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Gravitee posted:B. If you are female and not engaged/married - do you want to pick out your ring or do you want to be surprised? My engagement is probably a few years off, but I sort of want to be surprised. I think I might get impatient and be always waiting if I knew it was coming for several weeks/months. I figured that to steer him in the right direction I'd talk a lot with his mom, who I am sure will be eager to help (She already recommended him a jewelry store-- we don't even live in the same state right now!). In the end though I guess I'd be happy either way v  v
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Nov 28, 2008 15:11
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Please, please, PLEASE remember, ring shoppers, that the most important 'C' is Cut, not Clarity, Colour, or Carat Weight. Even a D, IF diamond with a crappy cut will look like a chunk of frozen spit, whereas an amazingly cut H, SI1 will face up white with a ton of flash and fire, in addition to being a more reasonable price and still flawless to the naked eye. This is why I tell people to go to Pricescope to get educated on diamonds. Please do not get suckered into buying a diamond that only looks good on paper, unless part of those qualifications on paper are the angles of an ideally cut diamond. DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take salespeople's word that it's a 'great cut'. Go by the math. As for the poll, I'm married with a vintage set from an estate sale. It's the only way I'd tolerate getting a diamond, if it was recycling luxury goods. My last piece of advice is to enlist girls' girlfriends to gossip about what shape of stone and colour of metal she likes. Women can and do spend hours gossiping about sparkly things. If my guy had gotten me a princess cut in white gold, it would remain in my jewelery box, well-loved and appreciated but rarely worn.
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Nov 28, 2008 20:16
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Gravitee posted:B. If you are female and not engaged/married - do you want to pick out your ring or do you want to be surprised? I guess I want to be surprised, but I also want to be able to help pick out what I want. I figure that I'll be happy with absolutely anything I get, but my tastes don't exactly follow the mainstream jewelry store trends. I hate ostentatious designs, I would be appalled if a ring cost more than $1000- even over $500 is hard to justify, and I think diamonds are awfully overrated and overpriced. zman8 posted:My girlfriend strikes me as conservative when it comes to jewelery (ie less is more), so I'm looking at spending around $1-3k on the band and $8-10k on the diamond (ie F or higher color, ideal cut, and VS1 or higher). It seems as though these sites have the simple bands with great diamonds. Is this too good to be true or is it just online savings? Have you guys sat down and talked about this at all? If she is at all conservative in the "less is more" sense, then you shouldn't be throwing that much money at the ring. You should get a feel for what she thinks is a good price range, I think. Remember that weddings are really expensive, so you don't want to sell the farm for some gigantic ring that doesn't even appeal to her tastes.
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Nov 28, 2008 22:02
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dopaMEAN posted:I guess I want to be surprised, but I also want to be able to help pick out what I want. I figure that I'll be happy with absolutely anything I get, but my tastes don't exactly follow the mainstream jewelry store trends. I hate ostentatious designs, I would be appalled if a ring cost more than $1000- even over $500 is hard to justify, and I think diamonds are awfully overrated and overpriced. I am not trying to sell the farm. I was under the impression that there is still the "3 month's salary standard." Is that no longer true?
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Nov 28, 2008 22:41
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zman8 posted:I am not trying to sell the farm. I was under the impression that there is still the "3 month's salary standard." Is that no longer true? You might want to read something like this: http://blacktable.com/bruno031030.htm
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Nov 28, 2008 22:56
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zman8 posted:I am not trying to sell the farm. I was under the impression that there is still the "3 month's salary standard." Is that no longer true? Absolutely not. I agree with everyone else who said to talk to her and see what she deems appropriate, whether you explicitly ask her or dance around the issue. She may rather you spend that money on a down payment, a trip overseas, the wedding itself or the honeymoon. Or she may want the big rock, who knows. But don't feel obligated to spend a set amount without asking her first, just tailor whatever you buy to her taste. My ring was under a grand and it's perfect and I think you'll find many girls who feel the same way.
