Cambridge-University-Library (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
This past week has been a busy one in my household. My daughter has been home from Ontario for a short break between semesters; she will complete her Master’s of Library and Information Science degree this coming August, so has only one term left to complete. The program has been arduous but she has aced it so far and I have no reason to doubt that with her ability and determination she will finish the degree the same way. Then, of course, the job hunt begins in earnest.
To add to her stress, she has to vacate her apartment in Ontario by the end of August as her lease there expires, so she will have to pack up all her belongings, again, and either ship them to a new address or send them to a storage unit to hold until she has a new address.
And the icing on the cake…she is getting married just two weeks after her last class ends! So not only is she studying this coming semester, and working a part-time job in the university library, and packing her belongings to move, but she is neck-deep in wedding preparations…long-distance.
Wedding Dress For Happy Couple in Love (Photo credit: epSos.de)
She is in Ontario, her fiance is in Nova Scotia, and she is getting married in New Brunswick! Lots of plans are being made with the help of emails, long-distance phone calls, and the “mother of the bride”, aka “me”, running errands and contacting local vendors.
I was the one who booked the wedding venue, and I had to do it without my daughter even seeing it in photos…I know that she usually trusts my judgement and I really thought that I chose the best option available in my smallish town, but that doesn’t mean I wasn’t nervous yesterday when we went to view the site together.
White House Grand Staircase looking north. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
I held my breath as I opened the front door and we walked in. My daughter took her first look around, saw the two inviting parlors off the main entrance, gazed at the grand staircase leading upstairs to the bedrooms, walked into the dining areas that would hold the wedding reception and dance, and then she smiled. She smiled her famous, face-lights-up-completely smile that can break hearts or mend them, depending on the circumstances.
Once I saw that smile, I breathed again, knowing that I had definitely made the right choice for my baby girl’s upcoming wedding celebration.
We chatted with the owner of the Inn and my daughter asked a few questions from her list of questions. Then we walked outside to view the gardens, where, barring in-climate weather, the wedding ceremony will be held, late in the afternoon on an August Saturday.
The gardens are just greening up now from their winter’s sleep, but the promise that they show, of color and form and graceful waving beauty, is evident already, and once again, my daughter smiled her smile.
Light-Up-The-Room Smile!
I was safe–no foul, no strikes, no batter out! I knew that I had struck a home-run, so I did an imaginary celebratory lap around the bases while the crowd cheered me on!
Maybe, when this wedding is over and done with, I could begin a new career–I could become a wedding-planner and help other brides-to-be realize their dreams. Or maybe not.
By the time we finished our afternoon at the Inn and then at the local florists, I was tired and was more-than-ready to relax with a glass of wine.
This wedding-planning is emotionally exhausting, and I’m not as young as I used to be.
But I’ll keep you up-to-date with these particular wedding preparations, as I have more tasks to do in the upcoming months and writing about them just may help to keep my sanity intact a while longer. Or maybe not.
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