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By China at 4:15 PM

Everyone at my house is becoming a little worn out from all of the talk of wedding plans. Ever since my daughter announced her engagement to Don, plans have been discussed non-stop. She is our only daughter so this is an experience in life I only plan on going through once. The role of Mother of the Bride is an exceptionally busy one but it's also a great deal of fun to spend all of this time planning with your daughter, future son-in-law, and other family members.

Now that the really big decisions are out of the way, we can proceed with some of the smaller details (although, at a wedding, every single thing is important). We have set the date, reserved the reception hall, and arranged for the church. My daughter and I have been shopping for her bridal gown and a decision is near. She has found two that she likes very much and an order must be placed very soon or it will not arrive in time for the wedding. No one needs a wedding gown the week after the wedding.

We are currently interviewing bands and it is fun because we've been visiting other people's weddings to listen to the music. Of course, this also gives us the opportunity to see how they decorated the reception hall, the gowns everyone is wearing, etc. This can help us in the planning of the smaller details such as centerpieces, etc.

Immediately after band selection we plan on visiting with several local florists so that we can begin flower selection. There are flowers for the church, centerpieces for the table, bouquets for the bridal party and, of course, corsages for the parents and grandparents of the bride and groom. My daughter has several ideas concerning the type of flowers she likes so I'm hoping this will be a simple process. She has chosen a particular shade of pink as her wedding color and will coordinate the flowers with this color as best she can.

When flower selection is complete, we will move onto bridesmaid's dresses, limousines, invitations, guest lists, etc. It is truly amazing how much time, energy and money goes into this one day in your life. There is probably much to be said for very small weddings but, if this is what our daughter wants, we are willing to provide it for her.

I'm sure everything will be beautiful and that this will turn out to be the "special" day she and her husband will always remember as a wonderful time in their lives.