This has been the longest day EVER!
I had a shop full of divas all day. Every single one of them showed up late except the bride. She showed up an hour early. I was so aggrevated.
I got up at 4:30 so I could wake up enough to start work at 6:00. I drank 2 cups of coffee before leaving home. I stopped and got donuts and cookies for the bridal party and got to the shop about 5:20. I turned on the A/C to get the humidity out of the air and fired up the coffee pot, the curling irons, the flat irons and the electric rollers. I organized the bobby pins, hairspray, mousse, gel, thermal sprays, etc.
V1 arrived about 5:45 with homemade buttered biscuits and jam. LOVE HER! SB called and said he was feeling especially "icky" and that he might drop in later if his tummy settled down. Bless his heart, he didn't get to come in but his heart and thoughts were with us for sure.
The mother of the bride, the mother of the groom and the grandmother of the bride were supposed to arrive at 6:00 sharp. They got there at 7:40...extremely late. We thought no one was going to show up. We tried calling all the phone numbers the bride had given us and no one ever answered.
The bridesmaids and flower girls were supposed to arrive at 7:15. Four of them showed up at 8:30. Then another 3 showed up at 9:30. The last two brought the flower girls and minature bride with them and they showed up at 9:45 with sopping WET hair. Arrrgghhhh!
Of course, me and V1 were running way behind. Like an hour and a half behind because NO ONE was showing up on time. The bride's mom said something to me about hurrying up because THEY HAVE FREAKIN' PICTURES TO TAKE! I told her to call the photographer and tell them they all were going to be little late.
She said he charged by the hour and she couldn't keep him waiting. It, of course, was ok to mess our schedule up. She kept hovering over V1 while she was rolling hair on hot rollers. V1 shoo'd her away from her and then she tried to hover over me while I put the hair up. I finally told her to please move out of my way because it takes twice as long when I have to maneuver around someone standing in the way.
The bride was supposed to arrive at 11:45 with her maid and matron of honor. The bride showed up at 10:30. Phew! At least she showed up. The maid and matron of honor showed up at 12:45.
When the bride got there, she had no idea that no one had bothered to show up on time. She started freaking out about how long it was taking to get all the hair done. She thought we should be through with the bridesmaids and flower girls. V1 told her not to worry, it'd all get done but that NO ONE had bothered to show up on time. In fact, everyone thus far had showed up well over an hour late and some of them with their hair sopping wet.
I tell you what, that bride lit into those gals like you wouldn't believe. Bridezilla, she was. She told me not to put anyone else's hair up except hers and the maid and matron of honor. She thought that would save me some time. Nope. It doesn't and I told her so.
I slung all those girl's hair up so fast it'd make you plum dizzy. I don't think it could have looked any better if I'd taken hours to do them all. I mean to tell you that every single hair just fell into place. I am SO not kidding. It's like our hands were possessed by the hair gods. V1 and I were tossing products and combs and brushes back and forth at each other. How we didn't knock each other silly, I don't know. One thing I did different today was I used twice the amount of bobby pins that I usually use and half the hairspray. I don't know how, but that combination worked today.
The father of the bride showed up to check on his mom (such a wonderful lady). She had been ready to go for a long time but had to sit there while the bride's mom (Satan's Toejam and I am so not kidding about that) instructed V1 on how to roll hair on hot rollers and instructed me how to put it up. She told her husband to take his mom and go on to the church. I told her husband that his wife and the groom's mother were finished and they needed to go on to the church too. Wouldn't want to piss off the photographer now, would we?
I don't think she liked that very much, but she left and I finally got to breathe without smelling her cheap cologne that she apparently bathed in. Blah. That stuff reeked.
The little girls were the best behaved little things I've ever seen. We curled their hair on hot rollers and put it up loosely and placed a wreath of flowers around their little heads. They were so very precious. I blushed their cheeks slightly and put the faintest amount of lip gloss on their lips because no one had thought to put any makeup on them. The "putt-og-fer" (mother of the bride's pronunciation) would have had a fit.
The miniature bride (8 years old) was a sweet little girl too. We styled her hair very close to the way we were styling the bride's hair. She was a bit of a tomboy so we had to make her sit still after we'd got her hair done so she wouldn't tear it down. She had a hard time keeping still. She was so nervous. Bless her little heart.
I started on the bride's hair at 1:30. She was supposed to leave by 2:00 to make it in time to get dressed for the photos. We made it but only because she'd come by the shop a week or so before to let me try different hairstyles on her. That saved me a lot of time, knowing exactly what piece of hair went where.
I don't know how we pulled it off, but we did. They ALL looked wonderful. As the grandmother put it, they all looked like princesses.
