Gwen’s Journey: My Girls Told Me There Would Be Days Like This
My girls told me there’d be days like this.
My wedding planner warned me. My friend who just got hitched two weeks ago prepared me, too. Even my hairdresser told me this would happen.
Yep, I lost a friend because of my wedding. I told everybody that wasn’t going to happen to me; my friends and I – we’re tight. Whoops, guess I was wrong.
One of my bridesmaids dropped out the wedding because she’s not working (by choice) and thus, can’t afford to be in the wedding. No hard feelings – times are hard, I understand. But I have five groomsmen and (now) four bridesmaids. It’s not fair to kick a groomsman out the wedding on account of her, so best thing to do is to replace her with someone else. We agreed all was fine.
Well, apparently, I was supposed to offer to pay for her dress because “that’s what friends do”. But I thought we did that when my fiancé offered to hook her up with a job at a friend’s company, as which point she began to list her demands that the position HAD to pay at least $15 an hour, be Monday through Friday ONLY and 9am-5pm. Because the gig paid $12/hour, she refused. I suppose the handout was preferential.
And I guess I was also supposed to check in with her to be sure she approved of the person I replaced her with before I made a decision. Considering she doesn’t know the new bridesmaids anyway, I fail to see what difference it makes, but evidently, that was the final straw (in addition to not paying for her dress), as I found out when I realized I had been blocked on Facebook (are we 8 years old?) and received a plethora of profanity-laden text messages about how selfish of a friend I am for not offering to pay for her dress and replacing her with someone else. Funny thing is, it’s not like I refused to pay for her dress – she never even asked! But “real” friends offer so…guess that makes me a poor friend.
Ah well…the show goes on.
We made another trip back to Cleveland this past weekend. My friend’s dad passed and we went to attend the viewing on MLK Day. While there, we visited the world-famous Severance Hall and also visited the Cleveland Museum of Art (both for free! Cha ching!)
On the way out, my fiancé said he wanted to show me this quaint, little Bed-and-Breakfast called “The Glidden House” near University Circle (the uber-cultural area of the city). It’s amazing how I grew up in this city for 18 years and never knew so many cool places and things existed (our wedding ceremony site being one of them). He has drawn a greater appreciation of Cleveland out of me.
This B&B was built in the early 1900s by the Glidden family (yes, the people that make Glidden paint). Who knew they were Clevelanders?? We went inside and met Dwayne, who was clearly in love with his job as the hotel maintenance man. He took us on what he called an “exclusive” tour to all the different rooms with distinct history, and even showed us the sun room, where the Gliddens used to host their Sunday brunch tea parties. This dude needs a raise and a job as the B&B historian. He knew everything about it! It’s an awesome place and we decided that one day we’ve got to stay there overnight.
While in one of the rooms, my homie-lover-friend got the idea that due to the very large space of the suite, it would be a perfect place for all five of my bridesmaids, including the new one (lol), and me to get dressed the day of the wedding – especially since the B&B is less than a 10 min drive on the same street as the ceremony site.
Then Dwayne started talking about blocking off rooms there for our out of town wedding guests, which is actually the next thing on our list of things to do/book.
Moving right along, I don’t know what the deal is with deejays. Endion has had to track down every one that we’ve looked at just to get a response or a demo mix. The one we’ve decided to go with has verbally agreed to spin for us, but, apparently, actually getting the actual contract in hand is like pulling teeth. Will keep you posted on that.
Save-the-dates cost way too much. Every (good) one I found, was $1.75 to $2.50 EACH! With 200+ guests, that’s not gonna fly. Budget bride attack: I said “screw it”, found an example of one I liked (which cost $2.15 a pop), jack-moved their idea and made my own in Photoshop. Took ‘em to WalMart to get printed. Got some magnet backing from Michael’s Craft Store and used my eagle eye to strategically place them while watching “Hereos” with the fiancé. They are sitting on my breakfast bar in envelopes, stamped and ready to be sent out by end of Febuary. I. Do. Not. Play.
According to our planner, we are waaaaaaaaay ahead of schedule, which is very much exemplary of me (I am super-anal about procrastination. Everything has to be done yesterday. Lol). But it almost makes me sad to know that we’re pretty much done with all the big stuff…just working on details and such now – which means the planning is almost over. I’m having too much fun for it to end!
Next up – deciding if I want a traditional veil or a birdcage veil, finding my shoes (they MUST be fly!), selecting the groom’s outfits (which we’ll do when go back to C-town for Superbowl Sunday), and finding an officiant that matches our personalities. Thanks to everybody who sent me officiant recommendations!
BMWK family, did you deal with anything like this leading up to your marriage? Did folks start acting funny on you? Were you ahead or behind on your planning schedule?
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