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Nov 28, 2008 23:05
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zman8 posted:I am not trying to sell the farm. I was under the impression that there is still the "3 month's salary standard." Is that no longer true? Just to reiterate what everyone else is saying, that "3 months salary" (didn't it used to be 2 months?) thing is total bullshit, perpetuated by De Beers - the people trying to sell those $12,000 dollar rings. They're just praying that people will see the commercials and think it's really a requirement - its not, at all. No one will think less of you for spending a reasonable amount on a ring, and its up to you to decide how much that reasonable amount is. Some of us go rather far to the other extreme (the ring I want is about $600), and if that seems cheap to you, that's fine, but don't buy into the marketing BS, either. On a related note, I'm starting to feel some serious wedding guilt. I'm helping my MOH (a very busy student) plan the first of two showers we'll be having, and I feel like a dick planning a gift-giving event in this economy. And then once I think about that, I feel like a dick encouraging our folks to spend thousands of dollars on the wedding. And I feel like a dick for inviting people to an event where they're socially obligated to spend money on gifts. And I feel like a dick for wanting said gifts because I don't make a lot of money either and it would be nice to have some luxuries. Had I realized things would go downhill this quickly when I started planning this thing, I would have scaled back my planning considerably. But now that we've spent thousands on non-refundable deposits, along with my dress and every thing else, it's way too late. Thankfully no one I know has suffered from layoffs, but it's probably only a matter of time. Anyone else feeling guilty about all this extravagance? LittleCat fucked around with this message at 23:49 on Nov 28, 2008 |
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Nov 28, 2008 23:42
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LittleCat posted:Anyone else feeling guilty about all this extravagance? Don't feel bad! Marriage is a rite of passage in our society, and if people want to help you celebrate that rite by giving you gifts, so be it. You're not doing anything wrong by inviting people to come to your wedding, and I'm sure your parents are more than happy to help out. I'm a poor student, and some of my friends are getting married next month. I'm not even that close with them, but I will be getting them a present from their registry. The cultural idea behind the gift giving is that we, the guests, are helping you start your new life as a couple. Before you were two, but now you are one and you need different items to function as a couple. People feel good about helping with this rite of passage- plus, many people who are already married got the same luxuries you'll be getting and feel the need to reciprocate. Just enjoy yourself and don't feel guilty!
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Nov 29, 2008 00:12
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zman8 posted:I was under the impression that there is still the "3 month's salary standard." Is that no longer true? The cultural standard for Japan is 3 months, and the US market uses a standard of 2 months salary generally. From what I see, the amount of money spent seems to be a function not of salary but of the social standing of the couple. Some social circles are full of women wearing big diamonds, and new fiances within that circle tend to receive larger stones. There's definitely a social context. Eastern cultures use diamonds as a store of value (easily transportable wealth for fleeing war-torn countries), and Western cultures often use diamonds as a social signaling mechanism. In the end it all comes down to a matter of personal preference.
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Nov 29, 2008 00:43
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Gravitee posted:C. If you are male - is finding the right ring more important than the proposal? Did you have/would you want feedback beforehand regarding your partner's likes and dislikes? A few days later we were walking past the store when she tried to get me to go in and have a look at engagement rings. I thought that was a bit too rude so I told her no more talk about our engagement, ever. She was a bit unhappy, but it all worked out in the end. 
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Dec 2, 2008 03:29
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zman8 posted:I am not trying to sell the farm. I was under the impression that there is still the "3 month's salary standard." Is that no longer true? It may cost some people 3 months salary to afford a nice ring but if your salary is high enough to afford a nice ring without spending 2 or 3 months salary, there's no requirement that you have to go all out and get her something super extravagant that she probably won't even like just to meet that standard. Your current budget could easily allow you to buy some 1 karat diamond rings at Tiffany, which most people would agree is a pretty overpriced store so if your girlfriend is not all about a ring coming in a little turqoise box and she doesn't want anything extravagantly large, you can easily not spend anywhere near the amount you have in mind and still get a really really nice ring.
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Dec 2, 2008 03:54
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Bloody hell. Let the "N months salary" thing die. Nobody knows what I paid for my bride's engagement ring. Nobody! The jeweler now lives overseas, and the price wobbles increases and decreases so frequently nobody could tell. What matters now is that everyone who sees the ring thinks it is great and looks beautiful.
