THE WEDDING SHOWER
It all started on Tuesday. Or was it Monday? Shannon came up to make the party favors for her bridal shower. I sat and watched for a while as she cut up little squares of lace putting 5 Jordan almonds in the center of the lace and tying the assembly up with a piece of ribbon. Looks like work to me. After a while, I decide to give the poor kid a break. I tie up a few of the little lace bags for her. The little pouches are now placed into little baskets. Some of the baskets are a little too small, so quite a bit of effort is required to get the bags into them. Pretty, but the favors need a little something.
Next day, Lin goes and buys some little tiny roses in three colors to dress up the baskets. These are the kind that some little Chinese person hand made by forming the rose out of fabric and twisting it up with a piece of wire. About the size of the end of a pencil eraser.
Lin's been real busy with shower and wedding preparations, so I volunteer to dress up the little baskets. I'm provided with some little clusters of pearls on wires to help out.
I sit looking at the roses and the pearls for a while trying to decide how to approach the design project. A little bouquet of three roses and some pearls thrown in for good measure seems to be in order. I'll wrap it around the handle of the basket. I take a pink, a white and a rose colored rose along with a cluster of pearls and twist them up together into a mini-bouquet. That wasn't too hard. I now wrap the bouquet around the handle of the first basket. Looks good, but it still needs a little something. I take two clusters of pearls and weave the wires into the sides of the basket just below the point where the handle is attached. The pouch of almonds is placed back in the basket and the design is evaluated.
"Lin, how's this?".
"Jim, that looks really nice!"
The prototype is complete, production is set to begin.
"Hey, Lin, how many baskets are there?"
"Fifty, I think."
Shit.
All the little pouches of almonds have to be removed from the baskets before work can commence. Getting them out of the smaller ones is a little difficult as they are jammed in pretty well. In a while, the baskets are emptied of their contents. Great care is taken not to open the pouches by accident. We don't need to be tying them up again.
I love Jordan almonds. The taste and the symbology. Something about prosperity or fertility. To me a wedding wouldn't be a wedding without those little shiny white beauties.
The left-over almonds are calling me from the bag on the table. A sample is in order. For those unfamiliar with these treats, they consist of an almond covered with a thin coating of sugar. The nature of the coating usually dictates the almond be held in the mouth for a while until the coating softens enough to bite through to reach the almond inside. Placing one in my mouth, I suck on it for the required amount of time. I bite down. The coating doesn't yield. These things are nuclear hardened! They taste good any way.
We had been asked by the groom's (Tom's) mother to use something other than Jordan almonds in the favors. She had mentioned something about her family having bad teeth. These favors are going to be popular with that side.
Back to the little bouquets. First one, then two. Those little wires sure are sharp. After about ten or so, my fingers begin to hurt. The pile of finished bouquets does not grow very quickly. OOPS, that hurt. A puncture in my thumb. Production is halted until the bleeding can be stopped.
I complete around twenty bouquets and I decide to do some assembly work to break the monotony. I begin twisting the roses around the basket handles. After a few are done, I weave in the pearls. This is going great, I'll be done in no time. One, two, three...nine!?. Only nine baskets are completely assembled. I better count the roses to make sure I have enough. We'll fall short. tomorrow, Lin will get some more. I complete a few more bouquets and call it quits. Its been two hours. They don't pay me enough.
More roses. Over the next couple of days, I nibble at the task at hand and by the day before the shower, the baskets are completed. The skin on the ends of my fingers is cut to shreds. Winding my watch is a new experience in pain. Typing is now slow and gentle. At least the favors are one thing we don't have to worry about. It's a good thing, too.
Wednesday, it had all fallen apart. Tom's mother (who was giving the shower), can no longer complete the preparations for the party. We assess where we stand and pick up the pieces. The dining room table becomes covered with little pieces of paper bearing notes on what must be done. Food, decorations, trips to the store.
More text will be inserted here at some point. I'm going to skip to a more interesting point now while it's still fresh.
Saturday night we gain access to the hall to go in and decorate. Lin and I along with Michelle (a friend of Shannon's) and Terry (Michelle's mom) go over to the hall. Tracy, my oldest daughter will come later to help. She's busy with her new baby girl.
I assess the room and make some design decisions. I direct the efforts. Crepe paper streamers are stretched from various points around the room joining at a focal point on the ceiling over where the Shannon and Tom will be seated. The streamers are twisted to make them more attractive. We decide to make it a little decorating party. We open one of the containers of wine and have some. We're really having a good time.
After the streamers are done, some wedding bells are added. The bells are those tissue paper accordion folded thingies that come flat and are opened up to form a three dimensional bell. Little ones and big ones are tacked into the ceiling around the room.
