Thank Goodness it's over!!!
So it has been a mixed feelings type of weekend. Like my previous post, it was full of highs and lows.
I'll start with the highs:
I'm very grateful for all my guests who traveled from 1 1/2 to 4 hours one way.. to attend. Some of them rented for the weekend others drove back that same night. I was very happy to see how many people made it to share our day with us. A lot of my family came over on Friday and helped with just about everything I had left on my to-do list. It was a lot and I was happy they came over to help. On Saturday, the day of my shower, several people showed up early to help setup as well. Almost everyone had a great time and we did as well. I was very happy to see my grandma there and have her share this with me. FI's friend, who is like his mom, also made it and stayed all party. This was a great thing for us both since she usually can't find someone to run her business for her to get away. We got lots of gifts from our registry, well, more than I thought we would anyway. Also received about $1200, which will help a lot!
Lows:
Let me start by saying that I don't mean to sound ungrateful, unappreciative or negative. It's really been bugging me that I feel the need to vent about all that happened because I really don't mean to sound negative or just sour. With that said, I just need to properly vent about this since I haven't been able to speak it aloud.
By Friday afternoon I was running late on my to-do list because I had to wait for my aunt to come drop off a delicious salad she made for the shower. However, I had pretty much everything under control and I knew I could finish it all. One of my brideschicks was gonna come over and help. She came over. So did her husband, two, 2 kids, my aunt, my uncle, my cousin, her 2 kids, her daughter's boyfriend, my other aunt, her 2 grandkids and a little later her husband, her daughter and her husband. Yeah.. a LOT of people. Most of which offered to help and did.. but since I'm a HUGE self admittedly anal retantive person, I wanted everything done a specific way. So let's just say I was going a bit crazy having to oversee people who didn't quite have the same idea of how to do what I wanted. Several things were done wrong/badly but I was so tired/exhausted/overwhelmed with everyone there that frankly I didn't care anymore. The two things that I cared about the most, the invitations and my centerpieces, were done by my two aunts who are in the business so I wasn't worried about those and they both came out perfect. So while I was grateful for everyone's help, having this many people running around my home when I really wanted to be relaxed before my shower, stressed me out. I was only able to eat breakfast so I was very cranky and tried really hard to hide it. Everyone left around 2 am and I started cleaning my house for the 3rd time in one week. In the process I hurt my back again! I went to bed crying from the pain at around 4am.
Sat. morning I woke up around 7am and started the day working on the game boards (which my brideschick was too busy to do), crossed off everything of my list very quickly and was doing ok. My other brideschick that had come over the night before was suppossed to come to help me setup the club house. Around 11am she still wasn't there and I was getting worried because I was VERY behind by this time. So I call her and she says.. "oh? ok.. so you need me to come over to help?" Umm.. yes, that was the whole purpose for asking you to come since Friday to help me finish and setup. She showed up with family in tow and the stress began all over again. I had created coversation areas that flowed and she started rearranging the furniture and it was all pushed togther, linear and weird. And she studied as an interior decorator?? Really? Whatever! I wanted to be done by 12noon, the latest, to have time to sit, relax and get ready without stress. At 1:45pm I was still at the club house being pulled a million directions. My father complaining that I made him change the order of the food and how they were setting it up. It was funny, people telling me "go get ready, leave" and at the same time 5 people saying "Rosmery what about this? where does this go? where is this? What do I do?, etc." I'm used to working with people who I just have to say things once at the beginning and they go to work. This constant pulling me in every direction and asking the same thing over and over only to do it wrong was driving me crazy. This may not seem like a big thing to some but to me it is. Especially since my entire life I thought I would never have to plan, pay for, organize and setup for my own shower. But whatever! So what I could barely walk or stand up straight or hadn't even had breakfast or water? Everything got setup good so I left.
I got home to shower and dress. Only to get great news! NOT! As some of you know, the issues with FI's brother, aunt and dad and them not coming because of the car and rental money. I told them to rent the car that I would pay for it. Fine. Great. Done. His aunt rents a car and was to go get the car Sat morning around 9 or 10am with FI's brother. At 2pm FI's brother called that his aunt didn't show up to get him until after 1pm to go get the car. They got into a huge fight and send each other to you know where and none of them are coming. I was SO upset I instantly started crying. There was nothing else I could have done and for them to be so damn selfish and inconsiderate really pissed me off. So whatever, I pushed it aside and tried to forget it, but it bugged me still.
While I'm getting ready, it's almost 3 by then, my brother calls me to tell me he can't find the exit to take. How can that be? So I say "oh so you took the Turnpike?... that's probably why." He says "no, we didn't take the Turnpike," ok.. "you should have seen exit 147 on 95." Get this, he says "We are on I-75." WTF???? "Why? 75 takes so far West? Where are you by?" he says "Ft. Myers/Naples".. "WHAT??? WTF are you doing by there? You are on West coast.. I live on the EAST coast! It will take you 3 hours to cross the state!!! Why would you take 75?? You have been to my house twice already!! HELLO!!!!" So now my brother and 2 nephews won't be there when we come in... basically getting there by 6pm. JOY!
During the games, my brideschick (the one too busy to prep the game) didn't even understand the game and explained all wrong. All the guests were confused it was all crazy and LAME! Whatever!
The food was delicious, but the pork ran out before everyone could get to it. Why? Because my mother was in charge of ordering the food. I told her I had 90 guests RSVPd and she decided to order pork for 30 people. Why, you ask again? Because according to her with the other food people weren't gonna that much of it and it would be enough. I complained twice that it wasn't enough, but she insisted so I said, fine, I guess you know best. FI knew that she was ordering less and couldn't understand why. So when he went to get food and there was no pork he was upset... ask my mom why she ordered so little food? And this apparently bothered my mom.
My mother, who did not get up from her seat but once, kept asking me to turn around to take pictures. Fine, right? But it was every time I was trying to talk to someone, walk by to get food, walked by to get a drink, go to the bathroom, get my purse, etc. I was ready to shove the camera up her you know what!
Other minor things happened that are not worth mentioning but they all slowly started aggravating my FI. I was trying very hard to let everything slide.
At the end of the night people were packing whatever food was left to take home. Someone hands a bag to my FI to hold, he looks inside and notices that there is a stack of paper plates in there. We didn't have paper plates so he figured they were from the club house. Which we are not suppose to take. My cousin who sees him taking out the plates asked him why he was taking it out. FI told her, these are not ours, you can't take these. She starts arguing with him. He basically tells her that you just don't take stuff, you have to ask for it. She said to him in a VERY RUDE way "I have plenty of money I can buy you lots of plates if you like." FI got so upset he just walked away and went home. She got such an attitude, telling me that she demanded an apology and that she wasn't a child.. blah blah blah. The problem with her is that she thinks her crap don't stink and no one is better or above her and she knows it all. So since she always in a fight with someone and FI wasn't in the wrong, I shrugged it off. But apparently she left talking crap and everyone has heard about it.
We finished clearning the club house around 11pm, got home, showered and went to bed barely being able to move. Again fell asleep crying from the intense pain I was in from my back.
So, even though it was little things in the grand scheme of it all, it was a very frustrating and stressfull process. While we had a good time and almost everyone had a great time (I'm assuming with the exception of my idiot cousin) I'm very glad it's over.
For your sanity, I'll sum up my day today (Sunday - yep I haven't slept today - Now Monday morning) I'll write another post.