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Dec 2, 2008 04:28
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My two cents on the right ring vs. right proposal issue... We didn't do either. I subscribe to the "please for the love of god don't surprise me with a life-changing question" theory of engagement, and so we talked off and on about getting married for probably a year before actually getting engaged. It always seemed that one week I'd be for it, and he against, and then the next week we'd flip roles. But, finally, one week we had the same opinion, and so we did it. It was kind of a pragmatist thing in the end -- moving across the country together, terminally ill relatives we'd like to know that we're settled, etc. Didn't make it any less of a meaningful decision for us, especially since we have an extremely non-traditional relationship, and after all, we're publicly committing to spending our lives together. That's a big deal any way you slice it. Anyhow, when we told my family, my mother gave me a ring that had belonged to three generations of women on my dad's side, that had been held in trust for me until I was an adult (why I only got it recently, who knows). It's not at all my taste, but it's 100 years old and has a really cool history plus nifty vintage style points. I would be unlikely to wear an engagement ring anyway -- not big on shiny stones and such, plus I have to wear gloves at work while working with carcinogens, reproductive hazards, and generally toxic stuff, which I don't want a ring-punctured glove to expose me to -- so it's just a cool thing to have when I visit my family or want to show off some bling. Because it's loving huge. So, apologies for the long post, but I just wanted to let folks who don't like life-changing surprises and big shiny things that IT'S OKAY AND YOU'RE NOT ALONE! It's your life, your decision to get married (or not get married), and you shouldn't let anyone make you feel bad about it. At the end of the day, it won't be important to your marriage how many months' salary you or your fiance spent, or how exciting the proposal was. What matter is that you're living your lives together. All of that said, I fully plan to have a hell of a party for a wedding, whenever we get around to it. A hell of a cheap party, hopefully, 'cause we're ungodly poor, but a hell of a party nonetheless.
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Dec 2, 2008 07:02
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Today I finally addressed the invitations. They're simple postcards with our wedding homepage written. The image on the postcard is the same as the islands on the site with a gold cloud stamped in the sky. Only regret is I wish I printed them on fancier paper... but they'll get scuffed in the post anyway. I've just added an online RSVP form. Flattery and compliments please! http://sites.google.com/site/jocelynkazuya/
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Dec 2, 2008 13:09
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^^^^^^ Wow, that little island drawing is super cute!! How did you get your postcards printed out? We want to do something similar for our Save the Date cards, but I have no idea where to start when it comes to getting things printed without going to Kinko's or something and likely getting totally ripped off. I'm planning on doing all the artwork myself, I just need it slapped on a postcard. Hey, Off-Beat Brides! (and Grooms!  )Will you be my friend?  I tried making a SA group on there awhile back, but it got shot down (pfsh!), but I'd still like to find all of you on there. I already accidentally found one goon! Now I just need more! I think it's an easier way for us (girls, that is) to talk about stuff like our dresses without our SOs finding pics & stuff. Plus, I'm on there a ton.  Anyway, here's my page, go be my friend, and let me know your username when you put in the request!http://offbeatbride.ning.com/profile/Vicky68
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Dec 2, 2008 23:27
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peanut posted:Today I finally addressed the invitations. They're simple postcards with our wedding homepage written. The image on the postcard is the same as the islands on the site with a gold cloud stamped in the sky. Only regret is I wish I printed them on fancier paper... but they'll get scuffed in the post anyway. The RSVP site looks great! (as is the information page. very cute) I'll look into it too.
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Dec 2, 2008 23:54
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Gravitee posted:Titanium - These aren't really true. Titanium's popularity in industry is due to its thermal conductivity. Titanium's ultimate strength is 220MPa, and it has a density of 4.5g/cc (Ratio of 48). Sintered powdered steel alloys like Carpenter Micro-Melt 10 tool steel have ultimate strengths of around 5,200MPa and a density of 7.5g/cc (Ratio of 693). The steel is 15 times stronger per unit weight than titanium. If you want something that's not an alloy, Beryllium has an Ultimate strength of 370MPa and a density of 1.8g/cc (Ratio of 205). Sorry about the long post on titanium, it's really only useful because your body won't attack it if it's inside of you, and it has different thermal properties than steel or aluminum. Gravitee posted:It looks like it has the same non-tarnish properties that platinum/palladium have. There are many urban legends about tungsten and titanium rings not being able to come off fingers and they have to chop off them off in case of emergency. They may have to cut your ring off, but they won't have to cut off your finger. To get a tungsten carbide ring off your finger, they'll squish it with a pair of pliers until it shatters and falls off your finger. To get a titanium ring off they'll use a jeweler's saw. RedFish posted:No, it cannot be resized, you will have to have a new one made. Really really hard metals, metal alloys, and ceramics are all brittle like glass. They don't really flex much before they just shatter.