Time for the tables and chairs. The folding tables are taken from their stack in the corner of the room, opened up and placed in a pattern such that they all face the happy couple. Chairs are unfolded and put in place. Eight tables, forty eight chairs. Table cloths are next. White and green alternating on the tables. We have more of those paper accordion folded thingies in the shape of a dome with a cardboard bride and groom rising from the center. They're to be used as the center piece for the tables. After the center pieces are in place, each table is delicately sprinkled with glitter to dress up the plain table cloths a bit. We're done for now. The only thing remaining to do is to fill the balloons with helium and to decorate the chairs that Shannon and Tom will sit in. Oh, yeah, and hang the large wedding bell over the Shannon and Tom's chair.
It's a giant one of those paper thingies. The bottom is covered with tissue paper. It's filled with little pieces of tissue paper in the shape of rose petals. Two ribbons attached to the tissue cover hang down terminated with a plastic wedding ring. The betrothed pull on the ribbons tearing the tissue and they're showered with the tissue paper rose petals. Nice touch.
We pack up to leave. I'm the last one out and before I turn the lights out I take one last look. It's beautiful, we did a really nice job. Took four hours. We were taking our time and having a good time.
8:00 Sunday morning. Lin and I get up early to complete the preparations for the gala affair.
Four dozen finger sandwiches need to be stuffed. Saturday afternoon, I had made mass quantities of my two favorite recipes for sandwich fillings: egg salad and tuna salad. Two dozen hard boiled eggs, three large cans of tuna. With this many sandwiches to prepare, I always opt for production line methods. Slice all the rolls, butter all the rolls, stuff all the rolls. Done deal.
Now for the veggie and fruit platters. Broccoli, carrots, cucumbers, celery. Done deal.
Lin's sister Rhonda and Tracy arrive to help out.
More food is prepared.
Three cars are packed and made ready to go to the hall.
Lin is obviously in overload mode.
"Hon, you stay here". " Rhon, Tracy and I will go down to finish." "You relax". "Take a shower, and we'll see you down there later".
Good thing Lin took my advice.
Tracy, Rhon and I depart for the hall. I take the lead, so I arrive a few minutes ahead of the others. We have about two and a half hours to finish. Plenty of time.
On the outer door to the hall is a note saying. "If you need any more help, please feel free to call me". signed Tom, and a telephone number. I insert the key to unlock the door and find it already unlocked.
The hall is in the basement of the Masonic Temple and only has a few windows. It's dark inside as I enter the room. It's not too dark to hide the truth. The hall is empty. All the decorations are gone. All the tables and chairs are neatly folded and placed back in their place in the corner of the room.
Ring, ring, ring. "Hello, is Tom there?"
I'm trying to maintain my composure as Tom answers.
After some rather heated discussion as to the reasons behind what has happened, Tom is on the way. Turns out, it wasn't his fault. The Lodge secretary had told him that the shower was last night. He was only doing his job.
I hang up and go outside. Tracy and Rhonda are arriving.
"You're not going to believe this!" "The decorations are gone".
I do have a tendency to be a bit of a joker, so at first they laugh.
"Oh Dad, cut it out".
"I'm serious!"
I suppose the fact that all the blood is drained from my face finally convinces them of the predicament we're in.
I think of the happy couple. I think of poor Lin. I think of what I'm going to do to the Lodge secretary.
After the proverbial a few minutes seems like hours, we regain our wits and regroup.
Tom has done a thorough job (fortunately). The only things that have been discarded are the streamers. All the other decorations are neatly placed on a table in the corner of the room.
"We don't have enough streamers."
"We'll make do with what we have."
A pickup truck speeds into the parking lot. Tom has arrived.
"I so sorry..."
Tom is sent to fetch more streamers.
We hadn't used all the streamers that we had. The process of hanging and twisting begins again.
Rhonda goes off to make the fruit and veggie platters while Tracy and I handle the decorating.
Reinforcements arrive. It's Terry and Michelle. I see them pulling up and go outside to head them off.
"You're not going to believe this!"
A guard is posted at the door in the event Lin comes before we're finished. She'll either have a heart attack or turn into a blithering idiot writhing on the ground and foaming at the mouth.
We all take an oath of secrecy. Lin is not to be told.
Anyway, we complete the task at hand in record time.
Like a Phoenix, the shower rises from the ashes.
We did tell Lin.
All in all, it was a good time. Lin and I got home around 8:30 after spending 12 hours with the party.
I'm saving Tom's note for Shannon's wedding scrapbook.