The last few years have been exceedingly troubled for my family.
Yet through it all C (my daughter) and A (her fiancé) fell in love, he proposed, and she said yes.
They had met on the first day of college and have been inseparable ever since…with phone calls every night.
SPRING WEDDING ANY DAY OF THE YEAR
Last spring we knew of the impending nuptials.
Although my daughter had wanted a spring wedding, her favorite time of year, she knew it might not happen.
Thus began my offering of many a tip on how to pull off her special day, despite the many hindrances.
CREATING FLOWER BOUQUETS
One day last spring, I took her shopping at Hobby Lobby for silk flowers of her choice.
Helping her make a list of the types of flower bouquets, boutonnieres, and corsages she would need, we listed how many we might need for each
Last spring, we went shopping to find spring flowers for her future wedding.
While walking up and down the flower aisles, she chose her favorite flowers in ranges of purple.
We also bought some floral tape, floral wire, corsage and boutonniere pins, and ribbons.
BRIDAL BOUQUET
When she chose purple hydrangeas for her bouquet, I placed hydrangeas in her hands and asked her to hold them as if she were in a wedding.
I kept adding more to determine how big she wanted it to be.
She knew she did not want a long dress, so neither did she want a huge bouquet.
After the bouquet was made, I used a wide lavender ribbon to wrap the stems.
Then I stuck the stem down into a lovely giant pink gift bag stuffed with tissue paper, then placed it in the corner of my room while I packed up the house…to eventually be placed in the back of my rental car (because my own car was dead) with lots of luggage while home hunting…and then to the hotel the day we signed papers on the house…and finally to the church. They never got crushed! (and I wish I thought to take pictures because they looked so pretty that way as a beautiful hint of what’s to come!)
BRIDESMAID BOUQUETS
For the bridesmaid bouquets my daughter chose cream rose buds surrounded with lavender flowers.
They stems of these were also wrapped in wide lavender ribbon, then carefully laid in a pink/purple gift bag for the big journey to church.
CORSAGES
The Mother of the Bride and the Mother of the Groom each got the same corsage.
Scouring internet images for a prototype my daughter liked, I did my best to duplicate it.
When my daughter found some sparkly bits for me to insert into the corsage, I added them in.
These were tied off with a 1/4″ wide sheer lavender bow then placed carefully into a pink/purple gift bag.
BOUTONNIERES
For the guys my daughter chose dark purple rose buds, which we kept simple and tied off the stem with a 1/4″ wide sheer dark blue bow, then they were placed into a purple gift bag.
RANUNCULUS BLOOMS FOR HELPERS
Since my daughter really liked the ranunculus blooms, I used these for each of the helpers.
The ladies had theirs tied off with a 1/4″ sheer lavender bow, while the guys had theirs tied off with a 1/4″ sheer dark blue bow.
These were placed into yet another pink/purple gift bag.
FLOWERS SURVIVED THE MOVE
None of the flowers were crushed.
Less than $200 was spent.
I was able to complete them in a couple of days.
They kept for months.
My daughter liked them a lot.
The maid of honor drooled over the bridal bouquet, then she snapped a picture of it with her phone during the reception.
And she made sure she caught it in the bridal bouquet toss and she happily took it home along with her bridesmaid bouquet.
SEWING 1957 WEDDING DRESS AND MOTHER OF THE BRIDE DRESS
Since my daughter did not want a long dress, and she did not like anything off the rack, I sewed her gown and my dress.
After several fittings, the only one left was for her hemline, which she was always too tired for.
Then I got caught up in packing the house and completely forgot to finish her hemline.
When I thought of it the last week before the wedding she told me not to worry about it.
Separate posts on the history behind our Audrey Hepburn dresses coming soon!
AUTUMN WEDDING DATE
Although we were all on a tight budget, I advised to prioritize based on what was most important to her.
Sadly, many others tried to persuade her to do what they thought was important.
I kept telling her this was her day, so…her choices (as the budget allowed).
When she was offered one date from the church, a day in autumn, she was sad.
While everyone else at the church tried to convince her an autumn wedding would be great, she only became more sad.
I reminded her we could easily do a spring wedding, because we had already purchased the flowers.
DECORATING THE CHURCH
After we set mini-lanterns down the aisle, we spread purple silk flower petals.
The mini-lanterns had been donated to her and she was so excited about them, I suggested we use my large lanterns from Colonial Williamsburg for the stage to create a theme.
Liking that idea a lot we bought a couple more for her to keep in her home, then we arranged purple flowers around all of them.
CHEESECAKE
Since neither A nor C are keen on cakes, I asked what their favorite dessert was.
When my daughter told me they liked cheesecake best, I suggested we serve that.
And it would probably be a lot cheaper.
We could set out a simple New York Style Cheesecake with various toppings.
So, she chose her favorite cans of fruit toppings, so everyone could customize their own cheesecake. It was a hit!
FLORAL TABLE ARRANGEMENTS
These floral arrangements on the tables were an idea my daughter had.
Since we needed to leave the house for a showing for prospective buyers, we worked on them in a corner of the seating area of Wegmans.
We were so glad we had done them ahead of time, because we had little time to decorate the reception room.
And thankfully, each vase came with a cork, so we corked each vase that was full of pretty stuff and placed each one in a small box just large enough to hold all of them.
That kept everything safe during the move, hotel, and the travel to the church.
Once we started decorating the reception room, all we needed to do was carry in the box, pop off the cork, and pop in the flower.
There is no way we’d have had time to do anything more than that.
We had been given only an hour to decorate the church, and then an hour to decorate the reception hall, so everything was rush, rush, rush.
REHEARSAL DINNER
Since A and C wanted to do the rehearsal dinner at Uncle Julios, C made the phone call but they turned us down because they don’t do reservations of 10+ people on Friday nights. Or something like that.
No matter. Smokin’ Willies of Purcellville kindly and gladly took us and it was wonderful!
MORNING BEFORE THE WEDDING
That morning, I presented a lavender satin robe that I had sewed for my daughter to wear while doing her hair and makeup.
Although I planned to make robes in a darker shade of purple for the bridesmaids, one in blue for the mother of the groom (because her son’s favorite color was blue, then another shade of purple for mine, that didn’t happen since I was out of the house so much for prospective buyers.
One of her girlfriends from work did her hair and makeup, and another girlfriend was the official photographer.
Her girlfriend took lots of photos while we were in the dressing room.
After all us gals were dressed, the photographer took us outside for lots of shots.
We still haven’t received them, so here are the pictures my son took.
And then the new Mr. and Mrs. were off on their honeymoon in Colonial Williamsburg!
Do I know how to raise them or what? 😉
EPILOGUE 2024
Sadly, still waiting on the pictures from the official photographer. =(
Sooooo glad my son took some! All the wonderful poses were his idea!