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Dec 3, 2008 00:42
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WolfensteinBag posted:^^^^^^ Wow, that little island drawing is super cute!! How did you get your postcards printed out? We want to do something similar for our Save the Date cards, but I have no idea where to start when it comes to getting things printed without going to Kinko's or something and likely getting totally ripped off. I'm planning on doing all the artwork myself, I just need it slapped on a postcard. Japan is crazy about sending postcards. Summer and especially New Year's everyone sends postcards to everyone they know. There's a lot of DIY supplies and all Japanese printers have a postcard setting. A shop will print them for maybe... 10cents/each. My friend sketched the islands for me (she has a tablet) and we just slapped text onto the template. The gold cloud stamp makes it look fancier in real life. PS. Got my ring! It's a Lightning Ridge black opal. 
peanut fucked around with this message at 23:50 on Dec 4, 2008 |
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Dec 3, 2008 23:53
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i got a .8 carat diamond with an AGS 000 cut rating (the best there is) set into a totally awesome and unique titanium tension setting from https://www.boonerings.com for a little over 2 grand. My fiancee draws an absurd amount of compliments.
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Dec 4, 2008 00:00
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CalamityKate posted:Just bought my veil off of etsy: I've decided that if I'm going to have a veil, it'll be a birdcage one. I've narrowed it down to one, two, and three. I really, really love the first one, but I'm not sure if it quite works with my dress or seems 'too over the top' since the wedding is super casual. Right now, I would think I would have a veil angled across the face, but that's not set in stone. I'm not sure if this would be a huge issue with the birdcages, but I'm going to be wearing my hair down if that makes any difference. Opinions? For reference, this is what my dress looks like, minus the belt, and have the straps lower on the arms:  
ghost story fucked around with this message at 07:15 on Dec 6, 2008 |
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Dec 6, 2008 07:10
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peanut posted:PS. Got my ring! It's a Lightning Ridge black opal. That's really gorgeous! I love those asymmetrical swoopy designs!
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Dec 6, 2008 15:30
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quote:A. If you are female and engaged/married - did you pick out your ring? If not, do you like what your SO picked out for you? Would you have preferred something else? Did you discuss at all what your likes/dislikes were beforehand? Yes, I picked my ring out. I wanted something a bit different, so I got a blue stone in the center with two white diamonds on either side in a white gold setting. He just held onto the ring until he thought the time was right to formally propose. Speaking of my engagement...looks like it'll be another year longer due to the economy. We were planning on a summer 2010 wedding with planning starting next summer, but mainly due to the uncertainty of finding a job for my fiance when he graduates this spring and myself in 2010, our parents would prefer us to wait another year longer to make sure we have stable jobs. I understand it, but it just sucks to wait another year...even if it makes it a bit easier for us to get our far away families to come. Especially when I was all ready to look at wedding dresses this summer. 
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Dec 6, 2008 16:44
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ghost story posted:I've decided that if I'm going to have a veil, it'll be a birdcage one. I've narrowed it down to one, two, and three. I think #1 is kind of over the top, #3 is a little too subtle & #2 is the perfect blend of both! And since you have a more casual dress, a birdcage veil is definitely the right way to go. You'd look kind of silly with a traditional veil & a cocktail-length dress (at least I think so).
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Dec 6, 2008 16:45
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I'm also a fan of birdcage #2. I tend to find the plain "put some netting over your head" style pretty dull, and #1 is a bit ornate for that dress. I think you'll look absolutely adorable in that dress with a cute birdcage like 2, though.
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Dec 6, 2008 21:34
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I honestly can't tell the difference between #2 and #3 since the flower in the picture for #2 is sold separately. I think either #2 or #3 would be pretty, if you got the flower too.
