That sounds encouraging @HImom - meeting someone in the right circumstances can help improve the ‘luck’.
DD is also getting a feel for the money aspects in life! FSIL has that ‘reality’ already. @twoinanddone sounds like DD is getting a feel for the money aspects in life too. Her BF will let her know what he can and can’t do time wise w/o losing his job. Another aspect of young life - they think it all works out w/o tweaking.
Yes, it seems that S’s life is doing well, career-wise, so he’s open to a good relationship. He has had two that we know of briefly, but as far as we are aware, he’s currently not in a relationship (we’re always the last to know anyway). D will be living in a house with a lot of guys, so perhaps they or one of their friends will find her irresistible. 
Preferably one of their friends. Although it might seem convenient to date a housemate, it can be very awkward if the relationship ends before the lease does.
Thank goodness for male roommates. Our D rented a rom in an LA house rented to multiple students, amd they were all male. She was the most recent renter so she had the parking space furthest from the house. The guys decided she needed to have the space closest to the door for safety, amd switched rooms around so she was not on the ground floor. I’m so grateful for those guys!
She is still going with one of them, and I’ve got my fingers crossed! We’d be very lucky to have him as a SIL.
It would be awkward if the lease outlived the relationship. Fortunately in this case, they actually didn’t start dating until after she’d already moved out. But her best friend is now engaged to his best friend! I’ll now get the blow-by-blow for the friend’s wedding which can be a lot of fun - like watching a TV wedding with all the cast of characters amd the wedding decisions but none of my own drama or expense. How great is this.
Fun to look at - cakes from the A List cake decorator in NYC. Her cakes can go for as much as $70K!
http://www.instyle.com/celebrity/see-sylvia-weinstocks-wow-worthy-wedding-cakes#405322
If I could do a WOW picture on the NYC cake prices…
There was a gal on ‘Yes to the Dress’ with a dress and veil totaling $22K. The mother/dau seemed kind of upper crust conservative - I just saw the episode with the fitting, and the bride ordered a longer train and they didn’t have the lace trim on the edge of the veil, and a few other things - they got the dress and veil fixed, and I agree they should have for that $$$!
DD2 is home today. When I told her she was going with me to appt Friday to look at bridesmaids dresses and try on some to see about fit, she was willing but seemed to think she could find more on-line/pinterest. We shall see.
DD1 agreed it was very worthwhile trying on wedding dresses with me - in part to see how she looked in the dresses. A bonus was I found what I think will be a great MOB dress, and confirmation to order the dress she wants at the right time.
DD1’s senior prom dress was out of Nordstrom (saw it with holiday formals) - DD said it was grouped with MOB dresses…ha, ha. One of the stylish teachers at her school whispered to DD that out of all the prom dresses, she liked hers the best! DD enjoyed hearing that feedback because she does have good taste and also is not humble about it! DD said the model who had the dress on in no way was old enough for MOB.
D is pretty sensitive to feelings and currents, so probably unlikely to date any of the guys she lives with. She’s always gotten along great with pals, as one of the guys tho she is a petite, feminine lady. We shall see how things evolve. She’s very good with people and has amazing social skills.
My daughter’s wedding is next July and we’ve been having lots of fun with all the planning. I wanted to chime in on the bridesmaid dress discussion. She is having her bridesmaids pick whatever style dress they want with a choice of three different color options. The dresses are very reasonably priced (in my opinion) and I think the girls should all be able to select something they will be able to get plenty of use out of. I was not familiar with this website, but I really like the dress selection options. For anyone who is in the market for bridesmaid dresses, you might want to check this out.
http://www.azazie.com/all/bridesmaid-dresses/colors/peacock/with/fabric/chiffon/length/knee-length
Those are nice! Are short (rather than floor length) dresses for wedding attendants the popular style these days? I notice all on the site you shared are non-floor length.
@himom There is a button on the left for floor length. I would think the time of day and/or the formality of the wedding would make one lean towards choosing long or short dresses. I’ve seen plenty of both lately.
@C3Baker Cool site. That’s quite the range of choices and reasonable prices! It should be easy for all bridesmaids to find a style that is flattering.
@c3baker I love the idea of going with a color theme for the bridesmaids dresses and allowing each one to chose a style that suits them. I looked at that site posted above. So many styles and color choices. Hard to just pick one style. Very reasonably priced. I will bookmark this page.
I forwarded the link to my sister, a mother of the bride, as food for thought.
I need some votes here on what to do about something. I just got back from spending two nights with D in the Santa Ynez wine valley where her wedding will be in March. Our approach to the whole thing has been… here’s your check - if you come in under budget, you can keep what’s leftover; if you’re over budget, it comes out of your pocket. Still, H and I are still somewhat considered hosts since we’re paying for it. Not included in her budget is a day-after brunch we’re hosting at our VRBO. I got a chance to see it in person on Monday when we met with the caterer, and the place is gorgeous, as well as huge (we will be inviting others to stay with us there). Now that I’ve seen the property in person (as opposed to seeing it on a website), I really want to make sure we get the word out about the day-after brunch. This will be a destination wedding for everyone - no one lives in the Santa Ynez wine valley… some will be coming from the east coast, some midwest, some Texas, others from different areas of the west coast. But everyone will have to make travel plans and hotel arrangements. This rental also has a heated outdoor pool with hot tub, horseshoe pits, etc. - lots of relaxing things to do the day after the wedding for people who are still around.
