marriage looms for Mark and Alexis

All I said was, “I need to fill in the date and write down the family appointments and plans for the month of August.” The next time I walked by the calendar, all the dates had been filled in, but only one event had been written down: “August 12, wedding” with HONEYMOON written across the following week.
For my visiting daughter-in-law to-be, I suppose that is how the month of August looks. The rest of the family will continue with their mundane lives after the summer of the sudden wedding. However, for Alexis and Mark, getting married is the only event.
In mid-April, Mark called to tell us, “I’m getting married, but we aren’t going to announce it until her birthday party in July.” That was plain until they tried to find a date.
Let’s see. I believe we were told, “After she graduates, next summer, Dec. 16, Aug. 12 this weekend, July 28, Aug. 4 and finally mid-July, my son called and said, “OK this is the final date, we are getting married, Aug. 12.”
A month to a wedding. I asked what their plans were.
The bride had purchased a gown, but it needed work before the wedding. After a lot of phone calls and consultations, Deborah Langford said she could have the dress ready.
A Victorian mansion was reserved for the wedding and reception. The cake was ordered and silk flowers chosen. Bridesmaids dresses, a wedding book and picture albums were purchased at summer clearance sales.
The bride-elect visited us shortly before the wedding. I took her to garage sales Saturday morning and came home with a bundle of items for her home and nothing for mine. I couldn’t resist her cute smile and charming, “Oh Mumsie, don’t you think this is sooo cute.” “Oh, Mumsie, we need these for the kitchen.” “Mumsie, this would look sooo beautiful in our living room.”
Afterwards she spent a couple hours giving me a perm. “Now we are even for all the cute stuff you bought me.”
We won’t ever be even though. She is a foot shorter than me and has my son wrapped around her little finger in a way I never could.
I gave her Mark’s picture albums, childhood mementos and scrapbooks. After she read all my past columns, she said, “Now you need to write one about me.”
“I’m thinking about it,” I assured her. “I have to find an idea first.”
She filled two pages with ideas, including a list of 10 ways to tell a very cute, black-haired Oriental girl, that she’s loved:
1. excuse her from cleaning the house.
2. rent videos for her
3. let her vegetate
4. make chicken the way she likes it
5. take her to garage sales
6. help with wedding plans
7. give her a book about personalities
8. spend hours discussing her personality
9. praise her, praise her
10. tell her you love her.
Okay I’ve done all that. But she is sooo cute, with such a perky personality, I couldn’t resist.
She has more than my son wrapped around her little finger.