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Dec 6, 2008 22:54
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NintyFresh posted:Speaking of my engagement...looks like it'll be another year longer due to the economy. We were planning on a summer 2010 wedding with planning starting next summer, but mainly due to the uncertainty of finding a job for my fiance when he graduates this spring and myself in 2010, our parents would prefer us to wait another year longer to make sure we have stable jobs. I understand it, but it just sucks to wait another year...even if it makes it a bit easier for us to get our far away families to come. Especially when I was all ready to look at wedding dresses this summer. That's a long time to wait... holding it off til after graduation is a good idea, but another year after that? I recommend eloping to Disneyland or something.
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Dec 7, 2008 01:32
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Anyone have any experience with stainless steel rings? We're probably going to order online, but we stopped into a Zales today just to look at styles in person, and the guy mentioned they have stainless steel, in addition to the platinum, titanium and tungston we were considering. Also, we have set an official date and venue: 4/18/09 at the top of the tallest building in the state! We'll be able to walk in the skywalks straight to our reception venue. Rawk.
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Dec 7, 2008 21:24
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WolfensteinBag posted:Hey, Off-Beat Brides! (and Grooms! Does anybody here have experience with quietly getting married then having a ceremony at a later date? We're not looking into an actual ceremony until probably late 2010, but for insurance reasons we may end up wanting to do the legal bit before then. I'm still a bit torn on the idea.
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Dec 8, 2008 00:53
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NintyFresh posted:Speaking of my engagement...looks like it'll be another year longer due to the economy. We were planning on a summer 2010 wedding with planning starting next summer, but mainly due to the uncertainty of finding a job for my fiance when he graduates this spring and myself in 2010, our parents would prefer us to wait another year longer to make sure we have stable jobs. I understand it, but it just sucks to wait another year...even if it makes it a bit easier for us to get our far away families to come. Especially when I was all ready to look at wedding dresses this summer. Seconding elopement. I'm trying to convince my boyfriend that this is what we should do because he wants to propose but doesn't have the money right now for the kind of ring he wants to get me or the kind of wedding he thinks I want to have. He has these grandiose ideas of getting me a pretty ring and having a pretty wedding. I told him I just want to be married, ring or no ring, and if all we can afford is a trip to the courthouse that's fine by me. What it comes down to is that you guys will never have "enough" money to feel stable. There will always be new expenses and financial uncertainties and if you wait for those to go away, you'll be waiting forever. If you're both sure you want to marry each other, you might as well just do it. You said that your parents are the ones suggesting you wait until 2011. Are they supportive of you guys getting married? Maybe they're trying to get you to wait for other reasons.
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Dec 8, 2008 16:40
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porkchoppie posted:What it comes down to is that you guys will never have "enough" money to feel stable. There will always be new expenses and financial uncertainties and if you wait for those to go away, you'll be waiting forever. If you're both sure you want to marry each other, you might as well just do it. Ding ding ding. If you want to get married, then get married -- you'll find a way. brc64 posted:Does anybody here have experience with quietly getting married then having a ceremony at a later date? We're not looking into an actual ceremony until probably late 2010, but for insurance reasons we may end up wanting to do the legal bit before then. I'm still a bit torn on the idea. My wife and I were married this Halloween in a very inexpensive (yet charming and elegant) ceremony. We invited 13 people (family) so leaving aside the cost of the rings (which we could have done for a lot cheaper had we wanted to) we probably only spent maybe $500 altogether. But at no point did we feel like we were doing it "cheaply", it was just a different type of event. No rehearsals needed, no wedding planner, made our own awesome cakes, it was relatively laid back as far as weddings go, especially compared to some of the ceremonies I'd been to recently. It let us feel like it was really all about our marriage, instead of all the other bullshit and hoopla that no one really pays attention to and really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Half of that cost was to pay the church & minister, the rest was on