Mother Vs. The Website

My mom has always had great passion and zest for projects that she throws herself into them with with such fervor reminiscent of Leslie Knope's zeal for scrapbooking her friendship with the majestic, dainty sea urchin that is Ann Perkins. For instance, back in grade school I noticed a tad bit of jealousy flowing through my mom's veins whenever Science Fair Project Time rolled around, and I mentioned that I could handle the upcoming task myself. Her eyes would almost bulge while she bit her lip to keep from retorting as she watched as my juvenile self haphazardly arranged the contents on the tri-fold, waiting to swoop in and usurp the project right from under me when I was most vulnerable (usually after week 2). In addition, she spear-headed the neighborhood carnival and dragged all of our butts to Catholic Charities for us to fork over the money and do a day's work at the center meanwhile making sure we learned a valuable life's lesson about "do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Her impressive resume continues with volunteering with the Catholic Charities Toy Drive, scrapbooking family members' 50th birthdays, and most recently the wedding. 

Likewise, I, too, have a great deal of enthusiasm for projects. Although, my complete dedication is usually directed to projects that lean a bit more on the obscure and peculiar side. For example, I once spent a whole year researching what national holidays fell on each and every single day of the year and relentlessly sending out 365 mass e-mails, so everyone could relish in the festivities as much as I did. Furthermore, I have taken it upon myself to appoint myself Leader of the Official Friendship Day Committee. Friendship Day is a national holiday that falls on the first Sunday of August. Thanks largely to my faithful commitment, as well as help from a loyal companion, Friendship Day has been celebrated for the past twelve years. 

With that being said, my mom and I approached the wedding with the same intensity that we have faced past projects. However, there was one problem. My mom and I had different priorities on what we deemed important. She wanted to follow The Binder's month-by-month guideline to planning a wedding and basically do it all at once. "Why put off what you can do today? So make sure you are looking ahead in the binder, Lauren."  Stuff that actually mattered is another way to best describe it. I, on the other hand, chose to focus my attention and energy on creating a wedding website which included fictitious testimonials from celebrities and a slideshow of very unattractive photos of the bridal party and the bride and groom. I.e. stuff that doesn't matter. The website became the bane of my mom's existence, and she often brought it up when I complained I did not have enough time to work on, again, stuff that actually mattered. "Oh you have time to make a website, but you don't have time to go looking for a dress." Touché, Mom, touché. 

In large, my mom and I made a great team. She kept us on task, made sure the day actually happened, and created such beautiful decorations (more on that later). I kept the planning light-hearted and made sure we had fun in the process. A modern-day Martha and Mary, if you will. Turns out she loved the website too! (www.bauerbarrettwedding.weebly.com)