Wedding Journal: APRIL 2000
Ok, its April 1st. I just put the directions up on the website. Am now going to attempt to clean the house and maybe print the place cards this afternoon. I wish I had had more time to write in this Journal in March, it really has been a wonderful and exciting time - not to mention stressful! But maybe later today, we'll see. I am just sitting here in shock at what a beautiful day today is. Much regret about not getting married on April Fools Day! You really can't ask for a nicer day than this in Boston in April. Can it happen two weekends in a row? We'll see....
Well obviously I never got around to writing in this journal over the last month or so. After the surprise shower in February, time just disappeared. No matter how ahead Michael and I thought we were, there was just always something more to do. But I'll write about all of that tedium in a it...might as well start with the good stuff! But to make it more manageable I will break it up by subject. (Just a note, I am writing this on April 24th so unfortunately some of the details get a little foggy the further back I go)
The Week Before (April 1-April 5)
Everyone Arrives (April 6) a.k.a Mike's Bucks Night
We Beautify, We Lunch, We Rehearse, We Dine (April 7)
We Keep Eating: Sunday Brunch (April 9)
HAWAII! (April 10-April 23)
The Week Before (April 1-April 5)
So where was I, April 1st...thus far the most beautiful day in all of April 2000 in Boston. I woke up at 7 am (a virtual Saturday miracle) and though I couldn't remember I knew I had had another infamous wedding nightmare. Since I couldn't sleep I got up to take a walk and get some coffee and bagels. As I was walking down Powderhouse past the Tufts campus, I just kept praying next Saturday would be this beautiful. It would just be too cruel for this one to be so perfect and to rain next Saturday the 8th. And for a fleeting moment I had visions of calling everyone and changing the wedding to today...ok craziness aside, time to get to work! If memory serves me correctly, I walked home with the food and yelled for Michael to get up and get busy - we were getting married in one week! Mike had his own agenda for the day - to get my car inspected and take Maverick to the vet and I was going to clean. And I mean clean - the kind of cleaning people only do once a year or so...well at least messy people like me! I started in the kitchen...and I never really got past it. I hate to clean, but I really love to clean the kitchen. It just takes me forever...and I don't really know why. My friend Tammi called and we talked for awhile, I remember telling her I was cleaning the stove, and she said something about foam and letting it sit, and I realized I wasn't as good a cleaner as I thought. Oh well, so it was surface clean, who was going to use my stove anyway...how little I knew then. So we chat for a bit and next thing I know its 2 p.m., the kitchen is half clean, and Mike is already back from the vet. Yikes. So off the phone, quickly clean the fridge and we are off to get some lunch. Then, I went up to St. Catherine's to go to confession at 3, and I was a little early, and what did I see at the church - a wedding! That lucky bride had the absolutely best day hands down to get married. I have to admit I shed a tear or two getting all wedding weepy as I sat in the car and watched them take pictures in front of the church. And afterwards, I don't know. I went to confession and I came home but beyond that I honestly have little memory of how we spent our last single Saturday night. Friday night I remember vividly, Saturday I have no clue. Friday we had a quick dinner at the Tibetan restaurant near our house, drove to Mike's office to pick up yet another computer his father had mailed him, and then scoured the streets of Boston for some of the Boston paraphernalia that was in the hotel guests goody bags. AHA! The memory is jogged - we prepped and stuffed those very same bags Saturday night. There they were, all 30 if them arranged somehow on the dining room table and we went around and very orderly assembled all bags with the directions and info sheet, brochures and the same exact amount of each goody - ok, we admit it, we jut threw the candy in the air and let it fall in whichever bag it fell, otherwise known as the Michael method...
Some bad news though. My mom called to tell me my grandfather had been in the hospital since Wednesday and that he needed to have a pacemaker put in on Sunday. They hadn't wanted to tell me because they knew I'd be upset but then I had called my grandmother earlier in the day so they figured they better tell me. But it sounds good, the doctor said there is a minimal recovery time after the procedure and my grandfather should be fine to travel to Boston on Thursday. And that it was actually very lucky that they discovered the problem before getting on the road to Boston, or once they were already here. So all of our fingers are crossed.
April 2nd: I really don't know what we did Sunday either, but I guess if I looked back at my "to do" lists I could get some insight. I know I tasked Michael with designing a computer template for our table placecards, something that I had neither the patience or skill to do. I spent most of the day doing table assignments, choosing poems for the gust tables, typing directions, typing lists for all of our various helpers - in essence being bridezilla. Michael then entered many of the names into the computer for the placecards after I pinned down the assignments after talking to both of our parents on the phone that night. Not only was it the "who sits with who", but the "where is their table located" to "what poem goes at which table." A task which needed all of my diplomatic skills! But that done, I was now worried that there was the ever present typo, or someone got accidentally dropped and would then feel slighted, having nowhere to sit at the wedding! Breathe! But time was against us. We were not quite done with the placecards when we decided it was just too late to do more...At this point I am a little nervous as I know Mike's parents are arriving tomorrow night and we have plans with them the next two nights. I hear the clock ticking very very loudly!
