Christine, I think you read my mind! We don't have a Wii yet (they're insanely hard to come by around here), but i'm sure we will by the time we actually are ready to get married. We have played Guitar Hero together before, and my sister has a few DDR game pads. I was actually thinking of maybe just having our recption in the party room of like a Jillian's or a Dave and Busters so it was actually IN an arcade. We shall see...
I had my wedding at a restored traditional white chapel in MD. It accomodated the small wedding that I was going for and had a nice quaint white chapel feel. Then I had my reception at Buca di Beppo. Instead of wedding cake, we had their chocolate cake and cheesecake (to die for!) Best part is since we went for a simple small wedding, the gifts we received more than paid for the wedding.
Flowers - I bought 2 alter flowers, a bouquet of mix "fall colors" (gorgeous!) and flowers for the parents. Total cost was about $200.
Maid of honor? Bridesmaids? Best man? Groomsmen? we didn't have any. Was nice for our small wedding
Dress - bought one at David's bridal for $99. It was actually a light yellow bridesmaid dress.
Hair - Definitely got my hair and nails done before the wedding. I went to the Red Door spa and did it, very nice. I'm in love with that place now.
Photography - We splurged on this a little because we figured we wanted good pictures of our wedding. We got a few print photos but the photographer that we used offered us the entire DVD of all the pictures they took at the wedding. So I have hundreds of photos, which I am in the process of creating picture CDs for my family and if I find a website with enough free space, it will go on the web too.
Rings - we decided to splurge on rings a little too. Not the "2 months salary" thing but more than my initial thoughts. We figured we'd have the rings for life so that was more important than splurging on a wedding which lasts 1 day. I highly highly recommend the place we went to which is called Charleston Alexander. They have locations in MD but I think they have locations in VA as well. If nothing else, you can look at their website for ideas.
As for losing weight before the wedding, I was able to lose about 25 lbs or so. It helped a lot especially since the wedding dress was super tight when I bought it
ha, 2 months' salary on a ring--who ever came up with that "standard?" My sister called me during the week to see if we wanted them to take us to where her husband got her ring. As much as I like her ring, I told her that, no, multiple thousands of dollars is not within our price range (her ring cost about $5k).
For us, our number 1 financial goal right now is to purchase a townhouse in the fall (will run us about $300k--yes, for just a townhouse, squished between 2 others, no garage, and that's with us being flexible enough to move about 15 -20 miles further away from the city than we are now ), so any and all extravagant purchases will have to wait till after that.
While we will be going ring shopping soon, it is strictly to see what looks and feels appropriate. I 99% doubt that we will end up buying my ring from a jeweler, but rather that I will figure out what I want and then buy something that looks just like it online with an imitation diamond rather than a real one (if I even choose something with a diamond--blue sapphires and deep amethysts are also on my radar). As long as the setting is a good white gold or platinum, we can worry about purchasing a real diamond when we're more financially capable in the future.
While we will be going ring shopping soon, it is strictly to see what looks and feels appropriate. I 99% doubt that we will end up buying my ring from a jeweler, but rather that I will figure out what I want and then buy something that looks just like it online with an imitation diamond rather than a real one (if I even choose something with a diamond--blue sapphires and deep amethysts are also on my radar). As long as the setting is a good white gold or platinum, we can worry about purchasing a real diamond when we're more financially capable in the future.
Definitely look at Ebay - there are a ton of both natural and created diamond rings in all kinds of styles, for fractions of the cost that you'll pay at a jewelery store. Sarah and I had two proposals - one from her to me, one from me to her - and both of us got the rings on Ebay - they were natural diamond, both white gold, and cost us approximately $400 each. We were very happy with them (though we recently did an upgrade like you plan, Jilly, because our financial circumstances had improved...we originally proposed on a college student budget).
Are you signed up for Wii alerts? You can get them text-messaged to your phone when a Wii comes into a store near you. This is how my sister (who lives in Arlington) got hers:
Are you signed up for Wii alerts? You can get them text-messaged to your phone when a Wii comes into a store near you. This is how my sister (who lives in Arlington) got hers:
I don't do text messages on my phone, and I've checked a bunch of those Wii locator sites. A lot of them for some reason recently changed to only show Amazon, Ebay, Craigslist, and I think Walmart, whereas they also used to show Toys R Us and Target. I also found a link to find out when Target might have them, and it actually linked to a Target page that showed the availability of the Wii in loval stores. Most said "Out of Stock," but a few said they had them, so we called them all, and they all pretty much laughed at us and said no, they were out. We'd rather wait a few more months for one at a normal price than to pay for the bundles that have games we don't want or to pay some jerk on Ebay/Craigslist who got one and didn't want it for anything other than to make a profit. So we will just have to continue to be patient
I completely understand the townhome thing! DH and I plan to buy a townhome, most likely next year. The one good thing is prices are dropping here. Nearly 2 years ago, townhomes in the area we wanted were around $400k, now they are in the lower $300s. I'm hoping if I hold off until next year, they'll drop even further.
