An Observation of Small Town Life

Posted on March 27, 2015 by Mary P Karnes

Nothing defines small town New England and modern technology as well as this little snippet…

Last year about this time, one of my high school girls was discussing Maggie and Rob’s upcoming wedding with one of her teachers. There was cause for concern…If you will recall, when we booked the wedding on a Friday, there was always the fear that we would have a hard winter, lots of snow days, and thus our two youngest girls, still in high school, would have finals on the wedding day. Guess what? Worst case scenario – we had finals on the day of the wedding! 🙁 Glad KK and Tyler’s wedding is in July this year, or we may be facing the same issue given the winter we’ve had!

Anyway… The teacher asked my daughter, Who is your sister marrying?”

“Rob Stauble,” she replied.

“Oh, Rob! One of my favorite students! He gave a great speech at graduation!” He exclaimed.

Meanwhile, a fellow student, who has a brother in Rob’s class, overheard the conversation and texted her brother and asked him. “Guess who’s getting married?!?” After received the news flash, the brother immediately texted Rob “Congrats!” Rob in turn texted Tess and asked if she knew his classmate’s little sister.

“Yes,” was her reply. “I’m in class with her now!” All this is the space of two minutes…

Please enjoy the pictures belo of our quintessential little New England town! Keep scrolling! Photo Creds: Glastonbury website

Connecticut River – Glastonbury

Lovely trail in Glastonbury

Below: St Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, Venue of Rob and Maggie’s wedding

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Bridesmaids’ Shoes

Posted on March 10, 2015 by Mary P Karnes

I have four daughters. When daughter number two became engaged, she of course asked her three sisters to be bridesmaids. Lots of drama in the house with a bride and three bridesmaids in residence. You may think the bridesmaids’ dress was the main topic of conversation…well, you’d be wrong. It was the shoes! There were four very different ideas, well FIVE if you count mine… So I ask you, “Must The Bridesmaids Shoes Match?”

In the photo above, from the bridaldetective.com, all the bridesmaids are wearing different shoes, but they are the same shade of red. I happen to love this. It flows, but allows for individual tastes, comfort, and age appropriateness. The bridesmaids and shoes can also be a way for the bride to express her color scheme or theme. The picture below, from theweddingspecialist.net, shows how a bride used her attendants shoes to create a unique color scheme and tone for her wedding. I like how the bouquets match the maids’ shoes. I’m guessing that this tone was carried throughout the decorating and floral arrangements. The black of the bridesmaids’ dresses, (once a social taboo), provides the perfect backdrop for the vivid shoe and flower color.

The photo above, merle shop.com, takes shoe color in a whole different direction. It appears the dresses are the same style, but different colors with shoes to match. The bouquets are the same for each lady. The theme goes back to my era, where a “rainbow” color scheme was popular, and shoes were purchased in a stock white fabric and dyed to match the dresses.

And what did my daughters finally decide? Well, a gold tone was the color of choice, so half the girls wore flats, and the other half heels. Maggie left it to the desecration of her attendants. In the photo below, you can see that two of my daughters opted for heels, and the oldest, flats.
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Wedding Dress Bustles

Posted on February 10, 2015 by Mary P Karnes

What is a wedding dress bustle, and do you need one? A bustle is a way of drawing up your train so you can walk freely around your reception without being a hazard to yourself and others. There are six main types. Not only must you consider the aesthetics of the bustle, but the size of your train, your dress style and the weight of your dress fabric. My daughter wanted and “American” bustle, but due to the heaviness of her fabric needed a “French” Bustle.

The six main types of bustles are: Over Bustle, Tufted Bustle, French Bustle, Pick-up Bustle, American Bustle and French Pick-up Bustle.

The Over Bustle, also known as a Ballroom Bustle, hides the train, and makes the wedding gown look just like a ballroom gown. Hooks or buttons are attached at the gown’s waistline, then hooks are attached on the train to button onto waist loops. After it’s all buttoned up, the dress is one length.

The Tufted Bustle sports jeweled hooks around the waist of the dress. The train has loops attached to hook onto the bejeweled hooks. These hooks are exposed to add additional bling. The over-all look is a layered one.

The French Bustle was what my daughter sported. It is an under bustle. A mother of the bride, bridesmaid, wedding coordinator, tucks the train underneath the skirt of the dress and ties numbered ribbons together. For example: ribbon one to second ribbon number one, and so forth. A word of advice: Practice creating the bustle BEFORE the wedding. And remember to bring your reading glasses if you need them! My cousin and I were in charge of assembling my daughter’s bustle, and neither had our glasses. Disaster was avoided when one of my daughters came to lend a hand. 😉 Below is a picture highlighting Maggie’s French Bustled dress, dancing with her father.

Next time, I will discuss and picture the remaining three bustles.

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Much of this information was gleaned from Bronwyn Timmons from www.e-How

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Image #1 – blog.weddingpaperdivas.com

Image #2 – bridaldetails.blogspot.com

Image #3 – heritagegown.com

Image #4 – Patty Cloherty photos

Wedding Disasters

Posted on February 1, 2015 by Mary P Karnes

Wedding Disasters – the stuff of little girls’ and grown women’s nightmares.

The recent storm, “Blizzard Colbie” that slammed the Northeast last week, highlighted the fact that a bride can not plan for every possible disaster – tiny or catastrophic. One does the best she can – but sometimes…life just happens. I think the bride above is planning for the worst case scenario – either that, or she is very very hungry and is not considering skipping a meal. Really…the bib is good idea, but not sure I’d have the guts to wear it. Wonder if she’ll wear it at the dinner reception…

The above picture is of Hurricane Sandy – what a devastating storm. The weather can always play a factor in a bride’s day, it rained on Maggie and Rob’s wedding day, but Hurricane Sandy was an extreme weather event. Who can plan for that??

Pets can also play a part in potential disaster, note the photo above. My only question…Why is this dog at the reception unleashed? Looks a might ‘staged’ to me. I HAVE heard of a true story where a cat got his mistress’ veil and tore it to scraps — wait…that was Beverly Cleary’s teen novel, “Fifteen.” Loved that book… But it could happen… A situation like that is when one is called up on to improvise. In “Fifteen” the super crafty “mother of the bride” shortened the veil, and guess what…it was JUST the modern flair that the bride had wanted all along…

I highly recommend assembling a “Bride’s Emergency Kit” for possible MINOR disasters. If you’d like some tips on items to include, you can click on the following link and read my blog post on the subject.

https://marypkarnes.com/2014/12/wedding-day-emergency-kit/

You can hope and plan for the best, but if something minor occurs to upset your big day…remember, it will make a great story in years to come… 🙂

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