Be that as it may, each season has its own advantages and disadvantages when planning a wedding.

Summer is of course a great time to get married, but we find that having a late summer wedding can be very challenging.

That would be the challenge if you think about it too much.

My daughter got married the week of July 4th a few years ago. She and Bess started planning in January, and the remaining six months were a steady stream of details and decisions that I found mind-numbing but the two women in my life found fascinating and invigorating.

This reminded me of my own wedding many years before, when the wedding planners made unnecessary attempts to seek my opinion and I quickly proved that I was not a reliable source of ideas.

For example, when the planner asked me if I had a favorite piece for the organist to play at the wedding, I suggested the only organ piece I could think of, and one of the best: “Jump” by Van Halen.

Nobody asked me for my opinion again.

About three decades later, Bess and our daughter capitalized on my strengths when planning their Memphis wedding. They asked me for food and drink suggestions for the reception, hosted by the legendary Central Barbecue, and I responded beautifully by putting Jumbo Smoked Wings on the menu and adding Tiny Bomb beer to the bar offerings.

Well done, dad, and stay on your lane!

I also learned three important things a father should do at his daughter’s wedding that I am now applying to my son’s wedding:

But planning this wedding was different, especially because it took place the weekend before school started in a popular beach town in North Carolina.

After our son’s engagement in September, we had to sort out a rehearsal dinner venue, catering, and accommodations for guests pretty quickly. By January, we had the majority of the planning done, although admittedly, as parents of the groom, we had fewer decisions to make.

By the beginning of summer we had worked out the final details and were ready.

But we still had three months until the wedding.

So we made things more difficult than they should be.

For example, when I went to a men’s clothing store to rent a tuxedo for the wedding, I decided to buy one instead, figuring that if I kept it for the rest of my life and wore it at least once, I would save money in the long run.

Considering that I have two sons who may get married at some point, this seemed like a smart decision. I might even wear it to my funeral.

The first pair of tuxedo pants I tried on were a little too tight and the store owner told me to go up a size.

“But I’m losing weight for the wedding and I think this would suit me,” I said.

“When is the wedding?” he asked.

“In a few months,” I said.

He had heard this before and advised me to go for a size larger anyway.

Considering I plan on wearing this tuxedo for the rest of my life, it wasn’t a bad idea, so I went with the larger pants.

I picked out a shirt, tie and cufflinks and then took my new formal ensemble home for Bess to inspect.

She sent me back to replace the shirt, which she said looked like a pirate’s blouse, and she also ordered some other cufflinks online.

We also found some velvet loafers online. If you can’t imagine me in velvet loafers, then neither can I. The problem was breaking them in, because what would I wear them for other than with a tuxedo?

Anyway, we spent the last two months putting together my outfit for the wedding, which we could have done in a weekend.

We’ve also spent the last few months picking out a dress for Bess to wear to the wedding, putting together our casual attire for the rehearsal dinner, making the right choice of hot sauce to accompany the shrimp stew, calculating how many sodas to buy for cocktail hour (I thought only women drank them, but I guess I was wrong), planning a brunch for out-of-town guests (which turned out to be everyone, because it’s a beach wedding), inspecting our beach tent and beach chairs for dry rot (because it’s a beach wedding), and picking out just the right books to read on the beach. You know, because it’s a beach wedding.

I’m not saying it’s a lot, and I’m not saying it’s very complicated.

All I’m saying is that we spent two months doing things, undoing things, and thinking about what we could have done in a weekend.

And then I’ve been bored for the last few weeks and started swimming laps at the YMCA, which really burns calories, and now I have to buy suspenders for my tuxedo pants or they’ll slide down and no one will see my velvet loafers. We couldn’t decide whether to get the clip or the button ones, so we got both.

I was about to say that the fun never ends, but as I write this, the fun will be over in a few days.

I hope you had a nice summer.