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My girlfriend and I have talked about getting married, and we're ready to go. However, I need to save up to get the ring that she wants, which is $6700 (http://www.tiffany.com/Engagement/item.aspx?GroupSku=GRP10013&selectedSku=23658283#f+0/0/0/0/0/0). How's the financing with these companies? Am i better off selling one of my kidneys in the black market? At the rate I can save money today, it'd take me a couple of years to round up 6k, but we're already ready for this!
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Aug 6, 2009 23:14
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Alfajor posted:My girlfriend and I have talked about getting married, and we're ready to go. However, I need to save up to get the ring that she wants, which is $6700 (http://www.tiffany.com/Engagement/item.aspx?GroupSku=GRP10013&selectedSku=23658283#f+0/0/0/0/0/0). My whole wedding costs less than that ring. My advice would be to find an affordable ring, but I'm one of those people who just can't understand why people continually spend assloads upon assloads of money for engagement rings.
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Aug 6, 2009 23:25
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Me either, but she WANTS that ring, and no other. I've pretty much told her : "  if that's the only thing you want, you'll have to wait a couple of years", and she was only slightly bothered by the thought.
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Aug 6, 2009 23:28
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Alfajor posted:Me either, but she WANTS that ring, and no other.
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Aug 6, 2009 23:32
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Emilar posted:Thanks for the tip! We live in the desert (Las Vegas), so community gardens don't really exist here, but when I googled it, the Springs Preserve (a local historical site) came up, which I wouldn't have thought of at all! I'm not sure if they allow weddings, but I'll look into it. We'll probably still have to have an indoor location for the reception because it'll be miserably hot here at that time of year, but who knows, the Springs Preserve might have something inside too. State and county park are good too. I booked the Brazilian Room cabin in Tilden Park in Berkeley and it's $2800 but it's actually quite formal. For camp sites and other gardens it's much much cheaper. For example, Golden State Park will rent ceremony sites for $200. edit: GoreGess, Maso, and Emilar: Is it really that terrible?! What kind of design/work is involved? I was planning on printing my own and addressing envelopes, etc. jomiel fucked around with this message at 00:01 on Aug 7, 2009 |
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Aug 6, 2009 23:59
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Alfajor posted:My girlfriend and I have talked about getting married, and we're ready to go. However, I need to save up to get the ring that she wants, which is $6700 (http://www.tiffany.com/Engagement/item.aspx?GroupSku=GRP10013&selectedSku=23658283#f+0/0/0/0/0/0). Things I own which cost $6700: She's seriously willing to wait 6-7 years to get married just so she can have her preferred ring? Or does she want to get married and then get the ring years later (  )? Either way, she sounds like a oval office. Just sayin'.
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Aug 7, 2009 00:01
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jomiel posted:edit: GoreGess, Maso, and Emilar: Is it really that terrible?! What kind of design/work is involved? I was planning on printing my own and addressing envelopes, etc. Ehhhh...I wouldn't say it's TERRible, just mind numbingly time consuming. Much moreso than I expected. I do feel proud of myself though, and I know they look really nice and nobody else will have the same invitations because they're handmade. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I had a bridesmaid or two with hours to help me out. Then again I don't think I would feel very good about asking anybody for help with something so boring, haha. Anyway they're ALMOST done and I think they look great, I'll post pictures on here when I'm done. e: As for what's involved, I made mine from scratch, which meant a lot of measuring and cutting and gluing and throwing away mistakes when you lose focus. And getting the fussy printer to take the hand-cut paper was such a pain in the rear end. Speaking of which, we bought the cheapest paper cutter they had at the craft store, and I recommend spending the extra $10 or so for a good one. The cheap one worked okay but the blade wasn't that sharp and kind of tore through the paper a bit creating a bit of a curled edge that is living hell to get a printer to take. maso fucked around with this message at 00:32 on Aug 7, 2009 |
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Aug 7, 2009 00:28
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Alfajor posted:Me either, but she WANTS that ring, and no other. This may be one of those situations where JohnnyRnR comes in and makes you a nearly similar ring at a fraction of the cost... The thread will tell you that financing a E-ring is not worth it, as you will likely have to finance a wedding reasonably soon after.
