Friday, February 4, 2011

Layered clothes, cakes, and lives

 Brrrrrrrrr. I’ve had to put on so many layers I feel like a tiered wedding cake. That makes me want to drop everything this frigid February afternoon (shovel, ice chopper, dry gas additive) and think about Em’s wedding. Lovely thoughts, like the ones that gave the Darling children the lift to fly to Neverland with Peter Pan. I don't want to get caught up in the stormy weather we've had lately - or the view that, according to plan, the Save the Date announcements should have gone out two weeks ago.

 The reminders are stuck somewhere between their online manufacturer and the U.S. Mail. Mid-February will have to do for their release. Around Valentine’s Day, I hope, so we can put pretty little LOVE postage stamps in the upper right hand corners of the envelopes. Even a  mid-March mailing would officially announce the date soon enough for the October wedding. And we could still go with the heart-embellished postage, for I'd like to think love is always in season,. Or, we could switch to one of the 159,142 wedding stamps for sale on http://www.weddingstamps.us/ These include hundreds of fall wedding stamps, monogram stamps, save-the-date stamps, R.S.V.P stamps and even a create-your-own stamp. So what if our order of save-the-date cards hasn’t arrived yet? It’ll take at least a few days to decide on the postage that will embellish the mailing – now that we’ve found the stamp site on the Internet. 

 Aren't embellishments what planning a wedding is all about? The embellishments will make the day the couple’s own. Everything from the linens and flowers, to the ceremony and vows, to the food and  favors, and yes, even the invitations and stamps. These touches will allow Em and Ryan to say, “This is ours and just ours.” The twists of lights on the barn posts, the autumn bouquets and hodge-podge of fall flowers arranged in each table’s Mason Jar  Mason jars manufactured by Ball actually, with the brand's raised imprint  on each  container's thick glass. Ball just happens to match the mother-of-the-groom’s maiden name. Now there’s a nice touch. A happenstance touch. The best kind.

 Caught  up as I am in layers of cotton, wool,, and nylon to keep warm today , I am reminded of the stratums that make up a wedding as well as the cake, not to mention the multi-tiers of the two wonderful  lives the occasion will join as man and wife - and propel to fly off to  Everland together.