Sunshine, lollipops and rain-clouds?

Ms. Frozen Yogurt recently blogged about her lonely venture into the wedding-preparation world. I could empathize, as I have had to do many things alone. However, her blog also reminded me of a day, not too long ago, when I really wish I had been alone in my lesson planning.

During my brief visit home, I decided to make an appointment to meet with my florist. Now, because I have been away for so long, I have never met my florist (gasp!). I know, I know...try it before you buy it, but I didn't.

She had come highly recommended to me by my bridesmaid who had done a trade show and had seen her work exhibited there. She told me that she had a very good eye and that she did stuff that was a bit unconventional. Great, I thought. Sounds like what I am going for. I called her, saw her stuff online and based on our conversation, thought that she would be a good person to work with.

So, I made my appointment to meet her at a local coffee shop and decided to bring along two aunts and my cousin/junior bridesmaid. She showed up with a lovely arrangment for me and one for the coffee shop, which I thought was a nice touch. She handed us her portfolio as well as some flower magazines to browse through for ideas. I will admit that I had no idea what I wanted going into the meeting, but I figured that the ideas would slowly emerge through our conversation.

Well, that did not happen.

One of my aunts tried to give her vision - centerpieces composed entirely of one type of flower, with each table having a different flower a la Martha Stewart, like this:

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Or these:

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I had not really thought about it, but upon a quick reflection, I thought that might be a good idea. Unfortunately, the florist was not on board. She insisited that having only one type of flower in one particular color could be disasterous. Why? According to her, if we insisted on say, all orange tulips or all yellow roses, we could be faced with sub-quality flowers. Her example was, "Say you have a dinner party. And you have been planning it for weeks. You have in your mind that you are going to serve chocolate-covered strawberries and when you get to the store, all the strawberries are moldy or soggy. However, right next to the strawberries you see the most beautiful and ripe raspberries. What do you do?"

I saw where she was coming from and agreed - to an extent. What if, I asked, I gave you a list of flowers that I like and you can get them in any of the following colors. Not all of them have to be the same, but as long as you get these flowers in these colors. Can you work with that? Of course, she replied, I just need some leeway.

However, the damage had been done. My aunt was furious that the florist was so stubborn and adamant about her stance and the florist was incensed at my aunt "butting-in".

We left the coffee shop with me wondering if I had burned my bridges with this florist - who, mind you, already had a deposit. I called the florist a few weeks after that and fortunately, everything was ok. I assured her that my aunt would not be coming to any more of our meetings and that from here on out, she would be dealing exclusively with me. She was grateful to hear that and we both agreed that there was some misunderstanding on everyone's part - the florist wasn't listening to my aunt and my aunt was not listening to my florist.

Things are a better now, but I am definitely a bit more cautious in inviting people to accompany me to vendor meetings.

What about you? Do you have a horror story to share about vendors and family?

Bachelorette Party

So, let's see...Recapping from my monumental move and catching up with where I am now.

A week before we moved from Boston to LA (the original plan), FH was stolen away to Maine by his best man and some friends to go white water rafting for the weekend. I mentioned this to one of my girl friends who promptly organized a bachelorette party for me. Great, I thought, we will meet at this girlfriend's home and walk over to our favorite bar, about a mile away.

*All pictures by me.

Well, this wonderful girlfriend of mine went all out. She had this beautiful pink and brown theme going:

Those ginormous lollipops that you see near the back - cheesecake lollipops....covered in chocolate....

I did not take pictures of the actual drinks, but this girlfriend made Kir Royale's and rimmed the champagne glass in pink sugar. You can imagine how cute they were.

She did such a wonderful job! We played a few bachelorette games and headed over to the Washington Square Tavern, my most favorite bar. It's dark and quiet, with dark wood everywhere and the bartenders have beautiful Irish accents...oh yes, and they knew me. You remember the Cheers song, "Where everybody knows your name"? Well, that's what it was like...except it wasn't everybody, it was the bartenders and everyone knows that when the bartenders know you, it's the best! (Yes, I enjoy a good drink every so often ;-))

Do you see how happy we are with our drinks?

Anywho, I remember that FH called me on his way to Maine, slurring his words slightly and asked how I was doing. Even in his inebriated state, he was worried about me and whatever games we would play (or would be played on me). I found it very endearing but at the same time, I thought the difference in our parties were so different. While I was having Kir Royales and cocktails and truffles (oh my!), he was having Bud Light and Burger King.

In the end, he had a great time, as did I. Each of us got a party that was perfectly tailored to each of our tastes. At the end of the weekend, we both were reminded of how incredibly blessed we both were to have such a great group of friends who cared about us so much.

What about you? Did you have a bachelorette party? Was it exactly what you expected it to be? Or were you faced with a Mrs. Mary Jane-like dilema?