Ugh, my mother and why I love my father XD
First of all, the fiance and I decided to semi-elope and complete all of the legal proceedings here in Florida, as opposed to having to worry about Connecticut law and arriving early enough. So, technically, I'm married! but for sentimentality purposes, we're considering the actual marriage to be the June date.
But crazy stuff has been happening for planning
So due to my FMIL still being stressed with what's going on in her life she's not very involved in any of the planning. So essentially my mother and I are doing all the work. Her mother recently passed away due to Hospital error (ugh, LONG story) and she's a nurse so it really hit hard. Plus she's now directing a play in husband's hometown which means getting addresses from her has been a PITA... But the point is that we're throwing most tradition out of the window so far as who is actually paying for each part of the wedding.
Well, so far as the rehearsal dinner goes, I really wanted something super laid back and fun. To that end, I thought it would be fun to hold the rehearsal dinner at Wickham Park in my parent's town (the wedding location is about 45 minutes away on the shore) I was planning on renting a pavilion (it's only $150 for the day) and it offers grill locations, horseshoe pits and general fun stuff. We could have the rehearsal anywhere on the lawn since the actual ceremony will be outside on the lawn and then grill it up for dinner. This way it's very laid back and I can get away with wearing jeans XD
Well, lately my mother has been in "SUPER CRAZY MOB MOMZILLA PLANNING MODE!" and is stressing out over the tiniest of details because OMG 135 days just isn't enough time to get it all done! Now I am extremely grateful that she is handling a lot of this because a)I'm in Florida and she's near the location b)she's super crafty and just loves to have projects to do and this whole thing has been right up her alley. She will go out shopping in random stores and call me saying "I found this! We could use it for... blah blah blah" should I buy it?!"
I mean, with some things I don't mind that she's coming up with the ideas because I have already put my foot down in regards to my general vision and while that got me labeled as a Bridezilla in her book, it also got her labeled as a Momzilla in my Dad's book. Which pissed her off to no end (hellooo, how do you think I felt?!) Since that time I've made an effort to involve her more in the planning (which she wanted) and use her ideas more and give her specific projects. So if she calls and has an idea about something that I don't really have a strong opinion about, we go with her idea which makes her extremely happy. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my mother and that we have an amazing relationship is not something I overlook ( and I really feel for you brides who don't have a relationship like this, it really breaks my heart) but sometimes she drives me up the wall.
Like with this rehearsal dinner. She has decided that she can host the rehearsal dinner at her house and that we don't need Wickham Park. I honestly think she's off her rocker. My parent's house and yard will definitely NOT accommodate a rehearsal and dinner very easily. We have barely any yard to speak of and people will have to be parking all up and down the street! And she thinks that we shouldn't spend the 150 bucks on the location at the park. Now I know some of you brides are budget conscious, I respect that, I'm not one of you. Yes we are trying to get the best deal possible but honestly, I could shell out the money for the rental and not feel it budget-wise. So we ended the conversation with me just feeling generally frustrated because there are certain details that I am firm about and this was one of them.
Well, I called my father this morning to tell him that Eric and I were married and he told me that he had convinced my mother to just rent the Wickham Park Pavilion so we would at least have it as a back up location if she suddenly felt we needed it because it did need to be reserved now. In his words "We've dropped more money on things we haven't used before"
Oh My God I love my father. He didn't even know that this was a issue and managed to just fix it. <3 <3 <3 (In case you can't tell, I'm a Daddy's girl through and through ;D ) But we were definitely thinking the same thing about logistics. Whoo!
So if you don't want to read the semi rant and lovely conclusion, just know that things worked out XD And now here are my questions for you all!
I'm hoping to have a BarBQ/grill out/picnic type dinner in a park for the rehearsal dinner. This will be extremely laid back and it will also be the first time that all of the wedding party gets together. I really want to play picnic games. We have at our disposal: horseshoe pits, a really really NICE kite flying hill, softball diamonds and a frisbee golf course. There's also a small zoo, playground and some cool oriental gardens and a duck pond.
