My interest in Pinterest is piqued

If you’d told me 24 years ago that I’d be giving wine bottles a bath for my son’s wedding, I would have said you were crazy.

Yet, there are 35 wine bottles soaking in my Jacuzzi tub as I write this.

I blame Pinterest.

See, in my day, brides just picked a dress, a hat or veil, a pretty pair of shoes and some ugly bridesmaid dresses; threw a few candelabras on the altar; and got married.

We didn’t have that many ideas. We didn’t have Pinterest, which shows all kinds of ideas on Everything.

We didn’t even have the Internet. You younger people, let that soak in. We. Didn’t. Have. Google.

I couldn’t say, “Hmm, what would be cute on the tables at the wedding reception? I’ll Google that.”

People had to rely on their imaginations, or look at books on weddings or Bride magazine. We stuck a candle in a wine bottle and thought we were hot stuff.

Receptions were pretty easy.

Couples just had a wedding cake, a groom’s cake, mints, nuts and punch — unless you were from a wealthier family; then you had real food.

Nowadays, it’s a huge undertaking to have a wedding.

My son is getting married in October, and I’m excited about it. I want to help as much as possible, regardless of the saying that mothers-in-law need to show up, shut up and wear beige.

That just ain’t me.

Luckily, my future daughter-in-law wants me to help.

My brother’s wife is the wedding planner. She’s young, hip and a great decorator.

So, she said we need wine bottles. Lots of wine bottles. She told us we’re going to paint them for decoration.

I don’t drink wine, but my husband and I have friends, an older couple, who love wine. They drink it daily.

They save their wine bottles for us, and we go pick them up. We have all kinds — Middle Sister, Skinny Girl, Yellow Tail, Drops of Jupiter and wines by the Gallo Family, who, by the looks of it, owes its fortune to this couple.

My sister-in-law said we will “start with 50” bottles.

We have to take the labels off, and my mother did one for me in the kitchen sink, to show me it was easy. One down, 49 to go.

I had the idea at 4 o’clock in the morning that I would put them in the Jacuzzi to soak. We only use it to give the dog and cat a bath (not at the same time).

My mother told me that my husband had already thought of that.

I ran the bath water and started sinking them. My husband came to help. “Hold the end of the bottle down in the water,” he said.

“There’s an art to this?”

“Yes, because air floats — if you don’t have the bottom of the bottle down, you’re trapping a big air bubble in there.”

OK, fine.

We filled each bottle until they could stand.

When we were done, we had 35 wine bottles standing in our tub.

“Now, is the water higher or lower than it was?” my husband asked, never wanting to miss an opportunity to give a quiz.

“Higher,” I said.

“Right. Now, the next question … why?”

“Because the water’s displaced by the glass, or something like that,” I said, summoning something deep in my brain.

He said I was right.

Then he made some reference to “bathtub gin.”

Because I studied in college instead of partied, I knew not of which he spoke.

“So, have you taken your picture yet?” he asked.

He knows me. I took a picture with my iPhone and texted my future DIL. “Wine-bottle bath!” I said.

My responsibility in the wedding is to have the rehearsal dinner. I want cute fall place cards, so I Googled it.

Pinterest has some adorable ideas with pumpkins.

If you can’t beat ’em, join ’em.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events