brides mom begins!

What will the next year and a half bring? This blog will be the place where I record the adventures and mishaps (probably mostly mishaps, knowing me) of planning my daughter Kristen's wedding!
Kristen and her fiance, Brad, have been going together for over 4 years. High school sweethearts, they met when she was a Jr. and he a newly transferred Sr. Now she is a Jr. in college studying fashion merchandizing, and he is the "arborist" for an upscale retirement community, preparing to become a real estate agent.
He proposed on Christmas Day, the most popular day of the year for wedding proposals, a fact that I was unaware of until now, supposing Valentine's would be more obvious. But how clever! The engagement ring also counts as the Christmas present! Brad planned a wonderfully romantic setting and Kristen was totally surprised although she was the only one. We had kind of been seeing this coming for awhile. In fact, I distinctly remember heaving a huge sigh of relief when she didn't get a ring for her 18th birthday, so while they are still very young, we are glad they waited as long as they did to officially become engaged.
The next night I couldn't fall asleep for hours, realizing all the responsibilities and challenges that will be presenting themselves over the course of the next year and a half. First of all, Kristen is extremely aware of how things look, and wanting everything to be the best of the best. Second of all, as a preschool teacher married to a pharmacist we don't come close to being able to afford the best of the best. (I read that the cost for an average wedding in our city is 28,000 dollars!!! That is nearly double what I earn in a year!!! For an event that only lasts one day!!! Not to even mention that to me the wedding should be something personal and meaningful, not a show. Another challenge - Kristen has been attending church with Brad's family, yet refuses to be married either in that Baptist church - it is too small and shabby, or in our United Church which, while big, new and quite lovely she declares it to be "against everything I stand for". You begin to see some possibilities for conflict!
On top of that add a grandmother and an aunt that literally haven't spoken to each other for years, but both of which adore Kristen. Brad's family itself has its share of feuding relatives but I don't yet know how many of them might be involved in this wedding. Much to our agreement the bride and groom to be are planning to try to keep the wedding smallish, and in correlation to that, keep the wedding party small as well. Kristen had pretty much decided that her own sister and Brad's sister and her college roommate would be the bridesmaid. This was not without some consideration of her cousin's feelings, but it was decided that since she and said cousin are not nearly as close as the sisters and roommate are to Kristen that she would not be asked. Then another good friend of Kristen's announced that she better be a bridesmaid. Well Kristen has not really responded to that and hopefully she will get the hint. It would be nice if she could include all those girls but it would look kind of strange to have such a small wedding and such a large bridal party, especially since Brad is having enough trouble coming up with 3 men to stand up with him. Oh well, this is one of many things I will have to trust will work itself out hopefully with a minimum of hurt feelings.
Oh it could be a wonderful and exciting time, and I do look forward to spending lots of time with Kristen during the planning and preparation phase. I just hope we will still be speaking to each other by the end of it!