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The Wedding:
Check out the pictures here: http://smileysdover.com/thewedding/index.html As most of you know we closed early on Easter Sunday so we could take all of the employees out to dinner. What you didn't know is that I planned a "surprise" wedding for my friend and dayshift manager, Stacy. Read the entire story below. I have been friends with Stacy for about 14 years. When we were in Dover Pee-Wee football. Even then I couldn't have done it without her. I was the President and she was the secretary and ran the concession stand. She was my right hand, left hand and probably even part of my brain. When her youngest son Bryan started school she wanted a "part-time" job. She started just as the "prep" person and has moved her way up. She is STILL my right hand, left hand and yes my brain. I just don't know what I would do without her. In all of the years that I have known her, she has always said that her wish was to have a "real" wedding. You see she was a young girl who forgot one night to use birth control and ended up with a bun in the oven. She got married February 24 and her oldest son Mark was born February 25. She was married in a living room, in a bright "yellow" dress. He was in the Army and got married in his uniform. The reception was planned for the next day and while she was in the hospital her family had the reception without her. She didn't even get to see her wedding cake. That was 25 years ago! I hatched the plan about a year ago when we were talking about her anniversary. Once again she said that all she ever wanted was a "real" wedding. I kept silent until September and that is when I approached her husband Mike. Okay I had to at least have one of the "team" onboard or it just wouldn't work. We came up with several ideas. The initial date was set for the Sunday before Superbowl. I talked to the "boys", she has 4 of them and they thought it was a great idea. I swore all of them to silence or I threatened to "knock" their teeth out....but due to circumstances beyond my control we had to change the date. I checked the calendar. I didn't want to make any customers angry by closing the store which many of them have come to depend on. I choose Easter Sunday for 2 reasons. #1 for many it's a day with family and friends and #2 it's a slow day for us. Many of our employees don't have families so I thought a good Easter dinner for them with co-workers and friends would be the right thing to do. The plan was to have the party and after everyone was done eating I would do my usual speech. You know the "suck-up" speech about how great they all are and to thank them for a great job done? After my speech I was going to call her husband Mike up and he was suppose to go over to her and ask her to marry him. We had a ring (her first one was very small) and everything. Well no way in hell could I convince him to do that so we went to plan B. Plan B: We thought that once the planning got under way Stacy would start to suspect that something was going on, you know people stopping their conversation when she walked into the room or my phone number on her caller ID when she was at work and I knew it. We decided that the whole family would come to my house for family pictures (yes in my spare time I am a photographer). I would take all of the pictures and then Mike would give me a signal so I would know he was going to do it. Oh, I should tell you that I got the ring box stuck in my pocket and had a heck of a time getting it out. She almost walked in on us. The moment...They sit on the bench so I could take the pictures..Mike forgot to give me the "signal" and suddenly he was on his knees with the ring box in hand. Shoot I wasn't ready...the expression on her face was wonderful...I didn't get it...because I wasn't ready for it! And then she did the unimaginable! She started crying! Great I was ready now with the camera and her make-up was running down her face. I said "you're crying!!?" You can't cry! Well that didn't work. Oh well I have photoshop so I decided that I would go ahead with the pictures. I got some really good ones! After everything was done, she called a few of us names, well mainly me. We had all known about it in October and it was March! The smile, the tears, they were worth all of the work to "surprise" her. Later she found out that most of the employees at Smiley's knew about the set-up and she couldn't believe that not one person spilled the beans...man was she in for even a bigger surprise! The Wedding Planner: First I want to say that in my next life I DO NOT want to be a wedding planner! Man whatever those people charge are well worth it. I told my daughter Julie that when she gets married it's going to be a suitcase and a ladder for her! But hey, if you ever want to plan a wedding on a shoestring budget let me know! I did very well in that department. I started planning the wedding in October. Of course it was only written on paper and I forgot to write down "things that can go wrong" list! As the date got closer I realized that I needed some assistance to pull it off...this is where Julie B comes in. Now we love Julie but she has a big mouth. She just can't help herself! I decided that with the threat of "death" and other things that maybe she could not spill the beans. I brought her in on the plan about a month before the wedding. She was a huge help! Oh there were a few close calls and over reacting but as far as I know, Stacy didn't catch on. How we set up the "dress": I put the letter out to all employees about the Christmas party. I put on there that it was a "semi-formal". I told each of them to see me when they handed in their RSVP's. I explained to all of them what the plan really was. I also threatened bodily harm (man can I go to jail for that?) and they were all for it! The reason why I put semi-formal is because I planned on Stacy, Julie, April and myself to go out dress shopping. Our goal was to find a pastel dress that Stacy looked great in. The shopping trip: We planned on a Friday night. We were going to go the the "used" wedding store in Dover and we had a plan on how to buy the wedding dress for her...guess what? They are gone!! Pfff...so plan B.. Off we went to Macy's..hey at Christmas time they had