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Woah, amethystbliss, your pictures are amazing! I LOVE your dress!
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Mar 21, 2009 18:26
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Wound up selecting this stone: http://www2.gia.edu/reportcheck/index.cfm?fuseaction=home.showReportVerification&reportno=17333326&weight=0.56 I thought it looked amazing in person but the people on the diamond forums are talking poo poo about it 
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Mar 22, 2009 04:15
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Psylocibe posted:Wound up selecting this stone: If I can help; I'm a jeweler, and I've also read your posts on Pricescope (it's not too often I see the two worlds of SA and PS collide, so it's been a somewhat interesting read.) Admittedly, as far as cut goes, your stone is not 'Excellent Ideal Perfect', etc, but you know what? Very few stones are, and cut theory for round brilliants isn't set in stone (no pun intended). Pricescope in particular has a real love affair with the Holloway Cut Advisor, which I'm fairly neutral to because it certainly serves a purpose, but I'll be the first one to tell you that it isn't the be all and end all of diamond cut grading. It treats diamonds as a commodity that can be broken down into simple mathematical equations to grade perfection, but disregards the fact that they are, at their core, a highly emotional purchase. Essentially, if you liked the diamond, AND your girlfriend liked the diamond? gently caress it, you've done a great thing, and quite frankly, if Pricescope wants to nitpick over your purchase, then they can go shove. People oftentimes think that if you solicit advice from them, you have to take it, but at the end of the day, it's your decision. Buying an engagement ring is about making the two of you happy, and as long as you've done that, you don't need to worry about what anyone else says about your diamond. Also, for what it's worth, there's nothing better than a good GIA E color diamond (I personally like them even more than D), so I've already got a bias to like your stone.
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Mar 22, 2009 04:47
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Sup Rootbeer Baron. Brick or Click? Psylocibe: Pricescope is great in the "which one is priced better" equation, but people forget that GIA reports only include half of the information that describes a diamond. If you loved the diamond then stick the report in a filing cabinet and tell the Pricescope crowd to get stuffed. Like every internet forum there are a lot of good guys there and also a lot of clowns. SterlingSylver posted:When talking over engagement rings with my girlfriend, we've more or less decided on a range of diamonds that would work (.75-1ct, F color or better, etc...). We're also not thrilled by the idea that this stupid hunk of carbon will help fund the general loving up of the continent of Africa. 1) Rough diamonds ship to the American dealers with contractual guarantees that they come from countries not currently involved in conflict. The paperwork must be filed with the US government after the diamonds are imported into the USA. No diamantaire can afford the bad publicity that comes with buying conflict diamonds. Things have greatly improved since everyone realized what was going on. Any jeweler can source a Canadian diamond, but they often demand a price premium simply because Canadian workers are paid more to mine them. The last retail average I heard was a 30% premium, but that may have come down in recent months. We have a manufacturer connection for them so in most cases we aren't forced to charge extra if the customer wants a Canadian diamond. 2) Resizing is no problem unless the setting has diamonds entirely encircling the finger. If the ring has only metal underneath the finger then it shouldn't be an issue to go up or down enough to be comfortable. I'm sorry that you feel skittish about shopping online, but many people are doing it these days. The big trade off is that you may not be able to see it in person initially, but most jewelry websites have great return policies if you are unsatisfied. If you go to buy a diamond in a brick and mortar store you will almost assuredly pay a higher price because the retail stores have to cover their inventory carrying costs and other overhead. We online jewelers can sell higher quality at lower prices because our monthly expenses are 10% of a retail store.
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Mar 22, 2009 08:37
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JohnnyRnR posted:Sup Rootbeer Baron. Brick or Click? Brick. We've got a website, but it's not the best and we don't really ever do business over it. It's more of a 'hey check out what we have in our store.' I'm definitely not adverse to buying diamonds online (although there's a couple shapes, specifically cushion, that you'd have to put a gun to my head to get me to buy without looking at it), but I do think there's something to be said for having a place to go where you and your bf/gf can just relax and try a bunch of stuff on in order to get a feel for what looks best. I'm not the owner or anything, so as much as I'd love to use SA to talk about how much I like our store, I don't want to be put in the position to speak for the owner, so I'll just leave it that I'm a brick and mortar jeweler in Chicago.
