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At my wedding, we did some custom chocolates as favors. This was a silly play on our last name that ends in "bar". We had a silver platter stacked with Dunbar chocolate bars. I had candy bar label sleeves printed with a neat custom design, then my maid of honor carefully removed the outer labels on all the bars and replaced them with our custom ones. Despite the fact that we got married on a big yacht, our guests thought this was the cutest thing and it got lots of compliments.
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Aug 15, 2014 18:11
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| # ? May 9, 2024 23:54 |
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Girlfriend was trying to be sneaky and access my Kay account to see if I've bought anything recently and the only reply I gave her was this: She's just going to have to wait until our anniversary. 
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Aug 15, 2014 18:20
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Ok so I got engaged last Saturday and we decided to make it a short engagement ! After a week of giving the whole family panic attacks and tantrums . We booked a venue and put a down payment in today so excited ! Yay for march 7th
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Aug 15, 2014 18:26
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That's not that short. I got engaged in July and wedding is set for end of this October. Wheeee
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Aug 15, 2014 19:40
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mastershakeman posted:That's not that short. I got engaged in July and wedding is set for end of this October. Wheeee Wow ! That is short ! Did you have family yelling at you that you should wait 18months ?
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Aug 15, 2014 20:29
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31 December - 18 October here, though I wish it was shorter.
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Aug 15, 2014 23:55
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Has anyone ordered from Blue Nile? How long does it usually takes to order from Blue Nile, from order to arrival?
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Aug 16, 2014 00:30
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I got engaged yesterday and it still feels really weird even though I knew it was coming because we've been together for six years. I love my ring and the proposal was kind of perfect for us. (We were on vacation and walking through a beautiful park and he turned to me and said, "So, do you want to do this or what?") And now the hard part will be planning. I'm American Jewish and his family is Gujarati Jain and I don't see a way of getting out of this with less than three to four hundred guests. 
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Aug 18, 2014 09:03
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Goons, I need help deciding whether this is an issue or not. I am looking at this ring: http://www.bluenile.com/build-your-own-ring/halo-engagement-ring-platinum_44706?elem=img&track=product My question is this: Does it matter that the diamonds on the side only stop half-way? Many of the ones I have seen go 3/4th of the way down the side, but I have a good discount at Blue Nile and all of their rings have this feature. I'm worried that it won't look good if the ring slides to the side and it's just metal showing. I have heard that the less diamonds on the side, the easier it is to resize, but other than that I'm afraid it'll look cheap? For reference the one I'm really in love with is this one: http://www.aspendiamond.com/bridal/aspen-012413-ring-three-qrtr.html Notice how the diamonds go 3/4 the way down. This ring is custom so it'll be more expensive, meaning I'll get a smaller/lower quality stone for my budget. This setting really does look amazing compared to the Blue Nile one. The BN one looks downright bland, especially the part of the setting below the stone.
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Aug 20, 2014 01:31
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Ask Blue Nile if they can customise it for you. It might be a bit extra but surely they'd be able to.
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Aug 20, 2014 02:45
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I've noticed my engagement ring doesn't slide around much so I doubt anyone will see past halfway on each side. The second one you linked will be a pain in the rear end to resize because of all the diamonds. The one gripe I had with Blue Nile is that the pictures of the settings on their website are deceptive about how big the band stones are. For reference this is my setting, which makes it look like the band stones are about the same size as the center stone. It came out looking like this (click for huge):  Still looks nice and I still love it but it wasn't what we were expecting when we ordered it. My wedding ring only has diamonds on the top third and it slides around a ton and I find myself constantly twisting it to be right side up.
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Aug 20, 2014 02:49
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Ok Goons, does anyone have any advice for buying booze? Every place we looked at had crappy liquor choices and the place we settled on for a reception will let me bring it in, so I plan on it. I obviously know that buying all at once will save money, and buying wine in December is usually a good call. Just hoping to shave even a few bucks off in order to supply libation to my reception.
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Aug 21, 2014 21:28
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OssiansFolly posted:Ok Goons, does anyone have any advice for buying booze? Every place we looked at had crappy liquor choices and the place we settled on for a reception will let me bring it in, so I plan on it. I obviously know that buying all at once will save money, and buying wine in December is usually a good call. Just hoping to shave even a few bucks off in order to supply libation to my reception. I have heard that liquor stories frequently allow unopened bottles to be returned. That can limit your risk of overbuying.