The bride asked me to come to the church to make sure her hair looked ok after she put her gown on. I told her that I hadn't planned on that but I'd be there as soon as I got my shop cleaned up and in order. She kind of pouted a little bit because she wanted me to come right then. I asked V1 if she wanted to go to the church. She said she would rather not. She wanted to start her Memorial Day weekend and she was so tired. I could tell. She's still not up to snuff since her mouth surgery. And since she was still pissed off at the bride's mom for showing her ass, I thought it was a good idea for her not to come to the church either. Heh. She offered to stay and clean up a little while I went to the church real quick. I told her just to go on home. I'll get it done before we come back on Tuesday.
The father of the bride pulled me aside when I got to the church. He complimented me and V1 for the great work we did. He said all the girls looked so gorgeous. He said he almost cried when he saw how beautiful his daughter was. Then he thanked me for keeping his "old lady" (his wife) away from the church so the decorators could work in peace.
He also told me the check his "old lady" had given me today to pay for all the hair do's wouldn't be any good until Friday. I was ALMOST speechless. I told him that I didn't make any arrangements with her to hold the check until Friday and that I really had full intentions of depositing it on Tuesday because I have to pay V1 for her part of the work. I told him that they should have ok'd that with me ahead of time.
He said he thought she'd told me and that everything must have been fine because they all ended up getting their hair done.
No, she did NOT tell me.
I finally spoke up for myself. I told him that V1 and I had put a lot of hard work into doing 18 heads of hair for his daughter's wedding. I told him that we would have gladly made arrangements if only she'd been honest with me from the beginning. He told me he was embarrassed about it but that he knew he needed to tell me about the check before I learned too late that it was no good. I thanked him for telling me about the check but I did tell him how disappointed I was.
I told him that I thought V1 and I went to great lengths to get things done just right for his daughter's wedding even though she was the ONLY ONE who bothered to show up on time. I told him I didn't think it was fair to give us a bad check after all we had to put up with today. I told him it especially hurt me that his wife was not going to tell me a thing about it. To me, that's the same as lying.
The groom's father overheard some of our conversation. He waited until I walked off to come speak to me. He told me that he didn't want me to think ill of his wife and three daughters because they were so late to get their hair done. They had no idea when their appointments were because the bride's mom didn't give them an exact time. She told them that she'd rented the shop for the morning and to just show up before 2:00. I felt my blood pressure go up another 20 points. I thanked him for letting me know what the deal was.
He also overheard the the deal about not being able to deposit the check until Friday. He couldn't believe she'd done that. He said he was so embarrassed. I told him not to worry, it wasn't his problem.
I finally found the room with the bride. She was lovely. Her hair was perfect. Her dress was perfect. The flower girls were in there with her. They hugged me and thanked me for their pretty hair. Gahhh. I just wanted to rescue them from the insanity of these people.
The mom of the bride asked to see me in the hall. Fine by me. She said she'd spoken with her husband and that he'd told her I was not happy at all about the check. (I looked at the check and it is NOT post-dated. It has today's date on it.) I told her that her husband was absolutely right, I was not happy about it at all. I asked her if she thought it was fair to do someone like that. She agreed that it wasn't fair and said there wasn't a thing she could do about it until Friday.
I told her that she could have called me and let me know what was up. I'm usually more than willing to cooperate. I told her that I could sympathize with her if it had been an honest accounting mistake. Gee, everyone does that at least once. But to write a check to someone KNOWING that you have no money to cover it? That's wrong. I told her that I felt like V1 and I had been taken advantage of. She rolled her eyes and told me I was making a big deal out of nothing. NOTHING? I don't think so.
She basically ignored me until I told her that I was going to go ahead and deposit the check on Tuesday anyway. She got really antsy and told me that it would end up costing her almost double by the time her bank got through charging her for all the NSF fees.
I told her not to forget about the bad check fees that my shop charges either. That's another $55.00 plus what my bank charges ME for depositing a bad check into my account. If I have to turn it over to the DA, that will cost a small fortune.
She started getting very pissy with me. I wanted to roll my eyes at her and tell her she was making a "big deal out of nothing". Isn't that what she told me? But I didn't. I asked her to put herself in my place.
Crickets.
I went home. I didn't go back and clean the shop. I called SB and checked on him. Still "icky".
My hubby took me fishing late this afternoon to clear my head. He said I was reeling so fast that the poor fish would be too skinny to eat just trying to chase down the bait.
When we got back home, Hubby checked the answering machine. The mom of the bride had left a message for me to return her phone call ASAP. It had been 3 hours since she'd called so I figured if it had been an emergency, surely it was over and done with by now. So. I didn't return her call. Didn't want to.
I went outside to water my flowers. While I was doing that, Hubby returned that woman's phone call. She wanted to speak to me directly but Hubby told her that I was outside. He didn't offer to come get me so he took a message from her.
She doesn't want me to deposit the check. She wants to come to my house in the morning to pay me cash and pick up the check. Hubby told her that sounded like a good idea. He told her he might even give her a receipt for it.
He said the lady laughed. I hope so. Maybe she tried to put herself in my place. Maybe her husband talked to her. Maybe she took a Xanax. Maybe things will be over tomorrow.
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