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Aug 7, 2009 00:38
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Hawkeye posted:This may be one of those situations where JohnnyRnR comes in and makes you a nearly similar ring at a fraction of the cost... And for the record, my girlfriend is not a oval office, I do love her a lot and you take that back
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Aug 7, 2009 00:47
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maso posted:Ehhhh...I wouldn't say it's TERRible, just mind numbingly time consuming. Much moreso than I expected. I do feel proud of myself though, and I know they look really nice and nobody else will have the same invitations because they're handmade. It probably wouldn't be so bad if I had a bridesmaid or two with hours to help me out. Then again I don't think I would feel very good about asking anybody for help with something so boring, haha. Anyway they're ALMOST done and I think they look great, I'll post pictures on here when I'm done. do you mind posting a picture of your invitation?  edit: read your post again, yeah I'd love to see it when you are done.
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Aug 7, 2009 01:05
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Fire In The Disco posted:Yes-- chill out, and accept into your heart the realization that there is no such thing as a big event that goes off completely and utterly without a hitch. Really internalize it; it'll make it easier for you to roll with the punches when the hitch does occur, and still be a gracious and happy bride. This right here is great advice. We had 5 weeks to plan our wedding (my wife got a job at a christian school and we didnt want to pay 2 rents while living a mile appart), never mind the fact that the wife was in Mexico for the first of those weeks AND had to get ready for her first teaching job at the same time. We had a few little things go wrong but in the end it really doesn't even matter. I will state looking back I am really, really glad we got married how and when we did. The thought of my wife/her family having an entire year (we had planned on getting married last month) to get worked up about everything would be very :sucide: inducing.
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Aug 7, 2009 01:23
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jomiel posted:State and county park are good too. I booked the Brazilian Room cabin in Tilden Park in Berkeley and it's $2800 but it's actually quite formal. For camp sites and other gardens it's much much cheaper. For example, Golden State Park will rent ceremony sites for $200. We made our own invitations too, as well as our programs. Honestly, it was a couple hour's worth of work for my husband, who designed the invitation, and that was basically it for them-- we printed them ourselves and didn't add ribbons or sequins or anything to the design. The programs were a little trickier, but again, not amazingly so. We did a four page program, with each page a little longer than the one above it, so it made a cascade effect. Again, my husband spent some time making the pieces work on a single 8 1/2" x 11" piece of card stock, but once he had the design, we went to Office Max and had them print and cut the pages for us, then cut us black card stock to be a little bigger. We bought little gemstone-tipped brads, a couple of hole punchers, and went to town. This is the final result:  I realize the lighting totally sucks, and it sort of miffs me that the only picture of the programs was taken by one of the guests, but anyway-- you can see how we labeled each tier, and what the final construction looked like. We got so many compliments on them; nobody had seen anything like it before. It was time consuming, but mind-blowingly cheap. I think it was literally like $70 for the materials, printing and cutting, and the brads.
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Aug 7, 2009 02:20
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Alfajor posted:I'd be totally down with this. I've been looking for similar rings, but not finding anything. Since your lady has such, uh, particular tastes, I'm guessing that she is very into having an actual diamond. If not, https://www.moissaniteco.com has some similar rings with, well, moissanite instead of diamonds, and they are significantly cheaper. I think moissanite is awesome because it comes from asteroids (or shooting stars, if you will!). It has a hardness of 9.25 on the Moh's scale of hardness, and has more fire (sparkle) than diamonds, without any of the pesky moral/ethical issues surrounding mined diamonds. AND AND AND it comes without that ridiculous markup just so you/she can say "Tiffanys!". But... good luck with it all.
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Aug 7, 2009 02:27
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Alfajor posted:I'd be totally down with this. I've been looking for similar rings, but not finding anything. The tiffany legacy's been knocked off by pretty much every custom house around, but I'm gonna go out on a limb and suggest to you that if you show up to propose to your GF with a tiffany knock-off, it'll be worse than showing up empty handed. Maybe your girlfriend isn't like this, but based on what you've told us so far, I'm pretty sure that she's in it for the Blue Box more than anything else. EDIT: But seriously, I'm not gonna go so far as to call your g/f a oval office, but doesn't it kind of hurt your feelings that she's so bent on getting a piece of jewelry that she's holding off on marrying you? Hell, if my boyfriend wanted to propose today I'd accept a piece of his own poo poo as a ring if it meant I got to marry him, and I spend all day selling and buying jewelry because I enjoy it so much, so that's really saying something. Aren't you at all bothered by the fact that the ring is her primary concern? FormerPoster fucked around with this message at 04:25 on Aug 7, 2009 |
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Aug 7, 2009 04:08
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Thank you to everyone for the kind words. We love seeing people love their rings. And I sent a couple of PM's to those who were interested ;-)
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Aug 7, 2009 04:17
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I figured this would be the best place to post this. I was talking with a friend recently about whats a good age to get married and how long you should date before you do. I'm a romantic at heart that thinks its fine to tie the knot young but they think that you should be over 30 before even considering it. I also don't think it matters how long you date before doing it. How long did everyone in here date before getting engaged and how old are you?
