T-minus 2 days and counting

These final days before the wedding were a whirlwind of appointments. Plus we had rented a home at Tahoe for the weekend because we needed somewhere for all of us to get ready and then to stay after the reception. McKenna's wish was for her bridesmaids to spend the night before the wedding with her and then all of them get ready together. That required a rather large home to rent but we lucked out with one in Tahoe Vista with views of the lake. We went up on Thursday just the four of us, Bob, McKenna, Dave and myself. It was lovely. We all went to dinner at Westshore Cafe, which I highly recommend. It is right across from Homewood Ski Resort. It is a beautiful lake side restaurant.

Bob and I had wanted to buy something special for McKenna, our little girl now all grown up, to wear during the wedding. She had chosen to wear the necklace that Bob had given to me on our wedding day. It is a small necklace with three opals on it. Very simple and very sentimental. With that in mind, he and I bought her matching earrings. We gave those to her that evening. By her reaction, I think we chose well.

Bachelor Party

No, I wasn't invited to this, either.

And I don't have actual pictures from it, too. But the stories we've been told! Of course, they say it was a little foggy at points in their memory but here's the jist of it. Fill in your own blanks. The guys decided to go camping

Exhibit A:

and wakeboarding

Exhibit B:

and wake surfing

Exhibit C:

(folks, don't try this at home)

Then there was the Tricycle Olympics:

But before you could compete in the Tricycle Olympics, you must partake in the Beer Bong:

And after all the Beer Bonging going on, someone got the most brilliant idea of smashing soaking wet hamburger buns on each other...FOOD FIGHT!

But everyone agreed...it was a lot of fun even if they felt like this:

I guess that there are some things that even a mother-in-law shouldn't see.

The End.

Probably the final one today

No, not the final final but enough for now. I'm sure you're wondering if I'm glued to the computer these past few days churning out the amount of posts that I've done. Not quite, mes amies. Not quite. But yes, I'm getting stiff and sore sitting here. My reasons are twofold:

1. Bob is in Oregon with Christopher picking up three dogs. Two of them are Christopher's and one is a brand new one for Bob. He has been gone for three days. Understand? NO INTERRUPTIONS.

And 2. McKenna returns from her honeymoon on Sunday. Again, NO INTERRUPTIONS.

So with my creativity wanning right now, I thought it'd be a good time to shut down and turn to something else for the remainder of the day. I'll see you back here maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Have a great weekend.

Bachelorette Party

No I wasn't invited.

But that doesn't mean I don't have pictures. C'mon you people! You know me. Can't pass up an opportunity to have someone else hanging around with a camera to snap up those golden photo ops!

The Reno girls flew to Las Vegas--VEGAS, BABY! for the bachelorette party and to have the whole female bridal party together for the first time.

Here they are, at the nightclub Pure complete with bodyguard for the evening.

McKenna, Shaina, Lindsey, Ashley, Erin, and Meredith...TA DA!

But, let me back up here for a moment. After arriving in Vegas and all meeting up, the ladies decided that what they had brought to wear for the evening wasn't quite 'slutty' enough. I have those in quotes because that's how it was told to me! So, that afternoon off they went for a round of shopping to purchase short dresses. Ok, some of them purchased dresses, some of them purchased blouses that they wore as dresses. Get the picture? On with the story.



Here they are with their bodyguard, Bubba. Or Spike. Or The Terminator. I forget.









They danced and drank and discovered little alleyways between the booths to be used in case anyone, oh, I don't know, got sick? Did anyone drink that much?

Did this picture look blurry to you? Me, too. hmm...

* The consumption of alchohol may make you think you are whispering when you are not.
* The consumption of alchohol may cause you to tell your friends over and over again that you love them.
* The consumption of alchohol may cause you to think you can sing.
* The consumption of alchohol may lead you to believe that ex-lovers are really dying for you to telephone them at four in the morning.
* The consumption of alchohol may make you think you can logically converse with members of the opposite sex without spitting. * The consumption of alchohol may create the illusion that you are tougher, smarter, faster and better looking than most people.

And there was some story about stumbling back into the hotel room and tripping/falling over an imaginary elephant? No, rock? No, chair? No, piece of lint? yes....all the while trying to be quiet and not wake up the other party goers. And did those who fell all of a sudden get the munchies? For pancakes? At 4am? And then pass out and not hear roomservice? I'll never tell.





