A BROTHER'S LOVE

For years he called her four nostril bum face, teased her incessantly, and kept any potential boyfriends at bay but every weekend for the last month Matthew's been working hard in our yard doing landscaping in preparation for Brittany's big day. He offered to do it and it's been a labour of love. Some days I think I have the best kids in the world, other days I know I have the best kids ever.

LUCK O' THE IRISH OR GOLDEN HORSESHOE? EITHER WAY, I'LL TAKE IT!

I had a friend once tell me that I must have a golden horseshoe stuck up my backside (not her exact wording). She seemed to think that good things happened to me for no apparent reason. I argued that good things happened to everyone you just had to recognize it. Being the pessimist she is, she didn't buy it. Another friend once commented that I have the luck of the Irish sometimes. Having done some genealogy, I couldn't argue, there's definitely some Irish ancestry. Brittany it would seem, has inherited it too. I cannot believe how things are coming together for her wedding and the deals we have been able to get. It's been nothing short of amazing. I believe we've really been blessed. First there were the wedding invitations that we got at 75% off the sale price that just happened to be the right colour. Then there was the whole ordeal of trying to find a tent to rent. Only one was available and it was 50x70 feet. I told the rental agent it was a wedding we were holding not a circus. I mentioned it to my neighbor and he told me that right in the little town we live in, the Lions Club rented tents. I was able to get just what I wanted at half the price of any place else. I could go on and on but I won't bore you with the details, I'll save them for their own separate posts. I hope that things continue to go in this direction. There is still a lot to do yet but I am confident that it will all come together. I just hope that one day when I am bending over to pick something up, that golden horseshoe doesn't pop out.

MOTHER OF THE BRIDE DRESS

Perhaps the biggest difficulty I have encountered with this whole wedding is trying to find an appropriate Mother of the Bride dress. Apparently it needs to be "special". As one web site puts it "you are the most important woman in the bride's life and your dress should reflect that. You should be the second most beautiful woman in the room."

What???? That's got to be some dress that can pull that off. I haven't found it. Most of the MOB dresses I have seen are either dowdy and old fashioned or terribly immodest ( I am talking plunging necklines down to the navel). I wonder how many high class hookers (an oxymoron if there ever was one) masquerade as MOBs to buy those ones.

Shopped out and discouraged, I made my way to the fabric store to see if I could at least perhaps find a pattern and material I liked. I lucked out and found some gold taffeta at less than three dollars a meter ( I only needed two) and a Vogue pattern which was more than the material. I normally wear a size 6-10 in clothes depending on the make and brand but on the most part a size 8 is normal for me. I got the pattern in a size 12 knowing that you usually get the pattern a couple of sizes up. I set to sewing and had everything done but inserting the zipper when I took a good look at it and thought that it looked a little small. It was. So now I have a mostly finished dress that is too small and I am back to square one. In the end I think I will just dig around in my closet for a dress to wear and if anyone compliments me on it I will just smile and say " Oh this?, it's just a little something I pulled out of the closet" I won't be lying.

MAIA'S DRESS

Maia is too young to be in the wedding party (nine months) but she is going to be as sweet as pie in the dress Brittany picked out for her at the GAP. We just happened to be in there checking out their sales rack when Brittany spotted this dress that was on sale but not in the sale section. It was the perfect colour, right size, and it was the only one left. We were thrilled with our find and know she will look absolutely adorable in it.

INVITATIONS....DONE!

It took a heck of a lot longer than we planned but I can now officially say that the wedding invitations are in the mail. Whew, that is a huge task taken care of. We got quite a deal on the invitations and with a little creativity we had them looking like Brittany wanted. Here's the story on my amazing bargain.

I was in Staples looking for some black card stock which unfortunately they did not have, when I just had this feeling that I should walk to the back of the store and look around. At the very back of the store hidden at the end of an aisle was a table of clearance items and lo and behold on the table were some do it yourself wedding invitations in the same colour Brittany is using in her wedding. They were twenty dollars marked down from thirty and I wasn't sure if I should pick them up or not so I decided on a packet of gift bags for six dollars (also in her colour) instead. I went to the checkout to pay for them and discovered that they were an extra 75% off. It was at this point that I did my best Arnold impression and uttered those infamous words " I'll be back!" I cleaned them out, programs, place cards, seals, invitations, and table number signs all for under fifty dollars. I was in my absolute bargain hunting glory.

Top picture: Finished invitation

Top middle: Our assembly line

Bottom middle: The cute little gift bags I got for two dollars (not each but all).

Bottom: The original invitation in the box