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Aug 7, 2009 04:35
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Lackadaisical posted:I figured this would be the best place to post this. I'm 24, he's 27. We dated for about 2 years before getting engaged, so it'll hit 3 years of dating by the time we actually get married. Does your friend ever want kids? I've always thought it's nice for a couple to get a few good years of married life in before all the kid stuff. If I weren't to consider marriage until exactly 30, then assuming I'm actually with someone at the time and not single, best estimates for marriage would be at 31, and a kid by 32. For personal and medical reasons my age limit on getting pregnant is 35, which would put a huge stress on something that should be enjoyable. That timeframe doesn't factor in mutual budgeting for a house, dating someone who you love and are mutually compatible, and that for whatever reason there's no difficulty getting knocked up right away. I can understand waiting till 30 in terms of maturity/life expectations, but I also believe it's immature to blanket on the assumption that everyone matures at the same rate, and we all grew up in the same kind of environment. If they're looking at this from a financial/career oriented angle well...I'm not really sure why marriage would ruin your ambitions at 29 but not 31.
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Aug 7, 2009 04:53
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Lackadaisical posted:
I'm 30, he's 26. We've been together for three years, married for 9 months. When we met, we knew it was the real deal. I'd been in a number of relationships previously, and he'd been in a couple, and we both felt totally and completely different with each other than we had before. Our time frame was a little rapid, having only been together for 2 years or so before getting married, but in our case, the "when you know, you know" adage was correct. I agree with Zantie about maturity levels-- I never, ever once thought I'd be married to a younger man, because I was always so mature for my age in my early to mid 20's. But my husband is not your typical 26 year old, and wasn't your typical 23 year old when we met. Maturity level and life experiences are very big factors, but they don't always 100% correlate to age.
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Aug 7, 2009 05:08
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Lackadaisical posted:How long did everyone in here date before getting engaged and how old are you? Me and the fiancee got engaged on our 5th anniversary, and we'll have been together 6 years by the time the wedding rolls around next year. I'm 27 and he's 31.
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Aug 7, 2009 05:30
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jomiel posted:GoreGess, Maso, and Emilar: Is it really that terrible?! What kind of design/work is involved? I was planning on printing my own and addressing envelopes, etc. 1. On regular white paper, print the text (when, where, our names, etc.) 2. Cut paper into about 3.5" x 5.5" rectangles with a decorative scissor (I hate this scissor, so I'll probably reject that idea later). 3. Lightly color in a stencil (4-point flower design) with light colored pencils onto the white paper on top of the words. Since I'm using light colors and a bold black font, the words are still very readable. 4. Glue paper onto the middle of a 4.5" x 6.5" piece of card stock (I have a pack of 5 different colors of card stock) 5. Hole punch 2 holes about .5" from the top of the white paper. 6. Place a piece of ribbon (skinny, satin ribbon) in the holes, tie a bow. Since there are 5 different colors of card stock, I also have 5 different colors of ribbon which will be color coordinated with it. It sounds kind of tacky all written out, but it really is not that over the top at all. This weekend I'll probably get working on it, and I'll definitely post pictures. I'm open to criticism, so if it really is lovely looking, I'll adjust it. Lackadaisical posted:How long did everyone in here date before getting engaged and how old are you?
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Aug 7, 2009 05:33
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Lackadaisical posted:I figured this would be the best place to post this. We dated for almost 3 years. We had planned on being engaged for about a year and a half, but if you will read my last post you will that didn't happen. I was 24, she was 23 and just graduated from college (wife graduated, did month trip to mexico for Girl scouts, got a job, and got married in the span of 3 months). edit: Oh and we will have been married for 1 year on the 30th
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Aug 7, 2009 06:33
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I'm 25, he's going to be 25 in about two weeks. We started dating in January '08, moved in together August '08, got engaged May '09 and we'll be getting married in June '10. Oh, and as of October 3rd, we'll be home owners. It seems really quick when I type it out, but everyone who knows us (even our parents) didn't seem the least bit surprised. Quite a few said "finally!". We don't plan on having kids. I never even thought I would get married, much less at this age, but it doesn't feel wrong. Oh, and he proposed with an iPod touch (I'd wanted one but didn't want to buy it when I had an ok iPod already - even if he did scratch it by dropping it in the driveway...) Good thing I hate wearing rings, and I always have my "engagement pod" on me to show off.