some great dresses! Well we got there and the dress department consisted of 4 racks! Most of the stuff was left over from Christmas because they probably didn't fit their dog..let me tell you some of those dresses were pretty ugly! Because it was 50% off Stacy didn't want to go anywhere else. This is where Julie did bad. I had set it up with the sales clerk that if Stacy found a dress I was going to put it on a special rack and when we left she was going to put it away for me. After Julie and Stacy left I was going to go in and buy the dress for her. This was problem #1. I didn't plan on buying a dress but somehow I walked out of there with a $75.00 dress! The story goes like this... We get to the dress department and I am doing my own thing which is what Julie was suppose to do. Do you think she did this? Heck no! Here she is giving Stacy all of these dresses and she doesn't have any in her hand! Now even I would suspect something! I kept telling her to knock it off! Finally we go into the dressing rooms, Stacy with her 14 dresses, Julie with 2 dresses and I with 4 dresses. Now most of the dresses that Stacy picked out were Black and that was the ONE color Mike told me NOT to buy! Stacy begins to try her dresses on. I have to admit that most of them didn't fit her right but the one that Julie said looked wonderful looked like she should be standing on a street corner, not getting married! I decided right then and there that I had better come up with another plan. She looked wonderful in this little black number and I thought she could wear it on the honeymoon that I had planned for her if Mike was really against the Black dress thing. Julie didn't buy a dress but I and Stacy did. How I got to pay for Stacy's dress was that I had coupons on a $100.00 purchase! I told Stacy to put her dress up on the counter and that we would combine the 2. She tried to pay me for the dress but I said no it was a "bonus" for doing such a great job! On the way home I called Mike and you could hear the disappointment in his voice! Black! He was pretty upset. I told him to see it on her and then make his decision. (I did agree with him but I didn't know plan C...yet.) The next day he called me and I think I convinced him that Black would be "okay"...that is for awhile...... He calls me the Tuesday before the wedding and tells me that he doesn't want black. You see him and the boys all rented tuxes and he felt that Stacy should have a real wedding dress. He was going out to look for one in the used wedding stores. I told him Stacy's size and off he went! He called me like 5 times! First the clerks were telling him that they really needed "her" to try on the dress..well that couldn't happen....he stops by the house and he found a couple of dresses in a store in Somersworth that he liked...man now I really had to think....BINGO, I called Julie! She is about the same size as Stacy but taller. I told her she had to "model" some dresses to see if they would fit Stacy. She was all for it. She and her daughter Laura came to the house and off we went. We only had $140.00 to spend and when we got there the dress he liked was too much money. He thought it was $99 (I think that after I called the guy to hold the dress he changed the price!) because Mike told me exactly where he got the dress and all of the other ones were $99.00. We start going through the racks to find Stacy's size. (No I am not going to say what size that is!). We found several dresses that we liked and off she went to try them on. The one Mike likes was beautiful and if I thought it would fit Stacy I would've put money towards it so she could have her "dream" wedding. It was a little "iffy" about fitting so we decided to try on others. We then came to this 2 piece set that was beautiful. Not as nice as the first dress but a very close second. When Julie tried the outfit on we knew that was the one. And guess what? It was $99.99. We had to purchase shoes and out of the few pairs they had there was a perfect size 8 that matched the dress! We bought those and a pair of gloves for her. We spent $140.00 exactly and she had her wedding outfit! Whew, now the dress was purchased and Mike was happy. I wouldn't let him see it because I thought he should be surprised about something. Julie had purchased the wedding book, the glasses for the toast and the garter. We had something new, something blue (the garter) and I have a pair of pearls that I was going to let her borrow. I had also purchased a pair of earrings that matched her dress and the pearls. Done...not quite..Mike purchase a "tierra" and it was beautiful! This was a couple of days before the wedding...man were we sneaky..the exchange happened right under Stacy's nose...I can't tell you how many times in the week before the wedding I had to send someone out to "talk" to her in the backroom so I could get some things done. I even had to drink a "smoothie" (by the way they are really really good) because I had to give her something to do one day! She never had a clue! I invited 2 of the girls from the Spa next door to join us for dinner. Stacy wouldn't think anything of it because we have gone out with them before. Deb and Becky were going to do Stacy's hair when it was time. I also invited Jeff who is a customer but like one of the family. He almost BLEW it! He gave Stacy a card but thankfully Mike was sitting right next to her and took it. I mouthed to Mike to say "Here Lyn a card for you". So I causally went over to their table and Mike handed me the card saying it was to me from that guy...whew a close one! I had called 2 JP's out of the phone book and the first one that called me back was the one that got the job. Problem was I didn't remember which one called me so when I called to confirm on Friday I was in a panic! As much as I hate cellphones, this time one saved my life. Her number was in there from calling me. I just prayed that it was the right one...it was and the JP was set! The cake. I put Julie in charge of the cake and what a great job she did! It was beautiful. We wanted to put "Tweedie" birds on the cake because that is Stacy's last name but do you think we could find any? NO! We then opted for Yellow flowers and gold and silver leaves. It was so beautiful! Whew the cake was out of the way!
