Oh my, Allison I am sorry! I wondered how your DD2 became engaged and married so fast :-( I should have known you would at least have posted a dress issue or something on the conversations board with all that wedding talk! Very sorry for that misunderstanding. But initially the posts that crossed over to houzz were not dated, so I had no idea the thread was four years old. Now I see they are dated, although in the faintest possible ink color. (Houzz must have mostly 20 and 30 something users with better eyesight.) At any rate, the groom may not have been a keeper but the flowers were lovely!

I am sorry to hear about your problems. You mention invitations and a shower, but do they yet have a location, food, photographer, dress - all the important things? And who is paying for those things? It sounds as if the couple needs to sit down and create a master plan for the wedding, including what they must have (location, officiant, etc.) and get their priorities in order. At that time they can determine how they will pay for things. Your son should definitely be involved in the planning. It is his wedding and he should be included. I am a wedding planner and I see bride, groom, both moms, and often the father of the bride all involved in planning and attending meetings with vendors. You are right about not having time if they want to have a well organized wedding without being totally stressed out. I have planned weddings in 6 weeks but that puts a lot of stress on the bride and they often have to settle for merchants that are not booked, which may mean they are not the best merchants. Right now I have weddings occuring in September that are fully planned. You may need to step back and let the couple "sink or swim" until they decide how to proceed, which may include having a talk with her family, but you shouldn't be the one to do that. The bride needs to be the one to speak up.

How wonderful when the couple's personalities dictate the wedding and not some disembodied wedding guru! Sounds like it was a blast...relaxed....and no one took "rules" too seriously. I've done many weddings, and I shuddered when I had one of 'those' brides who just HAD to have everything matchy-matchy, detailed and done 'right'. I'm reminded of the movie, "Betsy's Wedding", where her Mother says that the other parents' would plan a wedding with no personality...that they didn't even know their ethnic roots! haha! Runny mashed potatoes when what you really want is a smorgasbord! I enjoyed reading your post! ;-D

Annie, you are such a great person. You are always there when someone needs you and you do beautiful things with cakes. I just love this one. Yes, you could do cakes for a side business, but you do so much already. The young couple had their wish come true and will have such wonderful memories. When Darrell finally out and out proposed, a different story, I knew we had to have our wedding at my mom and dad's house. My dad had never seen any of his children get married. My first marriage took place in Tokyo, but the others were local. I decided if we couldn't get Mohammed to the mountain, we'd get the mountain to him. We were married in their living room in front of their white fireplace by candlelight. Mom and I used to do wedding cakes, so she made ours, the punch, etc. I made my sister's and my peasant style gowns from material I had had kept when I closed my fabric shop in Virginia. At the last minute I got my sister and I each a rose with baby's breathe. All under $100. It's lasted almost 43 years so I guess it was a good one. I hope this young couple is as fortunate. Oh, and when we made wedding cakes, one couple didn't tell us the wedding was actually taking place in her parents' back yard. Hot June day. We tried to tell her the four tier cake would melt, but she didn't care. Sometimes they aren't so picky.