Ken and Brianna on the day he proposed, making me the Mother of the bride for the second time.
Last May on a trip to Italy, my daughter's boyfriend proposed to her. That set into action 11 months of wedding planning and preparation, and I, being the MOTHER OF THE BRIDE, wanted to be included in it as much as Brianna would allow. My oldest daughter Jessica was married three years earlier, but since she got married across the continent, I was limited in how much I could assist (and, well, truthfully, I think Jessica wanted to do things her own way....as a bride should!). This time, however, the wedding was to be in Seattle...close enough for me to meddle be involved.
From the very start I told myself, this was to be Brianna and Ken's wedding and they should do what they wanted to do, and if I, or other family members didn't like it, well...too bad. I think I did a pretty good job at this (Did I Brianna?). Every time I shared a thought, idea, or suggestion, I always prefaced it with..."this is just a suggestion, and you should do what you want, but...." Brianna was great. Some suggestions she took, others she ignored. She was steadfast in creating the vision that she and Ken had for their day. For example...when she first showed me the picture of the wedding cake they both fell in love with, that would serve as inspiration for their entire theme...well, I wasn't nearly as thrilled with it as they were. The pattern on the cake was a bit too chaotic for my taste...I like more order, more symmetry in design. But as Brianna went on about how she thought the cake was a "modern take on Tiffany's" I began to see the vision she had, and I was enamored with it! She decided she wanted eclectic centerpieces with mis-matched vintage silver, all white flowers, and Tiffany boxes. This began a 10 month search through dozens of antique stores looking for just the right silver pieces to add to my existing collection. What fun I had poking through piles of junk looking for treasure. And treasure I did find, including a solid silver compote monogrammed with my initial (what a coincidence) for only $35 at a shop in a cruddy part of Portland.
As the months wore on, and as Brianna allowed, I helped her plan and create every detail possible from the belly-banded handmade invitations to searching out interesting containers for the candy/cookie buffet. It was totally fun, and I was totally in my zone. My girls have teased me, more than once for being a Martha Stewart wannabe and an OCD planner, so that part of my personality took over.
During the few days leading up to Eric's and my wedding three years ago, I handed each one of my daughters a color-coded schedule letting them know where to be, when to be there, and what to do when they got there. They all teased me for my OCD planning. So, I had to laugh, when Brianna, creating her own schedule for the wedding week, pulled out my old schedule (can you believe she saved it?) for inspiration on creating her own. Gosh, she did me proud! :-) Eric has described my three daughters as each having a few pieces of my personality, blown up to the extreme...he is so right! However, I've come to discover that each of them has my planning obsession. I know it must drive those around us nuts...but at least everyone knows someone is handling the details. Right?
So plan we did. We planned, we revised, we implemented, we improvised, and we put together a wedding
the wedding was SO beautiful!!!!
Posted by: Patty Stephens | April 21, 2010 at 06:52 PM