“The wedding’s in two-and-a-half weeks and we’re moving in July”…….BSC #6: Kristy’s Big Day

Memory Reaction

This was one of my favorite books as a kid. I think because it was about Kristy (who I felt obligated to like), but it was also pretty girly (since it was about her getting to be a bridesmaid and pick out flowers and dresses and stuff).

Also, I remember that when Kristy’s mom talked about paying the BSC several hundred dollars for this big baby-sitting job, I thought that the money just all went to the club treasury. Actually, I think I thought that about all their jobs.

Revisited Reaction

This book….doesn’t make a lot of sense. The premise is that Kristy’s mom and Watson have to move up the date of their wedding because the Thomas’ got an offer on their house and need to move in about three weeks. This gives them two weeks to plan a wedding. A bunch of relatives come to town to help, and they all have herds of kids that are going to be around. Kristy’s mom agrees to let the BSC run a mini-day care center to watch the kids while everyone else works on the wedding. I think this is the first time the BSC has a group baby-sitting event so it wasn’t as annoying as the stuff that happened later on.

Anyway, of course the job goes fairly smoothly, the wedding goes great, and they all live happily ever after. My problem is that it is all unnecessary conflict. First of all, Kristy’s mom got engaged in the first book, but they set a date (for the first time) in this one, almost ten months later. They were planning on having a fall wedding, but you would think they would have at least set the date ahead of time. Usually people do some preliminary stuff right away cause they are, you know, excited about getting married.

Second, as we are so often reminded, Watson is a millionaire. Why would they need so many friends/relatives to show up and help decorate/cook? If you paid enough, I am sure you could find some caterers willing to do stuff at the last minute. And, who has the time to take off from work at the last minute to spend a week planning their sister’s wedding?

Lastly, why are they in such a rush to have the wedding? I can understand that they have to move, and don’t want to live together before the wedding, but why not move your stuff out (and into Watson’s or storage or something) then spend the next couple months in a hotel/apartment/whatever. Again, we are talking about rich people. Don’t make someone be a millionaire if you are not going to let him spend money.

High/Lowlights

• Kristy gets super excited about being a bridesmaid, which is really out of character, but kind of cute to read about.

• Claudia outfit time: “She was wearing one of her usual outrageous outfits: a black leotard and skintight red pants under a white shirt that was so big it looked like a lab coat….[covered] with designs painted in acrylic. She had pinned her long, black, hair back at the sides with red clips.”

• Stacey says how her old school got out after Memorial so she had a hard time waiting until June 19. That is like, three extra weeks….I guess I remember when three weeks seemed like a long time, but now it seems like nothing.

• Stacey is surprised to hear there is a school dance called the Final Fling. Now, this is a week before the end of school, a dance should have happened already, unless it is literally the last day of school. But even then, she should have heard about it. I mean this is Stacey, not Kristy.

• For the big sitting job, the girls get three dollars an hour…. which is apparently “slightly more than they usually charge.” Wow, that makes my salary seem awesome.

• There is some heavy discussion Kristy, Sam, and Charlie have about what they can ask Watson for after the wedding. They don’t resolve it, but I think it is cool that some real issues about divorce/remarriage are at least mentioned.

• Okay, so this is annoying. Kristy learns about this wedding crisis on a Friday afternoon. The next morning she calls an emergency club meeting to tell the rest of the girls. Now, why wouldn’t she have told them during Friday’s club meeting?

• Now, I think Kristy’s grandmother seems pretty cool, for no other reason than she drives a pink car. I totally wanted a pink car when I was a kid. However, I can’t believe Nannie is going to make multiple dresses for the wedding in two weeks. And I can’t believe Watson and Elizabeth were so cheap they didn’t hire someone.

• Another reason Watson and Elizabeth have to change the wedding date is Elizabeth’s company wants to send her on a business trip to Europe the week of the wedding (the original September date). Now…really? She couldn’t have been all, “sorry, I’m getting married, I need that week off?”

• More proof of Karen’s brattyness. Dawn takes her, David Michael, and one of Kristy’s cousins to the park for what I guess is some recreation/camp thing. Karen tells all the kids Martians are coming and they all run and hide. So the counselor tells Dawn to make Karen leave and not come back.

• Stacey’s favorite movie is Mary Poppins. She arranges to bring a couple kids to the theater, and one of them loses their money. This is a problem because Stacey didn’t have any extra money. Not that she should pay for the kids, but wouldn’t it be practical to have extra cash?

• Who wears a sweater dress in June? Kristy gets one for the rehearsal dinner, and I can’t believe she would wear something so warm.

• Morbidda Destiny crashes the wedding (nicely, she brings a gift), so Karen starts screaming during the kiss. I bet that is a lovely memory for Watson and Elizabeth to have.

• Why is Jamie Newton at the wedding? I mean, really, if we buy that the Newtons were invited because they lived by the Thomas’s, who brings a four-year-old to a wedding unless it is immediate family?

• The only real “crisis” on the job is that one of Kristy’s cousins switches around a bunch of fancy clothes the kids need to change into for the rehearsal dinner. So the BSC had to run around and match all these little kids they barely know with their clothes.

• The last day of the big sitting job, the kids stage a wedding (sorta like a play)…it is kind of lame, just because some of the kids get stuck being ushers, while Karen gets to be the freaking bride. Stop giving that girl everything she wants.