Also about gems/rings/etc, I did a lot of investigative research before we actually went ring shopping. We considered plain irish bands (dh is irish), we considered other gem stones, no gem stones, etc. I don't particularly care for created diamonds but I like natural gemstones so something like moissanite is also a good alternative. I like sapphires and rubies and emeralds($$$ but my birthstone) so I looked at all sorts of alternatives. And oh yeah, that "2 month" salary thing came from jewelers of course and I've known people that have actually tried to stick to it! Yikes!
I also told DH that he was to not buy me any more jewelry after this and there will be no upgrades in the future. We did go with platinum though mostly because I found out that I'm allergic to gold (although I also researched and found out the allergy is probably only american gold, other countries use silver in their gold, we use nickel).
I would definitely recommend looking on Ebay, as well. Especially if you are interested in a diamond ring, you can buy one for SO much less money than from a jeweler. I don't know if it's some sort of stigma about having someone else's ring or what. I have seen some beautiful rings on there. (I have found this true for second-hand wedding gowns, as well, if you are thinking about the cost of a gown)
Sapphires are gorgeous if you are considering that option, and they are much less expensive than diamonds, as I'm sure you are aware. One thing that jewelers have cautioned us about, though, is that sapphires are not as hard as diamonds, and can get scratched or chipped. We have looked at rubies as an alternative to diamonds, as they are very strong. BUT they can get just as expensive as diamonds.
PS- that is so crazy about your housing market! It makes me be glad to be in the midwest. We expect to get a 3 bed 2 bath house with a yard, and we can find a nice one for less than $110.
hello everyone, my fiance and i got engaged Jan. 9th of this year. He proposed to me on top of a mountain in Colorado on our annual snowboarding trip. It was soo sweet and a total surprise! (though we have been dating for almost 7 years and no one else was surprised) He knows how picky i am about jewerly so he got me earrings instead and when we came home, we went to pick a ring together. He said he researched different school of thoughts on proposing...i'm so proud of him. Anyway, we're planning for an Aug. 08 wedding, hopefully i will be done with my Masters and if i get into a Doctoral program that won't start till Sept. But i have to say i am the worlds worst bride. I never even considered what i would want a wedding to be like until he proposed...now i'm screwed, i have no clue what goes into a wedding, my mom asked me what colors i want and i kinda just stared at her. Colors???? Flowers?? Location???? DRESS??!?!?!?! totally clueless...I hope to pawn off most of the planning to someone else. However, i am using this as part of the reason i want to lose weight. Congrats to everyone here and good luck with all the wedding stuff!
Nickname - welcome! August '08 gives you tons of time to plan, so don't worry! Also, once you pick a location, things fall into place a lot easier, so go scouting for spots and relax!
after looking at all your plans for your wedding i have to ask....Do you take personal checks? siiiiiigh....the only thing i kinda have a clue about is where i want to get my cake from.www.charmcitycakes.com .
Last edited by nickname; 03-17-2007 at 01:35 AM.
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Nickname- Hi! Welcome and congrats! Mandalinn is awesome with all her plans, is she not? I would just like to echo her thoughts- relax and have fun with it! Just thought I would mention a few of the things that all the wedding books tell you to do first-
"Envision" your wedding. Think about what you want.
Talk with your fiance and family about budget. Knowing about how much you can spend helps you narrow down choices.
Come up with a preliminary guest list- knowing about how many people you would like to invite really helps.
Best of luck to you. Don't let yourself get overwhelmed, because, really, this is just a fun party to celebrate YOU!
OMG you're going to have a charm city cake? I worship charm city cakes. Seriously. If only they were in California....
Trust me when I say that once you all hit the 5 week mark, you'll have this many details or more. Its so overwhelming at the beginning. Start with a vision and a general number of guests, and a rough budget. From there, pick a site, and pick a concept.
Once you have a concept, its a lot easier to pick the details. For example, we had the colors and the flower motif as our concept, it was easier to pick the invitations, the bridesmaid dresses, the table settings...it all falls into place a lot easier than it would seem. I promise.
I am good with concept, so if people have ideas that they need fleshed out, I am decent at matching details to the concept. I am doing that for my sister's wedding quite a bit (she is GREAT with details, and bad with overall vision) - and happy to help (especially once I get back from the honeymoon and have more time...
Mandalinn82 i just love the things they can do at charm city cakes, though i don't know what kind i want. But, like you said once i get a concept, it will fall into place. i want my bouquet to be gerbera daisies, i LOVE them. Wishing all the best for your wedding!
I love Gerberas. We are putting a single gerbera into each of our out of town baskets that are going in guest hotel rooms - such a bright punch of color to put into a room.
), so any and all extravagant purchases will have to wait till after that. 