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Aug 21, 2014 21:34
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Some friends of mine went the Costco route and saved a ton of money. Basically bought mid-shelf of everything they knew their friends/family liked from Costco, hired a bartender, and it went really well (and cheap).
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Aug 21, 2014 21:49
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Most decent liquor stores will let you return unopened cases of beer and unopened bottles of wine. It may tempt you to buy in bulk and get a couple handles of liquor instead of a few 750mL bottles.  DO NOT DO THIS Get a bunch of 750mL bottles so you can more easily return the unused alcohol. We got two handles of each kind of liquor instead of 4 regular bottles and got stuck with 3/4 of two handles we couldn't return.
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Aug 21, 2014 23:25
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Does anyone have any tips on gracefully handling the recent loss of a parent at a wedding? My father recently and suddenly passed, and I am getting married in October. My biggest concern right now is how to handle the father-daughter dance - we can't just skip it, because I would never want to take away the chance for my fiancee to dance with her dad (we are both women.) But I can't really handle the idea of just sitting on the sidelines while the song we'd chosen together for the dance plays. Both my stepfather and my father-in-law to be have offered to dance with me, which is gracious but doesn't exactly feel right. I was thinking of making a slideshow of pictures of me and my dad to play during the dance; not sure what I would physically do, maybe just sit with my stepmom and watch. It seems a little morbid, though. I was wondering if anyone's been in or witnessed a similar situation and could share what they did. This really sucks.
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Aug 21, 2014 23:49
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kernel panic posted:Does anyone have any tips on gracefully handling the recent loss of a parent at a wedding? I'm sorry for your loss. My aunt passed away a couple days before my cousin's wedding. He ended up dancing with my grandma, and he carried a photo of his mom to the alter when she was supposed to walk with him. Maybe dance with your step-mom? If you haven't chosen the song, choose something special to him? I see a lot of weddings with a memory table for parents too, which is always nice without being overly sad or morbid.
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Aug 22, 2014 01:09
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Sorry for your loss, I can't even imagine how hard this must be. I don't think there is a right answer except what feels right for you. Maybe a moment of silence, transition into a song that was memorable for you all and light a candle in his memory? When the song ends just move into mother son dance or whatever you had planned next?
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Aug 22, 2014 01:16
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chupacabraTERROR posted:Is it insane to buy from Tiffanys? If you have a long term plan to eventually sell the ring and upgrade to a larger one then you may want to buy a Tiffany ring. It's much easier to resell a Tiffany ring than one from a mom & pop jeweler. Save all the boxes & paperwork. But if you don't plan to resell the engagement ring then there isn't any value to be gained going with Tiffany. chupacabraTERROR posted:Does it matter that the diamonds on the side only stop half-way? No, it's just an aesthetic choice. Engagement rings don't turn on the finger if they're sized right.
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Aug 22, 2014 15:17
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kernel panic posted:Does anyone have any tips on gracefully handling the recent loss of a parent at a wedding? My dad died of cancer a decade ago and it's still hard figuring out what to do with those culturally ubiquitous father-of-the-bride moments. My mom is walking me down the aisle, so that one was easy. We will probably also include a line at the bottom of the program about him being with us in spirit, and I like the idea of hanging a photo charm or locket with his picture from the bouquet or boutineer, so it's like he's walking with me. We plan to include some framed family photos, especially of our parent's weddings, around the reception (my parents cutting the cake will be on the cake table, his parents wedding portrait at the guestbook table, maybe some photos of us as kids, that kind of thing.) I have read a lot of negative responses online to making a wedding too funerial if you make it all about memorializing the dead instead of joining together the living, so the slides how might be a bit much. The parent dances are supposed to precede opening up the dance floor to the rest of the guests, I can't imagine anyone would feel comfortable dancing after a photo tribute took center stage. But you have to do what feels right for you, and if most of your guests knew your dad and you don't prioritize dancing much anyway, that might be perfect. My first instinct was to skip the father-daughter dance all together, to have no announced dances at all. I've been to a lot of weddings where the DJ announcements were really annoying, so it seemed like a good solution. My fiancé could still dance with his mom, and I would still dance with his dad and my step-dad and uncle, but there would be no need to clear the dance floor and force everybody to turn around and watch, it would just blend seamlessly in with the rest of the dances. But my fiancé's mom started talking about the mother-son dance and how excited she was about it and picking out songs, so it seems we can't escape letting her be the center of attention for that moment. Which I am totally fine with, she's a cancer survivor and I think that dancing with her son at his wedding was one of those things to live for. She recently got weepy talking about losing her own father soon after her wedding, and I used it as a chance to mention how I was worried about getting through those announced dances without my dad. She was instantly sympathetic and said she didn't need an announced dance, but I just can't take that away from them, it is a really special moment. So that leaves us with just their dance and getting everyone to dance, or me dancing with my step-dad or his dad. At first my feelings were like yours, it feels wrong to pick someone other than my dad to dance with. However, a DJ we met with had a really great way to phrase it, something like "The brides father Blah-blah couldn't be with us today, but standing in his place will be the bride's step-father So-and-so. They will be dancing to Blah-blah's favorite song/artist." It honors your father with a mention, without destroying the mood of the celebration and encourages people to dance and remember, or at least that's what I'm hoping for. I'm still probably going to cry a lot, but I want my friends to dance too. If you haven't already, you might consider joining the forums at offbeatbride.com, they are really great about talking this stuff through and coming up with good solutions.
