Emily answered her phone.

“Hi Mom!”

Dave watched as Emily’s smile slowly faded.

All he heard was “Uh-huh” …” Ooh” …” Who?” …” Okay.”

Finally, she hung up and gently placed her phone down on the table.

Dave looked up from his bowl of Admiral Munch and took another sip of his coffee.

“How bad is it?”

Emily sighed. “Mom has a few people she’d like to invite.”

Dave smiled. ” A few? That’s not bad.”

Emily laughed… ” You don’t know my mother’s definition of a few.”

About an hour later, Linda, (Emily’s mom), walked through the front door carrying what looked like a three-inch binder covered in flowers, sticky notes, and color-coded tabs.

Dave grinned, ”Wow…you came prepared.”

Linda smiled proudly. “Oh honey, I’ve been preparing for this wedding since Emily was twelve.”

She placed the binder on the kitchen table and opened it.

THE GUEST LIST

Linda sat down at the table and rubbed her hands together.

“I’ve already narrowed it down.”

Dave whispered to Emily. “From what…the population of Rhode Island?”

Emily kicked him under the table and began reading.

Linda said, “Let’s start with family.”

Dave nodded.

“My cousins.”

“Sounds reasonable.”

“Their children.”

“Still reasonable.”

“Then we have my neighbors, the ladies from water aerobics, my hairdresser and her husband, the sweet cashier at the grocery store.”

Dave looked at her quizzically. “The cashier?”

Linda smiled. “She always remembers my coupons, and she whispers to me that my neighbor…Sarah Lee…who is always talking about the new diet she is on, stocks half her shopping cart with Little Debbie snack cakes. She is practically family.”

Emily couldn’t hold it any longer.

“Mom…”

Linda looked up. “Yes, sweetheart?”

“I love how excited you are…but we can’t invite every single person you’ve ever met.”

Linda looked genuinely surprised. “I’m not.”

Emily laughed. “Mom…you’ve invited your hairdresser, the store cashier, and neighbors who you constantly complain about because they don’t bring their garbage cans up from the bottom of the driveways as soon as they are emptied.”

Linda shrugged, “Well, that is annoying and lowers property values.”

Emily reached over and squeezed her mom’s hand.

“I know they would. But this isn’t going to be a 500-person wedding!”

Linda looked down at her binder. “I was only up to 124.”

Dave nearly inhaled his coffee. “One hundred and twenty-four?”

Linda nodded proudly. “And I haven’t even started on your father’s side of the family yet.”

Dave leaned back in his chair.

“Well, the girl who works the drive-thru at McDonald’s really likes me, because sometimes I find seven McNuggets in my bag when I only ordered a six-piece.  And just last week, I ordered a small Diet Coke, and she gave me a large!”

Emily slowly turned toward him.

Dave smiled. “So, I guess I’ll invite her too.”

Emily burst into laughter.

Linda nodded thoughtfully. “Well, that only seems fair.”

Dave pointed at Linda. “See? She gets me.”

Just then, both their phones began buzzing.

“How many kids can I bring?”

“What hotel should we book?”

“Can I bring my boyfriend of the week?”

“I hope you have a gluten-free option; I can’t eat gluten.”

Emily smiled and opened LinkMy.Wedding on her laptop.

Within minutes, they updated their wedding website with hotel information, schedules, FAQs, directions, and plus ones and kids’ updates. Instead of answering the same questions dozens of times, they simply replied…

“Everything you need to know about our wedding is on our LinkMy.Wedding page.”

Dave watched the questions stop almost instantly. He smiled and said, “Now that is worth every penny.”

Emily winked, “I told you we’d figure this out together.”

Dave looked at the giant guest list binder sitting on the table.

“Well, we’ve solved the communication problem.”

“Right.”

“But now we need a venue triple the size we were planning to hold all the people in your mom’s binder.” 😩

Next Week on The Ring, The Stress and The Dress….

Emily says it’s time to choose the wedding party.

Dave thinks picking a best man and groomsmen should take about 30 seconds.

He has no idea he’s about to enter The Bridesmaid & Groomsmen Draft, where lifelong friendships are tested, feelings get hurt, and somebody inevitably asks… “Why wasn’t I picked?”

Stay tuned, because wedding planning is only getting crazier!