But D and I are sort of stumped on how to best let people know ahead of time that we are hosting this, so they can make appropriate travel arrangements. I suspect most people who are flying, will be flying in/out of L.A. (or Burbank), and will need to give themselves two hours travel time from our VRBO. If they don’t know about the brunch now, and make their plane reservations, they might not do so with enough time to plan to stop by for brunch. D is actually sending out her invitations in early December because she doesn’t want them to get caught up with holiday card mail.
We sort of came up with three options:
We don’t need to have a head count for the caterer until two weeks before the brunch. We are thinking there will be anywhere between 70-80 people at the wedding, and are thinking if people know about this ahead of time, at least 40 would come to the brunch. D also has a website on The Knot and has provided information there about the brunch, but there’s no way to know who has seen it at this point, or is there a way yet for people to RSVP there for the brunch (she already has a handful of people RSVP’ing the wedding).
We just don’t want people making plane reservations, then finding out afterwards that there’s a brunch that they can’t attend because they have to leave too early to get back to L.A. for their flight (the ones who are flying), but they would really want to attend.
Thoughts? Anything we haven’t taken into consideration with these options?
So, is the brunch open to everyone? If so and you have the brunch up on the website already, I would go with your option #1. I wouldn’t want to notify of an invite to brunch prior to them receiving a wedding invitation. Kind of takes away from some of the “oomph” of the wedding invite for lack of a better way to describe it. Do you think many people will actually book their flights prior to getting the invite?
Yes, the brunch is open to everyone invited to the wedding. But you’re right about not upstaging her wedding invites (although they are casual and not formal at all).
I don’t know about booking flights; it is only five months out now, so maybe. But we’ve already had to send out an ‘update’ email after her save-the-dates when we found out the century bike ride was going to monopolize hotel rooms in the area, and suggesting people book rooms if they even think they are coming.
We will have few events for D1’s wedding. We will have all events printed on the RSVP, so people could check off on the events they will attend.
I have also seen people doing similar thing online. They actually go down to granular detail of asking the guests if they need transportation to and from the wedding/reception.
I’d send out a ‘rough schedule’ for those needing to make plane reservations about the weekend events, letting them know about events they could attend in the area on Friday, the wedding day schedule, and now about the brunch. Informal, but informational.
I also think they need much more than a couple of hours travel time on a Sunday to LAX. I’ve been in some horrible traffic trying to get back from Santa Barbara on a Sunday. Hours longer than expected.
All of this is on their website, which people were given when she sent out her save-the-dates in early September, including ‘options for getting to the area’ (such as Burbank as an option, as well as Santa Barbara airport, if people would prefer that over flying into L.A. and driving up). But how many people actually go to those websites? I mean, eventually they will have to, to RSVP, but are we obligated to go out of our way to sort of ‘poke’ them into reading the website before making travel plans? I think this is the difference between our generation and D’s generation. I eventually get around to looking at the websites, but I know not all people do. When I hosted a bridal shower for someone else back in March, there were a number of people who do not email and called to RSVP, albeit, an even older generation than me, but I have to respect that not everyone operates this way. FWIW… when I was in L.A. with D this week, her invitations arrived, so there’s no changing what’s on the invite - the option is to get an additional small card printed up and include it with the invites.
Teri, are you worried they may not have seen it on the website? Lots of young folks will check it, maybe not so many older. And they need to get back to some airport on Sunday or will they spend that night? That timing needs to be considered.
Yes you can add a brunch card with the invite. D1 set up D2’s and included the Fri night event on it’s own card in the envelope.
Need to say, I LOVE Santa Ynez. (And the mid-coast wines.) A family friend had a vineyard there. The drive from LA is awesome.
I made the cake. Just obsessive enough, with a creative streak (and an amazing recipe I’ve used before.) And it was beautiful. People said, oh, you could go into the biz. Nope. I told D1 not to count on another Herculean effort like that for a few years. (But I’d do it whenever she needs, of course.)
ps. Usually a good caterer knows how to cover the non-rsvps, provided it isn’t some huge percentage.
Yes, it was my first time there on Sunday and I was very impressed… and that’s despite everything being brown right now; with hopefully just a modicum of rain this winter, most of what we saw should be green in March and gorgeous. It is D and her fiance’s favorite place - it was one of their first dates early on in their relationship, and where they got engaged. We had a chance to explore Solvang (where we stayed), Santa Ynez, and Los Olivos. Drove through Buellton a few times, but only stopped there for Pea Soup Anderson’s for lunch on our way out on Tuesday. It just fascinates me how, in one moment you can feel like you’re surrounded by only rolling (but good-sized) hills, then make a corner, and then there are mountains. Our VRBO is actually on a vineyard property.
One of the reasons we decided to have the brunch at our VRBO is that it allows us to have a more fluid time line… people can come and go as they want, linger if they want, etc., as opposed to having something from 11-1 at another location - people would feel more limited. We really aren’t expecting more than 40 or so people for brunch. Children will be a part of the wedding, so having a place for them to come hang out and play outside for the brunch is a factor in this decision, too. It’s kind of funny, considering D and her fiance have decided not to have children, they sure are catering to a number of those children they expect will be there for the weekend.