Back to Bridezilla Story - The Mother of the Bride Dress

Part I: http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-bridezilla-weekend.html

Part II:

Shortly after the fuchsia email picture came in, the groom-to-be and I were due to go into Houston to visit the fam. Despite having a crapload of work to do for (grad) school, I allowed myself to be dragged down to the Galleria to look for other dresses. I just knew that this was going to be a fruitless journey, mostly because we were going to Neiman's, Nordstrom's, and Saks. My mother is cheap - most of the time when we were growing up, she bought her jeans at Academy (nothing "wrong" with that - just unlikely that she will be OK buying a special occasion dress at Galleria prices.

For most of the morning my mother entertains herself pulling dresses that are tangerine and pink and made for a nineteen-year-old. As I said before, I just don't understand why - she wore a light green suit to my sister's wedding and seemed to be perfectly happy. I suggest a couple of silver numbers, but "silver looks bad" on her.

As I knew we would, we wound up hading back to T. Carolyn (which is only 15 minutes from the house) where I managed to convince her to try on a few more MOB-ey dresses that I find. She also pull several other dresses - which all look like cocktail dresses - especially when hiked up around her waist - as shown in the picture on the previous post.

Finally, I convinced her to try on this one dress-jacket combo (shock - in light blue), and she liked it! Note: in the picture, she is indeed wearing a full length dress, but while she was being rung up she made sure to get the number for a seamstress to take it up.

Green Weddings

While I have posted on this phenomenon before, when better to post than on Earth Day. I found an article that the Atlanta Journal Constitution published on Sunday (http://www.ajc.com/living/content/living/stories/2008/04/17/greenwed_0420.html). One fact that I found surprising was that green weddings can cost as much as 20% more than a traditional wedding.

The article describes how couples can plan their wedding ceremony and reception to be “green.” I understand that we should conserve energy, reduce pollutants, and try to use sustainable resources, but I keep hearing this nagging voice in my head, “It’s your day - the one day you are excused from saving the earth...”

Some of the ideas I have heard before seem doable: having your reception during the day outdoors, catering with organic meals, and having your guests carpool. I feel like those measures are normal, feasible, as I said a second ago, doable. Other ideas, like hiring out a fleet of hybrid cars to transport the wedding party, seem a "off" to me. It sounds like a great idea, but wouldn't renting one limo still use only marginally more (if not less) gas than three or four hybrid cars?

There was an article from a regional, near-Seattle newspaper (http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=19433826&BRD=1024&PAG=461&dept_id=231484&rfi=6) that lauded a couple for buying china from thrift stores to use at the wedding and then planned on donating the dishes to charity after the reception. Does this seem like (expensively) reinventing the wheel to anyone else? Don't companies already offer china as a rental service? Once again, this couple was planning on using corn-based, disposable dishes for their rehearsal dinner - which I mentioned in this previous post - http://catholicweddinggirl.blogspot.com/2007/11/green-weddings-or-im-bad-person.html.

My Bridezilla Weekend

I have been reluctant to blog about my Bridezilla weekend, since that would mean I would have to admit that I had been a bridezilla. I admit it, I am a Bridezilla.

It all started when my mom went shopping for her MOB dress (at T. Carolyn - apparently "THE" Mother-of-the-Bride dress store) with my little sister. She emailed me the picture from her phone. The first thing I noticed was the color - which is best described as fuchsia. The second thing I noticed was that she had the dress bunched up around her waist.

I replied to the email and asked her if she was serious. She rarely is, but the fact that she went into the store and actually tried on the dress led me to believe she was. Emailing allowed me to protest in a passive-aggressive fashion.

Later, I talk to her on the phone - she loves the dress. It is fabulous. Perfect. She loves it.

I bring up the fact that it is supposed to be 1) a more formal wedding at which a long dress would be appropriate and 2) the bridesmaid dresses are a light green - clash city.

I do not bring up the fact that she is 50 years old and does not need to be wearing a hot pink dress.

She protests that it is August - it will be hot, she refuses to wear a long dress.

I, with great futility, remind her that we are not getting married outdoors, and the great city of Houston is fully air-conditioned.

Luckily, I was headed to Houston for the weekend, so she reminded me that we could go shopping together and see just how fabulous the pink dress is.

More later...

Breaking Up is Hard to Do . . .

While the title may be misleading, the wedding has not been cancelled. Rather, I finally had to dump one of the cake bakers. I got an email on Friday from the woman who works with my sister asking if I still wanted her to do the cake, since she hadn't heard from me since she emailed me the price.

Well, I waited until Monday morning, because really, how do you tell someone that you really don't like their cake that much, and that you found a better one. So I did what I think was the best option - I lied. I told her that my parents had really wanted us to use someone else. I didn't want to say it was me, so I blamed it on the general unreasonableness of parents, which I think is not unexpected when it comes to weddings.

Despite my attempts to avoid awkwardness, it occurred nonetheless. After I emailed the baker, she emailed right back asking if I could return her cake plate and cover. Crap. I mean, not really my fault, since I don't live in Houston, and we tasted the cake at my sister's house. I emailed sissy dearest and asked if she still had it.

"Oh, yeah. It's sitting in my office, I just haven't walked it over to her office yet."

"Maybe you could do that today, so she doesn't construct a voo-doo doll of me."

"Well, I can't do it today. Then she'll think I had it in my office and just didn't bring it to her. That would be awkward."

Wedding Favors

So I was reading a blog on the Real Simple website (http://simplystated.realsimple.com/nearlywed/2008/03/5-favors-on-a-f.html), and thank goodness. The editor who is writing the blog is also debating the whole favor issue.

Do you give your guests a favor? I mean, if we're going to have 350 guests at the wedding, the budget doesn't really allow for each of them to get an elaborate wine bottle opener. On the other hand, I've been to a few weddings in my day, and the favors from those weddings are not exactly hanging on my wall. I do appreciate the thought, but I'm just not going to plant seeds, and even if I did, they would probably be killed by the doggie.

So, the reason I referenced the blog above was that the editor writing the blog's first initial is M, and so is her fiance's, which is the same situation that I am in. Her mother is also really pushing for having M&M's at the wedding. I feel like it is just too obvious. I also don't really like the idea because my friend absolutely LOVES M&M's, but she didn't have them at her wedding, so I feel like it would be silly for me to have them at the wedding. Not to mention that I think my mom would be too cheap to order the bags of solid color M&M's in the wedding colors, so I would probably spend the week before the wedding at the house sorting out the green and yellow candies.

Things to Look for in a Baker

Actually, just the one thing. Apparently, what you really need to look for in a baker is the utmost discretion when it comes to his/her clients.

After much debate over the past weekend, my parents came to the conclusion that we didn't need to look for another amateur baker, but could go ahead and put the deposit down on the cake from the professional baker. Since the bakery is not open on Mondays, my mom called today to get them to fax her a copy of the contract and give them her credit card number for the deposit. The girl at the front desk said she would send it on over . . .

Then the owner's husband overheard the conversation.

"Ma'am, your name isn't on the contract (even though we have the same last name), so we're going to have to call your daughter so that she can authorize us to fax you the contract."

"I just want to put down the deposit, why can't you send the contract."

"Well, we have to be discreet. We wouldn't want anyone to sabotage someone else's wedding cake."

"OK - I don't want to change the cake, won't that be ok."

"Well, then you could copy her design."

And around and around, until finally he said he would have to give me a call. Except I was driving home and still had the ringer on my phone off, so he had to leave a voicemail. When I got home, I finally got the message and called back. The girl at the reception desk said she would get with my mom as soon as possible.