some food & drinks and her dress, hair & make-up, cheap hotel rooms for the out-of-town guests and some miscellaneous things. The father-in-law picked up the dinner tab after the ceremony (our mini-reception) and we hosted a bunch of friends and the family at our house after that for cake and drinks, which was followed up by clubbing (cheaper than a DJ and just as fun). We're having another ceremony (shorter and more secular) and a Masquerade-themed reception on the same date next year, where we'll be in a better financial situation to host a big-rear end party with 250 people. It was the best of all worlds -- we didn't have to wait another year, the family got a nice religious ceremony where they got to feel like a bigger part of the event (instead of just being on the sidelines), more time to save up for a big party next year, and less pressure involved for next year for us. Endor fucked around with this message at 17:02 on Dec 8, 2008 |
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Dec 8, 2008 16:55
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Endor posted:My wife and I were married this Halloween in a very inexpensive (yet charming and elegant) ceremony. We invited 13 people (family) so leaving aside the cost of the rings (which we could have done for a lot cheaper had we wanted to) we probably only spent maybe $500 altogether. But at no point did we feel like we were doing it "cheaply", it was just a different type of event. No rehearsals needed, no wedding planner, made our own awesome cakes, it was relatively laid back as far as weddings go, especially compared to some of the ceremonies I'd been to recently. It let us feel like it was really all about our marriage, instead of all the other bullshit and hoopla that no one really pays attention to and really doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things. Where are you having the big party? We would like to do something like this (although with both events much closer, like maybe a week apart) but don't have any ideas about venue besides hotels, parks, restaurants, and other really traditional places to have the wedding. My parents' house is possibility but we'd like to have it in SF since relatives flying in would probably be more interested in being in the city rather than the suburbs. And GoreJess, that #2 looks nice with the flower pin. If you're into a little more glitter, perhaps you can ask the seller to make you a flower pin with crystals, like her chrysanthemum pin.
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Dec 8, 2008 19:28
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brc64 - I know there was a blogger on Weddingbee (fake edit: found her) that had a private civil ceremony a few weeks before her planned wedding. She didn't get into the reasons, but I'm sure she had good ones, and it sounded like her guests were quite supportive. They made note of it in their wedding programs, and otherwise did everything as they'd originally planned, but minus the legal marriage bit. My initial thought is that people might be a bit weirded out attending a post-marriage wedding ceremony, but people usually seem quite supportive as long as they're aware of what's going on. People often have two ceremonies if they have family in different countries, for example. On the other hand, deceiving guests is a bad call - one of my future cousins-in-law got married in a small ceremony on the beach a couple years back, and it just came out that the marriage wasn't legal (everyone found out when he and his "wife" split up). The whole family is a bit peeved about that. So I figure, as long as your guests are well informed, I'm sure it would be fine.
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Dec 8, 2008 22:05
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jomiel posted:Where are you having the big party? A neat historic renovated barn in a local city park. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but very nice open-air "log cabin" feel on the inside.
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Dec 8, 2008 23:32
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Is it unusual to register at city hall before the ceremony? Around here (Japan) no ceremony can legally marry two people. The marriage is signing papers at city hall, the ceremony is for personal and aesthetic reasons. So many couples sleep together or live together before marriage anyway. That said, we're signing papers at the end of March when I finish my contract and move in with him. The ceremony is in May. We're not gonna have a big reception, just drink with friends as normal convenience allows.
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Dec 8, 2008 23:57
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Endor posted:A neat historic renovated barn in a local city park. Doesn't look like much from the outside, but very nice open-air "log cabin" feel on the inside. I was at a wedding there this summer (the weekend before mine actually) and it's pretty nice. My only complaint was that there were probably too many people for the venue and there wasn't much room for dancing/mingling. I also felt bad for the people who ended up being sat on the 2nd floor.
