All Posts Written By Linda Wright

The Holidays come and go so quickly and yet its almost as if time slows to stall as we prepare for the family to converge together for the Holiday gathering.  The uncertainty looms as we considered who would Aunt Nelly show up with…or will little Theodore bring his tattooed girlfriend to meet everyone this year?

It’s always the new ones that get scrutinized the hardest and over time we watch those strangers become family members or family members become strangers and our children become the party givers instead of the party crashers. It usually takes the first Holiday Season to see how well the newbie’s will fair. Holidays have a way of bringing out our best intentions but certainly it is the fall out that creates our dysfunctional bliss.

When it comes down to it…Do you ask the girlfriend to bring something or boyfriend to take out the garbage? How about after dinner, when Grandpa is handing out the snifters of brandy and cigars gathering around the card table, dare say, do you expect the boys in the garage would calm themselves after the Fantasy Football dispute and tear themselves away from the television?  Or, when you can’t get the Guitar Hero out of the hands of your kids grandmother so that the kids can play…do you say something?  It never quite goes as we imagine it to.

I decided many years back that my version of holidays would be to provide a place where the strays and not so strays can come in, get something hot to eat and cold to drink and leave when they’ve had their fill of the craziness.  Less expectation is a good recipe for less stress in my holiday cookbook.

I was fortunate to have members of my FantaSea family join my daughter and I for Thanksgiving dinner this year.  It was a great cocktail of hardy laughter and impromptu naps on the couch after an ample dose of deep fried turkey.  Never a dull moment when you have a bunch of party planners in one room, add a dash of champagne and the spirits come out to play.

This Christmas season the discussion of my daughters pending FantaSea nuptuals resonates between she and I, as we find ourselves planning a trip to Mt. Shasta with her and my future son-in-law for the holidays.  This is not a weekend visit, not a dinner at Grams, this is a week of snow of heavy coats all cozied up in a small cabin.

I’m feeling that this will be a special time for all of us and yet I’m sure there could be moments when I want to scream, laugh and perhaps cry, tears of laughter never hurts the soul. I’m looking forward to shedding the day-to-day stress and just relaxing, taking the time to have fun with the kids.  So lets give ourselves a good reason to relax this holiday season, take a little time for yourself and keep that fire within burning. Smile at the little things and hold on to the meaning of giving and loving during the holidays.

My holiday wish to you: sit back and enjoy the show, next year  will be here soon enough. Here is to your reason to relax over the holidays, you deserve it!

Cheers!

Over the past couple of weeks I’ve encouraged our event and wedding planners here at FantaSea to share with me their feelings on how important the engagement and wedding rings are to the over all planning process and how to determine the value of this financial undertaking.

Clearly the overwhelming attitude was that the choice is so personal to each couple. The rings are often one things to the guys and something completely different to the brides.  My daughter and her future fiancé have been discussing the idea of “The Rings”.  She and I have made a few trips to various jewelry stores and I must say she knows what she wants.  She’s not so concerned with the 4C’s: color, cut, clarity & carat. She’s determining her choice based on what is a reasonable cost and the sentiment of the choice.  For her, the style of the ring is very important, as is the size of the diamond.  What he spends on her ring could be a varied range and she has stated that the standard 2 times his monthly income would be wonderful.  As for him, he’s a bit on the rugged side of things, so she is going with a black titanium style.; we’ve found that this is also a very reasonable priced metal.

With these guidelines in mind, I brought up the subject with my future son-in-law. After all, I have been sent on a mission to insure that he surprises her with what she wants…LOL!!

I was surprised to hear his reaction to this process. He said after watching the girls at a friends “his and hers” wedding shower, ogle over the brides ring, the light went on.  Once he realized how important this piece of jewelry is to her, he was completely on board…he said clearly she wants to be proud of her ring, but more than that, he wants her to find something that she’ll want to wear for the rest of her life.  ”The piece will be quality” he said. The kicker was his willingness to spend as much for her ring as he is for the new engine in his Hot Rod he is redoing! I had to ask…”and how much does one of those engines go for?”  When I got the answer I could only reply, “Oh! Well OK!!”  Can’t argue with that!

So here is a picture of HER ring choice resting on her hand.  She is hoping that her dreams will come true, just as every young woman dreams of the day they are proposed to.  This step has been 4 years in the making and when he gets down on his knee and asks for her hand, he needs to have tissues near by, because that tough exterior my daughter has will simply melt away in the moment.

My first wedding: August 1977 in Healdsburg, California

Mother, “I want to get married”…said my daughter to me.

The first in a series of blogs to transpire over the next 2 years.

At 50 now, I remember the day my daughter was born and I would look at her and daydream about the day she would come to me and tell me she was going to get married.  I set out then to give her every tool I could to allow her the best judgement in making her choice.

She is 23 now and we have come to that ‘pause’ in the road…for me anyway, where I have been informed that it is time to begin preparing for her wedding.  I remember the day I told my mother I was getting married.  She thought better of it and certainly shared so.  Looking back now, I clearly understand why she would offer me the opportunity to go to Art School in Paris instead.  But at 18, I knew just what I wanted to do and that included getting married.  My wedding was my mothers favorite past time, she was a hard working woman but planning her daughter’s wedding became another reason to throw a big party.  I really had very little to do with it in the end.  Besides, she was a formidable woman and taking her to task was not for the light hearted!  She delivered, and my wedding was beautiful and everybody talked about what a terrific day it was.

Here at FantaSea Yachts, I work with many brides and their mothers planning many, many weddings.  I am very fortunate with a great team in doing so, and in the end, not one wedding is ever the same.

I’d like to invite you to join me in the fun and challenges we are about to embark upon as we plan my daughters wedding which, of course, will be aboard one of FantaSea’s beautiful yachts.  There will be some similarities to my first wedding, as she has basically said, “Mom, please just take care of it. Here are the things I would like…”  Uh-Huh…I know better…she will have her input and no doubt share so.

This lovely, yet untraditional wedding and reception will culminate at the end of my daughters schooling…my prerequisite.  She will graduate in June 2011 with her masters degree and in September, we shall have a party…oh, and wedding…

You are cordially invited…