Since the night I received the phone call that Andrew had asked my only daughter to marry, I knew this would be an interesting year for me. I have only one child: my smart, gorgeous, overindulged princess. We’ve always been close, but the journey to the wedding has in many ways brought us closer and in just as many ways revealed how different we truly are. During this planning process, I’ve learned a lot I never knew about weddings, a lot about my daughter, and to my surprise, a lot about myself. As the planning winds down and the wedding date approaches, I’d like to share some of the lessons I’ve learned as mother of the bride:

With less than two months until the big day, the to-do list for wedding details continues to grow with each passing hour, and the time frame to get it completed continues to shrink. The invitations were mailed this week, our ceremony details are finalized, and plenty of other things have already been accomplished. But in the past few days, it has really sunk in that the wedding is coming soon—and that has caused me to feel a bit overwhelmed.

When Andrew proposed, he cleverly arranged for our two huskies to be involved in the big event. The girls took on the task dutifully, proudly wearing their T-shirts that broadcast the all-important question. So, as we discussed the details of our wedding ceremony, it was very important to both of us that we find a way to involve our dogs in that special day. In theory, it’d be adorable. But in practice . . . well, we’ll see.

Since our engagement last May, we’ve both been pondering the perfect way to involve the dogs in the ceremony without too much disruption. While the traditional dog role is to replace the ring bearer, we’ve recruited my six-year-old cousin to fulfill that duty. We considered having them serve as our flower girls but couldn’t logistically grasp how that would work. The discussion moved to the back burner as other decisions were made, but with two months until the wedding, it was time to make a final decision.

There has been plenty of focus on my dress and the bridesmaids’ dresses, but little attention has been paid to what the handsome men in our wedding party will sport on the big day. Realizing that our planning days are numbered, I figured it was time to start playing dress-up with my future husband and his groomsmen. So, with bridesmaid Erin and her boyfriend (and groomsman) Mike in tow, Andrew and I headed to MW Tux to pick out their wedding-day ensemble.

Andrew is the love of my life, and he has superbly handled his role in the wedding-planning process with just the right amount of interest. This was one of the only elements that didn’t directly involve me, so my plan was to be the supportive fiancé and let him lead the charge on tuxedo decisions. But things didn’t go exactly according to my plan. When Andrew started referencing the lime-green suit from the movie Dumb and Dumber as his dream outfit, I knew a female intervention was necessary.

Lisa and I have been friends for our entire lives. In the early ’80s, our mothers worked together and became friends, and my mother ultimately became Lisa’s daycare provider. We grew up on the same block in Arlington and became inseparable throughout our formative childhood years.

Needless to say, it’s been pretty much a given that we’d be each other’s maids of honor, but it was still emotional for me to hear it officially when Lisa Marie got engaged. I was thrilled and a little daunted—being the maid of honor is a huge responsibility. Failure was in no way an option. And thus began my reign of terror, as I like to think of it.

Andrew found his ring right away.

I can’t believe there’s only three months to go until the big day. It feels like we just got engaged a couple weeks ago, but now we’re getting down to crunch time, which means ring shopping. Although every decision about the wedding feels like a major milestone, no one can deny that choosing your rings is one of the biggest. So Andrew and I headed to Mervis Diamonds to see if we could find the most permanent piece of jewelry either of us will ever wear.

Walking into the gorgeous store, I was a blank canvas. I truly had no idea what I wanted to pair with my wonderful solitaire engagement ring. Everyone says that a solitaire leaves your wedding-band options wide open, but for me, those limitless options weren’t necessarily a good thing. Our poor salesperson had quite the afternoon. Thankfully, Andrew had done his research like the good engineer he is, and he knew exactly what he wanted. Not settling for traditional metals such as platinum, he had discovered tungsten, a super-metal described as indestructible and scratch-proof. As tungsten is a relatively new metal for traditional jewelers, the choices in rings for men were fairly limited. So when Andrew slid on what seemed to be the perfect ring, we knew the short search was over for my future husband’s wedding band.

The Catholic Church has a unfavorable reputation among brides-to-be concerning the measures it requires to sanction a marriage. But thanks to Father Chuck, our progressive priest with a modern view on the sacrament of marriage, our personal experience has been rather smooth. This weekend, we glimpsed the other side of Catholic-marriage preparation, and I have to say the grass is certainly not greener over there.

One of the crucial requirements during marriage preparation is the Pre-Cana conference. We had the choice of a one-day, two-day, or three-day excursion to immerse ourselves in the Church’s teachings about marriage. Andrew and I chose the one-day conference; after 13 years of Catholic school, I figured that was all I needed to soak up the rules. We weren’t sure what to expect or what other couples were going to be like at the conference, but we woke up early on a rainy Saturday morning and headed to Vienna with open minds.