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Mar 22, 2009 13:48
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JohnnyRnR posted:If you go to buy a diamond in a brick and mortar store you will almost assuredly pay a higher price because the retail stores have to cover their inventory carrying costs and other overhead. We online jewelers can sell higher quality at lower prices because our monthly expenses are 10% of a retail store. Thanks for the info, JohnnyRnR. As a side note, my girlfriend and I really like some of the rings on your site. I guess our resistance to buying online comes from the fact that the up close visual of the rings is so important to the overall purchase. At this point I'm really just pondering settings, and a lot of websites don't give all the views that we're after to really get a good opinion of what it is we'd be buying. I default back on very traditional settings or "Tiffany's Clone" settings because I have a sense of what they actually look like. That and settings with lots of bling aren't quite my girlfriend's style
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Mar 22, 2009 14:53
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SterlingSylver posted:At this point I'm really just pondering settings, and a lot of websites don't give all the views that we're after to really get a good opinion of what it is we'd be buying. A good way to shop online is to first take a tour of a couple B&M stores and try on a bunch of settings to see what you like best. Then, when you've come to a decision, see if you can get a couple of pictures of it (or draw it from memory?) and have someone online custom make it while you buy your diamond from them at the same time. Alternately, you can always buy the diamond online, and go B&M on the setting. Most brick locations are usually willing to set a diamond you've bought elsewhere if you go ahead and buy the setting from them.
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Mar 22, 2009 16:41
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My boyfriend of 4 years and I finally got engaged last month, and wedding planning is in full gear on my end. We've got our date and location already, so my next step is setting up a wedding website. I'm decent at HTML and graphic design, and I want to make one myself. The situation is, we're trying to have an inexpensive wedding, spending as little as possible while keeping things looking nice. Are there any places that offer wedding site hosting that will let me play around with the background code? All of the places I've seen give you a pre-designed site that lets you change text and put pictures up, but there's little to no personal control over the site's look. My other option if there's no site like that is to get my own hosting, in which case is using a site like geocities or angelfire tacky or should I look into buying hosting?
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Mar 23, 2009 02:05
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amethystbliss posted:pictures These pictures are really amazing and I think this has solidified the idea of eloping. Neither of us care for a traditional ceremony and the only purpose it would serve is to gather friends and family together. The wine ceremony is an amazing idea though and I definitely want to do that.
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Mar 23, 2009 03:18
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Sneaky Monkey posted:wedding websites? I don't know how much flexibility it has, but googlesites lets you play around more with layouts & colors than the other pre-designed wedding sites.
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Mar 23, 2009 03:33
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So my guy and I were talking and we decided that it might be easier to get the legal business out of the way before the actual ceremony. It'll probably bring down the car insurance, but I was thinking it might also make it easier for me to prove residency in Wisconsin, since we're moving up there in May and his family already lives there. Does anybody have any experience with that? We'll probably do it anyway, since our main concerns this summer are going to just be working and saving money, and I figure it'll be less stress to just go ahead and do the name change and all that (I'll use my maiden name in the ceremony) while we're not having to really get down to the nitty gritty last minute wedding planning or planning our honeymoon. Would it really make stuff a lot easier as far as proving residency on my part or any other stuff that goes down when you move to a new state? I've never lived outside of Georgia, so I'm pretty dumb about interstate moving and getting new drivers' licenses and whatnot.
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Mar 23, 2009 04:22
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Are there any favorite destination weddings in this thread? I don't want to do something semi tacky like vegas and instead would love to do something somewhere with a lot of culture or uniqueness to it. Price is definitely a factor and I would also like to combine the ceremony/honeymoon locations if possible.
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Mar 23, 2009 05:28
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SplitDestiny posted:These pictures are really amazing and I think this has solidified the idea of eloping. Neither of us care for a traditional ceremony and the only purpose it would serve is to gather friends and family together. The wine ceremony is an amazing idea though and I definitely want to do that. Like many others are talking about, we did the legal ceremony separately and I really recommend that as well. It saved us the hassle of looking for and paying for an officiant and it meant we could "get married" wherever we wanted without needing a special wedding permit or paying frivolous elopement package prices. Let me know if you have any questions about eloping!
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Mar 23, 2009 05:42
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SplitDestiny posted:Are there any favorite destination weddings in this thread? I don't want to do something semi tacky like vegas and instead would love to do something somewhere with a lot of culture or uniqueness to it. Price is definitely a factor and I would also like to combine the ceremony/honeymoon locations if possible. Our wedding's going to be in the mountains in Asheville, NC. Tons of culture/uniqueness, and not too expensive to travel to. Decent prices for locations if you stay away from places like Biltmore and Grove Park Inn that are around just to dry your pocketbook. If it's of interest to you, I can give you some links to locations and whatnot that we've checked out.
