Diary of a Mad Bride by Laura Wolf Read Free Book Online Page B

date
    3. Vacation time for honeymoon
    4. Decide on honeymoon
    5. Get minister
    6. Choose reception venue
    7. Make guest list
    8. Choose maid of honor
    9. Choose best man
    10. Register for gifts
    11. Arrange for engagement party
    12. Buy engagement ring
    13. Buy wedding rings
    14. Buy wedding dress
    15. Choose maid of honor dress
    16. Order wedding cake
    17. Hire caterer
    18. Hire band for reception
    19. Order flowers for ceremony
    20. Buy shoes
    21. Plan rehearsal dinner
    22. Invites to rehearsal dinner
    23. Hire musicians for ceremony
    24. Decide on dress code
    25. Get marriage license
    26. Hire videographer
    27. Hire photographer
    28. Order table flowers
    29. Order bouquets
    30. Order boutonnieres for men
    31. Order nosegays for women
    32. Order invitations
    33. Decide on wine selection
    34. Postage for invitations
    35. Choose hairstyle and makeup
    36. Buy gifts for attendants
    37. Buy thank-you notes
    38. Announce wedding in newspaper
    39. Buy headpiece
    40. Buy traveler’s checks for honeymoon
    41. Apply for visas
    42. Get shots and vaccinations
    43. Order tent if necessary
    44. Order chairs/tables if necessary
    45. Make budget
    46. Divide expenses
    47. Make table-seating charts
    48. Choose bridesmaid dress
    49. Decide on menu
    50. Decide on hors d’oeuvres
    51. Decide on dinner-service style
    52. Decide on staff-guest ratio
    53. Decide seated or buffet
    54. Reserve vegetarian meals
    55. Reserve band/photographer/videographer meals
    56. Make photo list
    57. Choose hotel for wedding night
    58. Hire limo for church-reception transport
    59. Buy guest book for reception
    60. Find hotel for out-of-towners
    61. Decide on liquor selection
    62. Hire bartenders
    63. Verify wheelchair accessibility
    64. Choose processional music
    65. Choose recessional music
    66. Choose cocktail music
    67. Choose reception music
    68. Choose ceremony readings
    69. Prepare birdseed instead of rice
    70. Schedule manicure/pedicure/wax

september 2nd
    M y parents keep their wedding album neatly filed between a biography of Eleanor Roosevelt and a Sidney Sheldon paperback that my baby-sitter left behind in 1976.
    As kids, Nicole and I would flip through the album and laugh at how funny everyone was dressed. Our dad in a
beige
tuxedo. And Gram, impossible to miss, in her floor-length gown covered with giant gold sequins.
    But now when I think about that wedding album it’s my parents’ youth that strikes me most. They were barely in their twenties. My father had just been hired as a manager at the local supermarket and my mother was studying for her teaching certificate. They had no idea what life had in store for them. Yet their joy is impossible to deny.
    This is what I see in my relationship with Stephen—a love that’s strong enough to brave an unknown future, joyfully.

september 4th
    I met Mandy for lunch today. It’s less than three weeks until her wedding, so I expected the usual hysteria about place cards and hors d’oeuvres and wine selections. But there was none. Far from hysterical, she was trulydepressed. Apparently her mother and her aunt had a fight about her aunt not giving Mandy and Jon an engagement gift and now her aunt won’t come to the wedding. It seems her aunt withholds gifts as a way of expressing her dissatisfaction. When pressed, she told Mandy’s mother that she was dissatisfied with the graduation gift Mandy’s family had given her own daughter three years earlier. It was too cheap and thoughtless. When Mandy’s grandmother heard this she got so mad at the aunt that she decided to disinherit her. This made Mandy’s cousins so angry that now they won’t come to the wedding either. It all sounded ridiculously petty.
    But it did make me appreciate my family. Bud and Terry Thomas may be stingy with their enthusiasm, but at least they’re not dysfunctional. Which is good, because Stephen and I have chosen June 2nd as our wedding date, and nothing is more unpleasant than dysfunction under a hot summer sun.

september