Pre-Wedding Pictures: The Groomsmen Luncheon

Being a typical guy, my son (the groom) sent me a text a week before the wedding, "Sorry, Mom. I forgot to tell you, but the guys are coming over to our house to get ready. About 9:30. Can you pick up subs or something non-messy for lunch?"

On any other day, I would have thought, "Sure!"  That day, however, it seemed like a big deal.  After all, every day had its own tight agenda a week before Wedding Day. Kind of  a big deal day on which added guests and added food need more than a week's notice.  Besides, I had my hair appointment at 9:15.  I wouldn't  even be home to serve them. What kind of hostess disappears from her guests?

I stared at the text. In my mind, the event had gone from "subs for the guys" to "groomsmen luncheon" in three seconds flat. 

In my mind.

That's where I get tangled. 

My mind makes bigger deals out of things than necessary. 

Especially when it comes to guys.

Having raised two and a half men, you'd think I'd "get it"  by now, that when they say "pick up subs" it means "pick up subs" and "we'll eat them off their wrappers at the kitchen table."  If they even use a table. Napkins? Optional. That's why God made sleeves, they tell me.

But not being a guy, I went ahead and coordinated the table setting with the wedding colors: white tablecloth, grey square paper plates, grey cups, and purple napkins.




And flowers, of course. No table is complete without flowers, and I was feeling nostalgic,  wishing my Kansas grandparents were alive to be at Steve's wedding, wishing my girlhood-and-lifelong friend Barb from Kansas could be here, so I bought a bouquet of sunflowers, the Kansas state flower.

The Groomsmen Luncheon would be nice, I told myself, even if I weren't here to serve the guys.  Even if they didn't appreciate my girly touches. In the end, I told myself (or maybe my husband told me?)  I was doing this for me. It was, after all, a Big Deal Day. And I am all over Big Deal Days.

The night before, at the rehearsal dinner,  I asked Eric (Steve's best friend) if BLTs would be okay or should I take individual orders?  He said, "Miss Zoanna, we're guys. If a BLT isn't okay with a guy, you should take his man card away."    He laughed his infectious, hearty laugh which put me instantly at ease. 

Pleasing guys is so much easier than pleasing girls.  

So how did the Groomsmen Luncheon turn out? Just fine.  I set the table the night before and left a note on my camera for Eric's girlfriend to please take pictures of them getting ready.  She had her own camera, but I wanted some on mine.  She didn't see the "max 15" note along the edge, I suppose, and took around 70. Many including him, naturally. 

I would be at my 9:15 hair appointment.  My husband  took point on getting subs. The guys would have food sticking to their ribs all day.  

And take a look at these ribs!

The guys were feeling every ounce of their manliness in the 94 degree heat and decided a shirtless photo shoot was in order. 

Eric's girlfriend gladly obliged them.

Can you pick out  the civil engineering intern?  The computer programmer? The Chick-Fil-A manager?  The landscaper?  The defense contractor? (I put those in random order.)  

Anyway, as I was saying about the groomsen luncheon...

I set it all up the night before, but did I take any pictures of the classy plates, napkins, and sweet sunflowers? No!  I was crazy tired and having a meltdown after the rehearsal dinner because five things hadn't gone right and I took it personally. I was running around my house screeching, "I will NEVER EVER do another rehearsal dinner ever again! EVER! And how could I have NOT PACKED the SEATING ARRANGEMENT that I worked TWO HOURS ON?  Two hours for 27 peeeeeeooooopppllle."   Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa.

Moms parting with their children can be hot messes.

I had to apologize the next day for my irrational behavior. 

Did the guys even use one plate? I'm not sure.  I think they wolfed down their subs off their wrappers. (Does that make them "subwolfers"?)  Were the cups even opened? Nope. But were they happy and well-fed? It appeared so. 

In the middle of the chaos of eight men getting fed and dressed--in the kitchen and family room, no privacy needed since no girls were present-- Steve read a card that Ambrey had written the night before.  How she could hardly wait to be called his wife.  To be Mrs. Zubrowski, yada yada, sweet, sweet. Normally she gets ultra creative with her cards, making them of pretty scrapbook paper and themed stickers (girl after my own heart), but she was beyond exhausted and just wrote on plain white paper. She called it a "ghetto card."  :)   He was delighted. She also gave him a brand new watch. He was equally delighted, but it needed a couple links taken out, so he and some of the  guys ran to the jeweler to have that done.

They had time to kill because they didn't have to sit for hair and makeup. 

 All Steve wanted was for 3:30 pm to come so that He and She would be pronounced Husband & Wife.