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Mar 23, 2009 06:06
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Sneaky Monkey (can't email or PM you, sorry) if you're looking for unrestrained hosting space without built-in advertising, I might be able to help out. Email me!
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Mar 23, 2009 07:20
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King Skinny Pimp posted:
All you need to prove residency in a new state is your lease/mortgage or utility bill. Getting married won't make that part any easier. Changing states isn't a big deal. That being said, if you want to go ahead & get the legal part over with, then do it.
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Mar 23, 2009 12:43
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SplitDestiny posted:Are there any favorite destination weddings in this thread? I don't want to do something semi tacky like vegas and instead would love to do something somewhere with a lot of culture or uniqueness to it. Price is definitely a factor and I would also like to combine the ceremony/honeymoon locations if possible. Ok so normally I don't take offense to much of anything, but this is a really, really common misconception: You don't have to be a tacky gently caress if you get married in Vegas. The major hotels all have chapels within them that are very tastefully done, and they have ministers, rabbis, and pretty much any other denomination you could want to do your vows. You can go out into the desert, fly to the grand canyon from Vegas, a myriad of imported but really nice gardens, etc. On the other end of the spectrum, you can get married by Elvis in a drive through. You can make things there as unique as you're willing to pay for them to be. Depending on the resort it starts at $650 and goes up to $ obscene. I can understand wanting a place more 'cultured'. Vegas is a very fast city with its main focus being partying/gambling, but for those of us who choose to get married there, its not because we're tacky shitheels who have no idea what class is, its more about going somewhere we can get the license quickly so its legal on the spot, somewhere we and our guests can go out to eat, see some shows, and have a good time, and somewhere inexpensive enough that we can afford to go back and visit again. We actually already had our flights drop enough that with the price adjustment, all we'll have to pay to go for our 1st anniversary is around $150, plus hotel. As far as wanting somewhere more cultured, you can 'get married' almost anywhere, and then just do a JOP in your state. Sandals resorts do beach weddings. My boss did that and he and his guests had a blast. My friend is going to Florida to get married, I'm not sure where (I'm not sure she knows either).
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Mar 23, 2009 12:52
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amethystbliss posted:Just wanted to say best of luck! We just married on the K-1 last week and are getting ready to file for adjustment of status, so I feel your immigration pain. If you haven't already, make sure you check out https://www.visajourney.com. It was awesome to be in a community of people filing with the same circumstances who could give advice on all the paperwork and procedures, although the site has its fair share of idiots. We didn't use a lawyer, and we were approved in record time thanks to all the great advice there. Wow - those are some fantastic photos/backdrops. Don't suppose your photographer is free and lives near Detroit? 
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Mar 23, 2009 13:37
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BlackIronHeart posted:Sneaky Monkey (can't email or PM you, sorry) if you're looking for unrestrained hosting space without built-in advertising, I might be able to help out. Email me! Edit: removed address after receiving email. Thanks BlackIronHeart! amethystbliss, those pictures really are amazing. Sneaky Monkey fucked around with this message at 02:36 on Mar 24, 2009 |
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Mar 23, 2009 13:41
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MarshallX posted:Wow - those are some fantastic photos/backdrops. Don't suppose your photographer is free and lives near Detroit? When we were talking to him about flying to NYC for an elopement (before we decided on Barcelona, that was the plan) he was going to charge $1200 for the same thing. He's pretty young and was/is looking to build his portfolio with international weddings. I'm sure his extremely low price also had something to do with the fact that we did our engagement shoot with him and I did a boudoir shoot with him. We also got married in March, when flight and hotel prices are considerably cheaper. Worth sending him an email if any of you like his work, though!
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Mar 23, 2009 13:46
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quote:Our wedding's going to be in the mountains in Asheville, NC. Tons of culture/uniqueness, and not too expensive to travel to. Decent prices for locations if you stay away from places like Biltmore and Grove Park Inn that are around just to dry your pocketbook. If it's of interest to you, I can give you some links to locations and whatnot that we've checked out. I love it out there and visit my folks twice a year on the smokies and will most likely have a reception in their house on the foothills. Also, I didn't mean to come off as saying that all of Vegas is tacky. The city can be, but the surrounding area is definitely gorgeous and can make for a quick marriage on a limited budget. Like amethystbliss suggested, I think we're going to pick somewhere that we want to go and just go. It sounds much more fun that way.
