Two Doodles and a Wedding!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

 

Last year, at this time I was in the middle of planning my DD's wedding. My best friend's daughter is getting married this year on the exact date and her shower was yesterday. It brought the whole process back to me. My DD delegated the entire wedding planning process to me.  She was not kidding when she said she just wanted to show up.  I was in the throes of major wedding stuff when we brought Vern home at the end of March.  When I told my sister that I was getting another puppy, she said she was not surprised, but she questioned the timing. 

 

If you have never planned a wedding before for 200 people, you might not think it is that much work, but I can tell you, you would be wrong.  Some people might say I am a detail oriented, anal retentive, relentless planner, and to those people I say, “I don’t care if I gave birth to you or married you, be quiet.”  My DD was working to get her PhD and did not want to be bothered with any of the details.  Unfortunately, I had to get her help for some of the things I could not do on my own, such as the guest list. This proved to be a major challenge. The initial guest list I received from the bride and groom looked like it had been put together after they had thrown back a few beers, because it was incomplete at best. A couple of monkeys at the zoo could have done a better job. When I told her this, she got mad, so I told her we will all just keep our fingers crossed that the post office could find New Jersey aunt and uncle, Grandma and Grandpa, cousin, cousin, cousin, and Aunt Tootie.

 

The closer it got to the wedding, the more stressful my life became and I was exhausted. My DD and future SIL were well rested and happy because they just said one of these three responses when I called, “I don’t care, you decide, or you pick.” On other occasions, my daughter would just change the subject and I guess this had happened one too many times and I finally snapped.  I had called her one day to ask her a very important menu question and she answered by asking me if I had heard about Arizona’s illegal immigration law. At this point, I did not care if little green aliens singing Kumbaya were crossing the Arizona border and on the way to the wedding as long as they had RSVP’d. She was shocked when I told her that and went on to say this was a current event and I should be more informed, and I screamed into the phone, “DO YOU WANT A FRUIT SALAD OR GRILLED VEGETABLES AT YOUR WEDDING!” Finally, that got her attention and she quickly conferred with her fiance and came back on the phone and said, “We don’t care. You pick.”

 

This was what I was working with every day, so my stress levels were high.  Having Fudge and now our new puppy, Vern, kept me sane. Seeing those sweet faces, playing with them, walking them to clear my head, and just being able to forget about that stupid wedding helped me realize that I still had my life to enjoy.  My sanity came into question many times during the course of the wedding planning, but without those dogs I would have been carted off to the loony bin. I could see my family now, shaking their heads, and saying, “I just don’t know what finally pushed her over the edge. She just kept saying something about Arizona.”

[Jennifer,Chloe & Myla]

Laurie- you are SO FUNNY!! As soon as I saw the title on your blog, I was already laughing and said OH NO! I loved it and yes these doodles do force happiness in to our lives and they can't even help it!! Glad it's over, when's the baby shower?? LOL!

[Lisa, Daisy & Dexter]

Ah, I remember it well. My DD however had her hands far into the planning....I was the yes woman with the purse. It's so hard to believe that they will have been married 2 years this October. They are also going on their honeymoon in September, I get the granddog (just one - the crazy one) for two weeks.

What we did now was find a perfect little chocolate brown goldendoodle named Daisy, she was born 3 weeks after the wedding was over...the next 2-1/2 months were planning for a new puppy - guess which was easier...I know you all know the answer to that one.

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Deanna, I think you are right. I have those OCD tendencies too and we would have butted heads on every decision if she did too. Mostly, we fought about me bothering her and her not being interested. It was a beautiful wedding and once we got there, we enjoyed every single minute of it. She lived in Indiana at the time and her wedding was in Pennsylvania.

[Deanna & Desi & Cori]

So... My second stroll down memory lane this morning - both thanks to DK.  We are approaching my daughter's 4th anniversary, so I'd already been "revisiting" the wedding planning, but now with this post it's front-and-center in my mind.  Laurie, as hard as it was to plan a wedding for a daughter with an "I don't care" attitude, it might have been worse.  Rebecca (who was working on her Ph.D. at the time) is the kind of girl who cares about EVERY detail, obsessively so! (She gets her OCD tendencies from me.)  She also didn't want to offend anyone so had to think through any decision, playing out in her mind every possible outcome to make sure she didn't step on anyone's toes.  We live in northern California, the wedding was in southern California so we had to make lots of trips to So. Cal., each with very full and tightly-scheduled agendas.  Long story short - after two years of planning and lots of anxiety - we had a beautiful wedding!  At the end of the evening, Rebecca thanked us and said "This was the wedding of my dreams!"  And a side benefit - we really like our son-in-law: his laid-back nature is the perfect complement to Rebecca's high-strung nature!  And best of all: we now have a beautiful granddaughter!!!!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Yep....I could not wait for the day to be over and then you are exactly right! Good thing I had my two best friends around..LOL.

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

I'm with you on the let down ..... I've done a lot of event planning over the years in my professional life, and the day after it is over is always the biggest let down in the whole world.  It is like you have been going 100 MPH and all of a sudden come to a complete stop and it is like "What do I do now".

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Linda, I tried to get her to elope, but she wanted a wedding. Towards the end, she did say, "Wow, weddings are expensive. We could have gone on a cool trip!" I think my DH held me back from hurting her...LOL! You did ok with two receptions...that was good thinking!

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

Jane (of Jane and Rooney), I actually (and don't tell her) missed it when I was done and I am always thinking, "I should have done this or that." My best friend always tells me to "Let it go!" So, of course, I am for hire :)

Jane (with the Irish brothers), Oh, I am so glad I liked the groom. How awful to know it is a mistake and they won't listen. I have a hard time keeping my mouth shut, so that would have been a disaster. Glad she found someone better!! Grooms, IMO, shouldn't be involved in china patterns. My DH just goes with the flow and that is why we will be married for 33 years on Friday :)

Donna, I am sorry you blew snot all over the place :)  Thanks, Allyson and L&S's mom :)

[Linda and Murphy]

When I was getting married, my husband and I lived in Texas, my family was in New Orleans, his in Little Rock, and we had just started new jobs. I was a total basket case....nothing was working out. I finally screamed at him "Do you want a wedding or do want to get married???"
We flew out to Las Vegas, got married and had receptions in New Orleans and Little Rock.

This makes me even more grateful that I have sons.

[Allyson, Peri & Taquito]

Wow you are nice to have planned this and made every decison!  I had a similar size wedding and did it all (planning, not financing though thanks to mom and dad).  Sounds like the doods helped a lot :)