Heidi - off topic - weddings, weddings!

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

How wonderful that decided on her dress! It was such a relief for me

that Nikki found her dress so quickly. She would not make a single decision on

colors, bridesmaids' dresses, anything until she had her dress! I'm sure you've

said, but tell me again when is the wedding? Where will it be? What type of

stuff are you guys doing as far as food, colors, decorations, etc.?

Nikki's invitations will go in the mail next week. Her stepmother has the most

lovely handwriting so she has addressed them all. So far she has addressed

almost 250 and there are about 10-15 to go that we still have to get addresses

for. Even though we are inviting so many (almost 400), we are expecting

150-200. Nikki and wanted a personal invitation sent to every one of

their sorority/fraternity sisters/brothers, but we don't expect that many to

attend since the wedding is a little more than 2 hours away from where they go

to college. Also, the wedding is Memorial Day weekend so a lot of the college

kids will have other plans. We've asked for people to respond by May 8th on the

response cards. I am hoping that the majority of people will take the 30

seconds to fill out the response card and drop it in the mail (using the

envelope that is already addressed to us and stamped of course). However, I

know there will be some that don't bother to respond no matter how easy you make

it for them to do so. That is one of my pet peeves! I will never forget when

Nikki was in the 5th grade and had a slumber party for her birthday. We invited

all the girls in her class at school and I asked for parents to RSVP. I think I

had one or two parents call and tell me their kids wouldn't be able to attend.

I had only one parent call to tell me her daughter would be coming and she asked

if I'd mind just letting her daughter ride home from school with me. This was

the only parent out of the class that I had met because her daughter had been to

the house several times and Nikki had been to this little girl's house. No

other parents called to tell me their daughters would be coming. I asked Nikki

about it and she said, " Oh, so and so and so said they are coming. " So, I just

thought, okay - well at least we'll have a couple of girls. We were living

outside St. Louis, MO at that time and had just moved to the area over the

summer, so none of the parents knew me. I couldn't believe that they would let

their daughters spend the night without having at least talked to me first. I

just assumed, well, they'll come in and meet me when they drop their daughters

off at the house. I got to the school that afternoon to pick Nikki up and there

were 5 girls in addition to the one I knew I was picking up with Nikki. They

were at the school with sleeping bags, clothes, and presents. I was totally

flabbergasted! If they hadn't had clothes and sleeping bags, I'd have been

afraid to take them without first talking to the parents, but I figured if

they'd sent their daughters to school with sleeping bags then they must intend

for them to come home with me. So we squished 7 5th grade girls in my car.

Thankfully, we only lived a few blocks from the school. I thought, surely I'll

hear from these girls parents to make sure they were with me and safe. No - the

only parent that called until the next day, was the one parent that I knew and

had asked if her daughter could ride home with me. I never heard a word from

any of the other 5 girls parents until the next day. Four of the parents called

around noon to ask for directions to my house. One of the parents had not

called nor come to pick up their child at 2 p.m. I finally had to tell the

child to call her parents. Then when she did, the mom was at work and the dad

said he was busy and could pick the daughter up around 6 p.m., but that if I

wanted to bring her home, that would be fine! The whole thing was absolutely

crazy! I could not believe these people would send their daughters home from

school with a complete stranger! Even when Nikki was a teenager, I NEVER

allowed her to spend the night at anyone's house unless I had met the parents.

Any time she spent the night, I always talked to the parents to make sure it

really was okay for Nikki to stay the night and that the parents were actually

going to be home. Nikki used to complain that it was embarrassing that I had to

talk to the parents every single time she spent the night, but I told her if she

didn't like it, she could just stay home!

Well, I've managed to go from wedding dresses to weddings to invitations to RSVP

to wacky parents!

Hope this finds everyone doing well.