Carrying the Torch

Greetings!

Imagine my surprise a few mornings ago when I woke up and noticed Sane In Law’s post about passing the torch. Though it has been slow as of late, I have always enjoyed the posts here and would have been very sad to see it disappear, and after a flurry of emails between The Sane in Law and I, here I am!

Until I think of a better moniker, you can call me Starsky, and to start us off, I’ll share one of my own stories with you.

I honestly believe that my mother-in-law hated me from the day she met me. I never felt welcome around her, and she made it clear over the years before the wedding that she didn’t like me.

The biggest thing that stands out in my mind was our wedding day. We were pretty broke, and planned the entire wedding alone. We bought, and I made EVERYTHING. Favors, flowers, decorations, food, cake. All of it. I was pretty impressed with what I managed on our meager budget and I absolutely loved all of it. It was perfect, and exactly what I envisioned.

My favorite part was the table setup – I went to the farmer’s market, my yard, and the meadow behind our house to gather the flowers the morning of the wedding and set up beautiful wildflower and raspberry centerpieces in rectangle glass vases. Before I went home to shower, do my hair and put my gown on, I went to the park with my mom and my older sisters and set the tables up, and I was so happy and proud that I put something so amazing together.

Now, our wedding was in a park, right beside the picnic area where the reception lunch was to be held. As my brother walked me down the aisle, happy as could be, I took a half a second glance away from my husband to be to look at the tables… and my flowers were GONE. I almost tripped and I’m sure everyone watching me noticed the horrified expression on my face. I quickly composed myself and married my husband.

After the ceremony, I noticed that my wonderful centerpieces had been replaced by pink roses. I hate roses, and I hate pink. This is common knowledge to EVERYONE, including my mother in law. I asked around, and was informed my mother in law, that my centerpieces were inappropriate, and so she went and bought the roses and completely remade them while I was at the hair salon. My husband was livid and told her that she knew I disliked pink roses, and she told him that it was a wedding – all weddings should have roses, and we needed a feminine pink to offset the horrible black dresses my bridesmaids were wearing.

I let it go and enjoyed the rest of our day, but five years later, I still can’t forget the stupid pink roses.