Wicked Wednesday – Spring Cleaning, Wedding Edition

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By Liz, happy to say we’re still celebrating the release of Torn Asunder, the 12th installment of the Maine Clambake Mysteries!

Congrats, Barb! I love reading these books – they make me happy. Since our theme this month is spring cleaning, I thought our final post on this topic could relate to weddings, which is the setting for the book.

I’ve seen weddings “spring cleaned” to the extent that there aren’t many family members left on the invite list. That aside, spring cleaning doesn’t have to be about purging, just simplifying. So Wickeds, how have you simplified some of the bigger family related events in your life, wedding or otherwise?

Edith/Maddie: First, congratulations to Barb! I’m excited to dive into the latest Maine Clambake. As for simplifying gatherings? In a word – I haven’t. My sons’ weddings were up to them and their brides, and both were lovely celebrations with their friends and our combined families. I gently encouraged them to invite far-flung uncles, aunts, and cousins, and they did, with several attending, even in Puerto Rico. The Thanksgiving and Easter feasts I host every year have always been a potluck affair, with me setting a pretty table and making a main dish (turkey for one and cold poached salmon for the other) and the usual crowd bringing the rest. We occasionally include the odd extra guest or two, but I love a full house.

Julie: My immediate family does our very best to get together at least once a year, which is tough with nieces and nephews grown, and my sisters and I living in different places. But we try. I’m finding as I get older I yearn for the big, messy family/friend events.

Jessie: Super congratulations, Barb! 12 in the series! Huzzah! Like Edith, I am all for big events. I love to entertain and do so with regularity. I have hosted a gathering every month for adult women friends and neighbors for six or seven years now and have no plans to cut back. I think in a world of often online connections, it is so important to maintain in-person experiences.

Sherry: I loved Torn Asunder so much, Barb! And look forward to reading the final version! I have a small family on both sides and a larger family on my husband’s side. But we are all scattered around the country so large gatherings are almost impossible.

Barb: Thanks, everyone! I think weddings should suit the couple being wed. My son and his wife had 16 people at their wedding in an intimate room in a beautiful restaurant. My son still says it’s the best wedding he has ever been to. My joke about my daughter’s wedding is that we should have started saving after our first meeting with her middle school guidance counselor when he used the word “popular” sixteen times. My daughter and her husband had a large and memorable wedding. Lots of people tell me it was the best wedding they’ve ever been to. But it wasn’t all on my daughter’s long list of friends. After a lot of discussion Bill and I decided to invite all his first cousins and their spouses from his large Italian-American family. So some of the big guest list was on us!

Readers, how have you “spring cleaned” family events?

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Published by Cate Conte / Liz Mugavero

Cate Conte writes the Cat Cafe Mysteries and the Full Moon Mysteries. As Liz Mugavero, she writes the Pawsitively Organic Mysteries, the first of which was an Agatha Award nominee for Best First Novel. She lives in the Boston area with her rescue pals.

13 Thoughts

  1. With family living in other cities – and parents getting older – our holiday gatherings have become much simpler. A turkey breast instead of a full turkey for Thanksgiving, that sort of thing. I’m waiting for the day one of my kids gets married or hosts a holiday, when we can have a big “do” again.

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    1. My daughter and son-in-law did my husband’s family’s big Easter celebration this year while we were still in Key West. They’ve done holidays before but always with us as backup. It felt like a rite of passage.

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  2. Congratulations Liz! I just know that “Torn Asunder” is a fabulous addition to the Maine Clambake Mysteries!

    There’s no “spring cleaned” of family events for us. There’s not many of us left so gathering with the few we have is always a great joy.
    2clowns at arkansas dot net

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  3. Thanks for the fun blog, Cate! I love reading everyone’s comments. Barb, I know what an Italian wedding is all about, so I can relate. I don’t get invited to many weddings, though nit seems they are getting too elaborate and expensive…In my case, my large family live in so many countries, and here we only have our son, daughter-in-law and 3 grandkids…the oldest is staring uni in Spain in the Fall, so there will be less of us. The only holiday we can count on us being together is Christmas, though for 3 years we did not spend it together due to someone having Covid 😦 This Easter we invited our family to come to our ranch for Easter, but they were off to The Dominican Republic with some friends from Charlesto, SC…so now our festive days are celebrated with joy and deliciousness all by ourselves, and we are blessed to be able to ejoy them together, JOY! Luis at ole dot travel

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  4. We’ve “spring cleaned” family events during Covid and it’s remained that way – much smaller gatherings and usually just comprised of immediate family members. I really miss the larger gatherings where we were able to see everyone. aprilbluetx at yahoo dot com

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  5. Congratulations on 12 – So looking forward to reading it.

    I come from a small family, as does my husband. No cleaning required for family events. It’s just the two of us. We compensate by throwing the doors open to friends and neighbors. I do love a full house.

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  7. I come from a big family, and we had a maternal reunion in Austin, Texas in 2022. We had it there as my grandfather’s photographs and so much more are in the archives at the Briscoe Center. Look up Robert Runyon. They are also in the Library of Congress. He was in South Texas in 1907 and traveled with the Mexican Army in Mexico to photograph the Mexican Revolution back then. 83 family members attended from all over the US including a dog and a 3-month-old child. We had events, family genealogy of the family programs and so much more. It was great. My husband and I have no children, but I still have a lot of family, all in Texas and my husband has some family. We used to get together in Missouri with his family on holidays. He said that he killed off all of his family and I was on Ancestry and trying to find more of my family. Anyway, it is good to reconnect with whatever you have. I have a sister, niece, grandnephew, great grandnephew and so many friends, family in Texas while we are in Georgia. My husband got transferred here under duress in 1993. You can take a native Texan out of Texas, but you can’t take Texas out of her heart. Remember the Alamo.

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