in a park.
Glad my house is detailed clean with a nice view and welcoming as I wonder what is going
to happen here.
So concerning @oregon101 not just for the wedding but loss of forest. Good luck with everything.
And I agree that a clean house is the nicest
Good luck with that, oregon. We went through the same smoke, smell, and ashes in S CA. Even decades later, now in the NE, when you smell it (off season, not a fireplace in winter,) some sense/alert pricks up.
Oh @oregon101, good luck. And I thought we had issues with possible thunderstorms. In our case, wedding weekend was a magical success but not without its moments! @marian, I’m so happy to hear that your D and her H seemed to enjoy the wedding they wanted. After the fact, I realize that the glitches and headaches I saw went unnoticed by most as I’m sure was the case at your D’s wedding.
This will be long, but I hope after all the pre-wedding concerns you helped me process and solve, you’ll see that all worked out in the end!
The MOB held a family dinner in Chinatown Friday night to which we were invited but did not attend. My H and I felt it would be too much to take my mother, who was staying with us, into the city for another event. Even the B and G declined the invitation because they wanted an evening out to themselves before all the official festivities began. They stayed at our home Friday night and went to synagogue with us the next morning for the aufruf - her family joined us. It was a very special way to begin…our rabbi officiated at our son’s Bar Mitzvah almost 20 years ago, and to see him speak to them in such a very personal way, to take him from one life cycle event to the next, was indescribably special to me and to them.
Then we were off to the zoo (yes, now I can disclose that they were married at the Bronx Zoo) for a brief rehearsal with their amazing officiant. The skies were grey and foreboding and the forecast for Sunday wasn’t looking all that much better, so we walked through he rain plan before heading to our hotel in the city. Everyone else had a chance to rest and relax, but my H and I quickly changed clothes and headed to Brooklyn to set up our “night before” dinner with the staff at Berg’n, a beer hall in Crown Heights. Again, rain threatened but did not arrive until about 8pm, so our guests arrived dry. However, soon thereafter the heavens opened up and Harvey’s last remnants arrived. Because we had hoped to use the courtyard as well as the private room the space was, shall we say, cozy, for the 80+ people in attendance, but no one seemed to mind. The atmosphere was casual, everyone enjoyed the food and drinks, and many of the kids’ close friends and extended family offered heartfelt and very funny toasts. By the end of the evening, water was 3" deep in the courtyard, but everyone left excited for Sunday.
Sunday morning arrived grey and gloomy, but preparations ensued starting at 9am in the hospitality suite provided by the hotel. I had arranged for food, the MOB for the hair and makeup team which she graciously offered to me, as well, and my DIL’s posse arrived to begin the day. MOB also ordered personalized cotton waffle robes for everyone, including ones for herself and me that had MOB and MOG embroidered on the back. The flower girls were beyond excited and added such lightness and levity to the room. It wasn’t a big space, but like the night before, it felt cozy rather than tight. The photographer arrived about noon and took “first look” pictures at the hotel on the terrace off the B & G’s room. The rain had temporarily stopped. The couple left at 2 with the photographer for pictures at the zoo, with the bridal party following by bus at 3pm. The busses were on time, mostly didn’t get lost, and I’m so glad we arranged for transportation. I think getting their cast of thousands to where they needed to be without organized transport would have been a nightmare.
Once we arrived at the zoo, the wedding planner’s incompetence became blatantly obvious to someone as detail oriented as I am and while it didn’t negatively impact the evening, competent assistance could have made things a whole lot easier. I’ll follow up this post with some things I think they totally could have done to help rather than hinder, but first, the rest of the night!
As we were heading up Madison Avenue in Manhattan on our way to the Bronx, the forecast called for thunderstorms at 7pm, so I had no idea if the rain plan would be in place when we arrived. But the skies belied the forecast and the sun started peeking out among the Manhattan skyscrapers as we headed north. Once we reached the zoo, the skies turned blue and the sun split the clouds. The ceremony was a personalized approach to a relatively traditional jewish ceremony. Tears were shed, vows were made (very personal to them), and my S stomped on the glass at the end of the ceremony with such fervor that the shards escaped the bag! They chose untraditional music played by classical musicians - Bowie for the bride’s procession and Hall and Oates for the recessional and it was just perfect for them!
At the Zoo, the ceremony is held outside of Zoo Center, an amazingly beautiful building with meaning to my urban planner/design school graduate son. The cocktail party began in the Madagascar exhibit, as we were offered wine before we walked through and saw the lemurs and turtles on our way to the the sea lion pool where hors d’oeuvres were passed. The evening was cool but not uncomfortable and as the day turned to dusk, the moon peeked out from the trees casting a warm and intimate glow. The reception was held in the old lion house, which is now a venue. The MOB had arranged for the lions guarding the doors to be bedecked in floral garlands for the evening. I know I had made comments about her “over-the-top” approach to the wedding, but I must admit - it was spectacular. The tables, the flowers, the lighting, all worked together. The food was fine (we had tasted it, but it’s still a party for 200 people), and the DJ was amazing. My S and DIL entered last and did their first dance immediately. There were no mother-son, father-daughter dances, just a raucous hora and non-stop dancing for the rest of the night. My 85-year-old mother was a huge hit as she never left the dance floor, except for, as she put it, “breathing breaks.” MOB had created a lounge on the outdoor terrace and it was well-used as people took a break from the music to have a drink, use the photo booth, and enjoy some passed desserts and gelato. At 12:30pm, as the last song was played the floor was still full, which I think was testament to a great party. The bride and groom had smiles a mile wide all night long and I think it was all they could have asked for…
Monday morning, our very casual brunch was executed perfectly by the hotel and people wandered in for a quick bite before leaving for home. The bride and groom, without my asking, came down quite early and enjoyed seeing their family and friends before heading off on their honeymoon. It was an amazing weekend, I now have a daughter-in-law whom I love, and a new family was created before our eyes. I have to say, seeing my S on Monday morning with his shiny new wedding band made it all a little surreal - my little boy has grown up to be a handsome, loving, incredibly generous man and he has brought to our family the most wonderful, talented, giving woman to make our 5 become 6.
