Erin and Mike's wedding: Well, I should first say that I don't think I was blogging when Nathan and Jaclyn got married, so nobody should be offended at that. For months I felt so disenfranchised. Erin was doing it all on her own and I wasn't doing anything. It couldn't be helped. We live 1500 miles apart. She has a grownup young adult life in California and I have a life here in Texas ...and neither of us have the kind of money that we could just MAKE one or the other of us casually move to a new place to make some kind of classic mother/daughter wedding collaboration happen. But maybe that was best? I don't know. Erin has some wonderful supportive friends in California. They did, they supported, they went to fittings (we tried, I did go to ONE!), they helped her decide about food and caterers and locations and they helped make centerpieces and they helped organize and all sorts of stuff. Bowen and Rachel and Rachel and Veronica and Lucy - you know who you are. I got there and cut up crepe paper streamers, made raffia twists to the programs, punched holes in programs (yes, I DO have callouses), found a better way to cut the streamers and tie raffia twists to fold out paper fans, taped them together where I cut too far, wrapped stickers and tissue around praline favors. All of this made me feel like the mother of the bride and yet I didn't feel like I did nearly enough, not nearly enough. How do you do it when you're half a continent away? How are you supposed to achieve this lofty position when you are barely there? Well, two days after the wedding I finally googled "mother of the bride duties" and learned that I'm mostly supposed to give some opinions on the dress, provide as much money as possible and otherwise stay out of the way. SUCCESS!!!!!!! I achieved all these. And was also Princess (not Queen) crafter of streamers, praline holders, fans and programs. I feel like I did Okay!