A To-Do List (Mostly) To-Done

I did something dangerous today.
I went back and looked at my To-Do List from before the wedding.
And it wasn't as painful as I feared it might be.
Here's the List, from my June 8th post:

(June 8, 2011 To-Do List)

1. Getting the house painted (underway today, with scraping).

2. Weeding and mulching the front beds and the driveway slope (scheduled for next week).

3. Installing privacy fence outside sunroom patio.

4. Daughter Anne to make Alida's veil and headpiece, and fashion the fascinators for bridesmaids.

5. Mother -- that would be me -- to bake Norwegian wedding cake (efforts to buy a satisfactory

  Kransekake proved unsuccessful) and bake a perfect 4-strand braided loaf of Challah.

(Who wants to come and help bake?  Bring wine.  Lots.)

And . . . also:

6. Send After Party invitations, and order the food for it.

7. Bring truckloads of stuff to Goodwill, and not bring anything home from there.

8. Run up those danged curtains on my new sewing machine, then put the machine away!

9. Check in with photographer, makeup and hair stylists, Pastor, organist, florist, caterer . . .

and last but not least:

10. Anne and Alida to take one last sisters' overnight road trip together.

And except for #8, and 1/2 of #5, it all got done, and more beside.

#8 will get done soon; I am not fond of the nekkid window look in the dining room.

As for #5, I did not make my own loaf of Challah; it was too humid the week

before the wedding.   But I did make the Kransekake,

 which was a much more daunting task!  I've never been frightened by pastry before.

Daughter Anne made her sister's veil, and trimmed it in pearls.

 How lucky for the bride that her sister is a costume designer!

Daddy and one of his girls.

Anne also made 4 of these, called fascinators,

 for the bridesmaids to wear in their hair.  They sparked up the navy dresses.

She was going to add some netting, but decided the only veiling that day should be on the bride herself.

The house got painted, just in the nick of time,

although we couldn't walk on the porch till 2 days after the wedding.

Can you see the broom across the front steps, to block feet?

 Hey, nothing's perfect, y'know?

The driveway slope was weeded and mulched, and looked great until . . .

Torrential rain 2 days before the wedding washed gullies of mulch off the slope

and across the driveway.  Oh well, as I already said, Nothing's perfect.

We got the privacy fence installed, just in time.

Monday morning, following the After Party on Saturday night, and the Open House on Sunday.

But it was done on that same day of torrential rain, so we had no cleanup time.

A little fresh sawdust on the ground never hurt anyone, right?

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The weekend before the wedding, we weeded and weeded and weeded . . .

and then, encouraged by the 4 days of rain beforehand and the steamy hot temperatures,

the weeds came roaring back and soared to new heights just in time to join the wedding festivities.

The weather didn't clear till the morning of the wedding.

By then, we were out of time to weed or clean the driveway, or do much of anything except

bow to the inevitable.  Nothing is perfect, after all, and gardens have weeds sometimes,

and driveways have dirty mulch smeared across them sometimes,

and freshly painted porches have tacky paint sometimes,

and you go with the flow and enjoy the celebration anyway.

Which we did.

And so did they.

Our newlyweds are now in China, on a 3-week honeymoon that began this past weekend.

Where did you go on your honeymoon?  -- Cass