Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

The Friday before our wedding, The Gryphon and I bustled about, taking care of the items we still needed to handle.

We dropped off our doggy, Una, at the pet sitter's in the morning, where she'd be cared for during our honeymoon, as well.

Then we drove to Center City, where we had breakfast and then met with our florist, Cal Shaw of Carl Alan Creations Ltd., to finalize the arrangements. He showed us what he was planning to do with all the arrangements and the bouquets, and we gave him our final approval. Everything looked terrific and would fit the retrofuturistic look we wanted.

After that, we ran a few errands in Center City. The Gryphon was worried he might not have appropriate clothing for some of the nicer restaurants with which we had reservations on our honeymoon, so we stopped in the downtown Gap and bought him a chocolate brown herringbone blazer, which I assured him would go nicely with any of his clothes. Plus, it was a lightweight cotton blend, which would travel well and be appropriate for sultry Florida nights.

Then we stopped at the Reading Terminal Market to pick up some ingredients for snacks to have available while we were getting ready the next day. For the women, I wanted to make up cucumber sandwiches, which would be light enough not to disturb nervous stomachs but substantive enough to quiet rumbling ones. We also grabbed some apples and then stopped at Chocolate by Mueller for two bags of dark chocolate covered espresso beans.

I hadn't quite completed my honeymoon packing, so I felt rushed when we finally got in the car and headed home, realizing we didn't have nearly as much time left as I'd planned. But The Gryphon assured me that he'd help wherever necessary, including making the cucumber sandwiches for me that night after the rehearsal dinner.

When we got home, I busied myself printing out informational sheets for Mom, who would be acting as my coordinator on the wedding day. In addition, I printed out cheat sheets for all the people who would be helping us, to remind them of what their tasks were. I hoped that would reduce the number of questions The Gryphon or I would have to field on the big day.

I was tired, having stayed up late the previous night to watch my two favorite TV comedies, My Name is Earl and The Office, which we'd taped while I was working on my evening assignments. So after a very brief nap, I was still feeling tired and stressed when we donned our nice clothing to attend the wedding rehearsal. I wore the little black dress I'd bought for the occasion, and The Gryphon wore one of his nice printed button-down shirts and dress slacks.

We had meant to leave enough time to arrive somewhat early, but we got stuck in rush hour traffic on I-476 on our way to the Doubletree Guest Suites in Plymouth Meeting, where our wedding would be held the next day. I was getting a little anxious, because we were running late, wondering if everyone would find each other without us.

Then, in the distant sky to the north, seemingly hanging right over the Doubletree, we saw a rainbow! I pointed it out to The Gryphon, and we marveled at it. Of course, my camera was in the trunk with a bunch of items, including the gifts for the wedding party as well as many items, such as my dress and the wedding programs, that we were leaving with my mom in her room overnight.

When we arrived, I walked inside to greet our guests, and The Gryphon got a luggage cart to collect our items. Sure enough, everyone was just hanging out in the lobby, dressed nicely and waiting for us, apparently in good spirits.

We learned that our room would be ready shortly, so we socialized a little. Meanwhile, The Gryphon arrived with the luggage cart just after we learned the room was free, so he took everything up to her room while I escorted the wedding party, helpers and guests into the ceremony room.

As soon as we stepped inside, we had a number of questions. I'd given Mom the binder of information about the wedding, and she wanted to know exactly how the ceremony space was supposed to be set up the next day. Among her key duties was to facilitate the setup to make certain I wouldn't need to be bothered with it.

The room was partially laid out. Two columns sat up front, where the floral arrangements were going to be placed. In addition, there was a row of chairs up front, but we wanted to confirm that the width of that aisle corresponded to what we'd see the next day.

Fortunately, the banquet coordinator came by to answer our questions, and he was very helpful. Mom and The Pastor spoke to him to finalize plans for the arrangements the next day, such as moving the table from the front of the room to the back, for the distribution of programs and the bell wands people were to wave instead of throwing rice as we recessed down the aisle.

One important person was absent: one of my bridesmaids, Tech Guru, who is a college friend of The Gryphon's. I'd left her a couple messages on her cell phone but assumed she was unable to answer because she was driving. We figured she'd gotten stuck in rush hour traffic, and sure enough, she arrived at about quarter after. This didn't really hold us up too much, because our wedding reservations weren't until 7 in the hotel restaurant.

All three bridesmaids seemed to be recovering from their recent illness. The Tech Guru was clearly having some troubles with her voice, but we assured her that she wouldn't have to talk much the next day. I counseled them all to get plenty of sleep that night.

Under the guidance of The Pastor, we did a dry run of the ceremony, while those who didn't need to participate, such as the spouses of the married bridal party members, watched or took photos.

Pimp Daddy, who had agreed to be our videographer, also videotaped the event, to get a feel for where he'd have to set things up the next day.

