My sister was 8 months pregnant as my matron of honor. My mom, who had already made my sister’s dress, first remade it in sort of a tent-like fashion. Then scrapped that and just inserted side panels. From certain angles, you almost couldn’t tell 
We are getting very close to the (1st) big day! Two weeks out for D1. Then two weeks after that diving right into dress shopping for D2. D2 is going for 6/7/25, so on Friday I wished her Happy -1 Anniversary.
My nephew is getting married on Saturday. The MOB is rather, um, involved. Today’s crisis was the knife to cut the wedding cake is missing from the Great Aunt who is hosting the wedding, house (like everyone has a knife?) My sister called me. Don’t have one. Called her friend who has inherited a HUGE collection of silver (pickle forks, iced tea spoons, every kind of spoon you can think of, knives for butter, meat, veggies) as someone in their family was a famous name in silver, and what she doesn’t have her sisters have. Photos of all the contenders sent to MOB and then bride (who doesn’t care). Oh, crisis averted when all agreed on one.
My daughter is not having cake and thus there will be no crisis. And one can buy a cake knife at any Michael’s or JoAnn’s fabric store.
Probably belongs in the “Say it Here” thread, but I’m waxing nostalgic this morning after looking at my calendar and realizing that it was a year ago today that we arrived at the hotel ahead of our son’s wedding. Just can’t believe it’s been a year since I was glued to this thread.
Congratulations and best of luck to all our CC yet-to-be G/F/MOB/G. 
That reminded me of the “crisis” at my wedding (many moons ago). Except that my mom was way cool, and she kept me from having a meltdown. When we arrived at the church, I realized that there was no unity candle - I had chosen a very nice candle that was decorated with flowers. The church had a candle for our parents to light. But it wasn’t the candle I had picked out. What a ridiculous thing to be upset about, but I was. My mom calmed me down, no one even saw the actual candle that they lit (because it was on the rear of the altar table), and 40+ years later I realize it was a big nothing-burger. I am grateful that my mom wasn’t like your nephew’s future MIL.
2 days! And I did ask DD a couple weeks ago if she had a cake knife- her aunt had given her some random knives recently so she was just going to pull from that.
DD2 has been home all week since she had a friend’s wedding last weekend. She spent the first half of the week at our house arranging flowers, and is now at her sister’s for the stuff that needs done there. We were quite impressed with her work, as DD1 and I felt we’d just bought a small selection of random artificial flowers and it would be mishmash but she managed to make 45 cohesive, beautiful arrangements.
Now we need to figure out whether we need 1 or 2 vehicles to haul the stuff at our house; pray for no thunderstorms; and just hope everything gets to where it needs to be when it needs to be there.
Now they shift the worry to who will watch out for the knife as it is borrowed and I think valuable (more so than the one I would have bought at the thrift store or Michael’s). That job will probably go to the friend/owner of the knife who will swoop in as soon as the very expensive cake is cut (the bride and groom also didn’t care about an expensive cake and were just going to get one at Whole Foods or even the grocery store - the MOB has money to burn even though this is the third daughter to get married and still has one left).
I had one friend obsess over the guest registry book and another that the flowers on the cake match the actual flowers she was carrying. Everyone needs something to freak over. In fact the flowers-on-the-cake friend also bought a very expensive guest book and in 27 years, I’ve never seen the book again. Yep, good thing we ran all over town looking for the perfect book made of paper with wildflowers pressed into the paper.
Last June was son’s wedding. So thankful he and wife sweated all the details. I only worried about my Dad (now 97) and his wife getting to town….4 hour drive… and my sweet sis stepped up to get them there and back home again. I was with Dad for father’s day and brought along a nice photo album of the big day. He had such fun remembering the festive day and all the fun dancing.
Our wedding coordinator (in 1979) printed the programs w/o proper proof-reading. Very big errors like maid of honor lined up with best man’s name, etc. The programs themselves came from an hour away, and I had to ‘trust’ that the programs would not have the errors, and the didn’t.
