HOWEVER…I do plan on sending a nice arrangement, along with a food and wine basket to the Airbnb house that I am renting for the GMOB and her daughters. As much as I can, I want to make this like a relaxing vacation and party for everyone involved.
The mothers had nosegays at my sons’ weddings and the florist had small vases placed at our seats to hold them. I think the vases were placed on the cake table at one of them.
Here’s an interesting idea that showed up in my e-mail this morning - ring corsages. I’ve never seen them before. Not saying I would want one, but I think they are cute.
http://styleblueprint.com/everyday/the-corsage-ring-how-cute-is-this/?utm_source=StyleBlueprint&utm_campaign=9878e91a57-RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b14f54998d-9878e91a57-198185717&goal=0_b14f54998d-9878e91a57-198185717
Interesting for sure! Not for me…
At two nieces’ weddings I have been given the job of distributing corsages and getting people to wear them. Not fun.
I’ve never had a corsage of any kind, but I think wrist corsages are charming. The pin-on ones do nothing for me.
Regarding the ring corsages, I loved the one made in England (2nd one shown). I think that one would be really nice for the guest book and program attendants - something special, but not over the top.
So, how are the other 2016 wedding moms & dads doing? Last week was my spring break, so I made a run to Nashville for dress fittings (mine & D’s) and a meeting with the florist and wedding planner. I think we have 96 days left to the big day now.
Wow, that’s getting close, @2VU0609! Hope the dress fittings were fun - sounds as if you found your dress at the same shop where your d found hers? Is anything major left to do or decide?
2017 wedding mom here. My d gets anxious with decisions hanging over her head so she and her fiancé have already found: venue, caterer, photographer, gown, musicians for the ceremony, florist, and DJ. They’re going back and forth about the officiant, but they have 15 months left so that’s probably fine. She chose the venue so early that there’s only one payment left, which isn’t due for another year. Yes, she’s well-organized, but mostly because she hates leaving anything undone.
Me, too! But we’re twelve months out. We have been preoccupied with our recent move/downsizing, so I really had not given D’s wedding any time at all. Now that the move is over, I need to start giving it some proper thought. D and two of her attendants went up to the venue where she’s having her wedding yesterday, since it’s basically the same timing of the wedding next year - it’s an outdoor venue in the Santa Ynez wine country so she wanted to see exactly what was in bloom, etc. before she makes a final decision on her dress.
Even though they were engaged in December, we have yet to have any contact with the groom’s parents. I did get a phone number from him on Thursday so we could make that call. We are hoping to get out there in May to meet them finally (although we have met an aunt of his).
2017 wedding mom here, too!
17 months out…date, church and reception venue are all that has been decided by Goskid and her fiance. Oh, yeah, and our financial contribution has been passed on to them. If they want to blow it all on that day or if they want to save some for a down payment, it’s all up to them. Being 2000 miles away will limit my involvement (fingers crossed) and my D is also highly organized.
Love reading about the 2016 moms and brides…learning new things…keep it coming!
@teriwtt , our d was engaged for several months before we made contact with her fiance’s parents, and we’d known him for 2 years before the engagement. This year, for the first time, I sent them a Christmas card with a note about how glad we are that our d is marrying their son; his mom responded in the same way. (Introvert that I am, I prefer written contact in most things!) We may not meet them until the rehearsal dinner, since our kids live far from home and the parents live far from each other. But I’m happy to have a keepsake from his mom telling me wonderful things about my d. 
We can be twin moms-of-the-bride. We, too, are 2,000+ miles away from D and her venue, and we have already passed along the check with permission to do whatever they want with it - either a nice wedding, or investment (or a combination of both). It will be their decision as to what they want, but we’ve made our monetary contribution. The only difference is my D is not highly organized, but never has really needed to be at this level - this will be a test. She even admits so in some of her social media accounts. So we’ll see.
Hi, @frazzled1. I am having my dress made by a lovely woman in Nashville. It is costing just a bit over what things I looked at ready made would and it will be so much more comfortable and flattering to me. I can justify the extra cost because I’m wearing the same color I wore to S’s wedding (had a short dress for that one), so I can repeat the shoes and get savings there 
XH & his wife were down a week before I was to help D plan the reception menu, so that is done. I would have enjoyed doing that tasting, but they are writing the big checks for the reception, so I am laying low regarding the food & drink. D got the final invitation proof at the end of the week and the planner had already reserved the calligrapher, so that seems to be on schedule.
Almost time to decide on music for the church. I don’t plan to go down for that meeting and the vocalist, a friend of D’s since they were 3 years old and a vocal performance major in college, lives in LA, so once D & organist start the ball rolling, the vocalist and I can give some long distance feedback.
