Woohoo! My ring setting came in early--we picked it up at Jared last night We'll go get a diamond from our jeweler on Saturday, and then it will finally be a complete piece I do have to take it back in to Jared today, though, because it looks like one of the prongs for the micro-set diamonds on the band is missing. They cover both the metal and the stones for life, so even if it is broken and a diamond falls out, they will repair/replace it, but I'd rather get it fixed before it gets to that point. It's not a noticable thing at all--you REALLY have to look hard to notice anything is missing--but I WAS looking hard because I'd tried on the same setting at Kay, and one of the side diamonds was missing, so I was super-checking everything over.
Cute bridesmaid dresses! I'm sure your maids will love not only that they are affordable, but that they are infinitely wearable after the wedding.
Yes, you'd say that you'll just let everyone sit whereever...until you realize that you have both work friends and your friend who tends toward being very sexually suggestive in the crowd...not to mention all kinds of people who refuse to sit near all kinds of other people...not to mention lots of uncomfortable family who'll need someone familiar nearby. Basically we assigned tables to create "buffer zones" - buffer zones from the very catholic family with my boss who starts spouting off controversial religious viewpoints when he has been drinking, buffer zones from our friend who hit on Sarah's stepdad before he knew he was Sarah's step dad...buffer zones buffer zones buffer zones.
lol I guess I am lucky..all my family is in Michigan and canada so only immediate family is invited to come down to the wedding. Then a seperate party will be held at my grandma's house for everyone that couldn't make it. So Ben would have to worry more about buffer zones and I don't think he cares
Just zipping through ladies, back from my mini vacation in LA and lots of work to get done here! Our annual gathering (dubbed “nonukkah”) was especially joyous this year as three engaged couples were in attendance. Must be something in the water.
Welcome new people, look forward to hearing about all your plans!
My df’s father hosted a lovely poolside engagement party for us and our friends on Sunday. Our close friends who are also engaged gave us a couple of books that are really interesting and useful, The Knot Complete Guide to Weddings in the Real World http://www.amazon.com/Knot-Complete-...5106583&sr=8-2 (from the same people at theknot.com) and the New Jewish Wedding http://www.amazon.com/New-Jewish-Wed...5106929&sr=1-1. Can’t wait till this work event is over on Sunday and I can start devoting a little time to seriously planning my own event!
The wheels in my head have been turning...Jeff and I are beginning a list of possible wedding locations (well, more like I am beginning a list and am mentioning places to him as I go along ). We both love penguins, and the New England Aquarium in Boston has 3 different penguin species, so that's at the top of my list right now. I love some of the venues available at the Sea World in San Antonio, but I think Boston would be better and less expensive travel-wise for us. Also, I have a TON of familly in Connecticut (where I grew up), so they would actually possibly be able to go if we did the deed in Boston. Sea World is still on my radar--it would just be a smaller group.
Then there's the idea of a hot air balloon. It seemed a little cheesy to me at first, but Jeff thought it sounded fun, and I agree. Plus, we really wouldn't have to worry much about what we're wearing since there wouldn't be much of an audience for the ceremony.
I was thinking about the National Zoo in DC, but I'm not sure I'd want to have an event at such a smelly place I love animals, and we live 10 minutes from DC, but being at a zoo, I don't think I'd want to wear much of a fancy dress
I'm also going to look into places like Jillian's and Dave and Busters (never been there, but I hear it's similar to Jillian's).
Oh, and I get to ge get the diamond for my engagement ring tomorrow, and I will pick up my perfectly sized setting today, so I should finally have a complete engagement ring by Sunday
The wheels in my head have been turning...Jeff and I are beginning a list of possible wedding locations (well, more like I am beginning a list and am mentioning places to him as I go along ). We both love penguins, and the New England Aquarium in Boston has 3 different penguin species, so that's at the top of my list right now. I love some of the venues available at the Sea World in San Antonio, but I think Boston would be better and less expensive travel-wise for us. Also, I have a TON of familly in Connecticut (where I grew up), so they would actually possibly be able to go if we did the deed in Boston. Sea World is still on my radar--it would just be a smaller group.
