Sounds wonderful, zoosermom! And count me in as another convert to false eyelashes - I had them for D’s wedding, and my eyes were transformed!
How great to see a bride realize her vision, @zoosermom. Does your daughter have a background in design? Sounds like an amazing backdrop to a beautiful event.
I’d love to see some of those unconventional photos!
I’d love to see any photos of these amazing weddings! They all sound so personalized and wonderful.
Taste tested the reception food this evening. A-okay. Another item checked off for 9-1-18.
Congratulations to Kelsmom and Zoosermom. I loved reading the descriptions of your weddings.
My D is getting married in 2019, so I’ll be following along to get advice on things.
@thumper1…your turn! Have an amazing wedding weekend and remember to step back and just take it all in!
I think I need to cultivate a taste for wine.
Pretty much everything that needs to be done…is done…except for my welcome letter. I’m going to write that in the morning…and print it out and take it to Staples to make copies after I get my nails done.
Today…set up the house at the end of our street for the bridal party and friends who will spend Thursday and Friday there. DD and I think it looks really nice. Still have to go buy the champagne and order some breakfast things for Friday morning.
And schlep all the stuff we have here…to the venue. Some will go Friday and some Saturday.
Yikes!
D1 texted me this morning to let me know all the wedding stuff finally got to her, she just came down with a cold. :((
I was telling myself not to get sick. I can’t believe of all people, the bride is sick. I told her she still has 1.5 week to get well. (my last head cold lasted 3 weeks)
@oldfort, can she drive to the wedding location, or is there a concern about her possibly having a stuffed head on her travel day and being unable to fly?
If anyone is looking for dresses and shoes for their wedding, Nordstrom has a good selection on sale.
D1 gets cranky when she has a cold. she is the one who is doing a lot of last minute coordination. She just sent us a spreadsheet of schedule for next week and it is packed. I am just concerned she will be too run down to enjoy her wedding. It is fortunate she is not going to have to fly to get to the wedding, but they are flying a long way for the honeymoon. They are going to Maldives.
Adrenalin. She will be fine…I’ll bet. And that trip after will cure it all.
But…maybe now is the time to delegate some last minute things to others.
I’ll keep my fingers crossed for a quicker than usual cold recovery!
A week and a half should be enough time for a young person. Tell her to dose up on OJ, tea, and to steam herself every day to clear things out. If it’s really bad, ask her to go to urgent care and get a “dose pack” of prednisone.
Nephew’s destination wedding (Estes Park CO) went very well. Nephew and his bride live in Denver. Some Denver area friends but many who flew in from other states/rented cars. All family except groom’s sister/her nuclear family were OOS. Groom’s sister/family had a time share very nice condo a few miles from the wedding site. There were a few last minute ‘can’t make it’ due to illness or other unexpected issues. Total attendance was a little over 80. Very well planned (sister of bride was MOH and had worked as a wedding planner before doing very big events like having a hand in Pope Francis’ Philadelphia trip).
Nephew was supposed to tell us to take accommodations in the condos surrounding the hotel and not stay in the main property (which he didn’t tell us but bride told him to tell us - her side of the family got the info from her, and the groom’s father got the correct accommodations too including the handicapped accessible condo he shared with his parents), as you get nicer accommodations and more for the same $$. H and I had a true suite in the main building and was fine, but his two brothers had not good accommodations for the $$ (ours had a large room with roll out couch which DD used; their ‘suite’ included a room which was just a bit wider than a hall way and was the sitting area portion of the suite). They had not put up the window AC units yet (the condos had central air/heat) and it got hotter before the hotel took care of that. BIL/SIL are both morbidly obese and their ‘suite’ was hot - they did get the A/C unit but had suffered between the altitude adjustment for SIL (who also is a smoker). When we arrived Thursday, the heat from the day had SIL/BIL lying on their bed under the ceiling fan and ‘not feeling well’. SIL had to get her H’s help to step in and out of claw footed bathtub/shower - and no grab bars around the tub/shower. Other BIL/SIL are more outdoors people (although that SIL also is a smoker). Cousin and her H had a decent suite in the main hotel but the suite room was smaller than ours - they had their two very small dogs which were allowed because the owner of the suite allowed - but they did need to check out before the Sunday brunch, and one had to be on the outside patio with the dogs before they left. We were able to check out immediately after the brunch. Usually cousin leaves her dogs with her sister, but sister and H had a family cruise on his side of the family during that weekend.