S2 and DIL will be here visiting us on their wedding anniversaries (9/12 civil and 9/14 ceremonial) this fall. They took care of everything last year – not like I could call Ukrainian vendors! Offered to make a chuppah, make programs/favors and bring them, but they were not having any of it. (DIL made rose petal jam as favors. Local micro-farming and supporting sidewalk babusyas FTW!) And they were lovely, low-key weddings, we ate ourselves silly and enjoyed the great wine.
They wanted to have a big stateside party while they are here, but so many of S2’s friends now have small kids (ditto my nieces and nephews) that I think it will morph into a couple smaller dinners – one near my dad and much of my extended family, and one here for friends and BIL/family. S2 has talked to a local restaurant, but they aren’t responding now, so we have offered to have a BBQ here at the house. They haven’t given up on the restaurant, though. DIL is very excited at the opportunity to wear her wedding gown two more times! S’s college friends in Chicago, NY and Boston all have littles, so we don’t expect them to come. If S & DIL make the rounds again, though, perhaps they’ll meet up at a park for ice cream.
DIL doesn’t want to spend the entire month on the road, and they both have more time-bound jobs than they did on their visit here two years ago. We may be setting up workstations at home instead for all of us!
In a happy bit of serendipity, we got to look at two venues w S2 and FDIL, so that was lots of fun. They looked at 7, which seemed like a lot but they are planning to be wed in the geographic center of families so once they made the drive, they wanted it to be a packed two days of looking so they can nail down a date and venue for 2025.
I have a favorite, don’t know if it is theirs, I had forgotten how hard it is to be quiet and patient as decisions are made !
When DD got married, we also looked at 7 venues. And when she went back to school, she wondered if I would look at two more. No. She choose from the 7 she saw and was very happy!
We are done with Wedding #1! It could hardly have been more perfect. The 80% chance of severe storms ended up just being a 5 minute downpour after everyone was inside the reception venue. I had some minor stresses about timing and seating, but it was all fine. The ceremony was lovely, everybody looked great, DD2’s speech was fantastic, dinner was tasty, and I have never seen a dance floor so lively for 4 hours straight. It was a PARTY.
DD2 gave me my MOB t-shirt for her wedding, so Friday I wore my pink one for DD1 and today I wore the green one for DD2 and joked that a new season is now upon us. DD2 and Fiance actually decided on their venue this weekend too so we can really switch focus to next June
I was hoping to see photos!
Beautiful! Was this a “first look”??
Yes! 
I thought it was beautiful but didn’t break the privacy of the wedding couple in a public forum
A successful wedding dress shop this weekend! We met up in the city where 3 of the bridesmaids live and is otherwise centrally located to the rest of us. I was hoping we’d get the job done in one trip!
First store was a little underwhelming but an okay start to figuring out some likes and dislikes. Second store I could tell was going to be better right away based on what we saw the stylist pull, and one I spotted right inside the door. We could tell she was saving my pick and a similar one for last and they were definitely best. My pick was the runner-up 
but the other one had it all.
Today since that part was done we looked for a necklace (found) and shoes (not yet). This week I’ll be delivering their venue contract and downpayment and She’ll be contacting our pastor.
How far out should we be seriously finding a rehearsal dinner spot? S and FDIL have a date and a venue that is not near any of us and they are likely to think something less formal will be fine — but I’m not sure how soon is too soon? (S2’s wedding rehearsal was soup and salad at the church prior to the rehearsal, 3 blocks from our house – we had it easy!)
It depends a lot on size and how busy things are in that area about when the event will be. S only had 20 people total at his rehearsal lunch and there were many venues that could meet his needs and also were all reasonably priced. I probably got S to choose one about a month or two before his wedding. If it were larger or more formal event, we would have tried to nail down earlier.
I agree that it depends on so many things - what city the wedding is in, what are “must have’s” for the rehearsal (picnic like? brewery? formal restaurant?), # of people you might host, etc.
Probably the best idea is for the couple or whoever to do a call or two to somewhat desirable venues and ask them how far they are booking out or offer up your wedding date to see availability. By checking with a couple you might get a sense for how far they are booked.
When is the wedding???