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Dec 9, 2008 03:11
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Gravitee posted:My only complaint was that there were probably too many people for the venue and there wasn't much room for dancing/mingling. I also felt bad for the people who ended up being sat on the 2nd floor. I was there for a wedding too last year, and I'd definitely agree that there was way too little mingling/dancing space when full dinner tables are set up for any more than 100-150 people. It's really annoying when tables are crammed too closely together so it's like navigating a minefield just to get to the other side of the room to say hello to someone or get a drink. We're hoping to avoid that issue by going a little non-traditional yet again: We plan to have a bunch of high cocktail tables (big enough to set a few plates of food and drinks on) around the perimeter, and some dinner tables in the balcony area which will seat about 80. That will let us have a big open dance floor & mingling area in the center. We'll have a buffet dinner with the emphasis on dancing & mingling, and obviously no assigned seating. Everyone hates assigned seating anyway. People can grab food whenever they want throughout the night and hopefully they won't feel compelled to stuff themselves full of food before they're supposed to hit the dance floor. That's always my biggest weakness and pet peeve at weddings, you usually get served all sorts of nice food and you feel bad about wasting it if you don't eat it all. If our guests really need to sit down they can head upstairs, the 80+ chairs should be enough as long as everyone doesn't want to sit down at the same time (and if they do, we must have failed at throwing a party, but that ain't gonna happen). peanut posted:Is it unusual to register at city hall before the ceremony? Around here (Japan) no ceremony can legally marry two people. Depends what you mean. Sleeping & living together before marriage is pretty common in the US too. And here, you usually go to a city clerk's office and apply for a marriage license several days or weeks before the ceremony. When the license is ready, you can either sign it right away in front of witnesses and an officiant, or you can wait until your actual wedding day and complete the license then - the latter is what most people do. I suppose you could even have the ceremony first if you wanted to, and then apply for and sign the license afterwards. I can't imagine that would actually be forbidden in Japan? And you still aren't legally married until you actually have a government marriage license signed in the US too.
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Dec 9, 2008 23:50
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Hey everyone, I'm a pretty avid lurker, but I'm in a bit of a funny position and I thought I would present you all with an opportunity before I just give in and head to eBay. I bought a wedding dress a few weeks ago, and got it just a wee bit big, because I'm pretty busty and I wanted the seamstress to have more rather than less to work with when I got it fitted before the wedding. I tried it on again the other day, and apparently I'm already losing weight (lots of hard work paying off), because now it's considerably too big. It used to fit beautifully and just need a little nipping in at the sides and maybe the straps lifted, but now practically the entire dress would have to be reconstructed. As such, I think it's time to sell it so I can afford to just start from scratch with a new dress while I still have time to do so. I got a nice deal on the dress, it's Eden bridal, size 12, and I walked out of the store dress in hand for a touch over $400 including stupid sales tax. I'm 5'7" and I wasn't even going to have to hem it so long as I wore heels. It is brand new, I've only even put it on twice (once in the store, once at home), and it still has the tags on it. I'd be happy to take pictures of the actual dress that I have if anyone is seriously interested, but in the meantime here are some catalog photos of it:    And yes, I too appreciate how vacant that model's stare is. The zipper is on the side, by the way, so as not to ruin the gorgeous back. If anyone is seriously interested, just let me know. Thanks!
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Dec 21, 2008 22:00
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I just finished a mock-up of our "Save the Date" cards! Please ignore the fact that it has our full names, you don't get the right idea without it. I'd love any opinions you might have! This is sorta going to be a "teaser" of what our invites are going to look like. It'll be printed onto a glossy postcard and just mailed out.
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Jan 3, 2009 04:36
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I think it would look better with either smaller letters so everything is on a huge clean black background, or else inflate the words and arrange the two images differently so there are more focus on the content. Right now it kind of looks like you just picked a font and pasted two pictures at the bottom (sorry!) What are your invitations going to look like?
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Jan 3, 2009 08:01
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So I'm thinking of popping the question soon so we can get married in June before we both start our careers in July. Is it possible to plan a wedding in <6 months? I feel like most people take like 1 or 2 years to do it, so I'm kinda freaked out. However, we'd really like to have a nice wedding but still get it done in June. Are we screwed? Also, since I believe finding a venue is the hardest part (or at least the one that needs to be reserved soonest), whats a good way to go about finding places so that we aren't just at the local Sheraton or some poo poo? edit: I've been poking around the groom sites and holy loving poo poo. Theres no way we can afford this. We figured we'd get married early (i.e. right after graduating) so that all the things we need to start our new lives could be wedding presents. But I don't think we have time or money for half the things it mentions =/ This is scary. Please tell me groom411 is written for like guys in their late 20s or 30s or something. Lowness 72 fucked around with this message at 10:33 on Jan 3, 2009 |
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Jan 3, 2009 10:25
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