planning 101

favorite cookbooks for your catering...Go to thelocal library for ideas

workout

four week program

week one....walk in place or around neighborhood

week two.....walk in place....50 crunches

week three..walk in place...100 crunches.....50 standup pushups

week four.....run in place for 20 minutes...walk in place for 10....200 crunches...100 standup
push ups...work it out

the 1770s

invitation
pretty paper, handwritten note

dress
blue dress with red silk heels with feather boquet with blue mini carnation center

centerpiece
bread on a bed of red rose petals

cake

honeybuns covered in fondants....in clear containers stacked in two tiers

inhouse date

time to nuture book.....massage oils....spa supplies for facials...bubble bath....

workout

v8 soup...... toast
chicken.....vegetables....
one shake

free food Friday

1990s....

bride
white business suit with side slit....black platform shoes...flower pin on suit

centerpiece
electronic centerpieces on glass cake pedestal...

cake

three tier cake...silver dipped


picture...queen victoria statute by tom curtis

inhouse date

the island.....inhouse date

blanket...island music....

coconut covered wings...
fries

keylime cheesecake

planning 101

one stop shopping.....

links on cake or photographers
a bridal show
craft store

picture..bride and groom rosen georgiev

the gilded age

invitation
white with gold ribbion

centerpiece
gold cup filled with red roses

cake
two tier cake with red roses. have a long umbrella in a planter.

planning 101

for your flower plan, go in nature. Find your favorite park and recreate it.

the moment...the wedding

So the day starts with a bath and makeup.. Then I pat down my hair which was already done from the day before. In the church, we take pictures.

Then I go down the aisle....my uncle is trying to tip in....I shake my hands and walk down the aisle.
Down aisle, the moment, you have spent a million minutes on is over in 15 minutes. Then up
the ailse, take amillion pictures and hope my eyes are not half close.

To the reception and the head table, r and b playing. I crack jokes to person to person and wished
I had brougt a second dress. All that dress was starting to get on nerves.

yes, I had to go to the bathroom. Where are my bridal party?

Food was great beause I gave him down to the seasoning what I wanted. Then we cut the cake.

Ashy legs and all...the garter comes off. Boquet toss...hits the ceiling. Classic moments for me.

So I had my Victorian moment. I wish I could tell you it ended up like forever but it didn't.  We divorced last year even though we are still rearing my son, mr. AW who is now seven.

That is my story.  Even though it did not last lifetime,I had a moment.

love,peace and soul

Benita Michelle Wheeler

The Moment...night before the wedding

So it is the day before you get married....

So I check the dress, call my wedding planner and say, you got it.

The control freak in me still want to call everyone but I didn't. So I ran around, snapped at the groom,
took my one brow and made two eyebrows.

Then I go home, go to the rehersal.

in law vs. my family.. I rolled my eyes....took it out on the groom later. Then I collected all my real and fake flower which were in buckets. We sat around the tables and made my flowers which
were preschool 1-2-3 and I used tussy mussies to make it even easier.

I went to bed....not to sleep between Jasmine and Marquita. And I say what's to a small mouse, but honey, I know this wedding was not going to be the Disney channel. So I was grateful we would have
a planner and security...

yes, throw those mothertuckers out if they start anything......

The Moment...the wedding story

So...I put a little red and black dress....with pink grandma panties with my hair looking like a hot mess.

It was my bridal shower. I had the inlaw vs. my family but I hoping for peace.

So....They came, and I was cracking nervous jokes, sounding like a gay male. It was worst than
I thought. We had two worlds, the worlds were not having peace and harmony like I had imagined.
By the middle, I wanted to leave my own shower but I did not.. I stayed and was told about my
dress.


Attitude.

We had my side of the family, their side of the family, the neutral side. Ofcourse, my ex sister
in law had her shoes off, who always know how to make herself at home. And did. I wished
she had brought more like her.

I gathered my gifts, brought thank you notes, and wanted to run to the nearest court house.
These mothertuckers were not going to get along.

First step....let's cut this stuff...I did. I cut all the stuff and said keep it short and simple. Ran, not walk, to find my wedding planner to handle the mess which she did.

well, now, it' the night before the wedding...

The Moment.....my wedding story

So winter...became spring.. which is now is summer...

You are sitting in the car with this grand martha stewart idea for invitation, and you looked several pages. Now you agruing about paper when you could have been having the best date of your life.
Somehow the paper is so important. Then you say freak it, get a catalog. Ofcourse, I am now
agruing about stamps...go back..still wrong..freak it...i have a invitation with teddy bear stamps instead of cute hearts that you wanted.

Now, you sitting at the table, with the phone ring...surronded by sheer red ribbion, a bandaid on hand,
paper punch, ......


who? no way. how many? alright....inlaw side...

my side...who? she invitied them. let me call me here. hello? yes, i am sorry about your daughter
there is no more room in the inn....

tuesday...the wedding shower

this is my reality, my wedding, my wedding planner

So....it Feb....it included v day...and the oscars...

halle berry and denzel washington...a black history moment...

At this point, I going in wedding mode one hour five days of week. It include entering into bridezilla.
I looked for a wedding planner which I could not find but I knew I needed. Gathered catalog for
a invitation. I also made sure all my vendors were alive and well....and still in business, something
most brides never do.

Then it call and I ever I do is talk about this wedding in which your family and friends pretend
they very interested but all they want to do is roll their eyes out of envy or just sheer boredom.

Tough luck...I am still talking about it.

this is my reality, my wedding, the wedding planner

So it's holiday season...post September 11. The AJC which was thick as a door became thin as
a dress.  People were going to thrift shops for gifts.

Anyway, I sat at the computer with two wedding books and online planner for my very small wedding.  I was a bride.  I had waited my whole life for that moment. Ofcourse the groom because
he was in nascar,foottball, and country music did not understand why I needed to stand in line
for 30 minutes at a sale to buy two silver candelebras.

I did...

I wanted the have the best wedding....I was in a wedding competion. My wedding was the last one.

Really, folks, the lesson is, if you have to save money.....go to sales, go to thrift for containers.
Get out the competion.  Enjoy the moment and yell at the groom less.

the reality, this is my reality, the wedding planner

Things happen in wedding planning. I awakened out of my sleep to the radio.  So the country
was being attacked.  After screaming for a second at the tv, I was on the computer, doing
the one thing told us all not to do which is looking at story after story, watching photograph
after photograph.

That night......the apartment complex silent....

Then next few days, I was on an empyt Marta train with a middle eastern woman, trying to
get a holiday job.

So September 11.....it brought some soul to my wedding. From the wedding magazines to
to online, we adjusted our plans, made it more about family, and some of us, downsized
our budgets.

The budget blogs and websites...this is what came out of September 11. 

For  bride, it change my world, it changed my outlook to bringing more soulful ideas
to the day. It became a moment.