<p>go to Ikea for inexpensive vases, candle/tea light holders & glass pebbles. </p>
<p>If she wants to scatter small shells in the sand, I would look at Michael’s or on-line craft websites.</p>
<p>Okay, that was fun. :)</p>
<p>Actually, it was amazing!!!</p>
<p>Best. wedding. ever.</p>
<p>Setting was perfect, room looked great, tiger lilies in our yard bloomed just in time for the bridal party to carry them, sun came out, view was unbelievable, food was fabulous, music was great, dance party was epic…</p>
<p>And the groom was handsome, the bride radiant,</p>
<p>And the wedding was full of love and happiness, as I’m sure they’re marriage will be.</p>
<p>Can’t stop smiling.</p>
<p>Was thinking about you this weekend. Worried over the rain earlier, but yesterday here was perfect. A heartfelt congratulations, and best wishes to all. I am so happy for you, Garland.</p>
<p>Congrats garland.</p>
<p>sorry missed some thing…What view was that? </p>
<p>Congrats…</p>
<p>Congratulations Garland! I couldn’t be happier for all of you.</p>
<p>Thanks, all!!! </p>
<p>@Artloversplus–it was a venue overlooking the water near Cape May–the sunset lit up the whole room.</p>
<p>That is really lovely, wish I were there as well…Thanks.</p>
<p>It really was! It had rained all the day before, and into the afternoon, so we were so glad when the sun came out just in time for the chairs to be set up!</p>
<p>wonderful. glad everything came out so sunny.</p>
<p>Congratulations garland and much happiness to all</p>
<p>MAZAL TOV!
I was thinking about this over the weekend.</p>
<p>Congratulations to you all! Thanks for including us in the planning, this was a great and happy thread.</p>
<p>Congratulations to all. Sounds like it was wonderful.</p>
<p>Major congrats, garland! So glad it was everything you dreamed of and more!</p>
<p>Garland, it sounds wonderful! Any lessons learned? :)</p>
<p>Countingdown–yeah, start planning earlier!!!</p>
<p>We made a lot of decisions by the seat of our pants in the last weeks. That led to some extra stress. Though maybe we think best when our backs were to the wall, lol!</p>
<p>The other thing, and I don’t know how to anticipate or avoid this, is that the coordinator for our site turned out to be a royal pain in the arse. First, she gave me constant agita about getting approval for things that shouldn’t have been a problem. She almost fired me ??? because we weren’t fast enough on picking a caterer that met their parameters (which kept shifting), and then my poor caterer, who was fabulous, was harassed by her for all kinds of info, down to exact ingredients in dishes.</p>
<p>She kept losing info I gave her, like contact numbers for venders and stuff, and I’d have to pull out emails to show here we’d sent the info more than once already. In the last week, we hired a shuttle so people could get around safely to after-parties, hotels, and such, and she made that out to be a huge problem that might not get approved. Fortunately, the shuttle company had worked with the site many times (which she acted like was new info) and had the paperwork already to go and approved in a day. And then she asked me if the shuttle bus would bring people back in the evening to get their cars, I told her we’d checked with the site who said they could just register them on their way in and leave them overnight–standard procedure. She told me she’d never heard of that before.</p>
<p>During the reception, she was intrusive and acted like she’d designed and run the whole thing. Without going into the details, she was so out of line that H was ready to throw her off the balcony. Luckily, the local police officer on duty at the place advised him it ws not a good idea. He was a great guy–joined us for a drink at the after-party down the road!</p>
<p>But–she schmoozed my D so well, who was floating on happy vibes, that we’ll just leave the whole thing alone, and not write the letter we’d like to.</p>
<p>She couldn’t mar a perfect occasion. I don’t know what to advise about someone like her though–truthfully we think she’s a little nuts; any attempt to tone her down would have marred the fun more, so I basically avoided her and danced my feet off! :)</p>
<p>I think what made it great, though stressful, was that D had a vision of what she most wanted–basically by the water, fresh local food (ideally from her favorite CM restaurant, which it was), only people she knew and their families (no tables full of someone’s parents friends from work, etc), local venders when possible–the photographer and DJ were friends of mine from the area, and the cake was from a nearby business run by a couple of local ladies who made horseshoe crabs that perfectly matched the one D had drawn for their invitations; and lastly, lots of dancing. We made sure that happened. It was epic.</p>
<p>So, keeping to what she and her guy wanted without getting fancy or offtrack in any way was key. The wedding reflected them perfectly.</p>
<p>Note—for their dance, they chose Muse’s Madness, and performed an ad hoc air guitar break during the guitar solo. That pretty much sums them up.:)</p>
<p>We have a wide range of food allergies/issues among the guests. I am making DH and S2 (the caterers) give me every detail on ingredients. I’m very glad at this point that I have done most of the crafty stuff already, as there are more things that are popping up (I am making the bride’s headpiece and veil, which is beaded and embroidered) and we are going to have 10-15 people staying to sightsee (and camping out at our house) for the week AFTER the wedding.</p>
<p>S2 keeps reminding me that I am a limited resource and I cannot do everything that comes into my head. OTOH, I was at Michael’s today and their beads are on sale – found some gorgeous stuff for 47% off which will make a lovely band for DIL’s bouquet and that I can turn into a piece of jewelry afterwards. Pinterest is wedding porn and I am getting addicted.</p>
<p>Thankfully, DH agreed that getting the master bath reno done in July was just not feasible. (!!!)</p>
<p>We don’t have a coordinator, other than me. (heh heh) </p>
<p>I have a master plan, but DH has decided he doesn’t like in Excel and wants it in Word. (WTH?!?!?) It is seven pages long already and I am nowhere near done.</p>
<p>Garland- thanks for sharing. I am glad that the day went so well. Your descriptions over the years have painted a beautiful picture of Cape May.</p>