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Mar 23, 2009 14:46
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SplitDestiny posted:
What kind of areas do you like? Do you have a country/state/idea in mind? Or season?
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Mar 23, 2009 15:08
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amethystbliss posted:Thanks! He's based in London and is willing to fly worldwide for weddings. His website is https://www.davidmmcneil.com. We thought he'd be super expensive, but he only charged us 500 pounds (~$750) for the entire thing! That included his flight costs from London to Barcelona, his hotel costs, 100 processed images and a DVD with printable rights to all of the pictures. Edit: whoa, his website is quoting a grand, minimum, for wedding photos, though!! And in other news, my bridesmaids picked the fabric for their dresses on Saturday (the idea of "colours" and "themes" really rubs me the wrong way so I'm making their dresses to the same pattern, and letting them choose the colours they want). I posted it before, but the dress pattern is from Burda magazine:  My friend Gez fell in love with this silver silk jersey (which we bought the last of, bwahaha), choosing peach silk charmeuse (satin) for her dress's "cummerbund":  And Pip immediately went for the deep plum silk jersey, with silk charmeuse to match (the lucky cow even found perfectly matching shoes at Westfield afterwards!!).  So that was much easier than I thought! The funny thing is, they both chose the colours they happened to be wearing that day, too.
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Mar 23, 2009 15:13
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Whee! Got the thing done last Sat, the 14th. Click here for the full 816x550 image. Ceremony/Reception: Maxim's of Chicago - Can't say enough good things about this place. The event coordinators are amazing, the location in the gold coast is rad, and you can buy and bring in your own liquor! Plus you get to make a grand entrance down the spiral staircase:  Click here for the full 426x623 image. We did cupcakes, from Sugar Bliss, and they were perfect. Once they were set up in the afternoon before the ceremony, you could see people's eyes lock on to them once they got into smelling distance. I didn't actually have any of the cupcakes, but the bite of the cake on top I had was awesome.  Click here for the full 412x614 image. Honeymoon: We stayed in a cabin up in the Smokies, and it was awesome. Yeah, there was a lot of driving to get there, but it really wasn't so bad to just have the two of us in the car. The towns of Gatlinburg and Pigeon Forge were pretty much just a traffic jam consisting of a thousand pancake houses in the way of getting to the National Park, but apparently there is some draw to them, I dunno.  Click here for the full 489x650 image. (not actually our cabin, an old mill building in the park) Overall, everything went as well as it could have, everyone I talked to at the reception seemed to be enjoying themselves or pretending to pretty convincingly, and now I'm back at work like nothing happened
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Mar 23, 2009 16:24
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SterlingSylver posted:Also, what's a reputable process for figuring out ring size? She does a lot of work with her hands, so we're concerned with swelling, circulation, etc... No one really addressed this part of your question yet... Why not get the cheapest ring you can find in an "average" size for her ring finger. The best sized ring is the one that 1) Won't accidentally fall off her finger when things are "normal", and 2) Won't feel like it's going to amputate her finger if it gets a little swollen. The only real way to know for sure is to just have her try one out for a while, and it's better to "practice" on a cheap $10 ring than an expensive engagement ring.
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Mar 23, 2009 17:00
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squirrellypoo posted:Whoa, his website is quoting a grand, minimum, for wedding photos, though! That first picture is gorgeous, Calamity Kate!
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Mar 23, 2009 17:47
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Update on the elopement extravaganza... We're summarizing the week as follows: Wednesday we decided to get married in April, before we make the move to Texas. Thursday the poo poo hit the fan. Friday we cleaned it up. Saturday we purchased outfits and wedding bands. Sunday we took a loving break! Monday we made an appointment at the courthouse. I feel like we've crammed several months into less than a week. I'm mentally exhausted, but pretty much all of the pieces of the puzzle are in place now. The biggest family drama seems to be behind us, and everybody is now on-board and supportive. We've been mostly appeasing (and somewhat confusing) people by reassuring them that we intend to have a traditional ceremony down the road, after we've moved and settled in. At this point, I think that when that time comes, we're going to be totally mellow about setting that up in comparison.
