What's Love Got to do with it?

Lamp light in Venice Italy 

Planning your daughters wedding comes with so many new adventures, they are not all good! You have bonds with family and friends and think this is the perfect time to get together and celebrate.

You start sending out the save the dates and people are excited for the news. You start planning the event and asking for addresses for the invitations that were not correct on the save the dates. You get nothing, no response! You give more time, email, Facebook request, call and leave a message if you have the number. Nothing! You move on, maybe you loved them more than they loved you and they don't want to be involved.

For my baby girls wedding this was not the case, exactly, however, when we sent out the invitations to the wedding and the invitations to the shower we got some family and dear friends who did not respond, ever! They never told us they were not coming to the wedding, ignored all of the requests asking them if they got the invitations and never showed up to anything.

It was one of the hardest years because of this! These are people who loved her and us! So When planning your daughters wedding remember Love has nothing to do with people and their responses.

We thought they were not seeing the invitation, maybe it went to another rouge address, maybe they were trying to decide and needed a longer time to respond. But when we were talking to them and ASKED them about it, NO RESPONSE! Ignored the question!

I was glad they did not show up on the wedding day, as they would not have had a place to sit, but it still really has me stumped!

I am still bothered by this, I will not have those people on the guest list for Princess daughters wedding, but I really would love to know the reason behind the lack of response and unloving way they ignored the invitation.

Do they think you are looking for another gift? The wedding is expensive, you are inviting people you want to share the day with you! The married couple in our circle doesn't get what they put into the wedding in terms of dollars in gifts. Its not about the gifts! It's starting their new life together and having people share the beginning with them!

When planning your wedding try not to be upset when your loving friends and family don't respond, it will make you feel bad and they are probably not aware it hurt you.


Have you planned a wedding with your daughter? What was it like? Did you have anyone not respond to your invitation?

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So you have the Venue

You have looked and researched your venue, gone to visit, asked all the important questions, picked your date. Then you visit THE place to hold your special day. The date is available, you walk around and look, it's in your budget. You don't make a reservation right on the spot, you want to think about it for a little while.

This was the story for my baby girl and her fiance , we drove down the street after we left having the private conversation about the venue. The happy couple decided the place was perfect! We made the phone call to reserve the date, In the three minutes it took to drive away pull over and call the date was GONE! So they choose another date and we booked the venue right there.

If you are looking fro your venue and you are sure it is the place, book it! We just went through this for a second time, this time we booked right on the spot. We wanted to secure the date that my princess had chosen and the place is amazing, we knew that the date would not be open for long!

When you go to book your venue, make sure you find out the important things! Will the venue be setting the tables? This is not included in all venues! Will they cover the tables with the table clothes and place the centerpieces?

If you are having your wedding at a venue that has a tent and you have to rent the chairs and tables, you usually also have to rent the table covers and napkins etc. If you rent from 2 different companies ie tables and chairs from one and table clothes and napkins from the other, you will be putting the tables up and setting the tables the morning of the event. That is if there is a tented event outside!

We found this out the hard way 2 days before baby girls wedding!

The morning of the wedding the bride's dad and I (mother of the bride) had to have the groomsman help cover the tables, place the napkins set them. Thankfully our florist placed all of the centerpieces!

We had a wedding planner, but that person came with the venue (which I do not recommend) there was little help from them while planning and letting us know all of the important things to know about.

They did come in at that last minute and save the seating chart, as it would not work the way it was planned.

Make sure you visit the venue on the day a wedding is going on! It gives you the opportunity to see it in full swing and how it will look dressed up.

We had a tented wedding at a farm for baby girl, It was beautiful! Mountains in the distance, wild flowers in full bloom, guests were able to enjoy the day playing yard games and attending a wedding. It was formal but informal. Guests were asked to wear comfortable clothes.

The venue came with green port-a-potties, I would suggest if this is your potential venue rent a luxury portable toilet trailer. The guests will love this, and it will make your event more relaxing, as guests don't have to worry about this very important detail of the wedding. No body wants to be dressed up for a wedding and use a port-a-potty!

The wedding was quite a distance from everyone's home, so we made sure that with the hotel accommodations there was a bus to take the guests to and from the wedding. Sometimes you can negotiate this with the hotel, make sure you ask. If you have so many rooms booked they will provide a free bus. This is also a big hit with the guests as they can relax and not worry about driving.

If  the hotel does not provide a bus, you can sometimes rent a school bus for a small fee. Look into this, it is not a huge deal by the end of the night to be on a school bus.

So what kind of things would you add about hiring the venue? Have you run into any problems, things that you didn't think about until the last minute?

Share your wedding details

Your little girl is getting married!

Well here we go again! Our little girl is getting married! She has found the perfect man, they are in love, and we are planning another wedding!

I am the mother of the bride, we have been waiting for this day since our little princess started to crawl, and she has finally found Mr. Right! We just went through this with our baby girl, and it was so different than I had imagined!

The mother of the bride has such a place of honor at the wedding, you get to plan and arrange and help! Not so fast! This is going to be a stressful time for you. It will feel sometimes like you are an uninvited guest. You will not be thanked in the end, just asked for the checkbook. But still you will help to make the day as special as you can. Help the young bride's have the best day that you can help provide.

Our baby got married last year and we learned so much about planning weddings then. I will share those things to hopefully help anyone who finds this blog to not make those mistakes that we learned oh so late in the game.

Hopefully Bride 2 will have an easier time planning and it will be her perfect day! Above is bride babygirl who had a beautiful wedding but it did  have it's problems. Stay tuned to avoid them!

Have you had a daughter get married yet?

A bride in Hong Kong taking all of her pictures for the big day! We went on a trip to China and our tour guide told us it is not unusual for brides to get all dressed and do their wedding photos before the wedding day. She said that way they get the pictures they want and there is plenty of time.

In China you are judged by how many cars are in your bridal procession. The bride's family rents really nice cars so everyone can drive to the wedding in a beautiful car. The family saves for this event for a long time so that the bride can have a very long line of cars. We saw a bridal procession while we were in China, all of the cars are rented.

It is quite interesting  to see the differences in countries for wedding celebrations!

In The Netherlands you wear your wedding ring on your right hand. Still the same finger but the other hand!

We are planning our baby girls wedding and it seems the traditions that we grew up with are not the ones the young people are celebrating today! I love to watch the groom see his bride for the first time as she is walking down the aisle. I always watch the groom, he is always crying by the time his bride makes it down the aisle to him. It is such a wonderful thing to be part of, to see his heart catch and his face light up in anticipation for the ceremony!

Today they have first look photos, the bride and the groom see each other first alone with only the photographer. The attendants miss out on the groom seeing his bride for the first time! There is a piece of the ceremony that's different, he has already caught his breath and no one gets to witness the love that is tangible in those few moments, that will never happen again. 

I am curious, who misses this beautiful event? Who thinks it was over rated?

Did you have a first look picture before your wedding? Will you if you're getting married?