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Aug 22, 2014 21:39
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Sharks Below posted:31 December - 18 October here, though I wish it was shorter. Oct 31 to Nov 30, same year. :P
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Aug 23, 2014 02:55
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Alrighty, so as my username may indicate, I am on the hunt for an engagement ring. I had to make up this dummy account because my girlfriend (soon to be fiancee) is sneaky and I didn't want to run the risk of being caught. Quick little backstory, we have both decided that when the time comes, I'm going to be getting her a more modestly priced ring, as well as a another sizable big thing which she cares a lot more about, I can't talk more about that here or it would tip my hand. Anyway, the budget for the ring is somewhere in the 1K to 1.5K range. The cool thing is, my girlfriend really likes rings and they don't have to be all big, shiny, and/or gemmy for her to like them. So it doesn't have to be a conventional ring with a rock or something like that. Past that though, I'm totally lost. I'm guessing the typical advice is to talk to her about the ring that she would want, but it doesn't seem like she really cares. She'll be happy with whatever I get her, but I still want to get her something that "counts"? I guess? Yeah, lost. So here's my question, is there some king of quality that a ring should generally have for it to be called an "engagement ring"? Probably a stupid question, I know. I'm looking around for "artistic" rings or "alternative" rings, I feel like if you're not putting a big ol shiny stone on a ring, 1,500 dollars can probably land something pretty nice. My girlfriend isn't vein, if I put a rubber band around her finger and called it an engagement ring, she'd proudly show it off. But she's the best person in the world and I want to get her something special. Any advice would be helpful. If I'm not being clear enough about what it is I'm trying to pull off, I'll try and be clearer. Also, like an idiot, I missed the part in the OP about this. So I'll poke around in the non-traditional section there. RingDetective fucked around with this message at 15:57 on Aug 25, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 15:50
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A moissanite ring would probably be a good fit for you. Obviously, the finger the ring is on counts more than how the ring looks but generally having a shiny stone of some sort is a good call. Since she'll be wearing it everyday, having the gem be the kind of stone that can take a beating helps. I loved the ring I got from these folks: http://shopping.schubachstore.com/moissanite Beth was a great saleslady, toss some lover he way. At your budget, you'll be able to get a ring that says "engagement ring". I've had friends get other stones or even engagement rings with non-precious or no stones. They aren't as noticeable, which may or may not matter to you and your lady-friend. But I think part of the joy of love is the display so something more traditional looking was a good fit for us. Another interesting choice might be to go to Chinatown and get a rockin' pearl ring. I think that'd look cool.
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Aug 25, 2014 18:38
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Thanks, that's a good call. I've also done some poking around in the OP and I think I may like the look of this one: http://www.krikawa.com/jewelry/body-of-work/details.aspx?style=70 I just have to be careful that I'm shopping more for her taste than mine. One thing I do need to be careful about, and she warned me about this, is that I can't have a very big stone on there as she has smaller fingers. So this might be right about correct? It doesn't seem huge or anything.
