I thought about not doing response cards, but then I thought about all the people who wouldn't RSVP unless they were provided with a response card and a postage-paid envelope (mostly my MIL's tacky friends :rolleyes: ) and how much time we'd have to spend on the phone tracking them down...

Last summer, I attended a wedding where we were asked to RSVP by email. This was because the wedding was planned over the span of six weeks, and the invitations didn't get mailed until about two weeks before the wedding. I am convinced that they didn't read the RSVP's at all, because (a) about 1/3 of the table cards weren't picked up and about 1/3 of the seats at the reception were empty, indicating that they assumed people were coming even if they had RSVP'd no or failed to reply; and (b) they RAN OUT OF FOOD with at least 1/4 of the guests unfed! (Imagine if all the people they'd assumed were coming had actually showed up!)

I chose my flowers today. :) I will have a clutch bouquet of black magic roses & my maids will have white calla lilies. *sigh* I'm soooo happy.

Congrats to you and your daughter!

The best advice that I can give you is to either hire a wedding coordinator for the actual wedding day or ask a close friend or family member for help. As my mother and I realized on my wedding day, you both can’t be hostess to guests and "run the wedding" at the same time. No matter how much careful planning you do, some things may go wrong and it will be better for you if someone else can handle them. You will be more relaxed and have a better time.

My second bit of advice is to listen every time someone gives you advice, say "Wow, what a great idea" and then do what YOU want! :)

:eek: We went to have the bridesmaids (5 of our daughters and 4 others) fitted at David's yesterday. Let me say that all of Atlanta appears to be getting married and was at David's. In the dressing room. (exhaustion)

She's definitely using the strapless top and A-line skirt in apple. We played around on the website for ages with this make-a-match feature where you can switch tops and dresses and colors.

http://www.davidsbridal.com/bridesma..._separates.jsp

Our third daughter (Ballerina on GC) will probably be getting married in the not too distant future and has enjoyed looking at the pastel separates, as she plans to have each of her bridesmaids wear a different color of pastel gown.

My sister did pastels. It was gorgeous :) She had each guy wear a flower in the color of the dress of the girl he was escorting. The boquets were so colorful :)

Oh, that sounds gorgeous, Xylochick! I remember a Theta friend's wedding done in various pastels and the bridesmaids just looked like a garden.

I've also heard of "graduated shade" weddings where the first bridesmaid will be, say, in dark pink, and the next one in a lighter pink and so on all the way back to the maid of honor who's in palest pink.

You Southerners crack me up! Nine Bridesmaids???

Think nine is a lot? I was at a wedding a couple of years ago where there were 13 bridesmaids and 11 groomsmen (that's counting the maid of honor and best man). This was at a Jewish wedding in Boston.

Since there was an uneven number of attendants, two of the groomsmen each escorted two bridesmaids. Each of these two young men walked along with a woman on each arm... and an ear to ear grin! ;)

I haven't seen that "graduated shade" thing (though I've seen weddings where the MOH will be in, say, bright pink and the other BMs in pale pink) but it sounds like it would make quite an effect.

Anyway, what your daughter picked out is really pretty. :)

I'm from Georgia and when my mom got married, she had two sets of bridesmaids, for a total of about twenty. The first were her very close friends and sisters and the second were made up of those girls who had to be in the wedding (family friends, second or third cousins, etc.). The first group got to walk down the aisle and stand at the front, while the second served as ushers, then stood in the outside aisles of the church during the ceremony. I can't imagine having that many people in my wedding party! I bet that the tulle producers in my hometown had quite a time with all of those dresses.

I've never heard of the "graduating shades"!!! That sounds completely gorgeous!!!!! Some colors, of course, would lend to doing that better than others (pink, blue, purple come to mind), but it sounds just lovely!

What kind of flowers does your daughter have in mind? When I think of "Christmas wedding", I always think of hunter green or apple red dresses with holly, roses, and magnolias.

Well, the dresses are apple red and she thinks she wants to carry AOII red roses with a couple of those roses that are both red and white, then her maid of honor will have mostly the red/white roses, then the bridesmaids will have mostly white roses. They'll have some kind of Christmas item in them--holly or maybe little Christmas balls like I used. Any suggestions?

We don't know what the junior bridesmaids and flower girl will carry, possibly white fur muffs with holly on them or some type of Christmas kissing balls.

I also read about the graduating shades theme being used in fall weddings--the first bridesmaid wore rust and then it shaded back to the maid of honor in deep peach.

OMG, HappyKappy! I'd better not let my daughter see how many bridesmaids your mom had or she'll go for that idea! All our relatives had baby girls in the eighties and there are tons of cousins she wishes she could use! Plus with 8 sisters of her own, she's hardly able to use any friends. And somehow she's got the idea that asking people to be in the house party is insulting to them, that you only want them to work during the reception.:rolleyes:

Haha - I'm wearing that at the end of April! The skirt is white, though, and we're wearing white ribbons around the waist.

I love the bouquets! I think a bit of holly in each bouquet would look amazing.

What are the junior bridesmaids and flower girl wearing? Maybe the junior BMs could carry all white roses with some holly? The flower girl could carry the same, or a basket of rose petals to scatter. Just some ideas off the top of my head.

What is a Christmas kissing ball?

Grrrr. Okay, I've tried to get a million pictures of kissing balls up here and none will copy or paste. Please go to Google images and type in kissing balls! The second one on the first page--the red one--is a good example of what we're talking about. They can be made of sugared fruit, greens, flowers, shells, or whatever.

We're still debating what the jr. bridesmaids will wear. ASLFRose likes the idea of long dresses just like the bridesmaids' but I'm voting for tea length dresses since I know her little sisters won't really have anyplace else to wear floor length gowns. The flower girl, also her little sister, will probably wear a white dress with red accents.

I'm with you, Carnation. I once read a horrible account of a flower girl in a long & full dress and candles. *shudders*

Tea length should look lovely!