If you had the misfortune of visiting my bedroom today, you’d either think I was disorganized or planning a bridal shower. Both are true, but I’d say the latter has a stronger hand in the mess I’m living with.
The bulletin board on my wall has been overtaken with phone numbers of venues and caterers, lists of things I need to get done and invitation designs. My floor is cluttered with tablecloths, centerpieces and glassware. And I’m not even the one getting married.
I’m planning my sister, Carly’s, bridal shower as her maid of honor. And I am realizing the pros and cons of sharing a household with her as she plans the other details of her wedding.
We sent out shower invitations last week and it was nice to be able to have Carly clear the design and figure out double-sided printing. It was not so nice, however, to have her take over addressing the envelopes because my handwriting wasn’t neat enough – by her standards.
She was also kind enough to practically hand me the guest list. Forget about surprises when you’re from a household of nine.
We hardly have any mutual friends either, so surprising her would have been stressful on her side as well. While I technically recorded who Carly wanted there and took the precious 15 seconds to put together a Facebook event, she took all the guesswork out of it.
With some help from my mom and grandma – who know local businesses a little better than I do – I booked a room above the local music museum and a catering place. That’s about as far as I’ve gotten besides getting the invitations out.
Once I got through the stress-induced rant of how wedding planning shouldn’t exist because love doesn’t discriminate over whether you ate the beef or fish or your grandmother’s shoes matched or your groomsmen were embarrassingly drunk, I was able to act like a maid of honor. However they’re supposed to act.
Since I’m done with the hard parts and phone calls, I’m now in charge of figuring out how the three hours I reserved at the music museum ballroom will be spent. The most I know is I’m not going to pull a Kristen Wiig from “Bridesmaids.”
Carly suggested I look at Pinterest for bridal shower games. She sent me to the same place when I was working on her invites. How people planned weddings before Pinterest is beyond me.
How else would my sister have decided on burlap, lace and suitcases? Her future mother-in-law saved a picture of bridesmaid dresses that we pulled up at David’s Bridal when we were dress shopping. The same picture heavily influenced my sister’s decision to put all the bridesmaids in different colors.
Not different hues. Completely different colors. I won’t divulge much else, but I’ll assure you she’s got an eye for things like this.
They’re complementary and I’m sure the pictures will turn out as smashing as her wedding ceremony. All thanks to Pinterest.
When I asked my mother about planning a wedding before things like the website Carly swears by, she said something about reading magazines and touring local businesses, which is essentially what we’re doing. We just have the Internet on our side.
KELSEY GHERING