But for some, time to go home was a good thing....

at the McCarran Airport

[never underestimate a determined scrapbooker to get the best photos!]

Lingere Shower

Isn't this the cutest invitation? I just loved it!

So another shower for Kenna, this time a slightly 'edgier' content. Is it just me, or do others out there feel slightly, um, uncomfortable buying lingere for their daughter (or daughter-in-law) for the express purpose of having sex? I'm certainly not a prude but I do see it as the reverse feeling of my children thinking about their father and I having sex. Everybody shudders all around. So, yes, I bought her two pieces of ....clothing. AND NOT IN FLANNEL! One she liked and the other one reminded her of me (which I thought was the prettiest of the two, but sheez..I don't want her thinking of me while she wore it)

One of the games the girls had us do was to see how fast you could blow up a balloon. Everyone got one (except me, yeah me!) to blow up and McKenna's? Hers was filled with pin holes in it so it would not fill at all. It was pretty funny to see everyone with this big blue balloon in front of their faces.

This is one of the many, many outfits. ahem.

--a side note here. McKenna and Dave took only CARRYON for their honeymoon. How many of these could she roll up and stuff in her bag?

And finally, this game along with a package of body paints. I'm still trying to figure out the best way to tease Dave about it and embarrass the hell out of him.

Tick Tock

Actually, these are bright white but you know, shadows and all. (That's why I write blogs and am not a professional photographer!) These are the Ring Pillow and the Guest book that would be used during the wedding and reception. I started to have a feeling of a 'time crunch' towards the end of June. Was everything taken care of? Did we forget anything? Because we accomplished so many of the details of the wedding during January and February, both McKenna and would look at each and ask, "What are we forgetting?" The whole family was now not only on a wedding countdown but we conveniently put in a two week vacation in July to countdown as well. And enjoy. We all then realized that when we returned from vacation, we would have only a finite number of weekends for parties and events before the wedding. Another shower, a bachelorette party and a bachelor party, Labor Day and then WEDDING! Yikes.

Did I introduce you to the Ring Bearer? No? Well, here she is.....

Her first bridal shower

Shaina and I gave McKenna her first wedding shower in June. Wonderful food and a fabulous guest list!

We served cupcakes instead of a sheet or layer cake and it was just the right amount for each lady. The cake designer did the cupcakes for us, too. Here is a shot of the bridesmaids (except the Las Vegas contingent). Aren't they cute?

One of the things that we had to explain to Kenna and her bridesmaids (except Shaina) was the custom of breaking the ribbon on the gift wrap means that's how many kids you'd have.

You should have seen the look on her face!

"You're kidding, right?" Well, yes, we're kidding...scientifically, I don't think that ribbon breaking is as bad as condom breaking. Am I right?

I'm such a tease!

In all honesty, I really feel like I shouldn't show off her dress quite yet. You'll just have to wait for the wedding day itself. Not the wedding, but the-getting-ready-for-the-wedding. I took many photos of her as the professional photographer was doing her thing. But my lame attempts at capturing her bliss on her wedding day in her dress are poor substitutes at what I'll post from Christa when we get her proofs. Guaranteed.

This will be a few glimpses of what Kenna's wedding dress looked like during the finding of THE DRESS. She tried this one on first and tried 4 or 5 other styles on after. But? In the end? Her original choice was her final choice. The style, the design suited her to perfection.

After we found her dress, we HAD to find a tiara for her hair, which she would wear curly at her fiance's request. She didn't want anything gaudy but she didn't want anything that would disappear in her hair either. We came up with this.
And finally, the veil would be a short one, not long and trailing behind her. She had additional crystals scattered throughout her veil to be reflected in the sunlight at the lake. Her choices were clear.

My vision was quite blurry.

Decisions decisions!

Since McKenna had decided on her colors, she and I beelined to Marchele's Bridal Shop to start the process of bridesmaid's gowns. Here we met up with Shaina, Ashley, and Erin. Kenna's other two maids live in Las Vegas, hence they got NO VOTE. Sorry ladies. The photos here are merely of styles that seemed to suit both Ashley and Erin. Shaina, being 7 months pregnant, really didn't feel like trying anything on but muumuus. We knew what color we wanted and presto chango......the style she wanted didn't come in the color she wanted. The closest to the color was this: we called it Salmon at the time.

