Adventures of Mother of the Bride: How to Keep the Bluebird of Happiness Flying

By Jacque Hillman

"Adventures of Mother of the Bride: How to Keep the Bluebird of Happiness Flying" is a series of columns, hilarious, poignant and loving, about a mother's experience with her daughter's journey to the perfect wedding. What to do when the bridegroom snores, when the budget has been left in the dust, and horrors! What to do when the white roses arrive the day of the wedding dead in a hot truck. The Mother of the Bride's job is to keep that bluebird of happiness flying through the wild winds of love and chance.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Oct 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483511085

Jacque Hillman

Jacque Hillman. Senior Editor and CEO, The HillHelen Group Publishers; editor, award-winning journalist for 30 years; former English teacher; graduate, Delta Leadership Institute Executive Academy 2010-2011; Sterling Awards: 20 Most Influential Women in West Tennessee 2014.

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Sunday, June 20

Potential son-in-law comes to visit

We have survived. Our oldest daughter flew in Monday with our potential son-in-law (PSIL).

They flew out on Thursday.

It was an interesting experience, really. I dropped off one daughter at the Memphis airport on Monday while my spouse picked up the couple in Nashville and delivered them home.

We arrived home within about 30 minutes of each other.

I was watching out the window, working on my computer, and still didn’t see the car pull up because of the rain. I wanted to have that instant to size him up as he walked across the yard to get that first aha moment.

Then the dogs went nuts barking. The Prospect came in pulling a massive gray suitcase that belonged to my daughter and a tiny one for himself.

I shook his hand, wondering, Do I hug? Or get to know him?

My daughter’s first comment was, I don’t think we’ll be able to go to Miss Tennessee. I took up all the room in my big suitcase, and he couldn’t bring dress clothes.

Hmmmmm. Okay. A potential son-in-law with shorts and tennis shoes only.

Well, he is supposed to be on vacation. Minor detail.

This is a more casual generation, I thought.

I found out later he loves to fish and collects guns.

Frankly, he looked exhausted. He owns a restaurant, Hoosier Café in Chandler (Indiana-themed), and he was worried about leaving it. You’re thinking that it must offer steamed rice, veggies and only healthy food because it’s the Southwest? Wrong.

It’s a family restaurant ranked No. 3 in the area and receives high marks for homemade biscuits, sausage and gravy!

Chicken-fried steak. Reviewers call it stick-to-your-ribs food.

It was Hoosier when I bought it, he said. We have a great customer base, and I wasn’t about to mess with what works.

Hmmmm. Good business sense. Chalk one up for the PSIL. He’s also at work by 6 a.m. every day.

On Monday night, we had friends out at the Coyote Blues restaurant, who wanted us to bring our company and come out to party, but honestly, they looked so tired, I suggested rest.

My daughter does really well working for Coldwell Banker/Chandler in real estate. She was already on her phone when she walked in the door, and she had an offer to write.

We settled into a sort of schedule with them working out, us talking, watching a little TV, driving through Jackson for the short tour. We went to Coyote Blues on Tuesday night and they met Trey Teague. The ceviche was really great.

On Wednesday morning, she was still on the phone working deals, and he said his version of enough already. My daughter is lovely, compassionate, intelligent, with a high energy level and is a steamroller when she’s focused on a project. But he’d flown them home to visit so he wanted ... to visit. Nothing wrong with that. Point No. 2 for him.

They decided to drive to Clarksville to see his uncle.

That was OK. I came to work. And then my spouse and I went to the Miss Tennessee Scholarship Pageant.

On Thursday, I cooked homemade biscuits, quiche Lorraine, steak, fresh blueberries and strawberries to go with sour cream angel food cake. He had serious doubts about quiche:

Eggs, milk, cheese and bacon in a pie crust? He’s converted now.

He loves dogs and has a Weimaraner as well as a boxer he just adopted. More good points.

He said there would be many more times together ... a very good sign.

We planned to leave at 3 p.m. but ended up leaving at 4:20 p.m. driving to the airport to catch a flight that departed at 7:05 p.m. You guessed it. I-40 was gridlocked in downtown Nashville. I see the I-65 exit and begin edging out of my lane for it.

I nearly lost my PSIL. Hurry up! he yells. There’s a car coming! You can’t slow down! OMG!

We made it. You can’t take your time in interstate traffic! he said. I was about to get killed over here!

We got to I-440. Stopped. He’s on the phone with Southwest. They’re going to miss the flight. He’s saying this over and over. It’s going to cost them another $500 to fly out. He is NOT happy.

I don’t know if you’re going to be OK driving in Phoenix or not, he said gloomily.

I’m thinking, this may be the deal-breaker ...

He wants to marry my daughter, have two kids, and he wants us to retire to Phoenix because he doesn’t want his babies going to daycare with people he doesn’t know. And I may have just