Whippin' Up Some "March Madness" Wedding Planning...

I knew that this weekend was going to be a "Mad Dash"...Actually a "Mad Dash" with two "Mad Women"; "Mad", as in CRAZY, that is!  People talk about "March Madness" and Caitlin and I found ourselves right in the very middle of it with this wedding planning.

This past weekend was Caitlin's second dress fitting in Dallas.  It had been scheduled for a while, so I knew it was coming up.  However, as usual, I waited until the Friday morning to get all of my stuff ready to go for the road trip (sigh...).  Make sure to get her shoes...check!, take her the last bridesmaid dress to deliver...check!, take the ring bearers outfit that came in for her to look at...check!; these were the important things, the things that could NOT be forgotten.

After cleaning the dishes, doing a load of laundry, making the bed and letting the dogs out, I packed my suitcase, loaded my car and headed out...not to Texas yet, but to the bank and post office.  THEN, I FINALLY got on the road headed to Marshall, to pick up Caitlin.  My timing was perfect, because she had just finished her last mid-term of the week and was packed and ready to go.  We ran down town and got some lunch to go and hurriedly raced out of town; I desperately wanted to avoid the horrid traffic in Dallas.  Well, THAT didn't happen!  As usual, traffic was a BEAST, with us arriving in Dallas by 4:00 and getting across town to our hotel by 5:30!  We checked in and I hoped to have maybe just 5 or 10 minutes to sit down and rest before we were up and running; sadly, that was not to be...

By the time we got in our room and I sat in the comfy recliner, Caitlin said, "It's time to go pick up the veil."  So much for a little down time.  We hopped in the car and ran over to the lady's apartment to get the veil.  I must say the changes she made to my veil were lovely.  I asked, "Now, can we go back and have a little 'down time'?"  NOPE!  Caitlin had to go to the jewelry store and have her engagement ring inspected.  WHAT?!  "WHY do you have to do that?", I asked.  Well, apparently, they only insure the ring if you have inspections every so often and it was due one now.  We headed to the jewelry store.  Glancing at my watch, I noticed that it was now 7:30..."Can we go back and eat now?"  Caitlin told me that the alterations lady was meeting us at 8:00.  Hmmm...I doubted that we would be able to make it back in time to eat.  When we got back to the hotel, I walked over to the sports bar to read the menu; it was now 7:50...there was no time to eat right now (sigh...).  I would just have to settle for a glass of wine for the time being.  As Caitlin and I sat there, a text message sounded on her phone; the alterations lady had just arrived.

The alterations lady has to always meet us at our hotel since we bought Caitlin's dress from Priscilla's of Boston and they have gone out of business nationwide.  This lady worked for them for years and has taken on the task of seeing to it that all of the brides who bought dresses through Priscilla's, will have them altered.  Remember now, she is not only altering the dress that we bought from Priscilla's, but she is also doing the alterations to my wedding dress that Caitlin will wear for her reception.  It took quite a while to get everything done since this would be the last fitting before Caitlin's bridal portraits at the end of the month.  By 9:30, we were back downstairs ordering dinner...

Having asked for a 7 a.m. wake-up call on Saturday morning, we were up and heading out of Dallas by 8:00.  We were heading to Canton to hopefully pick up the remainder of the centerpiece containers for the tables at the reception.  We had 25 tables that had to be decorated and only enough items for 9 tables (ugh...).  The first place we stopped was Paul Michael's.  This store offers such a variety of items that one has to slowly turn every corner to look at what sits on shelves and hangs from the ceiling.  Caitlin and I left with two buggies full of items for the wedding reception...OK; and 2 fabulous spring time wreaths for my front door too!  I just couldn't resist when I walked into the seasonal decorations department; everything was so colorful and after all...couldn't this by MY little treat for this "Mad Dash" of a weekend?!





The next stop was made right down the road a little ways at Laurie Anna's Vintage Shop.  This shop is only open on the Trade Day Weekends and is usually very crowded because of that; I hoped that we had gotten there early enough to avoid the huge crowd.  We wandered from room to room of this shop, soaking in all of the vintage decor'...and actually left there quite successful.  We were now up to 21 items for the arrangements on the reception tables!  Now, it was on to the grounds of the Canton Trade Days for a little lunch and then our search would begin for a lady who makes arrangements out of all natural items that can be found in the woods.



I'm surprised that we found the lady with the nature arrangements so quickly, but we did and purchased our last four arrangements!  I wanted to do the "Happy Dance"; this was a HUGE accomplishment for us.  We didn't tarry there, but decided to head on back toward Marshall.  But on our way there, I wanted to stop at a little knitting shop that Caitlin had found in Longview.  WOW!  that  little shop was AWESOME!  Operated by a little elderly lady, I could have just spent the entire afternoon there.  But we didn't have that much time, so I purchased a couple of things for a new project I was planning to start this week.  I dropped Caitlin off at her apartment and then headed back to Natchitoches where I would meet Robby for what was left of the weekend.

WHEW!!!  We had accomplished a LOT within a 24 hour period.  Now, we could sit back for a couple of weeks before the REAL rush began.  Caitlin had one more week of school before her Spring Break...and YES!!!  We DO have some FUN plans for that week off!


1 comment

  1. Those wreaths will be just perfect on your front door. How cute and fresh are they!

    ReplyDelete

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