However the style was to be one of these:

But I really loved watching this:

And in the end, the dresses came in. The ladies met up with McKenna to try them on and....

it was horrible. McKenna now had a new name for the color of the dresses: Bubblegum. And the gathered area? Taken out because in the Bubblegum color the bridesmaids looked like big wads of, er, well, bubblegum. And it was too late to do anything else. This was the one thing that she wished she could do over. Not settling for a thing that she new in her heart didn't feel right.

He loves me, he loves me not

It seemed that throughout this planning time, we headed up to Tahoe in the dead of winter many times. One of these times was to Thrans Flowers. They are the ones who did Chris and Shaina's wedding also. We had been to a florist in town but the delivery charge was horrendous. So up to Tahoe we went. We had an appointment with Katie there. She was marvelous. We told her the date we needed (she was available!) and then she asked exactly what we wanted.

"Exactly?" Good luck, there.

The season is end of summer, but Kenna wanted a 'harvest' feel to it. Think Autumn in Napa. Katie started pulling flowers out to show us examples and then it was suggested a few deep purple flowers. ZING! That clinched it then and there. The arrangements just popped, they looked so good. We were only troubled by the tulips and the fact that they open and droop so easily. But Katie said no problemo chicas. She'd make it happen. And she did.

Sunnyside? Now?

Doing the wedding planning during the winter months for a summer wedding makes you take leaps and bounds with your imagination. Case in point: we visited the wedding locale to get a feel of the space and settings. Um, can you really see the deck out there for the ceremony or the dancing? Me neither. Can you see a multitude of guests mingling and chatting? Can you see the minister officiate the ceremony looking out over the water? Can you see Bob walking our beautiful daughter down the steps to her waiting groom? Yup. Me neither.

Eeny meenie miney moe

I have started this posting several times. To me the subject matter is very important. One wrong decision and you'll live with it for the rest of your life.

~ Bridal Party Members ~

McKenna and her high school friends had discussions when they were younger about who would get married first and who would be in whom's wedding. Those times I believe the bridesmaids outnumbered the guests. (Did I just screw up the who and the whom?) So when it came down to who and how many or how large the bridal party was to be, she and I had some heart to heart discussions.

"Was this person who shared this funny experience with you when you had a bad time?" "Did this person stand by you in all your decisions?" "How often do you see this person now?" "Does she even know Dave?" "Does this person wholly accept the relationship you have with Dave?"

Sometimes the answers were very easy to those questions and then sometimes they weren't. I know that the end result of who she picked she is forever grateful for. Her choices, her family and friends surrounded her with exactly what she needed when she needed it in her life.

Fortunately, I was there to see this one and to commemorate with my trusty camera. The others were asked in person, face to face without Mom in attendance. Damn.

Shaina DID NOT expect this at all! And I think that Christopher was so surprised as well.

Something old, something new

A lot of new things!! One of the really fun things (in my book) is the actual registering for gifts at various stores. "In my day"....oh, Lord. All that we did was register for china, crystal, and silverware. We didn't register for the contents of a house! I know things have changed. I saw that over the years with various weddings we attended and the accompanying gift registry cards. McKenna took the opposite view of things.

"Do you mean that people IGNORE your registry and buy things that they THINK I'll want?"

Yep. Double yep. That it's how things have been done for centuries didn't even faze her.

Around this time, I figured that she and her friends needed a Wedding 101 class. She was the first of all of them to get married. They didn't know the protocol of it all.

So in mid January she and I went to Macy's. Let me backtrack here. Kenna is not at home in the kitchen. She'd rather be hiking or mountain biking. She's very active. Standing in the kitchen chopping vegetables or pouring over cookbooks is not her thing. So to go to a kitchen/housewares department was almost enough to push her over the edge. I was in heaven comparing this blender to that one. This set of pots and pans versus that one with the glass lids. Kenna? Not so much. I could not impress upon her that yes, she might not see the benefit of candy dishes right now, but later when she entertains more...maybe she might need one. Or two. I ended up saying "Because I said so" more times than I can count. It was not the phrase she needed to hear or listened to. You will need a whisk at a point in your life. Trust me. Plus, the selection was dismal in January. Christmas clearances were well in the past and they hadn't recieved the new season supplies. Ok, let's can this idea and wait a few more weeks. But look, do you like the crystal or china? These won't change. These will stay the same. Begrudgingly, she looked, she hemmed and she hawed. And Cindy Lou-Who couldn't make a decision.

