By Tarina from St. Louis Post Dispatch
It’s officially wedding season and Butler’s Pantry, St. Louis’ premiere caterer, knows that planning a wedding involves multiple people. The bride’s and groom’s parents, family members and friends all step up to the plate. From the rehearsal dinner to the post-wedding brunch, the couples’ parents are running ragged throughout the entire weekend.
Butler’s Pantry has seen the zombie MOB (mother of the bride) too many times. “A wedding weekend is supposed to be about celebrating and enjoying quality time with family and friends, but all too often family members are running in 100 different directions,” said Richard Nix, Jr., President of Butler’s Pantry. “We hate to see the parents too exhausted to enjoy themselves.”
Butler’s Pantry suggests the following tips to help families avoid wedding-weekend stress:
1. Traditionally, the rehearsal dinner responsibilities fall to the groom’s parents. The groom’s parents could consider hosting a catered rehearsal dinner in their home. The two families will be more relaxed in a private home and guests can come and go as they please. Grandma and Grandpa might want to leave early, but other out-of-town guests might not arrive until after dinner.
2. To lessen the stress for the groom’s parents, let your caterer design edible centerpieces for the rehearsal dinner; it’s just one less thing to think about. Your caterer can create a lovely fruit display, show-stopping bread and cheese centerpieces or a dessert display.
3. Of course, the parents of the bride might be the ones overwhelmed on the wedding day. The bride’s parents should know the schedule of events prior to the wedding. The bride and her parents can work with the caterer to nail down a timeline for the wedding weekend, especially the day of the ceremony. Make sure the timeline is also distributed to your photographer, band or DJ, and key family members or friends.
4. Delegate a friend of the family to be the point person for the wedding day. This will help the bride’s parents tremendously. Should one of the vendors have last minute questions, they can ask this designated person. With peace of mind, the MOB can enjoy a hair and make-up appointment with her daughter and the bridesmaids.
5. Dine out for the post-wedding brunch. The wedding day will be a roller coaster of emotions for the parents, and the last thing they want to do is stand over a stove to scramble eggs and fry bacon. Simply reserve a room at a local brunch spot (consider Bixby’s, located on the second floor of the Missouri History Museum), and the professionals will take care of all the details.
6. Don’t sweat the small stuff and trust your vendors—they’re the experts!