Off to the wedding!!

[Guest guest]

Good morning friends!

Tomorrow my son and grandson fly in from Oklahoma, and we'll be driving up

to ton to stay at our hotel for the next four days for my daughter's

wedding. I'm driving into Savannah today to pick up her wedding dress,

which I'm transporting to ton. Even with the back seats lowered in my

Jeep Grand Cherokee, the dress, which needs to be laid flat, takes up the

entire space of the trunk!

In the last few days the excitement has slowly gained momentum and I'm

becoming a bit of a nervous ninny! We have special events, dinners and

breakfasts planned for this four day celebration, and FINALLY, all the

planning and preparation is done. I finally finished sewing the 28 toile table

scarves last week and have tied my last bow (I hope)! My older brother is

flying in from Sweden and my 81 year old father is coming down from NY

state with my sister and her husband from NJ. My other brother and his wife

from Virginia will be there, too, so it should be a wonderful family

celebration.

We have 165 confirmed guests, and fortunately, no threat of evacuation for

Ivan, as we had initially feared.

I just wanted to thank you all for putting up with all my wedding talk these

past

months! It's finally here!! I'll be offline starting tomorrow until next week.

Although we're taking the laptop with us, I really doubt I'll have a minute to

spare to get online. I hope everyone stays as well as they can, and I'll " see "

you all when we get back.

With love, hope and prayers,

Heidi

Heidi H. Griffeth

South Carolina

SC & SE Rep., PAI

Note: All comments and advice are based on personal experience or

opinion, and should not be substituted for professional medical consultation.

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

I haven't kept up with the wedding plans as much as I would have liked, but I do

want you to know that I have enjoyed hearing at least some of the plans. I know

that your daughter's wedding will be everything she has dreamed of. I can

promise you that there WILL be things that go differently (notice I did not say

WRONG, I said DIFFERENT) from what you originally planned or had in mind.

However, just as with my daughter, Nikki, and her husband, , I have no

doubt that your daughter and her new husband will leave the wedding reception

married, happy, and so totally in love that your heart will nearly burst from

the joy of knowing your child is so happy! Nikki and I (as well as , my

husband, and everyone else involved) were certainly happy for the wedding to be

over. However, the year plus that we spent seriously planning the wedding is a

time that Nikki and I will treasure forever. Yes, there were tears of both

happiness and frustration during the planning. There was a time or two that I

wanted to pinch Nikki's head off, only for her to be just fine a few hours

later! There was the melt down that she had in the church bathroom just prior

to the rehearsal when almost everyone was late getting to the rehearsal! The

groom, Nikki's father, and stepfather got hung up for over 3 hours at the tux

shop and they were a few minutes late. Then the best man and two groomsmen got

caught in traffic on the interstate. I didn't even know Nikki was having a melt

down until our wedding coordinator told me to talk to Nikki in the bathroom. I

took her hands in mine and I said, " It will all be okay. I promise you. " She

was still crying and said that so many things had not gone according to plans

and she just couldn't handle any more. I told her, " You are my daughter and I

have no doubt that you will make it through this with all of the grace and

beauty that you have made it through every hurdle in your life. I have faith in

you and I KNOW everything will be just fine. Your wedding and reception will be

beautiful and in just 30 hours or so, you and will be leaving your

reception and then you will have an entire week to just totally relax and enjoy

each other. Now, dry those eyes and lets get this show on the road. " A shared

hug and kiss and my beautiful daughter was fine. Full of poise and grace as she

has always been!

We had all decided to just do the rehearsal with uncles standing in for the best

man and missing groomsmen and at that very moment, they arrived at the church so

we did the rehearsal with no stand-ins! The rehearsal went great. The kids

were amazing. We had three teens as ushers and then my 6 year old niece as

flower girl and 8 year old nephew as ring bearer. They were practically running

down the aisle. It was cute, but I knew they could do better. I took them

aside and told them that if they would walk slowly and nicely down the aisle at

the rehearsal and again the next day at the wedding I would give them each $5.

Amazingly, they walked down that aisle like they had been doing weddings for

years! They did even better at the wedding, but not before letting their

parents know that Aunt was going to give them $5 if they walked slowly! I

have always felt that bribery could be a good thing and I felt $10 was a cheap

price to have a nicer video with the flower girl and the ring bearer walking

nicely down the aisle!

The wedding ceremony was absolutely the most beautiful I have ever seen! It was

also one of the longest ceremonies, but our minister made it so meaningful and

his words were so touching that I don't think anyone was bored. The ceremony

lasted over 20 minutes - quite a long time for a 6 and 8 year old to stand still

in the spotlight. They were so great! They just absolutely amazed me. My

nephew was initially upset at finding out that he was not going to carry the

real rings. I knew I had to pull something out of my hat quickly because he

could be quite ornery if he was unhappy! I immediately told him that he was the

'guardian of the rings' and that it was his job to make sure that the best man

gave the rings when the minister told him to. I told that he might want

to keep them because they were made of gold and diamonds and cost a LOT of

money. stood solidly in his spot at the alter facing the guests until

the minister asked the best man for the rings. At that instant he turned only

his head and made sure his eyes were on those rings until the best man handed

them over! It was soooo cute and no one else really noticed him turning his

head but as soon as he turned back around I smiled at him and nodded my head in

approval. He was beaming! He had done his job as 'guardian of the rings'!

It's on the video and it is just one of many moments we will treasure forever!

The young ushers also did an extraordinary job seating the guests and rolling

out the aisle runner. I ended up giving my nephews and niece $20 each. their

parents protested but I told them all that the kids had earned their money. The

rehearsal, rehearsal dinner, photo session, wedding, and then reception had made

for two very long and tiring days. The kids were fantastic. They all took

their jobs very seriously and behaved fabulously!

boy, I've rambled on as usual. Anyway, I just wanted to wish you well with your

daughter's wedding. I know it will be lovely. I hope you have a lifetime of

memories from this joyous occasion!

By the way, don't know if I have shared this with you guys, but my stepdaughter,

's boyfriend of 3 years proposed to her and gave her a beautiful ring only

minutes before Nikki was to walk down the aisle. was Nikki's maid of

honor. Her boyfriend's timing on the proposal made Nikki's wedding day even

more special. I don't think their has ever been two sisters who were happier

for each other than at that moment. That was like the icing on the cake - to

see both of my daughters with such beautiful tears of joy brimming in their eyes

- their tears were more precious and beautiful than diamonds!

Thankfully, and Luke plan to have a long engagement just as Nikki and

did! They are planning a Sep 2006 wedding. Hopefully, I will have

recovered from Nikki's wedding by that time!

W

alabama

[Guest guest]

Heidi,

I hope the wedding and everything is going well and I expect you to tell

us all how things went and how beautiful the bride is, etc. Hope the

pancreas decided to take a break this week and that you had little to no

pain during the four day celebration. Also, take a nice loooong nap

after the wedding celebrations and then get online and tell us all about it.

Kimber.

--

Kimber

Vallejo, CA

hominid2@...

Note: All advice given is personal opinion, not equal to that of a licensed

physician or health care professional.