But! Wait! She'd bring Dave into this decision. This momentous decision of china and of crystal. Let HIM decide what we'll look at for the rest of our natural lives.

So they picked over and over and over again. Finally a decision was made. Sets were chosen. Crystal was decided upon that matched the china. Hallelujah!

And now, because of the less than stellar selection at Macys we decided to go to Bed, Bath, and Beyond. More consumer affordable and better selections. And now I got smart. I was going to bring on reinforcements. Someone who understood that weddings were the prime opportunity to stock your home. Someone who cooked and liked it. Someone who was not a mother-figure and could be listened to. Someone who...oh, hell, I made Shaina come along.

McKenna lost interest around the bath towel area.

And that china/crystal decision? All of it was canned a month later due to lack of interest. They knew that they were not the china/crystal types.

All I'm thinking at this point is, "Well, ok, I have three sets of china now myself. She'll inherit."

How times have changed!

When I got married, oh, a million years ago, we only had one place to order wedding invitations. There was no internet. Only Hallmark and their Kodak moments. The relative ease of ordering invitations now was merely to pick out what you liked best. Oh, and the font. And the color of the font. And the envelope liner color. And the different font for the names. And did you want glitter in the font color?

When they say that the devil is in the details, they weren't kidding. At this point, McKave (McKenna + Dave) had picked a date AND locale. The stars were aligning.

The Bridal Faire

It was very opportune for us that soon after the engagement, the annual winter Bridal Faire was in town. We got tickets for it and brought along the heavy artillery. Here with McKenna is Vanessa, a friend from New Zealand and brand new wedding planner, McKenna's faux Aunt Jo Lee, and Shaina. That crack about the heavy artillery was not about Shaina being pregnant, either! It was here that we met the ladies who would become the absolutely best wedding planners ever: Kristen and Jessyca from Wedding Bliss. McKenna and I interviewed them at a later date. I felt that we only needed them for the actual wedding date. I knew that between us, the details would get taken care of. By the end of the wedding day, I damn near adopted them.

Also here was where we saw the wedding cake designer we would eventually use. This is one of the cakes she did for the Bridal Faire. Her business is Deesigner Wedding Cakes. Oh, and her name is Dee. This became a good omen for us. Dave's mother is named Dee and my mother was named Dee.

We looked at many many flower arrangements with McKenna nodding her head at some and gagging at others. She began to lean towards more fall-ish colors since the dates she and Dave had chosen were in September.

Ok, where was I?

Yes, folks, these past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity and exhaustion. The wedding went off without a hitch or actually, two people got hitched. They are currently on their honeymoon (and yes I have pictures from them already!) But let's resume our story, shall we, hmm?

The evening they became engaged my organizational DNA went into overdrive. My God, we have a wedding to plan. NOW! Obviously the first question was, "Have you set a date?"

"This year sometime."

"OK, this year..." I said weakly. I knew that the biggest obstacle would be a event 'place'. "Any particular place you have in mind?" I asked, hoping for a church wedding. What is it about mothers wanting a church wedding?

"Not a church." McKenna made her feelings known. Drat. Hmm...let's take another tact, then. "Inside or outside?" and on and on and on and on some more. I looked over at Dave. His eyes had glazed over. This poor one-time bachelor was in for a ride now! He had NO IDEA THE THINGS THAT HAD TO GET DONE. NOW.

I decided to just.stop.talking. Shaina and McKenna were discussing colors and swatches and whatnot. Chris kept smiling at Dave because he knew. Bob and I were overwhelmed I think. We looked at each other. A brand new baby and a wedding in one year. How blessed we were.

The very next day, Kenna came over and we laid out what needed to be worked on first. Also, they had set an actual date they would like but it would depend on the venue's availability. They had various ideas for places but wanted to check them out in person. Kenna had to make decisions now on colors, bridesmaids, flowers, cake....you get the picture.

And speaking of pictures (nice segue, huh?) we hired the same photographer that Chris and Shaina used. If I haven't mentioned it before, Christa Hoffarth is FANTASTIC! Here's a plug for her: she's located at south shore Tahoe. And she's brilliant. I called her to have an engagement photo session arranged for Dave and McKenna. This session was at an outdoor locale at Tahoe. Take a look. Aren't they great?

This is their engagement announcement photograph for the newspapers.