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.”

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

Jane -- Was your daughter married to my Ex husband!  lol    ---  My parents had those same feelings.  As a matter of fact, I remember walking down the aisle thinking "What the hell am I doing" ....... That one lasted a year, and he was deployed over 6 months of that year!  However, I always remind my parents that if I had not married him and taken that path in my life I would never have been in the right location to have met my current wonderful husband of 25 years ...... everything happens for a reason!

[Lucy & AnnaBelle's Mom]

You so need to start a line of children's books about Vern and Fudge!

[Donna K & Quincy]

Nothing like a little Fudge and Vernors to keep you sane and grounded. I hope you kept lots of notes for help with the next wedding you have to plan. I hope you didn't get any complaints from the happy couple about any of your choices. I can see why they let you make the decisions, they chose Frenchies over Doodles showing an obvious lack of good judgement. Just kidding DD.

Laurie, you've done it again, made me laugh out loud. Now on most days that would be a good thing but I am presently enjoying the effects of a cold and sinus infection. The laughing  out loud triggered a major coughing till you are blue in the face episode, but it was very productive. There, I'm glad I got that off my chest. Thanks Laurie, laughter really is the best medicine.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

Oh Laurie, I sooo "get this".  I have two married daughters, and I know the stress of the wedding planning took years off my life.  My older's daughter's wedding was an "extravaganza".  They wanted to invite everyone they had ever met in their lives, and the future husband was a total control freak.  He had to "weigh in" on everything, and his opinion was ALWAYS different from mine.  My daughter was an emotional wreck through the whole planning phase...she cried all the time.  When the groom told her that she couldn't have the china pattern that she loved because he would never eat off of dishes with flowers on them I told her to call the thing off.  I told her that right up until she walked down the aisle....heck I offered to drive the getaway car.  But no, she went through with it.  It was a disaster....we learned he had actually been on his "best behavior" during the dating phase and his real obnoxious and controlling personality fully blossomed after the wedding.  Needless to say, they were divorced two years later.  The good news is that she later met a wonderful guy and they have a great life together and two kids.  I refused to even be involved in THAT wedding....I said I only do it once per kid.  With my younger daughter, it was a "walk in the park".  She wanted a smaller wedding at a really nice place, and that's all she cared about.  She asked me to plan everything, and didn't even need to "approve" any of my decisions.  I had a great time with this...there was absolutely no pressure because she just didn't care.  I love all the movies about weddings and wedding planning....they always remind me of these experiences.  There are so many really funny things that happened as we went through the whole "wedding thing" that we still laugh about.  I always remember for the "extravaganza" my daughter had a hairdresser and make up person at our house the morning of the wedding.  Everyone was drinking mimosas (I needed a few just to get myself to the church without making a scene with the groom).  The girls gave my Mom a few and she decided that she wanted to have her hair curled and make up applied.  She had never, ever worn make-up and she had short straight hair.  Well when the "stylists" were through with her she looked like a "street walker".  She thought it looked great (remember the mimosas), and that's how she went to the wedding.  I still laugh when I look at the pictures (we burned most of the pictures, but there are still a few where the groom isn't in them).  So thanks for taking me on this trip down "memory lane", Laurie.  Your blogs are THE BEST.

[Jane, Rooney & Stuart]

Laurie - I have a son that will be getting engaged any time now this summer - I'm assuming that future dil will handle this wedding but I also have a 27 yr old daughter who is due to get engaged at any moment also.  Can I hire you - oh and the doodles could be your assistants!  Other than wedding dress shopping - I'd just like to show up too!!!  

[Laurie, Fudge, and Vern]

We begged her to elope, but NO she wanted a wedding :)

[Kaytlin and Cooper]

We semi-eloped. Our parents and siblings knew and were invited, and our Grandparents knew but didnt go. The rest of the family and our friends found out through the announcement cards. But planning the day for just the 9 of us was alot of work (as it was in neither of our home towns), I cant imagine planning a huge wedding..... for someone else especially! My Mum has just planned a reception for us (a year and a half after the wedding!) for my family in the UK (I married a Canadian and we live in Canada)

 

Its amazing how a furry body (or two) can keep us sane!

[Adina P]

Haha DeeDee!!!  We surprised EVERYONE with our elopement (except for two of my close friends...well 3 if you count her hubby and Clark's landlord who he felt the need to explain his moving out to).  Not a single family member knew in advance.  But both his parents and my mom threw us parties afterward.  Nobody was offended, thankfully!

[DeeDee and Sheila]

NOOOOOOOOO.  Why did I read this post?  I have 2 daughters of marriagable age.  I DONT WANT TO PLAN IT.  Adina, how much did your folks pay ypu to elope?  May)be I'd feel better if my daughters ever had boyfriends I approved of (bad mom, hush).

[Adina P]

You are an awesome mom!  That sounds like the way I'd have wanted my wedding planned (had I not eloped to remove ALL need for planning)!!!