D has been engaged since Feb. of 2015 and it’s finally starting to hit us in the last month or so that this thing is really going to happen. Lots of big decisions were booked last April - June and we just shrugged off the small things in the spirit of lots of time to make the little decisions. Not so much anymore. I had taken the wedding dress to Nashville last week for the fitting (it had been shipped to my home last summer to avoid TN tax) and during the fitting, I mentioned that she didn’t have a veil yet. Veils were tried on and we got that ordered without too much extra time (a month) between arrival and wedding. The seamstress doing her alterations was not only competent, but a hoot. She whispered to us while the consultant was out of the room that veils were the most outrageously expensive component of wedding attire and I think I agree.
Ugh! Looks like I’m joining you. My 21 yr old son just got engaged yesterday. I am not happy, as he has only known the girl a short time. She graduates in May and they don’t believe in living together. He wants her to move accross country, so the plan is to get married this summer. I haven’t read this thread, but if there are any other reluctant parents on here, feel free to pm me.
Both my girls are getting married this year as I have already shared on this thread. Both are getting married in NYC (not where I live). Both are 100% planning and doing all the work on their own (along with their respective fiancees), though I am paying (and in D2’s case, the groom’s parents are also contributing). So, no legwork for me. I am enjoying hearing the plans though.
Very recently, I was in NYC with D2 who lives there. I attended her bridal shop appointment with her two best pals and it was a lot of fun. It was at BHLDN, the only shop she is looking at. She narrowed it down to favorites. She has to go back for a follow-up appointment to make a final selection. She is so extremely busy working round the clock, that she has not had any time to go back. She said she hopes to find a time slot in April to return (her wedding is in late September). While they are making their own decisions, she sometimes runs things by me for my opinion. Also, while I was down in NYC, I finally got to go to the venue where the wedding is booked. I went for their official “tasting” dinner and the guy in charge sat with us and went over everything with the food and so on. I loved their venue so much. The evening was one also of gourmet food tastings. It is all quite perfect. They have a time line of tasks they are doing as they go along and have been keeping to it. Very organized the two of them are, considering their lives are very full with work. They are in the midst also of honeymoon planning. They were going to go to Costa Rica perhaps but decided against it due to Zika virus and now are looking to make plans to go to Hawaii. They just picked out D’s fiancé’s ring.
D1 is having an extremely small wedding. I’m waiting to hear more details about it. They live near me but are getting married in NYC. These two are also highly organized. They are in NYC this weekend doing a photo shoot (engagement, etc.) with a former college classmate/teammate of my daughter’s who is now an accomplished professional fashion photographer in NYC. I think they are also looking into more stuff related to their wedding while in NYC today. When D1 got engaged shortly after D2 did, I obviously offered them the same contribution for their wedding. But, they decided on a very small wedding and want to use the balance of these funds to buy a home. Their big news this week is that their bid on an apartment on Beacon Hill in Boston was accepted and the bank has approved them to get a mortgage and so that process is now underway. In fact, that closing may be just days after their wedding (thus pushing the honeymoon back a week later) and I also just learned that fiancé who is in a Phd program at Harvard may be getting a Masters degree this spring (though has one already from University of Cambridge) along the way and so that would mean a graduation ceremony right after the closing, which is right after the wedding, all in one week. They are planning a 3 week honeymoon in Asia.
I have yet to look for a dress for myself for either wedding but need to get on that. D2 also asked me to make a handmade book (I have made books before) for their wedding guest book.
Toledo,
My DH and I got engaged and married pretty quickly. And that was 32 years ago. It can work! Good luck!
^^^39 years ago, I also got married 5 months after the engagement. It can be done.
So Toledo you have two weddings?! ( the other one, no so near).
Our S’s wedding is T-minus under 100 days. Honestly I think they still have a lot to do! Decide on the cake (they tasted two, just need to confirm which one), flowers and more! I am a LITTLE frustrated with FDIL’s sisters who can’t seem to settle on a shower date. Seriously it will in the next 5 weeks or so - WE NEED TO LET PEOPLE INCLUDING ME KNOW!!!
I have come to realize that everything might not be perfect, we might be doing some scrambling near the end, but that it will all happen and it will be fine. Her family is SORT OF helpful but…in a very slow way. S and FDIL have been doing much on their own. I have offered and offered to help with whatever - have done a couple of things - but I’m not going to be pushy.
I do have a good handle on the rehearsal dinner though and I’m PROUD of that! I’ve been picking up cute decorations, serving pieces, etc. It will be at a local park at a very nice rental building that overlooks a scenic river and has an outdoor patio we can use as well. I think we will do bbq food and I have decided for dessert to set up a pie bar. So it will be sundress/shorts casual. I need to find some inexpensive table linens - probably in white now - anyone have an online source for inexpensive table linens? (prefer cloth but nothing fancy). I thought about checking local resale or Goodwill shops - do they often carry linens???
“I have decided for dessert to set up a pie bar”
I like the sound of that!
@abasket Would it be cheaper to do linen rentals from a party place?
@abasket Yes, two weddings. My older son has been dating for 3 1/2 years and is getting married in 2017. My younger son has been dating for 13 months (7 of which they have been apart) and is getting married this summer.