Dress appointment....dis-appointment

We never did get to Portland for Sara's dress appointment. Yet another Maine weekend snowstorm put the cap on all of that. Timing of the snowstorm was such that - the aunties form Massachusetts had to cancel their plans to drive to Maine, cancel hotels rooms etc. So although Sara and I could have made it to Portland (snow didn't come til that night) we wouldn't have been able to have our 'girl's weekend' as planned. So we postponed the appointment for a month (or two) until we can all get together again. Maybe April school vacation, since Sara is a teacher, auntie Lori is a teacher, and cousin Becky is a teacher.

So my earlier post - promising pictures of Sara in dresses, will have to wait until we try again.

venue change..

The wedding is still on. But the 'island idea' is off. Can i just say....Phew!!!
Pulling this thing off on an island was going to be quite a feat. Not impossible, but much easier with plenty of extra dollars to spend - and Sara and Stan don't have lots of extra dollars to spend! Or even if they did - they don't really want to spend a lot. They are both kind of frugal.

I know, I know...a young bride who doesn't want to spend $25,000 on her wedding (or expects someone else to?). That's my Sara. She doesn't want to spend a lot.

That being said -she does have a certain vision for her wedding. Think 'casually elegant', or 'rustic Maine coast-y stylish'...something like that.

The first order of business is to find a venue now. I know that Sara (and I) are both getting a little nervous to get going on this and get that decision made so we can move forward from there to all the other decisions that need to be made.  (Let me just say at this point that although I keep saying "Sara and I" as though it's our wedding - I don't mean it that way. All these decisions are to be made by Sara and Stan. I am a 'helper' as Sara and Stan make their way through options and decisions. An extra set of eyes, and ideas - but definitely not pushing my own agenda. This is their show!

So - as soon as the weather gets a little bit nicer - Sara and I would like to spend a day visiting and considering venues. As soon as we do - I will take pix as we go and post some here.

Have I mentioned that I come from a large family? I have 5 sisters and 1 brother. We are a pretty close bunch. One of the things we have always found the time to do over the years is to get together for 'girl's' weekends once or twice a year. When we were a little younger the rules used to be "no kids, and no men" - just us girls. In recent years we have sometimes turned our 'girl's weekend' into a siblings weekend so that we can include our brother.

And most of us have adult children now - and so we have allowed some 'kids' along as well.

This weekend Sara has her first appointment at David's Bridal in Portland Maine to try on wedding dresses. She most likely is not ready to purchase a dress yet. We don't even have a venue yet), but they offered her a discount on a purchase if she made an appointment (from the Bridal Show) and so we are going just for fun. A couple of my sisters are coming (Sara's aunties), and two of her cousins, and my son's wife Nicole. We thought that we could take this very 'girlie' thing to do, and turn it into a fun girl's weekend. We have a hotel room for the night in Portland. We'll make a weekend of it.

It also happens to be my brother's 60th birthday, and so he will meet up with us for dinner and drinks later in the day. We are kind of a crazy bunch, and whenever we all get together there are LOTS of laughs and goofiness.

So looking forward to a 'girlie', 'wedding-themed' weekend, with some multi-generational family fun thrown in, and a birthday celebration for my brother.

This could go in a lot of different directions...
I hope I don't cry (too much) the first time I see Sara in a wedding dress. Will post some pix of our weekend next week!

Ideas

After the holidays we began to talk about some of Sara's ideas, wants and wishes for her wedding. The 'where'...(they are hoping to have an island wedding on North Haven, Maine where Stan grew up, and where the two of them love to be. (There will be several challenges with island wedding logistics). The 'when'...(not until summer of 2014)...phew!!! We've got some time to figure this all out! The 'style'...(at this point Sara seems to be going for a kind of casual, even somewhat rustic elegance. She has some great ideas, and doesn't want to spend a lot.)

The first week in January, off we went to the Portland Bridal Show to look around, get some ideas, have a little Mom and daughter wedding themed fun, and to kick-start this journey we will be on together for the next year and a half.

Portland was fun. Especially the photo booth. I didn't realize that photo booths are a big thing at weddings these days!? (Sara won't be having a photo booth.) But we got to try one out anyway at the Bridal show.
Here we are in the photo booth - we really got the giggles. Fun.


(sorry - picture is a little blurry - that's Sara with the bunny ears.)

So...this is just the beginning of the journey. So much to figure out, decide, and plan.
I want to not be a worrier, I want Sara and Stan to not be super stressed as this goes forward. I want to be helpful in any way I can as THEY make decisions about their big day. I want this to be fun, and a wonderful memory - for my little girl - and her big day.

(here she is as my little girl).

Sara and Mom

I'm Kathy. Fifty-five year old Mom, with a 29 year old son and a 26 year old daughter. Two absolutely great kids. (ok...grown-ups!).
My son, Shawn, got married in June of 2011, so I got a taste of what it is like and what is involved with being a parent of 'one-half' of a young, soon to be wed, couple. Being Mother of the Groom, was relatively easy, and in fact I felt somewhat unimportant at times. It's just the way it is. Wedding arrangements are usually the domain of the bride-to-be, and my son's (now) wife had her own Mom, plus two sister's, sister in laws, stepsisters, and tons of girlfriends. Didn't need a whole lot of input from me. Understandable. The wedding was beautiful, unique and lots of fun. More about Shawn and Nicole, and their wonderful wedding in a later post. (Love you guys!)

This post, and most of this blog, will be about the journey toward wedding day for my daughter and I. This is all new to both of us and I expect us to learn a lot together. When I got married it was 1978, and I don't remember worrying much about who was putting it all together. In fact I hardly remember making many of the plans at all. I was 21. Carefree, naive and totally unaware of all the work, planning and coordinating that my mother was doing on my behalf. Not to mention who paid for it all? I don't have a clue. I remember dress shopping, going over the invite list, and picking out invitations and cake. I don't recall a lot of other details. I don't think I paid for much and I don't remember spending much time coordinating anything. What an idiot! (Thank you Mama)

So, here I am, 34 years later, about to take on the Mother of the Bride role and all that goes with it. Sara is definitely NOT the naive, unconcerned, selfish, dolt that I'm pretty sure I was back when it was my turn. She is a beautiful, smart, unselfish, accomplished, caring, intuitive, hard-working, creative and confident young woman, with a great sense of humor. I expect us to have a lot of laughs along the way. And I expect there will be plenty of tears as well.

Oh yes..and the groom...Stan. Stan is a great guy. I've always thought he looks a little like my son, and since my son and my daughter look alike - that means that Sara and Stan look a 'little' bit alike. (They are going to make beautiful babies!)  OK ..getting way ahead of myself. I love Stan. He proposed just a few weeks ago, between Thanksgiving and Christmas. They have been a couple nearly 5 years, so I knew this would be coming soon, not a huge surprise. But now it's official - they are engaged. Facebook status updates and the whole deal.

About a week after they got engaged it hit me....I have a whole other job now besides my regular day job. We've got lots to do. So I'm hoping to keep posting regularly from now through wedding day, which at this time is tentatively planned for sometime in summer of 2014.

I'll get this blog together with more info., and photos etc. For now - just wanted to get started.
Oh - and did I mention that Stan grew up on the island of North Haven in Penobscot Bay. They would like to have the wedding on the island - which is already presenting all kinds of challenges to overcome. Two words...'Ferry Schedule'.
Here we go!