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Mar 23, 2009 18:44
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GoreJess posted:All you need to prove residency in a new state is your lease/mortgage or utility bill. Getting married won't make that part any easier. Changing states isn't a big deal. Fair enough. We're still going to do it, I'll be getting a new drivers' license and bank account anyway, I might as well just get them all with my new name to begin with, right? CalamityKate, that looks like y'all had a lot of fun. Great pictures!
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Mar 23, 2009 18:51
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CalamityKate posted:Whee! Got the thing done last Sat, the 14th. I just showed this picture to a coworker and she said that it looks so pretty, it looks fake. You and your dress really stand out.
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Mar 23, 2009 19:41
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squirrellypoo posted:I posted it before, but the dress pattern is from Burda magazine: This is really pretty, I'm sure it's going to look awesome! Are you making the dresses yourself? I know you have quite a way with a sewing machine...
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Mar 23, 2009 23:49
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King Skinny Pimp posted:Fair enough. We're still going to do it, I'll be getting a new drivers' license and bank account anyway, I might as well just get them all with my new name to begin with, right? Sorry if I came off rude, I didn't mean it that way. I'm also quite perturbed that I have to apply for my passport with my maiden name, only to change it once we get back & I get the name change process completed.
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Mar 24, 2009 00:12
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GoreJess posted:
We went and got our marriage license today (you have to get it at least 3 days ahead of time in PA) and the woman had us address an envelope to send us the certified copy in. Felt funny addressing a letter to my future self with a new last name.
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Mar 24, 2009 00:18
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GoreJess posted:Sorry if I came off rude, I didn't mean it that way. Oh no, you didn't come off rude, no worries. And man, I forgot about having to get a new passport. Christ, I have no idea what all I need to do to change my name and we just decided we're going to the courthouse in mid-July. AND I have to finish my last semester of college and graduate and move to the frozen north and then oh god I'm so glad I don't have long enough hair to pull out. At least I can't say my life is boring!
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Mar 24, 2009 00:30
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GoreJess posted:Sorry if I came off rude, I didn't mean it that way.  .http://travel.state.gov/passport/fri/ChangeName/ChangeName_851.html The name change thing is quite intense. I've been told to start at Social Security and then go to the DMV. After that, there's passport name changes as well as debit cards, credit cards, the university's registrar's office, student IDs, hospital IDs and both health and car insurance companies. I've heard there are kits you can buy for like $45 that includes everything you need to change your name everywhere, but I can't personally vouch for it.
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Mar 24, 2009 00:38
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amethystbliss posted:I'm fairly sure you don't have to pay anything to change your name on your passport if you're just now getting one. Since I applied for my passport a few years ago, I think I have to pay the full $75 I think I'll have to pay the full $75 too, I got mine a little over a year ago, and apparently that's the cut off point. Lame! Thankfully, since we're moving and (this part sucks) I won't have health insurance again until November, I can cut out some of the name change stuff. Plus, my future father in law is going to be my boss, so hopefully any name changing that needs to go on there will be pretty smooth. I'm more worried about the social security stuff I have to do. I'm graduating May 9th, should I send a name change whatever to my university if I might attend graduate school in the future? I guess they ask for any previous names when you request a transcript so it should be fine. I dunno. I really need to actually look into this stuff. Of course, until last week I had more than a year to worry about it. Now I have three or four months.
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Mar 24, 2009 00:43
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Sneaky Monkey posted:I don't have PM, so it'll have to be email for now. Email sent!
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Mar 24, 2009 00:59
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amethystbliss posted:I'm fairly sure you don't have to pay anything to change your name on your passport if you're just now getting one. Since I applied for my passport a few years ago, I think I have to pay the full $75 Yeah, thanks for the information I can't imagine paying for a kit to change your name. From what friends have told me, it's not complicated. It just takes some time to get everything switched over. I too heard Social Security first & then DMV. After that, everything should be pretty straight forward.
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Mar 24, 2009 01:56
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hey everyone... i got engaged about a month and he finally gave me the ring today :-D
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Mar 24, 2009 02:07
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here's the ring!
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Mar 24, 2009 02:07
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Out of focus, sure, but it looks nice! I like it. That reminds me, I need to get mine cleaned and maybe resized a touch. It doesn't fall off or anything (after he gave it to me I tried my damnedest to shake it off, then ran cold water over my hand and tried again), but it spins pretty freely. Probably just needs a half size adjustment or something. I've been putting it off since the jeweler who made it is in Green Bay, but I'll be moving up there soon enough, I suppose.
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Mar 24, 2009 02:20
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