The insanity begins

[mdlbear]

Saturday my older daughter is getting married. At Consonance. But I'm getting ahead of myself...

The next two weeks are going to be insane.

Today I get to finish off the tech reports, along with the usual lab and group meetings. Wedding prep is already in full swing, of course, and there will be the usual running around. I've already taken the Y.D. to school; soon I take selkit and the chaoswolf to Fry's, then (Kat's) school.

Wednesday is open house at the Starport; no telling how many people will be at the Starport, but the Wednesday before and after a con are always popular.

Thursday the packing and loading-in start: I'll probably take the afternoon off to assist. It will take several trips, even with multiple vehicles, because in addition to the wedding stuff we have most of the Con Suite's equipment here. The rehearsal dinner is scheduled for Thursday night, but the actual rehearsal won't be until Friday afternoon because Joyce is still mostly bed-ridden at this point and can only be up for an hour or two per day. I'll brief anyone who's there, anyway. Relatives start arriving.

Friday afternoon most relatives and wedding guests will arrive. Sometime around 3:30 we'll start trying to herd the wedding party together for a quick rehearsal. Dinner has been designated the "family dinner"; why the Cat insisted on the rehearsal dinner being Thursday I'll never know.

Saturday morning at 10:00 is the wedding. About 9:00 I'll head down to the room and make sure sound and stairs are in place, then go into "Father of the Bride welcomes the guests" mode. 10:00 is show time: a 6-minute ceremony followed by a short concert. 10:45 we head downstairs for the reception.

The rest of the weekend is Consonance. Between relatives and friends, I don't expect to get to much more than half of the programming. Sunday evening we start loading out. The Cat will stay home with the kids so she can get the Y.D. to school, then come back to the hotel Monday morning to finish loading out. I get to help with load-out, pay for multiple rooms, and say good-byes. Mom and my niece will be leaving on the first shuttle, so I may miss them altogether. The house-cleaners arrive in the afternoon; we'll need it.

Tuesday morning selkit heads back home, leaving his forlorn bride to finish school while he hunts for a job. I spend the day playing tour guide with the last of the house-guests. Wednesday is open house again. Guests start to arrive for the "It's Green!" party.

Thursday noonish I take the last of the previous weekend's house-guests to the airport, then go to work, to sit on a patent committee meeting that will probably already be in progress at that point. That evening the Cat and I go out for dinner, because it's my birthday.

Saturday the 15th is the annual "It's Green" potluck party. It's the Ides of March, which seems fitting somehow.

Sunday I collapse in a heap, lulled to sleep by the soft weeping of my credit cards.

Comments

[gorgeousgary]

As I posted in my LJ, I'll be in SF most of the post-Consonance week and am planning on the post-Consonance open house. (Which reminds me, gotta go rent me a car...)

[catsittingstill.livejournal.com]

Wow. Well, congratulations and best wishes!

Could be worse

[capplor.livejournal.com]

you could be moving shortly thereafter.

[jilara.livejournal.com]

Hang in there. Once you get to the other side, you can say "Wow, I survived it!"

[magicheide.livejournal.com]

It sounds stressful, but it is a good stress--you are not losing a daughter, you are adding another fan to your (extending)household, right?

[mdlbear]

The way I usually put it is "we're not losing a daughter, we're gaining a guest room". Eventually, anyway.

On the subject of daughters getting married...

[harmonyheifer.livejournal.com]

I have been thanking my lucky stars since August that Eli and Frank just went down to the BDM office in Wellington, paid their fee, filled out the forms and came back to make it legal. No angst, no fuss, and as my son-in-law charmingly put it. "We slighted everyone on both sides of the family so no one could take special offense." Goddess bless them both. Oh, and BDM doesn't just mean Big Damn Movie in New Zealand and it has nothing to do with whips and chains either. Birth, Death and Marriages. Makes you wonder how many perverts giggle while they are filling out forms there. Maybe just my daughter, come to think of it.

The fortunate thing is that Eli and I are both allergic to traditional weddings with all the bells and whistles. We shudder when we pass the wedding isle at the craft store. We both did it our own way, not a lot of fuss, and our husbands were thrilled that we didn't do what most women seem to do, even ordinarily sane ones when it comes to marriages. They go temporarily clinically insane. Honest to Goddess, I have seen it happen too many times and have too darn much psychiatric experience to call it anything else. Husbands and fathers just stand around looking horrified as they compute the mounting debt and all the silly little details that must be attended to into the wee small hours of the morning, "Because two hundred and fifty little frilly nut cups with the initials of the bride and groom are important, that's why." You can't reason with a woman who is batshit-in-wedding-mode-crazy. People have died trying. It just isn't worth the risk.

Having said that, it sounds like things are progressing in an amazingly orderly fashion for the Wolfling's nuptuals. A rehearsal dinner with no actual rehearsal may actually be more traditional than one where something gets accomplished for all I know. As fannish ceremonies go, it sounds incredibly sane. Just thank your lucky stars she didn't want a Klingon wedding with all the attendant bizarre rituals, including the attacking of the bridal couple by the groomsmen with clubs, a Betazoid wedding where everyone is naked, an elvish wedding where the couple wear elf ears and exchange "one ring to bind them," or a Rennie wedding where everyone is in garb and the reception for 200 guests is being held at the over-priced banquet hall of the Arizona Ren Faire.

We gave Frank and Eli a check, bought them a little carrot cake to cut at the American Wedding Reception/Prodigal Daughter party we had in December and called it a marriage. Patrick and I jumped a broom in our back yard. I've been to a lot of weddings in my time, but the simple ones that reflect the personalities of the couple are always the best. Of course the common elements are the presence of family and/or friends to enhance the celebration of the union. I really loved our wedding. Eli was very satisfied with hers. And soon your daughter will be married off, you will have your life back again, and eventually have a guest room for when the daughter and son-in-law come to visit.

Remember, that which does not kill us, makes us stronger. Hang in there. *virtual hug to the entire wedding party.* Blessings to all.

Re: On the subject of daughters getting married...

[mdlbear]

This would actually be one of the cheaper ones if it wasn't for the catering... At least we don't have to hire a DJ for the reception.

We tried to persuade them to elope, but they didn't take the offer. We did manage to persuade them *not* to get married at a Furry con.

[filkferengi]

Best wishes & hearty huzzahs all round!