Meet my new granddaughter

It's a good thing we had the baby shower when we did because my granddaughter decided to arrive 18 days early!

My daughter called at 12:50am Tuesday morning with the news that her water had broken. Her doctor said wait about an hour and then come to the hospital. This gave me time to take a quick shower and get to the hospital.

After only a little over four hours of labor, my granddaughter was born at 5:58am on Tuesday, February 27. She weighed in at 6lbs 13oz and is 18.5" long. I was able to be in the delivery room with her helping to hold her legs, along with her husband and other grandmother, and encourage her to push when it was time. Wow! What a miracle birth is. It was so exciting to see my granddaughter born. It was amazing!

Now, the fun begins - spoiling her to death!

Wedding Night Stories

"What? Wedding night stories?" you ask. "But, I'm not married yet. How can I have a wedding night story?"

That's okay. I'm not looking for wedding night stories from you. But, you certainly have friends and family that are married. That's where you can help.

As a wedding planner, I always wonder in what unique ways the bride and groom will celebrate their wedding night. To me, the wedding night should be the most special, memorable, and romantic evening of your married life and should be just as carefully planned as the wedding itself. So, one day I was thinking, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a resource out there for couples to get great ideas on how to plan for their wedding night?” That’s when the idea came about to put together real-life stories into a book that could be shared with others.

Some couples probably don’t even think that far ahead when they are so busy planning for their wedding. But, I think it’s just as important to really make that first night together as husband and wife as special as it can be. You’ll never have that night to do over again. Sure, you’ll have plenty of romantic evenings together after you’re married, but there is nothing like that first night. It’s just like having that first kiss, that first dance, etc.

Therefore, I am currently in the process of researching stories about how couples made their wedding night special and romantic. I want to know the creative ways couples made their first night together as husband and wife unique and memorable.

I want to know such things as where they spent their wedding night. Was it a luxurious hotel suite, a bed and breakfast or in their new home? What did they do? Did her husband carry her over the threshold? Did they use candles? Did they have wine, champagne, or something else? Rose petals tossed around? Did they have romantic music playing in the background? Did something funny happen? Those are the kinds of things I’m looking for.

With these real-life stories, I hope to help future brides and grooms get ideas on how to make their night special, romantic and something they will remember and cherish forever.

If you think your friends or family would be interested in submitting their wedding night story, please have them send me an e-mail through my Web site at: www.smoothweddings.com and I will send them more details.

Maybe their story will help inspire you to plan the most romantic and memorable night of your life.

Baby Shower Update

Well, my daughter's baby shower is over and by all comments, it was a great success. My daughter was very happy and pleased with how everything turned out. There was one surprise she didn't know about. Her aunt, my sister, lives in North Carolina. When my daughter asked her several months ago if she would be able to come up for the shower, my sister had said "no," because of the drive and she didn't want to come alone. Well, since the shower was going to be held on President's Day Weekend, I suggested that she and her husband come up and stay for the long weekend. My sister thought that was a great idea and I told her not to say anything to my daughter so it would be surprise.

Fast forward to this past Saturday - the day of the shower. I had already arranged for my daughter to arrive at 12 and my sister at 12:30pm. When my sister rang the doorbell, I had my daughter answer the door. Well, when she opened the door, she just stood there for a few seconds before it registered who it was. Needless to say, she was shocked and excited that my sister was, afterall, able to attend her baby shower.

Around 1pm, everyone else began to arrive. When they came in, my son was the coat check person and took their coat to hang up in the closet. Each guest filled out a name tag shaped like a bib, wrote a note of advice, comments, etc. for the new "mommy and daddy," and pre-address an envelope to themselves in order to help my daughter save time in writing her thank you notes.

When everyone had arrived, we opened the buffet. I had a cheese and fruit platter, vegetable crudite and miniature quiche. I also had a bowl of mixed nuts. We served coffee, punch and iced water.

We opened the shower with the "ice-breaker" game that I told you about in the previous post. As I was in the middle of reading the story, one last guest arrived. We continued the story and guess who won the prize? The last guest that arrived! Next, my daughter began opening her gifts. There were lots of "oohs and ahhs" as everyone "cooed" over the cute little outfits. After my daughter opened about half the gifts, we played another game. It was the "guess how big my tummy is" game. Most of the guests cut a ribbon way too long. There were a couple of people that were very close, but the guest who won had cut her ribbon almost exactly to the actual belly size.

When that game was over, my daughter finished opening her gifts. At that time, my daughter drew the name for the winner of the gift basket. I had made up a wine basket consisting of a bottle of wine, wine glasses, corkscrew, cheese sticks and a can of cashews. Well, the guest that won does not drink wine, but she liked the rest of the items in the basket, so we chose another name to win the wine and wine glasses. My sister actually won that, which she was very happy because it happened to be her favorite wine.

It was time for dessert. I commissioned one of my wedding cake bakers to make the "baby buggy" cake to my daughter's specifications. I also had a mini-chocolate fountain with strawberries, marshmallows and pretzels for the dipping. That was a hit! No one left the table.

It was so much fun planning and hosting this baby shower for my daughter. She is not due until March 16, but last week she was already 3cm dilated. Her doctor thinks she will probably deliver before her due date. I can't wait to have a granddaughter. It will be so exciting.

Now, that the Super Bowl is over...

…I thought it would be a good time to tell you about a wedding I did a couple of years ago.

The groom was an avid football fan. I mean, he lived and breathed football. So, the only way to incorporate even something remotely close to football for his wedding, he decided to have a little bit different way of having the groom’s processional. The groom had pre-recorded “stats” about each of his groomsmen in one of those exciting, enthusiastic, announcing kind of voices like they do on TV. When it was time for the guys to come in, the lights were turned down, strobe lights and different colors of lights were flashing in all different directions. As it was dark, the groom and groomsmen came out from a side door and sat in the front row. The groom went up on the stage. The pre-recorded “stat” started playing. As the first groomsman’s name is announced, he runs up on the stage, high fives the groom and takes his place accordingly. This is done for each groomsman. It was great. The guests were laughing and clapping right along. It was a lot of fun to watch.

It’s hard to transition from that into a bride’s processional, but after the guys were standing in their places, the flashing lights stopped and a video montage began of the bride and groom which helped to tone down things and bring the guests back down to a more subdued environment, preparing them for the bride.

It really made it a very fun, personalized wedding. Knowing this couple, especially the groom, the guests were really not surprised that somehow a “football theme” would have been incorporated into the wedding. They probably were thinking it wouldn’t show up until the reception. Little did they know.

Remember, your wedding doesn’t have to be the old traditional way of doing things. Make it personal to you and your groom. Make it fun. Make it what you want. Social customs do not always have to be followed – as long as you never offend anyone – do what you want. This is your wedding!