Forecast: Showers Ahead

The wedding dress is chosen, bridesmaids' attire ordered, reception hall booked, guest list honed, and Save-the-Dates sent. Now, we're in high shower-planning season. The girls in the family are planning a "do" in August, and the church-lady-friends are asking about a good date to toss a little gift-giving orgy. (Church ladies? Orgy? Oh, well.) Kate's friends are looking ahead to shower her, as well.

Bride and I talked the other day about what kind of showers she should have. Back in the olden days (1970s) the obligatory showers were as follows:

• China/Crystal/Silver, usually given by yo' mama's friends and the, well, yeah, church ladies


• Kitchen (the gizmo shower)


• Linen (my personal favorite)


• Miscellaneous (the hodge-podge shower)


• Lingerie, usually given by your bridesmaids with the young folk in attendance

Sometimes you'd have two or three miscellaneous showers, depending on the number of family and not-quite-China/Crystal/Silver-friends owed yo' mama for past shower gifts. The shower season was intense but lucrative. Mmmm.

There don't seem to be as many showers these days, I think because the guest list has to be so pared down with $100/head receptions. Way back, you sent out as many invitations as you wanted and enclosed a reception card if the guest was invited to the party afterwards. And nobody got noses out of joint for just getting the wedding invite and not the reception invite, as well. Keep in mind that the reception consisted of mints, nuts, wedding cake (bride and groom's cakes), and some alcohol-free punch. I'm guessing the cost was about $2.95/head. My point is that there was a big pool of wedding guests to draw several showers from. Not so now.

Anyway, I told Bride: definitely linen and miscellaneous showers. No need anymore for the China/Crystal thing - whoever is going to splurge on that will do it for the wedding gift. Kitchen shower is nice, but they have tons of kitchen stuff already and anymore stuff is gravy. Her girls will give her a lingerie shower.

My problem is attending the showers, since I'm in New York and all the shower goings on in Atlanta. Folks are trying to group them so that I'm in town for most. Yeah!

Showers are great fun and, as I said, lucrative. The down-side? All those thank-you notes!

And the Bride-to-Be turns 25!

Today is the Bride's 25th birthday. My how time flies when you're having fun!

Happy Birthday, sweet Kate! Yo' mama loves you.

(This isn't The Dress, by the way.)

Am I (Cornflower? Periwinkle? Colonial?) Blue?

Well, the "save-the-dates" have gone out to all and sundry. If you haven't received one, then chances are strong you won't be getting a wedding invite, either. Though you are well loved by bride-groom-MoB, we just can't spring for the $100+ you'll cost us at the reception. You'll understand when your daughter gets married. Culling the wedding list is a brutal exercise, I tell you. And that's what we get for having such big families on all sides.

There was a kerfuffle about the save-the-dates, but we've moved on. Seems the printer used the wrong blue paper stock. Instead of what was shown to Bride - a nice cornflower (or was it periwinkle?) blue - the stock used was colonial blue. Consequently, the silver script is just a little hard to read. It's not that bad, and the colors are lovely (even the colonial blue).

Those of you who have received a save-the-date, just hold it under a light, and it's more readable. I mean, we're springing for a heck of a reception, so the least you can do is figure out how to read silver script under a light.

We promise the actual wedding invitation will be easier to read.