The rehearsal was a lighthearted affair. Our usher, The March Hare, turned out to have quite a number of duties, more than we'd expected. They included distributing the wedding programs and bell wands, seating guests and telling them important information, turning down the music for us after the processional (if the DJ was running it from another room) and also unfurling the aisle runner before we processed up it. He took notes on his PDA, which gave me confidence he'd handle everything properly.

The Gryphon and I joked that we ought to pose goofily when we were announced as Mr. and Mrs. and then skip down the aisle.

We had a minor technical problem when it came to trying to hear the processional and recessional music, since the CD player we were using simply didn't carry very far. Still, we managed to convey to the wedding party when they were to process up the aisle, and that's all we needed to do.

I handed out slips of paper as cheat sheets to each of the people who were doing things for us, or who were collecting things for us after the ceremony.

By then, it was nearly time to begin dinner, so we all headed over to the restaurant. They had set up the tables for us and put out the menu we'd requested, which was an abbreviated version of the usual restaurant menu. I had to go up to Mom's room to retrieve the gifts, so I wasn't there as people chose their seats. When I arrived, they had seated themselves, with me in the middle.

They entertained themselves while they waited for the bread and then the Caesar salad.

My sister's husband and my niece play with a spoon

We did have a few snags at dinner, as it took longer for people to be served than people expected. Since many of them eat a lot earlier than 7 p.m., it was a bit of a hardship. But that's probably because of the way we'd planned the dinner, with an option of three different entrees. If we'd selected just one option for everyone, I'm sure it would have been faster.

The one thing we would have planned differently was the rehearsal dinner so that people could be served sooner. We either would have moved the rehearsal earlier by an hour or two, or we would have simplified the menu or perhaps taken the order ahead of time so that the food could be prepared faster.

Somehow, the server got a miscount for the number of crab cakes and brought me a cheesy pasta dish instead, which I gave them back. They had to go to the kitchen and prepare another meal. Since The Paper had received her crab cakes, she kindly gave them to me, saying, "You're the bride. You should have this."

I felt guilty, though, as she sat patiently waiting for her food, but she assured me with the stage wisdom that if the dress rehearsal is a disaster, the opening night will be a success. I choked back tears a little bit as I said, "I hope that's the case." (I was so emotional those two days, almost uncharacteristically so. It must have been the overwhelming rush of all those details, all those feelings, all at once.)

Before dessert, I distributed all the presents, just in case anyone needed to get on the road early. As it was, I had to send my sister's husband to my brother's room to give a present to my brother's wife, who would take candid shots of the wedding. They had to take off early from the dinner because of their two small children. I'd bought her a wristlet purse which I thought would be perfect for carrying necessary items while shooting wedding photography, or maybe for a night out with my brother.

We gave gifts to suit each individual person. For the bridesmaids, I'd had an artist on Etsy.com create pop art style portraits of them, from photographs. This was trickier than you might think, as I had to find good photos of all of them. But with the help of a friend of The Gryphon's, who provided a photo of the Tech Guru, I managed to pull it all together, and they loved the results.

Here's a sample of one of them, which was done for my College Roommate.

For The Cousin, who was our guest book attendant, we got her a reader's diary, done on good paper by a small press, to keep track of the books she reads and rate them. The women had fun placing the ribbons from the gifts in their hair.

The Cousin, My College Roommate and The Tech Guru

My sister

The Gryphon got the groomsmen gifts he felt they'd enjoy. For the best man, The Cheshire Cat, a set of hematite dice for roll-playing games. For The Dormouse, a set of collapsible chopsticks. For The White Rabbit, a wall scroll of a bamboo grove to hang in his house.

Also, we got a gift for our faithful usher, The March Hare. For him, we got an all-purpose eight-in-one tool which can fit on a key ring. And for our videographer, Pimp Daddy, we got a couple bottles of wine from Chadd's Hill Winery.

Finally, I gave my parents picture frames and a promise to give them an 8-by-10 photo of their choice from the wedding.

Dessert was a selection of cakes, with cheesecake the most popular. I chose the carrot cake, leaving about half of it on my plate. After all, I wanted to be sure my dress would fit!

People seemed to have a good time, and we stayed until the restaurant was closing. The Gryphon and I said our goodnights and headed home. Before going to sleep, we went over all our checklists and finalized the lists of things that The Gryphon had to oversee the next day, such as making sure that the non-clothing items were brought down out of mom's room and that someone met with the DJ to make sure everything was clear.

He also made up the final checks for the vendors who needed final payments, such as the photographer and the DJ. And we made up a list of important information, such as flight numbers, hotel information and other info, to give to both my sister and The Cheshire Cat, just in case it would be needed while we were away.

Finally, I took the advice of my brother's wife and took a Unisom, to ensure I'd have a full night's sleep. I'm glad I did, because with everything running through my mind, I never would have slept otherwise.

More on Alyce's wedding planning:

Musings on Alyce's Wedding

Copyright 2006 by Alyce Wilson

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