Life brought some other priorities for me during these months...like a trip to my hometown to see my elderly mom, and getting both my daughters settled in at college; the youngest as a Freshman just starting out! Dorm shopping replaced wedding planning for quite a while.
I tried to bend my sweet sister's ear about the wedding when I went back to my hometown, but she had 2 boys and no daughters, so bless her heart, although she is one of my biggest supporters in life generally, her eyes totally glazed over whenever I would start and said, "I'm so glad I had boys!" At that point I made a mental note to myself to remember that not everyone is all that interested to hear about the wedding plans, and that's OK too. I did enjoy sharing ideas with those who WERE interested, like a good friend whose daughter got married a few months before my daughter did.
Here are some developments since the last entry:
I thought Amanda had picked out her bridesmaids dresses already, but she told me she hasn't gotten that totally nailed down yet. She had a few favorites bookmarked online, but had not seen any "in person" yet, and hadn't made any final selections. Actually, she hadn't gotten the bridesmaids totally nailed down yet. Krista, my younger daughter, will be her maid of honor and she asked 3 of her hometown girlfriends to be in the wedding, but as far as her college buddies -- still up in air. And, the 3 friends she DID ask were feuding...one had a boyfriend that the other 2 didn't approve of...OH the drama! Anyway...I was getting a bit nervous because we still didn't know for sure the size of the wedding party, and the bridesmaids dresses can take 6 months to order. Here we were, 9 months away from the wedding already. (Seems like yesterday I thought to myself, "Yes!...we have a whole year to plan.")
We officially booked the reception at The Hilton Hotel in Waco, and actually talked to the catering manager we would be working with, and saw the hotel dressed up for a wedding while in town visiting. It looked about as I expected. Can't say I was blown away. The Hilton standard chairs are a gold/tan vinyl, and for this wedding, the family had not opted for chair covers or rented chiavari chairs. To save costs, we planned to do the same, unfortunately. Their table decorations were OK, not outstanding, and they used the standard ivory linens the hotel has. I sure had dreams of punching up the decor a bit more, but my hubby and my daughter didn't want to spend that much money on it.
I guess the biggest update at this point is that we decided to bite the bullet and hire a Wedding Weekend Coordinator - Denise Harlan of Thee Designs. We would be spending about twice what I had hoped to on that, but I believed it would be worth it in peace of mind in the long run. Not living in Waco nor knowing any of the vendors, and not knowing anyone who does, it made sense to me to have a Waco resident wedding "expert" working with us. She was very personable, very capable, and she is a member of the church Amanda was getting married at, so she definitely had an "In" there! She and the Hilton Catering Manager seemed to have a mutual admiration society going on, too. At least I knew they work together well!
