I have been the planner, coordinator for everything for our wedding. I am very organized, detail-oriented, specific, and on top of my things. Despite all this, I am stressed out but it's worth it. I like to be prepared and when someone starts to criticize or question us, I am 10 steps ahead; yes, FH & I both came from those kind of families, however, I feel like since my parents are older, they stopped caring so much, just worried. FH's parents are very negative, judgmental, and criticizing is their pastime haha
We are having a Catholic wedding around noon, which ended up perfect! I've been told that because the chapel is older, there's no air conditioning. The weather will be HOT in the afternoon. Within the "catholic gap", we've arranged our guests to go on a free boat ride near downtown (very well known tourist area), right after that, they will have cocktail hour at our venue and dinner to follow.
We have arranged our rehearsal to be at 4pm the day before (for an hour) and dinner at 5:30PM. It won't be longer than 2 hours. FH mom was texting us saying, "Your rehearsal and dinner is too late! Don't you think everyone will be tired?" I usually hate statements like that because she's obviously talking about herself but projecting it and making it seem like she cared about other people. And how does she know "everyone" will be tired? Did she take a survey? hahaha
From the feedback I've been getting, no one has had a problem with it. I know other catholic weddings where our rehearsals and dinner would be later that afternoon - some ceremonies in the morning, some in the afternoon. People get it. And people understand that it's a busy weekend to begin with. Funny because his mom is just walking down the aisle - that's it. She's not doing a reading, she's not doing a speech. She just has to show up, walk down the aisle, and show to dinner and eat or get drunk if she wants to haha whereas I have to get up at 5 in the morning to do hair/makeup. And again, my bridesmaids are more than okay with it. I don't know why she's so "stressed out" about being so tired. How is it any different than going to a yoga class the next morning or going to Sunday church? She said it was so "early" - the drama lol
There's one issue. The other issue is that she jumped at wanting to take over rehearsal dinner. I was happy with just a bbq and she looked down at it as if was not "good" enough. We have a total of less than 40 people at our wedding - because it's a Catholic mass, we have our readers, communion ministers, godfathers, grandparents (yes, we're including them!), our bridal party, flower girls, ring bear, and parents. She freaked out over the number of people & wanted to cut the list in half - exclude half the people and just have the wedding party go to a restaurant.
The food/restaurant is not what's important to me - what's MOST important to me is that people who are participating are included in dinner and are fed. I want them to feel appreciated because they took the time to celebrate with us, when they didn't have to. The type of food is not what's classy - its how you include people and show your appreciation, so if it's pizza, bbq, drinks - I'm good with that. I have 2 bridesmaids who are flying in from another state - (one of them just had a baby 5 months ago!). I want their spouses to be part of rehearsal dinner. FH's mom is against having spouses. Doesn't even think the flower girl and ring bearer are necessary - just so they can "save money" :/ I talked to FH and he started crying about it. Seems as if he is torn between wanting to have people come but then pissing his mom off. I told him that I would find a venue near the church and just order pizza. Just gotta confirm it. Sucks because I need to be planning last minute wedding stuff but I'm taking time to plan a rehearsal dinner that his mother volunteered to do. She just wants to pay and be done. And honestly, if we do get a nearby church venue, I will probably clean and set up because FH's parents don't want to.
Anyhoo, I don't know if I have a question...just venting. Sorry