SS#12 Here Come the Bridesmaids!

Jack Schafer and Carol are getting married in CA, and Mrs. Barrett and Mr. DeWitt are getting married in Stoneybrook. Most of the BSC members are involved in one way or another...

Dawn is, of course, going to be a bridesmaid at her dad's wedding. Since Mary Anne is too (or so she thinks), Dawn ends up buying the dresses for both of them before Mary Anne comes out to CA for the wedding, but Mary Anne is not exactly pleased with things when she does get there. She hates the dress, she hates the idea of a beach wedding, and she hates the idea of being a bridesmaid and having everyone look at her for the duration of the wedding. Just as she starts getting used to the idea, though, she and Dawn BOTH get a big surprise: Dawn is going to be the maid of honor, and there aren't going to be any additional bridesmaids at all. Mary Anne is almost as upset about this as she was about having to do it in the first place. She gets all mad at Dawn for not considering HER feelings and HER wishes, but they make up in time for the wedding. Mary Anne even wears the dress that Dawn bought her.

Claudia is in CA, working off the cost of her plane ticket there. She's sort of a wedding consultant, and she's running around doing last minute errands for the wedding party. She also gets to take candid pictures at the reception.

Kristy also goes to CA for Jack and Carol's wedding, and while she's there, she helps the We Love Kids Club organize a farewell party for Dawn. They'd kind of had one planned, but of course, no one in CA can plan anything without the help of Kristy Thomas. :)

Jeff is not looking forward to having all of Carol's ugly furniture move into his house after the wedding. He's also worried about what will happen to Mrs. Bruen once Carol's living there. Then, the van full of Carol's stuff gets stolen, and Mrs. Bruen tells Jeff that Mr. Schafer wants to double her hours.

Stacey has become the Barretts' new go-to girl. Since she's gotten so close the them, Mrs. Barrett asks her to take the place of a bridesmaid who dropped out. Stacey agrees.

Shannon is one of the sitters hired to look after the Barrett-DeWitt bunch during the wedding. She spends most of it in the church nursery with little Ryan DeWitt after he starts crying because of the noise and won't stop.

Mallory is the other sitter hired for the wedding. She's so excited about the job that she forgets she agreed to take some kids caroling with Ben Hobart the same day. When she calls Ben to cancel, he gets mad. They don't speak again until Mal gets home from working the wedding. They agree to reschedule, and have a good time.

Jessi plays Santa Claus at Bellair's after their orignal Santa is cast in a movie.

Logan helps the Barretts and DeWitts move into their new house.

Suzi Barrett is scared that Santa won't be able to find them in their new house. She tosses around a few ideas before deciding to leave a trail of cookie crumbs from the old house to the new.

Rating: 3.5

Thoughts and Things

• I'm surprised that I like this book as much as I do, considering how light on plot it is.
• Jeff's chapters are, hands down, the most entertaining in the book. :)
• On the other hand, I could have done without Suzi, and Logan's one chapter was totally unnecessary.
• There's a nice contrast between the two weddings. You've got the laid-back, non-traditional, CA beach wedding, and then you've got the formal, traditional, fancy church wedding.
• I had to laugh when one of the Barrett-DeWitt kids got caught drawing a dragon in the church hymnal, and he tried to excuse his behavior by saying that it was St. George's dragon! Peter L. comes up with some good ones sometimes.
• This was back in the day when only one movie was shown to everyone on the airplane. When I flew last year, everyone got their own little screen and choice of movies (or games), and the headphones were free.
• Claudia's outfit on the cover isn't half bad, although the pants look tapered in one of the inside illustrations. Kristy's dress, on the other hand, couldn't be uglier.
• The title of this book is actually kind of misleading. There's really only one bridesmaid, and that's Stacey. Dawn thought she was one, but ended up being the maid of honor.