Sorry to be so verbose, and thank you for reading.
Not verbose at all. Lovely and I was enthralled at your descriptions.
Thanks for the great description, @runnersmom.
Such a lovely and loving post, runnersmom. Please consider printing it and saving for some distant anniversary.
Beautiful post runnersmom. And your dress?
“Bowie for the bride’s procession and Hall and Oates for the recessional and it was just perfect for them!”
Thanks for sharing your description of the wedding. Sounds fabulous and lots of personalized touches! Being a huge Bowie fan, would love to know which song in particular the chose.
Happiness and health to your son and his bride!
I also wondered which Bowie song!
Congrats to all. @runnersmom, your post made me felt as if I were a part of the ceremony:-). Glad all went well.
Apparently, the bride processed to “Heroes” by David Bowie. We apparently walked to the Beatles, “All You need is Love,” but to be honest, I didn’t even really process the music. The recessional was, “You Make My Dreams Come True” by Hall and Oats.
Love the music choices!!
I have no memory of the music from my daughter’s wedding on Sunday, either. I know what it was supposed to be (one selection from Handel’s Water Music for the processional and another for the recessional), but I didn’t notice it. For all I know, the DJ could have played the Chicken Dance music.
@runnersmom So happy the wedding went off without any issues; it sounds like it was lovely. I also do not remember the music the B&G, as well as the parents walked down the aisle to at either of my kids weddings. While my some I had told me in advance what the music would be, my daughter didn’t want to share that information in advance of her wedding. I meant to ask her after, as I heard nothing; I was in another world!
At my son’s wedding, people talked about how chilly they were during the ceremony; I on the other hand did not notice the temperature, and I am very cold natured! If I had been a guest at the same wedding, I think I would have said I was freezing and would have taken my husband suit jacket :)) I was very zen at both weddings; so unlike me.
To follow up on my earlier post, the wedding planner was, in my opinion, a disaster. In most cases she was no help, and in others, she and her team were a hindrance. I have no idea exactly what she was hired to do the day of, and I don’t know what MOB paid her, but the level of incompetence was unbelievable. In the end, though, most everything went unnoticed by the guests and the bride and groom couldn’t have been happier. However…
First, I think a detailed timeline of the events, with specific instructions regarding who, what, when, and where, should have been shared with all members of the wedding party so they knew what was expected of them…
When the wedding party arrived at the zoo, we had no idea where to go or what to do, and so we basically just milled around and I looked for a place for my mother to sit. Then, my H called me in a panic about an issue that was actually a miscommunication but before I knew that, I apparently “yelled” at the planner to fix the problem. She then proceeded to ream me out and walk away. Then she chased after me because i said, "I understand I yelled at you, I immediately apologized, but then I said, “thank you, I will ask no more of you.” It’s sort of the wedding planner’s job to be the recipient of all the stress and anxiety, but I was wrong, too.
When the guests began to arrive, it became quickly clear that the planner had not designated the rows for the wedding party and immediate family so it became a fiasco. We went over all this the day before, with the planner present - I have no idea what she was thinking. People had to be moved out of the first two rows on both sides so the wedding party would have a place to sit, and in the end, my mother ended up sitting next to the bride’s cousin instead of my sisters because she said the aisle said family and she was family. Those seats should have been designated and roped off and an assistant present to make sure the right people were sitting in the right place.
Next, there was no one directing the processional line-up. If you have a coordinator or a friend managing the procession, make sure they have a detailed list of who is who, and when they walk and where they sit/stand when they get down the aisle. There were 5 flower girls/boys and all were under 7. No one told them where to sit or their parents where to sit so they could go to them when they reached the end of the aisle. One of the groomsmen was without a kippah just as he was set to go and I had to motion to the planner to run across the back of the space to get him one.
She had not worked with the DJ re: announcements. I almost missed the first dance, and I did miss the cake cutting because they were not announced, they just happened. Had I not heard my son speaking (he thanked everyone for coming before they cut the cake), I would have still been elsewhere. Then, when the dessert buffet was available, no one announced where it was and it became quickly clear to me that nothing was being eaten. I couldn’t find the planner or her staff so I went to the venue manager in charge and asked him to have the finger desserts passed in the outdoor space where many people were congregated at that time, and he had it done immediately. The planner should have been watching that or at least have been in a place I could find her.
All not big things that went mostly unnoticed (except the seating fiasco), but when you pay a professional to do a job, and that person has been given all the relevant information in advance of the event, you expect them to execute the plan. But, see above! It was an amazing evening, my kid is a married man, and they are happily on their honeymoon.
@runnersmom - I very much enjoyed reading it. Glad everything went off beautifully. Congratulations to the happy couple.