I like dress 1 and 2 equally. That Whitecake Sugars is magical! I can envision a Christmas themed wedding for certain with that! I also love the brown and pink, but I'd have to do something more like Tiffany blue and green, but I love the dots, the flowers, it's adorable. Good choice of word. Oh, I do so enjoy seeing people in love. Your face shows it so much.

HH. Someone needs to invent the "beem me up Scottie" technology so that we can all visit each other and lend a hand. Wouldn't that be fun?! Woof! This is Brody. I've never had a problem because we've always had a "loose" dog on patrol. As far as ground critters, I have 5 cats. The only problem they haven't solved is the squirrels that live in our roof (and maybe walls).

silk can be taffeta, satin or all sorts of things. Figure out who Grandma Giordano was....and when she was married. 200 years ago would be 1811....that's a long time!! I gather by the name, Giordano, she was Italian and a wedding shawl was an "Italian thing".... Piano shawls were mainly 2 different kinds....those that were fringed on 3 sides for the old Victorian Square Pianos, and triangular fringed on all sides for the standard "grand piano shape"...people didn't use piano shawls for a wedding shawl!! LOL! If you believe your grandfather, this is a shawl your grandmother used for her wedding....can you imagine how elegant she must have looked wrapped in that silk shawl with the fringe? The only thing I am wondering about is the age....I would say perhaps 1880 at the earliest....and perhaps 30 to 40 years later. It's fabulous...have it professionally cared for and stored in an archival container. Linda C

I think that this is a much bigger question than what the wording should be. Please forgive me if I am getting too personal. I may be way off base here, but perhaps this is something you might want to think about. I would suggest rethinking the idea of your fiance making any public vows at the ceremony to your son. No matter how much they love each other and no matter how thrilled your son is about the marriage, they aren't really getting married to each other, are they? You and your fiance chose each other, and you are the ones making the commitment of marriage. Your son may love the idea, but he isn't the one who got engaged; this would be a vow in which he has no choice -- even if you gave him the choice, how could he say no? (I realize you are just talking about a one-way vow from your fiance to him, but still, that affects the "vow-ee.") Your post refers to your fiance's making vows to your son "along with the ones that she says to me." But any kind of vows he makes to your son are, and should be, very different from the ones he makes to you. I think the close juxtaposition could make your son uncomfortable, even if he doesn't say anything about it to you (and even if he isn't himself totally conscious of it). Any child whose parent is remarrying, even a child who is very happy about it, will have mixed feelings, at least sometimes. That's normal and healthy. It's a big change in his life, and even good changes are stressful. It's wonderful -- really wonderful -- that they get along great. But what is the purpose of a vow, or any other kind of public commitment ceremony? What would it mean? When your son leaves home, would he be breaking it? If his father is alive, even if they have a poor relationship, what would this mean with regard to that? And what will happen when, inevitably, your son and your new husband quarrel? The added emotional load of some sort of vow can't help. You mention you have heard of others doing this. Unfortunately, some of those marriages probably didn't last. What is the psychological effect upon the child then, when the vows to him/her are broken along with the vows to Mom/Dad? I'm not saying this will happen to you; it's just a thought for the concept in general. Although I am sure that the adults truly believe they are doing this for the children's sake, to make them "special" and "involved" too, I suspect that this practice is at bottom more for the adults' feelings than for the kids' true well-being. Consider if you wouldn't get pretty much the same positive effect by doing things like having him be either your or your fiance's honor attendant and having your fiance make a fabulous toast to him at the reception which could come very close to a vow and include all the wonderful things he would have said if he'd done it during the ceremony. Maybe if the two of them really want some sort of ceremony for their own relationship, they could do it privately or just with family the day before the wedding or some other time. You will think of other ideas, too, I'm sure. Whatever you do will be lovely and meaningful. But for a variety of reasons I would keep it separate from the vows you and your husband will make to each other. Like the string about children "giving away" their parents. It's just too big an emotional load to impose on them, even though it all seems wonderful at the time. Please forgive me for being a wet blanket. As I said, I may be totally off here. But it is something to think about, perhaps with your clergy or whoever you go to for advice. You might also consider talking to adult friends whose parents remarried when they were your son's age. They will have a good perspective. The most important thing, of course, is that you all love each other, and you are all committed to being a family. You don't need a ceremony for that! Congratulations to all of you.