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Aug 25, 2014 18:44
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RingDetective posted:Thanks, that's a good call. I'd do some digging to just figure out what kind of stone/color she likes the best. I kind of dug around and found my fiance wanted a black diamond and hated gold. Once I knew the stone, setting metal and budget it REALLY narrowed down the field. She ended up with a nice silver engagement setting that had a black diamond instead of a white one...which netted her a larger stone she was happy with.
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Aug 25, 2014 20:28
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So brides and grooms, do any of you have a large-ish gap between ceremony and reception, and how did you manage this? Did you plan things for people to do or just leave everyone to their own devices? We are still in early stages of planning, but are drawn to the idea of having an informal party in the evening in lieu of a formal reception. Without the whole wedding breakfast + buffet deal I'm not sure how things would work unless we have a very late ceremony! On that note, have any of you had/planned a later ceremony? What are you doing earlier in the day?? I am so not good at decisions.
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Aug 25, 2014 20:45
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Robot Mil posted:I am so not good at decisions. Nor at clarity  What have you nailed down, exactly? It's quite typical to have a late afternoon ceremony and an evening reception... you spend the earlier part of the day getting ready, or just chilling out if you have less to do.A large gap between events is a bad idea for anything but a destination wedding, IMO, unless you're running separate guest lists. BRAKE FOR MOOSE fucked around with this message at 21:12 on Aug 25, 2014 |
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Aug 25, 2014 21:07
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A gap isn't necessarily a bad thing, I recently attended a wedding with a 3 hour gap and it was nice to go get a snack and take a quick nap. HOWEVER, that wedding was in a city with 1,001 things to do nearby (San Antonio) so it was easy to find a way to fill the gap. If your wedding is in the middle of nowhere it's going to be an inconvenience. As for your question about what to do all day wedding activities don't start when the ceremony starts, it's an all day thing. We had a standard 2 PM ceremony. For myself and my bridesmaids we had to be at the hair salon by 9 that morning and didn't get out of hair/makeup till a little after noon. Then we had to get dressed and do a session of pictures which took us straight to when we had to leave to get to the ceremony location and our reception was immediately afterwards starting at 4ish and going to 11 PM. We had zero down time. One thing to keep in mind is your venue will kick you out at a certain time or after a set number of hours, so don't book a venue with a midnight cutoff and schedule your party to start at 9.
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Aug 25, 2014 22:02
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Been doing a lot of work with our wedding planner picking venues, and thinking about catering. gently caress this a lot of stuff to think about. Anyway, spotted this in a magazine in my doctors waiting room. These people win worst wedding ever 
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Aug 26, 2014 02:15
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Robot Mil posted:So brides and grooms, do any of you have a large-ish gap between ceremony and reception, and how did you manage this? Did you plan things for people to do or just leave everyone to their own devices? My ceremony location is about 20 minutes from the reception location. The ceremony has to end by 2pm because...all places around me are like this and its annoying...and the reception can't start until 6pm. The gap sucks, but we blocked off a hotel that a LARGE chunk of people will be staying at and it has a pool, a bar, live music, etc. that they can enjoy in the meantime. This also gives people a chance to take home kids since our reception is no children what-so-ever. The wedding party in this time will be enjoying a limo and taking pictures at a few locations.
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Aug 26, 2014 12:57
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Shbobdb posted:Since she'll be wearing it everyday, having the gem be the kind of stone that can take a beating helps. Yeah, unfortunately I think this is precisely why you don't really see pearls in rings or bracelets -- they're just too soft! Someone correct me if I'm wrong, cos I'd love the idea of a pearl ring otherwise. RingDetective, have you looked into Claddagh rings? My friend has one and she loves it.
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Aug 26, 2014 17:12
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disheveled posted:Nor at clarity Heh sorry, not very much to be honest!! We want to hire a bar for the evening (we are having a very relaxed, non-traditional wedding) so imagine that a party there would start around 6pm. The bar we like is in the centre of our city, and there are tons of options for the ceremony - there's a couple of places within the city which would just be a few minutes drive away, or even walkable. There are some other options that are a good half hour drive away. The most basic option would be a registry office wedding (although luckily our registry is in a really cool building!) but the latest they do ceremonies is 1pm. I feel really conflicted at having separate guest lists for the ceremony and 'after party'. On one hand I'd quite like to just have immediate family and a couple of close friends at the ceremony itself. That way we could have an earlier ceremony and perhaps go for a meal afterwards. Then the bulk of people would all be invited to the main party. On the other hand I'd be inviting a chunk of people from out of town and I'm not sure how they'd feel about coming down just for an evening bash. Most wouldn't be travelling too far, perhaps between one and four hours, but would probably need to stay overnight. Aquatic Giraffe posted:
I suppose I was considering having the ceremony at around 3-4pm with everyone invited (e.g. no separate evening guest list), and heading straight for the party after that (with a bit of time for the photos, we probably won't do too many). That's a lot of time beforehand to be hanging about, even with time for hair and make up, and obviously we'd need to eat!