Jill,
I love penguins too! I didn't know about the aquarium in boston. DH and I plan to go to NJ to visit their aquarium sometime soon because they have penguins.
I also want to see them in the wild, particularly in Patagonia (either Argentina or Chile) and New Zealand.
DH and I plan to go to NJ to visit their aquarium sometime soon because they have penguins.
The one in Camden, right across the bridge from Philadelphia? Been there! They do have a good penguin exhibit--they have the cute little African penguins. That's actually where my avatar photo was taken--it's small and blurry, so you can't really tell, but I was standing in front of the penguin exhibit in that photo.
I want to see them in the wild, too--there's an island in southern Australia where the penguins apparently walk along the beach each evening. I don't remember what it's called--I'll have to see if I can find it again.
The one in Camden, right across the bridge from Philadelphia? Been there! They do have a good penguin exhibit--they have the cute little African penguins. That's actually where my avatar photo was taken--it's small and blurry, so you can't really tell, but I was standing in front of the penguin exhibit in that photo.
I want to see them in the wild, too--there's an island in southern Australia where the penguins apparently walk along the beach each evening. I don't remember what it's called--I'll have to see if I can find it again.
Such neat, unique location selections! Gosh, how much fun would a wedding at a zoo be? Our location is pretty, but not really unique - ah well. We loved it as soon as we stepped out of the car, which has to be a good sign, right?
People are signing up for the shuttle (affectionately named "The Booze Bus") like crazy - makes me feel better, because I want everyone to be safe and get home OK. Lots of people are even taking public transit from San fran or other nearby spots and catching the bus - makes the money we paid for it worthwhile. I am thinking of doing a little welcome video for them to play on the bus ride up - a slideshow of pictures of us with a little voiceover welcoming people, saying how glad we are that they could join us, etc. I think it'd be cute - I just have to decide if its too much work. It shouldn't be too bad - assemble pictures, put into an easy powerpoint template, write and record a script for the voiceover...I might be crazy, but it seems do-able at this point.
Our lucky bamboo is due to arrive today - my house is going to be -filled- with green plants for the next month. We also have to go buy the wine this weekend, as well as snackies and water for the folks who are staying in hotels.
Honeymoon shopping is going well...and boy, do I like the built in budget/excuse to buy new clothes! But I don't have -any- clothes that fit from last summer, when I was a sz 18-20...so we are literally starting from scratch. I did get some fabulous formal dresses on ebay - the "formal nights" on the cruise could have killed our budget, as formal dresses often run into the 100.00 range, but with ebay I got both dresses I needed for $50.00 including shipping. Still, we're lacking in "nice casual" clothes for the other dinners. They say to wear what you would wear to an "upscale restaurant" - and we don't have much of that, mainly because with me working at home and Sarah working at a floral shop, the clothes we've purchased as we shrunk sizes have been almost exclusively casual...jeans, sweaters, t-shirts, etc. And I -love- to shop, but buying an entire new wardrobe has been a little exhausting. We're almost all set now, but we still need to pick up some last minute stuff this weekend.
mandalinn--we NEED a unique location since we don't want to have a traditional ceremony/reception at all. I don't want to have to dance at all--hoping to not even have a dance floor available--and I don't want to mess with the whole garter thing with the tossing of the bouquet and whatnot. We don't have a lot of friends our age, so 99% of the guests will just be family and older than us. Every wedding I've been to, it was like pulling teeth to get the "single ladies" onto the floor to catch the bouquet. I've even been witness to occasions where the bouquet landed on the floor and all us single ladies just stood there and stared at it like it was carrying some sort of infectious disease until one girl finally bit the bullet and picked it up If I still had all my friends from college and whatnot, it'd be a different story, but we all live so far apart now and have lost contact.
