NO TIME TO DALLY!

Three months doesn't give a mother much time to get her act together with wedding preparations and especially when that mother has a full time job outside of the home.

There were certain things that our younger daughter wanted. She wanted a buffet, but it didn't require a lot of variety, but she wanted what we had to be tasty. She went through the recipe books and came upon Apricot Glazed Ham loaf, country style potato salad, fruit cup, home made bread and the usual cake, for dessert. This seemed simple enough. The cake could be baked and frozen until I was ready to decorate it. Mints could be frozen. My husband was home from surgery during that time, so I put him to work getting the bread out of the oven at just the right time. I would make it in the morning, then it would rise, and at around lunchtime, I would pop it in the oven and he was to oversee the final stage. This was cut into and cream cheese, chives, etc. was placed in the center and cut into wedges.

I didn't have time to make her dress, so she purchased her dress. The bridesmaids, flower girl, ring bearer outfits were totally done by each girl. This was a great help, since that was what took me a lot of hours in our older daughters wedding. Of course the material, patterns, etc had to be purchased and given to the perspective girls.

The flowers were something that I wanted to do this time around. My daughter was hesitant on her bouquet, so we purchased that. All the other flowers, boutonnieres, corsages was my responsibility. I was going to take a week of my vacation just prior to the wedding and I thought this part, I could handle. Some circular tablecloths had to be made, so this was another job on the list.

Our older daughter was working in close proximity to the kitchen (she oversaw the kitchen and time sheets, etc.) at one of the dorms in the college. They were still at the college as he was doing his graduate work. She was able to get permission to use their walk-in refrigerator and large industrial equipment to carry out all the work that had to be done.This was a real plus!!!

I still had to depend on my very good friends, or the last minute details would have not gotten done. Thanks for all those good friends to pitch in at the last days and hours.

Even though I couldn't do as much as I had done for our older daughter's wedding, I did other things that compensated for it.

Brian and Mary seemed to be quite pleased with the result. Mary told me later, that she had wished that I had done her wedding bouquet, as she liked the flower arrangements that the bridesmaids carried so much better. There was big dose of LOVE put in each of those. Brian was in horticulture and was able to get plants and flowers to the alter, so we were good to go!!

Thought--Things went quite smoothly this time around. Mary had picked up the candelabra that went on the end of the pews and left them in her car (a hot day) and they didn't stay lit for very long. That was about the only catastrophe we had. We didn't lose a daughter, but acquired a son that day!