We did have some sprinkling rain just before the ceremony (they don’t move the wedding unless total downpour).
The couple provided the brunch on Sunday as a ‘thank you’ for all that traveled in.
We traveled 3200 miles total. Did some sight seeing and activities before the wedding. The wedding weekend was nice time to catch up with family.
A wonderful couple and the bride and her family are lovely people. Glad we were able to come to their wedding.
Sounds great! We were in Estes Park last summer and it’s lovely. You weren’t at the infamous Stanley hotel, were you?
Wedding was not there (Stanley Hotel), but I did make a short visit/walk through and walk around. Anyone who enjoys looking at a marvelous quilt can see one made by a lady who worked for the hotel for years - marvelous detail and very nice stitching, all hand done. I stopped in their gift shop and got some post cards and picture books.
If in Estes Park, do a visit/walk through. However they do charge visitor parking of $10 at the Stanley Hotel.
CO looks dry. Fire hazard was half way between all good and very bad.
Since we were there before ‘high season’ (starting Memorial Day weekend and ending Labor Day weekend) some places were just opening up more for the season, and had fuller hours of operation. We had a party of 11 for dinner at a great place I picked out (Twin Owls Steakhouse, at Rustic Mountain Lodge) - Rustic Mountain Lodge also has weddings and there were people there with a wedding that took place that day and coordinated through that Lodge. At Twin Owls, it was a bit irritating that the waiter didn’t want to ring up group tickets for our party, even though he took the dinner orders for each of our small groups - so 4 separate checks (two to five on each ticket) despite having a 18% gratuity. The owner was a nice fellow who took the time to pull up a chair and talk a bit to FIL. DH ordered a lobster tail for MIL who was delighted. The restaurant wasn’t completely full - we made reservations for 9 earlier that day and then MIL/FIL were added for total group of 11 - H and I picked up the bill for MIL/FIL (they accepted after H told them he got a work bonus and could afford to buy them dinner)…waiter said if he was busier he wouldn’t be able to do the separate checks. Heck the very nice bfst place in town (which I highly recommend, called Notchtop Bakery and Cafe, which is open year round 7 days a week 7 a to 3 pm) had no problem with our group the next morning. Service was very good at Notchtop. Dinner for 5 at Twin Owls on our bill had 2 ordering very light and three ordering dinners priced from $25 to $36 for entre’, plus any extra cost for soup or salad with entree, and one $5 beer - total was $168 which included 18% tip of $24. Notchtop had $10/$11 breakfast prices plus coffee or latte - so for 3 of us in our large group of 9 (also 18% gratuity) we paid total $53, $45 for food/drink/taxes along with a $8 automatic gratuity. Servers at both places were competent and nice; very nice gal at Notchtop; the verbal complaint by the waiter at Twin Owls really was a turn off.
“despite having a 18% gratuity”
Well, he knows he was getting 18% anyway so his incentive to be accommodating seems to have gone out the window. I guess you could have brought it to the owner’s attention because it is definitely a training/service issue.
Agree about training/service issue. Maybe guy didn’t like a few minutes running 4 credit cards through instead of 1, but he made decent money with our group.
It is not unusual for a waiter not wanting to split a bill more than 2 ways. When my family of 15 go out for meal we usually have one person pick up the bill then we reimburse the person. On the other hand, some restaurants when you tell them you want separate bills they would ring up each individually. Everything is computerized now, it really shouldn’t be too hard.