I had no idea that being Mother of the Groom was so much fun, so touching, and so exhausting. We flew to S. CA on Thursday and went straight to the happy couple's place to help run errands, deliver the pets for boarding and then went out to dinner which gave us a great chance to get to know some our our new DIL's family and friends.
Friday we walked around Laguna Beach, watched the ocean for a while and then had a lovely lunch and visit with my older son and DIL. The rehearsal and rehearsal dinner were in a park late afternoon and the weather was very cooperative - hot and sunny. They hired a gourmet taco truck and provided vintage sodas, cookies and lots of yard games. We met lots more of our new DIL's extended family and friends and had a really good time.
Saturday we headed to the boutique hotel the wedding party had booked exclusively. It was a great place for them with a large inner courtyard that had a fireplace, lots of furniture, space for hair and makeup stations, and it was also near the beach. They guys went swimming while the girl's started getting ready. We visited, ate lunch, got my makeup professionally done, and received gifts from our son - mine was a tote with Mother of the Groom in gold print on the side - fun and immediately put to use to carry some flats to the wedding so I could change shoes later!. We got dressed up (we cleaned up pretty well I think) and then helped chauffeur the wedding party to various photo locations and finally to the wedding venue.
The wedding itself was lovely, very touching, very full of love and very personalized. They wrote the ceremony and their vows, planned every detail, and a friend officiated. Since he is a composer, he also wrote a piece for their recessional. My son and I danced the traditional mother-son dance which I happily and surprisingly found very emotional as we talked while we danced. Everything was great - great food, lots of loving people, lots of dancing, and a very happy newly married couple. We passed on going to the after party, but I heard it was lots of fun too.
Sunday the wedding party and close family met up for brunch and then hubby and I stopped by the newlywed's place to help a bit. We spent the rest of the day on our own and flew home on Monday after taking a drive to return something they had rented.
The photos taken by people attending are starting to roll in on facebook and are very fun to see. Hubby rallied and headed to work on time this morning - I'm pretty tired but catching up on getting us back into the groove here. The happy couple is on their honeymoon and from the photos popping up on facebook it seems they are having fun.
So glad we were part of this milestone!