My grandfather's procedure went well so now he is just in the hospital for observation, so we are all hoping he gets the travel ok soon.
April 3rd: Work is a horrendous blur of busy-ness. At this point I am a little more stressed about work then the wedding. Going away for 2.5 weeks is a bit stressful. Weddingwise, I have come to accept that if something major did not get done by this point, it just won't get done. It's as simple as that and having faith in the people that we did hire. My fingers are crossed. My one recurring nightmare is that the shuttles won't show up and the guests will all be stranded at the hotel and I will walk down an aisle in an empty church...but that is another story. Monday night, after running my umpteenth errand of the day, Mike and I meet at home and decide to order takeout around 730 because his parents plane has been delayed by 2 hours, due into Logan at 930 or so we guess. Around 8 we think its odd they never called to say what time they were actually taking off. A little nervous, I check on the internet ad see when they are now scheduled to arrive. That would be 15 minutes from now. The delay was obviously shortened! UGH! We meet the delivery guy at the door and put the food in the fridge and we are off to Logan. Its chaotic there as usual so Michael circles while I go into the terminal to look for them. Its hard to do that when you are 5'1 and you are confronted with a wall of people. MAYHEM! But at long last I see them approaching and all is well. We eventually claim their luggage and reconnect with Michael in the traffic chaos. Bruce and Judy are staying at the Hyatt for the week so we take them over there. As we pull up in the driveway all I can think is that in less than a week I will be pulling up here in my dress, walking through these doors in my dress, walking through this lounge in my dress. Its just weird to be there knowing we are getting married there. It looks silly in print but those were my thoughts, in addition to mentally rearranging the dinner tables in my head, working out transportation logistics for the bridal party on Friday and Saturday, you know, bride stuff :-) But we stay and have a late dinner with them there at the Hyatt and everything was yummy. Unfortunately we go home and are once again accosted by those living, breathing placecards. I don't know how people have time to have a calligrapher do them, we'll just about have time t run them off on the laser printer (the dirty truth revealed).
April 4th: Took the pets to the kennel this morning. YAY! Not that I don't love them, but lets face it, its been unseasonably warm all week - they are shedding fiends and I must vacuum. Sorry pets, see you Sunday! More busy-ness at work. Much much more. Oh well, it all seems to be getting done, so maybe I can breathe now, though I am still not as done as I wanted to be by today workwise. Wedingwise, little has changed. Word of advice to all future brides - be as done as possible the weekend before your wedding because the week of, you spend a lot of time visiting and a lot of time on the phone. Everyone calls you. Everyone. And they all want to talk and all you want to do is decide what table they should sit at.... But Tuesday was BIG NIGHT OFF night. We went to dinner with Mike's parents at Gargoyle's in Davis Square. I'd never been there before and had heard mixed things but it was delicious! We really had a fun time and it was fun to relax together and it was kind of a welcome to the family dinner which was really sweet. I would have been more relaxed if I was not so worried about my lip exploding and being the ugliest bride in history, but that truly is another story.
My grandfather was discharged and he got the big OK to come to Boston so everyone is so happy and relieved - YAY!
April 5th: My last day of work. Slightly mayhemic, but at least everything got done - at least I hope so! This was it - the absolute last night of wedding planning. And house cleaning too of course now that the pets are at the kennel. Michael was on house duty and I was being bridezilla as usual. But once again time kept slipping away...Victor (the best man) called and came by around 9 or 10 or so. And somehow between the 3 of us we got everything done. We were like the Martha Stewart wedding planners from hell. Printing poem cards, picking fonts for table numbers, printing table numbers, double and triple checking what everyone ordered, organizing, labeling, printing placecards, perforating them, arranging them in alphabetical order, etc. And all was done by 2 am. Not bad, a little crazy but not bad. I am just so thankful we did the bells and champagne favors about a month ago, the menu cards a few weeks ago and the programs a week before. We definitely would have gone under if we still had all of that to do! I am actually beginning to feel that this is really happening and its all coming together....we'll see....
And I can't believe I just wrote all this and completely forgot to mention the underlying theme of the whole week - the weather! I was weather obsessed. I found the first forecast on the internet on Sunday night and it said showers Friday and sun on Saturday! I was so excited! But that did not last long...by Tuesday the rain had moved into Saturday and Friday was billed as being "gorgeous". Needless to say I was a little stressed. Wednesday, no change in the forecast. Just a big black rain cloud next to Saturday's forecast. By Wednesday night it was an "unpredictable weather pattern" or "we are hesitant to predict anything for Saturday at this time..." UGH! Though my grandmother has her rosary beads outside on the porch and the Blessed Virgin statue is facing the window, all of which she claims will bring good weather along with her wedding prayers.....
Keep Reading....Everyone Arrives (April 6) a.k.a Mike's Bucks Night