What kind of activities would be cool ice breakers to play on a summer evening?
Xposted to 2008_weddings, weddingplans, and over20Kweddings
But crazy stuff has been happening for planning
So due to my FMIL still being stressed with what's going on in her life she's not very involved in any of the planning. So essentially my mother and I are doing all the work. Her mother recently passed away due to Hospital error (ugh, LONG story) and she's a nurse so it really hit hard. Plus she's now directing a play in husband's hometown which means getting addresses from her has been a PITA... But the point is that we're throwing most tradition out of the window so far as who is actually paying for each part of the wedding.
Well, so far as the rehearsal dinner goes, I really wanted something super laid back and fun. To that end, I thought it would be fun to hold the rehearsal dinner at Wickham Park in my parent's town (the wedding location is about 45 minutes away on the shore) I was planning on renting a pavilion (it's only $150 for the day) and it offers grill locations, horseshoe pits and general fun stuff. We could have the rehearsal anywhere on the lawn since the actual ceremony will be outside on the lawn and then grill it up for dinner. This way it's very laid back and I can get away with wearing jeans XD
Well, lately my mother has been in "SUPER CRAZY MOB MOMZILLA PLANNING MODE!" and is stressing out over the tiniest of details because OMG 135 days just isn't enough time to get it all done! Now I am extremely grateful that she is handling a lot of this because a)I'm in Florida and she's near the location b)she's super crafty and just loves to have projects to do and this whole thing has been right up her alley. She will go out shopping in random stores and call me saying "I found this! We could use it for... blah blah blah" should I buy it?!"
I mean, with some things I don't mind that she's coming up with the ideas because I have already put my foot down in regards to my general vision and while that got me labeled as a Bridezilla in her book, it also got her labeled as a Momzilla in my Dad's book. Which pissed her off to no end (hellooo, how do you think I felt?!) Since that time I've made an effort to involve her more in the planning (which she wanted) and use her ideas more and give her specific projects. So if she calls and has an idea about something that I don't really have a strong opinion about, we go with her idea which makes her extremely happy. Now, don't get me wrong, I love my mother and that we have an amazing relationship is not something I overlook ( and I really feel for you brides who don't have a relationship like this, it really breaks my heart) but sometimes she drives me up the wall.
Like with this rehearsal dinner. She has decided that she can host the rehearsal dinner at her house and that we don't need Wickham Park. I honestly think she's off her rocker. My parent's house and yard will definitely NOT accommodate a rehearsal and dinner very easily. We have barely any yard to speak of and people will have to be parking all up and down the street! And she thinks that we shouldn't spend the 150 bucks on the location at the park. Now I know some of you brides are budget conscious, I respect that, I'm not one of you. Yes we are trying to get the best deal possible but honestly, I could shell out the money for the rental and not feel it budget-wise. So we ended the conversation with me just feeling generally frustrated because there are certain details that I am firm about and this was one of them.
Well, I called my father this morning to tell him that Eric and I were married and he told me that he had convinced my mother to just rent the Wickham Park Pavilion so we would at least have it as a back up location if she suddenly felt we needed it because it did need to be reserved now. In his words "We've dropped more money on things we haven't used before"
Oh My God I love my father. He didn't even know that this was a issue and managed to just fix it. <3 <3 <3 (In case you can't tell, I'm a Daddy's girl through and through ;D ) But we were definitely thinking the same thing about logistics. Whoo!
So if you don't want to read the semi rant and lovely conclusion, just know that things worked out XD And now here are my questions for you all!
I'm hoping to have a BarBQ/grill out/picnic type dinner in a park for the rehearsal dinner. This will be extremely laid back and it will also be the first time that all of the wedding party gets together. I really want to play picnic games. We have at our disposal: horseshoe pits, a really really NICE kite flying hill, softball diamonds and a frisbee golf course. There's also a small zoo, playground and some cool oriental gardens and a duck pond.
What kind of activities would be cool ice breakers to play on a summer evening?
Xposted to 2008_weddings, weddingplans, and over20Kweddings