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Aug 7, 2009 11:05
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Lackadaisical posted:I figured this would be the best place to post this. She is 25, I'll be 25 as well when I propose (few months younger) We have dated for ~5.5 years, and will have dated for 5.75years when I plan to propose. We lived together for the last 3 years
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Aug 7, 2009 11:45
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jomiel posted:
Well, my invitations don't seem nearly as complicated as Maso's & Emilar's invites. I did buy pre-cut cardstock for the actual invitation & then cut my RSVP cards & the accommodations cards from normal 8.5x11 cardstock. It's just time consuming to individually feed that many pieces of paper through a printer. I bought a return address stamp on Etsy & used that to put our address on everything that needed it. Then everything got wrapped together with a big ribbon & stuffed in the envelope. I'm just frustrated because I kept putting it off & now I'm trying to do everything while I'm in my busiest month at work. So I'm just a little cranky right now. As for the other question running through the thread....I'm 26 & he's 27. We've been together for 6.5 years & are getting married in less than 2 months. We started dating during college & spent the majority of that time living 3 hours away from each other. Otherwise, we would have gotten married a couple of years ago.
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Aug 7, 2009 12:54
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I'm 24 and he'll be 28. We'll have been together 5 years in November, a month after the wedding. I moved in with him about 2 months after we started dating. I bought a house about 3 years ago. We've talked about marriage for probably 4 years or so, and while I was never proposed to, we finally have the resources to have a wedding. I think I'm at about the youngest end of the spectrum that people should be getting married. I think Fire In The Disco is right about age and maturity levels, but I think there's more than maturity that goes into it. Life experience and all that jazz. I do think that using 30 as a blanket age for "mature enough" is pretty silly. I don't plan on thinking about having a kid until my early-mid thirties, though. I want us to have plenty of happy kid-free married years. Also I do think it matters how long you date beforehand. I understand being a romantic, but people are complicated and there's a lot to figure out about a person after living with them for a few years. I can't understand why people decide to get married without living together first anymore. You may feel perfectly compatible emotionally and sexually but being compatible housemates doesn't always come along with the other two, believe you me.
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Aug 7, 2009 13:21
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I'm 22 and he's 23. We've been married a month now and together for two and a half years altogether. I know that doesn't seem like much, but we have been through a lot of hell together and stuck through it loving each other the whole way through, so I don't think we have much to worry about.
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Aug 7, 2009 13:28
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I'm 21 and he's 22. We started dating when we were 19. We're holding off from telling people and our date is in 2012 because I'm sure we'll get poo poo for being young no matter what, but at least it'll be a little better then. We're planning on buying a house within the next two years and plan on kids in about six or seven. It's one of those "when you know, you know" things, but I'd just like to lessen the morality brigade. For reference on why we're waiting, I mentioned to peers that I was researching schools in the areas we're looking for houses because, while schools may change, it's good to know what's in the area. One girl freaked out and scolded me for even daring to think about children in the slightest before I'm 30 and have a master's degree. You know, because everyone has the same goals in life. Abbeh posted:Oh, and he proposed with an iPod touch (I'd wanted one but didn't want to buy it when I had an ok iPod already - even if he did scratch it by dropping it in the driveway...) Good thing I hate wearing rings, and I always have my "engagement pod" on me to show off.
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Aug 7, 2009 14:05
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GoreJess posted:Um yeah. At this point, I wish I had just found the extra $300 & just ordered them online. I am really tired of cutting paper & feeding things through the printer. We not only handmade our invitations, but we hand made our response cards, shower invites, thank you cards and buck and doe tickets. I'm also tired of cutting but luckily we have a Cadillac paper cutter which hasn't faltered once yet in the over 1000 cuts made (If not more) I'll get some pictures tonight, they look pretty god damned professional. MarshallX fucked around with this message at 14:20 on Aug 7, 2009 |
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Aug 7, 2009 14:18
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I will post pictures of the results of my beach escapades tomorrow. For those of you who don't know I will be proposing on the beach via sea shell. I will drop it half way through our walk across the beach (without her knowing of course) and on our way back we will come across it again. I will ask her to pick it up since I decorated it and it looks pretty and all, she will pick it up, it will say the words on the back and then POW! Of course, I have "Plan B" shell (I made two) in case we never come across the shell again. I will take pictures and post them tomorrow after the greatness happens. I saw someone may have wanted to try this one, one thing I have to say, be sure your pockets are big enough for these shells. Do not put the shells together in one pocket due to size and them making a clanking noise. Wish me luck! And once again, thanks JohnnyRnR for getting me a completely amazing ring at a very good price!
