I saw my future of being a three time father-of-the-bride a couple of weekends ago, and it was scary. Our whole family was fortunate to be in my brother-in-law's wedding. Yep, three flower girls, a bridesmaid and a groomsman. Everything was great, and the girls all had a blast. But now as I sit back and look over the last few months of pre-wedding activities and then the actual wedding itself, I am not sure I am going to be able to handle three daughters getting married.
Over the wedding weekend, the bride's dad was excited, happy, and very relaxed. I thought to myself, "I hope I am like that when my girls get married." Then I remembered that she is his only child. No wonder he seemed fine: he knew this was his one and only time doing it!
Now for me, I saw all the craziness swirling around the event like Hurricane Irene: misplaced name cards, wrong best man shirt, priest's cellphone ringing during mass. And again I thought "How am I going to deal with all of these types of things, times three?"
For my wife and me, we had the normal bridesmaid and groomsman stuff of outfits and outings. Then of course there is the "drama" that comes with weddings, especially for the females: the dress, the hair, accessories, and dealing with other bridesmaids, and showers, etc., etc., etc. We have been in enough weddings to know the deal and that was not a big hassle.
Some extra stuff this time around was a bridal shower at our house that was held the day after our kitchen was scheduled to be finished getting its own "makeover." The paint was probably still drying on the walls when the first guests arrived...
However, the big difference this time around was not only were WE involved in the wedding, but our three little ladies also were a part. Just like it would be when one of them gets married. First there was the flower girl dress shopping. Several different stores, a few different styles and then they get the one they think is "it." $120 per dress later my wife thought that that may be a little too expensive for a flower girl dress. You think? (thank God she spoke up because I was just about to bite through my tongue). So, I thank her immensely for searching some more on her own and ultimately finding dresses for $25 each. Girls liked them, bride-to-be liked them, $360 crisis averted.
Next on the list was the shoes each of them would wear. Again, thanks to my wife they did the PayLess/Marshall's thing and they were able to find three pairs, albeit slightly different styles, for very reasonable prices. They may actually even wear them again!
I also forgot to mention that my now sister-in-law was kind enough to ask our daughters to be in the wedding over a year in advance. So anyone with small children knows that for the next year, everyday like clockwork, my wife or I would get asked something about the wedding and how many more days until the wedding. I can not even imagine what it would be like from the time one of my daughters gets engaged until their actual wedding day.
So you may think that is not all that bad. And you would be somewhat correct. Now let's just cut to three days prior to the wedding and go from there. Here is a condensed rundown for just the girls: three pre-haircuts, three lunches at Pineapple's on Goat Island with the bridal party (the wife convinced me they had to go because they were part of the party), two sets of manicures, one babysitter for Brigid the night of rehearsal so she would be rested for wedding (actually the best money we spent during this whole process), three wedding day hair do's, one babysitter the night of the wedding for Brigid so she did not stay at the reception the whole time, and loads of drama sprinkled in between.
I haven't taken the time to even calculate how much this has cost us. Honestly, I know I'd have a heart attack. That's not even what I'm worried about. It was just all of the little things, and of course all of the drama. Anyone that has girls knows that the drama can happen at anytime and over any little thing. And as the girls get bigger the drama gets bigger. I believe I could mentally prepare myself for one wedding, but not sure about three. Or now sitting here thinking more about this, maybe by the third wedding I will be able to tune everything out and just go to "my happy place" when all the drama breaks out. If I was one of my girls, I would try my hardest to be the last of her sisters to marry!