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Aug 26, 2014 17:59
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Robot Mil posted:Heh sorry, not very much to be honest!! We want to hire a bar for the evening (we are having a very relaxed, non-traditional wedding) so imagine that a party there would start around 6pm. You also have to put up all your decorations/pick up flowers/meet the cake delivery people/caterers/etc. There is A LOT of behind the scenes work on your wedding day. A lot of it can be delegated, but you still need to be on top of it all. Trust me, you will have very little down time. What do you mean by renting out a bar? Is it a restaurant that has a bar, or an establishment that primarily serves alcohol? If it's the latter, how are you planning on feeding everyone? Have you called around to see if it's even possible? If my quest to find a rehearsal dinner venue is any indication, restaurants will either tell you no or will charge a ridiculous fee to cover their lost income from that night (one restaurant wanted a $1500 minimum tab to rent out their patio for 10 people, not even the whole restaurant).
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Aug 26, 2014 18:24
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One of my coworkers rented out the top floor of a bar/pub for their reception and it worked out really well! I'd have to ask him about the details of the agreement, but it appeared that they just had a short list of cocktails that were discounted since they fit the wedding theme and an open tab at the bar. They didn't have any kind of DJ and the space was small enough that they never needed a microphone to make announcements. There was a jukebox in the corner and a table with various finger foods and two different kinds of wedding cake (I think one of the bride's close friends does a lot of baking.) It was laid back and fun. Everybody had a good time talking and drinking and the groomsmen kept calling the newlyweds over to do shots. If you're interested in a bar you might look for one with a separate room or floor that can be reserved.
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Aug 26, 2014 18:54
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:You also have to put up all your decorations/pick up flowers/meet the cake delivery people/caterers/etc. There is A LOT of behind the scenes work on your wedding day. A lot of it can be delegated, but you still need to be on top of it all. Trust me, you will have very little down time. Yeah we're really not having a traditional wedding, not even sure there will be flowers or decorations! Some of the ceremony venues we are considering are beautiful in themselves and won't really need decoration on top of that. The place we're looking into for the party is a bar (specialising in cask ales) where you can rent out the entire top floor. It has a main area, a couple of separate sections and a private bar. They don't 'do weddings' but they do parties, and they can cater - pretty sure we can bring our own cake/dessert. We might put a few decorations up (so we'd need to figure out when to do that on the day) but it has a quirky vibe of it's own and we wouldn't want to shove a bunch of balloons and flowers all over it, they would just look out of place.
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Aug 26, 2014 18:58
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I recently got married & in the search for the perfect guide on financial & life planning I found the perfect guide on my bank's website: http://www.schwab.com/cms/P-1908717.0/Marriage.pdf Just wanted to share, it's amazing & unlike most other guides that confuse getting married with having a wedding (which we fortunately didn't have to do).
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Aug 27, 2014 04:41
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E: False alarm, put the wrong date in 
Bread Set Jettison fucked around with this message at 20:49 on Aug 28, 2014 |
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Aug 28, 2014 20:40
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Hello thread! I was looking for some general opinions on ballpark: - Officiant Fee(non-denominational professional) - DJ Fee - Classical ensemble at ceremony fee For reference this is a small city wedding.
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Aug 28, 2014 21:35
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Zeitgueist posted:Hello thread! Small city where? We got married in the DC area. We paid $1800 for our DJ and $450 for a string quartet from the local university's orchestra. We had a church wedding. Church and officiant was around $300.
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Aug 28, 2014 23:12
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| # ? May 9, 2024 23:54 |
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Aquatic Giraffe posted:Small city where? Florida. We're looking at half of that for DJ, twice that for strings, and about that for officiant.
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Aug 29, 2014 00:16
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