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Aug 7, 2009 15:24
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Does anyone have any good tips on cutting down on florist costs*? Did anyone go with a more normal florist rather than a wedding florist? I'm being quoted a grand all over the place just for the basics (bouquets, corsages and boutonnieres) and it just irks me to even consider paying that much. How do people afford it when they need tons of centerpieces and ceremony decorations?? We'll both be 25 when we get married next year. We've been together 5.5 years and been living together almost that long. I agree with maso that I don't understand why people don't live together first. It really is a different dynamic and I'm glad that all the changes I went through in my college years between when we met and now are right out there in the open. Living together is probably not the only way to accomplish this, but it is the most efficient one! *I'm not a fan of fake flowers, unfortunately. I would rather have no flowers (and sub in something else? I did want parasols for my bridesmaids) than fake flowers.
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Aug 7, 2009 15:43
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If you happen to have a floral wholesaler in your area, you can totally DIY flowers and save a shitton of money. It's not that hard at all to make hand tied bouquets, and you can purchase a bouquet holder, floral wire and tape, and ribbon at any craft store. You can also buy enough flowers to decorate the tables, room, etc and still save on what you'd pay the florist.
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Aug 7, 2009 15:47
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Do you live near a farmers market? These places have flowers for way, way cheaper than at a florist and the flowers typically last longer (and you are buying local!). I have some gigantic farmers markets around me and thats where I plan to get whatever flowers I need. We were looking at about $10/bouquet at the farmers market. If you ask about buying a lot of bouquets for a cheaper price, they will most likely give you a deal (we are buying 30 bouquets and got $50 off). Then you only have to worry about corsages and boutonnieres! Since I live in a major city I have a million flower options but this will greatly vary by location.
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Aug 7, 2009 15:55
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iloverice posted:Do you live near a farmers market? These places have flowers for way, way cheaper than at a florist and the flowers typically last longer (and you are buying local!). I have some gigantic farmers markets around me and thats where I plan to get whatever flowers I need. We were looking at about $10/bouquet at the farmers market. If you ask about buying a lot of bouquets for a cheaper price, they will most likely give you a deal (we are buying 30 bouquets and got $50 off). Then you only have to worry about corsages and boutonnieres! Since I live in a major city I have a million flower options but this will greatly vary by location. In case you have no idea whether you do, localharvest.org is a good resource for finding them. Good luck Bardlebee!
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Aug 7, 2009 16:13
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Invite pics, as requested!  The envelopes are shimmery when you turn them in the light, I'm so gay for these. I printed on the little design in the corner.   The actual invites.   Punching those little corners in the cardstock was another thing that I didn't expect to be a pain in the rear end...The card is so think that I had to pretty much stand up and lean my whole body on the drat punch to get it to go through. x70.  RSVP envelopes (can you tell I went nuts with the new printer?)  ...Which will already be pre-addressed and stamped, so it's as easy as possible for people to get them back to us.   The only thing you don't see pictured is another piece of plain printer paper that will have a map of the wedding site and reception site, as well as some hotels in the area. They're not all done yet, I still have a poo poo ton of that silly rafia to tie, but overall I feel pretty proud and I think they look pretty nice.
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Aug 7, 2009 16:17
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Maso, you're getting married on my one year anniversary!  I will try to locate my keepsake invitations, RSVP cards, save the date magnets, and programs so I can post better pictures here.
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Aug 7, 2009 16:43
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I've looked into a few wholesalers online, but I'm planning from out of state and I'm not really familiar with where we're getting married anyway. I found some farmer's markets on localharvest, but I don't know if I will have time to visit them. Is ordering online and having flowers shipped a bad idea or is that how wholesalers pretty much do it?
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Aug 7, 2009 16:45
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wow, maso, those are absolutely beautiful. The effort was well worth it!
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Aug 7, 2009 16:49
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^^^Thank you!! Fire In The Disco posted:Maso, you're getting married on my one year anniversary! maso fucked around with this message at 16:55 on Aug 7, 2009 |
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Aug 7, 2009 16:52
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That sounds totally awesome. You're a good soon-to-be-wife.  I have no idea what we're going to do for our anniversary, to be honest. I don't even know if we can afford to do a weekend away or something, as we're going to be going to California in December for my grandfather's 90th birthday. I just hope we can swing something!
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Aug 7, 2009 17:04
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Wow Maso, that looks great! The handtied twine thing is really cute. I'm 28 and Mr. Jomiel is 29. We've been together since my freshman summer, so 9 years so far, getting married in April.
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Aug 7, 2009 17:27
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