Being on the other side of the event!

Well, as many of you know, my youngest daughter, Megan,

was married last Saturday. It was awesome. What can I say? All the months of planning and thinking the entire event through, minute by minute, paid off. We really had a very stress free weekend, thanks to my Peeps at Aberdeen Manor! They did an absolutely amazing job, with the food, the coordination, the entire event. I never had to worry about a thing. I felt so at ease and so calm. I just knew that they had everything under control.
We started the weekend out with a golf outing at the Course at Aberdeen on Friday for the groomsmen, parents, and a few others. There were 16 in all, plus Trey (the grooom) who played a few holes with each foursome. We had made cute little gift bags with personalized tees and embroidered towels for everyone, as well as some water bottles and snacks.



The weather cooperated, although it started to get a little chilly toward the end, and it took a little longer than planned, so the mother of the bride ended up at the rehearsal in her golfing clothes!!! For the rehearsal dinner we had a Spanish Tapas

theme that turned out wonderfully. You would have thought that Don Quijote had catered it! The tapas were fabulous, and everyone had such a good time. We decorated with black, red and yellow linens (the colors in the Spanish flag) and wine corks. It turned out really cute.


Megan spent the night at our house, because she had lots of company using her house. On Saturday morning we all got up and had a leisurely breakfast. Megan said that she was moving back home after the wedding because she had slept so well and loved the breakfast Jim made for her! At 10 a.m. the bridesmaids came over and Maria Blanco also came to do their makeup. Everyone kind of took turns eating lunch (again supplied by my Peeps, enough chicken salad to feed an army! We made sandwiches and had chips and fruit and mimosas courtesy of Megan's stepsister Jill) At 1 everyone went to Terry Abner Salon to have their hair done. They did an amazing job on everyone. We were all out at the chapel later in the afternoon for photos. Oh, did I mention that Ed Collier, our photographer, came over about 11 and spent the whole day with us. He went to the salon for the hairdos, and then out to the chapel. What a joy he is to have around! Ed was like one of the family. After a while we didn't even notice that he was taking 9 million photos! It was like having a good buddy there to hang out with. We are all dying to see his shots though tomorrow!
I arrived at the building, my outfit and shoes in hand because I had yet to have my makeup done by Maria. Good thing too! When I walked into the ballroom I absolutely lost it! The flowers were absolutely incredible!!

The Flower Cart had told us they wanted to do "a couple little extra things" but I was NOT prepared for the absolutely amazing flowers! Everywhere I looked there were red roses. On the tables, on the mantle in the lobby, hanging from the chandeliers


with tiny burgundy orchids shooting out of the balls. it was an absolute fantasy of flowers. Over at the chapel they had gone crazy as well, there was even a rose petal "W" in the grass outside the chapel!

It was just beautiful. Unless you saw it there is no way that I could describe it adequately!





Amazing! It was all just totally amazing! The garden was lovely, with round glass bowls and tall cylinders full of reflective crystals on LED bases that would glow at night. The tables all had small bouquets of red roses with a candle in a glass holder on the chocolate tablecloths. These were high tops for the cocktail hour.

But I digress! I had intended this to be a post about what I learned from being on the other side of the coin. Well, one thing I really realized, was how oblivious you are to what is happening around you, and this is why you need someone there that is consciously aware of what is going on! It was funny how many folks asked us if we were "checking out" what our people were doing, and honestly, I had no awareness of that at all! I kept thinking "this is all going by so fast! Gosh, it's already to the dinner, or the dancing or whatever, it's going SO fast" I really wasn't aware of anything my staff was doing. I guess this is a good sign because if they hadn't been on the ball I probably would have seen it, but they were all so on top of everything--I knew they had it all under control so I wasn't even thinking about it. If you are going to enjoy your reception though, you need to have someone there to look after all the details, so that you don't have to!
Second, and I have already said this in so many words I guess, it goes by SOOOO FAST!!! You are trying to be involved in all that is going on, talk to all of your friends, participate in everything, and the evening absolutely flies by. I guess all I can say is that you need to stop every once in a while and just soak it all in. Look around you, and just be in the moment. I can hardly wait to get Real to Reel's video back, because I want to relive every little detail of the day.
Third, I think the key to having a beautiful, relaxing weekend, is PLANNING! You need to think through every single moment of the weekend, and what will be going on. Think it all through. Who will sit where, what will be happening, what will you need to do to make sure that it all goes according to plan? Megan and I drank many a bottle of wine over the wedding plans. We talked through each and every detail. We made lots of lists, and we set aside time every week for the last several months to work on wedding plans. It really paid off. We knew what was happening each and every minute of the wedding weekend, and so we could relax and enjoy it all, knowing that all the bases were covered.
Fourth, the other key to a perfect weekend is having great vendors! Your DJ, photographer, videographer, florist, cake person, etc. all make their contributions to your day that make it perfect. It's an orchestra, all playing together, and if one of them is out of key, it affects the whole symphony. We had wonderful vendors. Of course, having had the opportunity to watch all of them in action for years was a big help, but we also share all of this with you in our favorites list, so there is no reason that everyone can't have a perfect day.

I plan to write more about the actual ceremony and reception tomorrow, but I had a long weekend and I'm tired! So you'll just have to wait till tomorrow!

Happy wedding planning!