Now onto the flowers. My daughter Julie used to do business with Studley's in Rochester when she sold advertising for WTSN. She suggested that I contact them. I called and ordered flowers for Stacy, The Maid of Honor and an extra one just in case. I also ordered flowers for Mike and the Boys. At first I ordered "Pink" as the main color. As time went on we decided that the colors should be "yellow" and "white". I called them 3 days before the wedding to change the colors. Whew, I was in time. Now I know that at times I am a "wingnut" however I asked them where they were located in Rochester and I swear they told me "across from the Hospital." More on this below....
The Honeymoon. Stacy always takes her vacation at Christmas time except for this year...I wouldn't let her. Well at least I wouldn't let her take all of it but she didn't know the difference..I saved out 2 days so we could send her on a honeymoon. The first night they were going to spend the night at Day's Inn here in Dover. I then searched for a Hotel in Maine and settled on one that overlooked the Casco Bay. I asked for them to put them up on a higher floor and they did. We booked the room for 2 nights and the family and boys gave them money so they could eat, shop or do whatever they wanted. Stacy told me that it was beautiful and very relaxing.
Now everything is all planned. The Food, The JP, The Cake, The Clothing and some of her family had been invited. So far so good! Julie B hasn't opened her mouth yet...Stacy hasn't got a clue...then comes the Wedding Day.
Justina who works nightime had made a basket for Stacy to put in her hotel room. Mike, Stacy's son who also works for me was suppose to take the basket home with him on Saturday night and take it to the Day's Inn on Sunday. Well.....he forgot it! He called and told Justina to put in on my desk and he would pick it up Sunday morning. Guess who came in on Sunday? Yup, Stacy! She came in to help out with the food order. Guess where she found the food order? Yup, in my office! Her son Nick who also works there called me in panic. I asked him how he handled it and he said he didn't say or do anything. I told him and Julie B not to worry about that she probably doesn't have a clue!
Mike and his girlfriend Amy stopped by the house and picked up the stuff for the wedding and the hotel room. I bought some roses and of course their basket that was filled with EVERY newly weds dream items.
The ONLY problem we had the day of the wedding was the flowers. Remember when I said above that they told me they were located across from the Hospital? Well there is a florist there but NOT the one I needed. I walked in there, money in hand and asked for the flowers. The panic on HER face couldn't have matched the panic in my face! We were at the wrong florist. She was so kind to give us directions however since we don't know Rochester at all it was no help at all. After wandering around Rochester we finally saw a landmark that we knew we had to look for! We were there! The flowers were beautiful!
We got ready and arrived at Kelly's Row at about 5:15 to get everything set up. Let me tell you how wonderful these people are! They couldn't do enough for us!
We planned the food for about 6:15 but it didn't arrive until 6:30, okay now we are behind! We were all eating when I got the call that everyone was waiting outside. It was sooo cold that day. I told them to "hide" until I could rush things a little bit. We decided to get everything going even while people were still eating. I figured we had at least a 1/2 hour for Stacy to get dressed. I went inside to set everything up and where do you think Stacy is? In the bathroom! When she came out I told her to sit down and then I did my thing....
I announced that we all had a secret and Stacy was nodding her head yes....she had NO clue! I announced that this was her "surprise" wedding and guess what she did? Yup...she cried....her family walked in and she cried.....we whisked her off and she was crying....they were doing her hair and she was crying...they saved her make-up for last but....yes, she was crying! We have it all on film! It will up on the site soon....
Her oldest son Mark (who used to work for us but doesn't now) walked her down the alisle and she was...crying...she saw all of her boys in their Tuxes and she was crying...every picture I have of her....she was crying or her make-up was running down her face....
The wedding went off without a hitch.....it was a Beautiful evening for all of us at Smiley's.
We we asked Stacy about everything when she got back from her honeymoon she couldn't remember! She was in shock the entire time. As we told her stories about how "close" it came at times of her finding out it all made sense. Thank god she didn't add it all up....
So now Stacy has had her dream come true.....she has had a real wedding! But the only thing different than 25 years ago is that she has 4 wonderful sons, 1 granddaughter and 3 beautiful future daughter in laws....I just hope she doesn't ask me to help plan any of their weddings....
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