My grandma is 92, frail, and blind. She lives in Lancaster, PA, and despite her physical condition, she is the sweetest, funniest woman I've ever known. Example: I told her about some of the wedding nightmares I've been having regarding stuff not being done, my dress being messed up, etc. This lovely woman (choir director at a methodist church for 40 years, I swear she has a direct line Upstairs when she needs to make a prayer request), says "Sweetheart, what have you been drinking? I'd like to try a nip of that!"
She cannot attend my wedding for obvious reasons, but I wanted her to still feel included. To that end, I had a RealTouch corsage made for her in ivory roses (all of my costco floral is ivory roses), with a champagne gold ribbon (matches flower girl dresses). I got it done as a wrist corsage so she can feel it over her cast (she recently fell and broke a wrist...2 weeks after falling and breaking her middle finger on her other hand). I also got cupcakes from the same place that we ordered the wedding cake from. The cupcakes are the same flavor as the favors. I put them in tupperware and kept them in the fridge while we got the last item to send. That was a sealed copy of our ceremony, with our personally written vows, from our officiant. This way, she can be a part of our wedding day, enjoy a sweet treat, and hear the ceremony at her convenience from one of the ladies at her nursing home. We sent everything two day mail, and I called the home and gave instructions to open the packages immediately for her.
I got a call from her yesterday. She hasn't gotten the ceremony yet, but the corsage and cupcakes arrived. She's THRILLED!! She loves being able to touch the corsage (I explained it wouldn't die, and described it to her, emphasizing how it matched what my mom and FI's grandma would wear), and intends to wear it every day this week and into next week. The box arrived right as she was finishing dinner, so she was going to have half a cupcake for dessert (bless her, we brought her a cupcake in Nov. from the bakery, and despite her claims she'd "have a little piece" she darn near well licked the plate finishing it in one go!). She said my note mentioned something else coming, but she didn't quite understand it. I explained about the ceremony copy, and how not even FI and I know precisely what the personalized ceremony says, it's sort of a surprise for us. That started some crying, as well as more comments about how touched she was that we thought of her.
Even though my Grandma can't be there in person for my wedding on Saturday, I'm thrilled everything has gotten there and she can still be part of the day in spirit. I've made her happy- now I can enjoy my wedding!