In other news...I got my ring! In its entirety--diamond and all! Here's a not-so-great picture, but hopefully you'll get the idea. It's white gold and has a round diamond in a 4-prong setting in the center with a square-cut (but tilted, so more like diamond-shaped) blue sapphire on each side, and 5 additional tiny round diamonds set in the band on each side beyond the sapphire. I LOVE it!
Mandalinn- Glad to hear your "booze bus" is going well. I hope you don't drive yourself too hard with your introduction video, but it does sound awfully cute it you decide to do it. Sounds like it's all coming together, less than 4 weeks, wow!
Jilly- What a pretty ring! You must be thrilled to have it on your finger. You mentioned the garter and bouquet toss, and I thought I would mention what we are talking about doing. Neither of us likes those traditions, so we decided to toss them. The whole idea of me sitting on a chair and him going up my dress for a crowd just doesn't do it for me. Anyway. We are completely forgetting the garter toss. And, I read this idea somewhere, and once I heard it, knew I wanted to do it. With my bouquet (or a bouquet, the bouquet is a whole 'nother story) we are going to figure out which couple in attendance has been married the longest. Then Micah and I will present the bouquet to that couple to honor them. I thought that was so sweet.
For us- We went to a local jeweler on Friday, and talked with him about designing a ring. I'm excited! It does mean I probably won't have a ring on my finger till mid-May, though. I guess having a unique ring for the rest of my life is worth waiting a few weeks.
Christine, I have read about doing that with the bouquet online as well. I think it's a great idea if you've got a bit of a crowd, but I'm thinking we will end up with 50 people or less at our event. I don't think we're going to do anything with the garter/bouquet at all. A unique ring is definitely worth the wait. That's why I picked the one I have now--sure they sell it at Kay and Jared, but we actually went to 4 different Jared stoes, and they only had it in 1 of them. I've never seen anyone else have the same one, and when we went to the jeweler where we got our diamond, he said he could custom make a ring for me, but I had fallen in love with this one. We flipped through literally over 500 pages of engagement ring settings in the books from which they order (figure at least 10 rings per page, so yeah, you do the math ), and we couldn't find ANY like mine. They offered to custom make it for me but said it wouldn't be much cheaper than just buying it at Jared, so that's what we did. Maybe I'd have a custom ring if I had any idea what I wanted, but I didn't, and then I fell in love with this one when I saw it. Of course, now I have no idea what to do for a wedding band, but we've got some time to ponder that
Alright, back to drinking lots of water and healthy eating--I've got at least a year till we tie the knot, and I want to have a much smaller figure than I do now when the time comes! I don't have a specific goal in mind--just to make some progress in the right direction
Jilly,
Your ring is beautiful With my bouquet, my first thought was I spent $75 on it and I'm supposed to throw it? I think not I think a nice brunch or dinner without dancing is really a nice way to do a smaller wedding.
We have three engaged people coming to the wedding - we are debating just gifting our bouquets to the two with weddings coming up next (a cousin and a friend). They are going to be really gorgeous, but we're not going to be able to get them preserved, so we figure someone ought to enjoy them.
The intro video is done and actually pretty cute! It only took a few hours and it makes me feel a lot better...starting off people's experience with a personal touch. We are trying really hard to make the whole wedding unique and special with all of these little touches, so hopefully it all works out in the end.
We had a CRAZY wedding weekend - so much got done! This is a very good thing, because there was a LOT to do, but most of the items on the list got checked off and its looking like we are in pretty good shape. We also have the guest list finally nailed down - it looks like we have 68 guests attending. I think thats the perfect number - a big party, but not overwhelmingly huge.
The lucky bamboo got delayed, which is a bummer, but I'm sure it will get here in time. We finally nailed down the schedule for the big day, down to the last detail, and got the song list to our DJ. We also FINALLY wrote our ceremony, which we had been way behind on, so thats a major relief. Now we just have packing and some minor detail work to do (printing wedding programs, assembling the favors, packing for the honeymoon, and prepping for my sister's wedding shower, which is the weekend before our wedding). All in all we're in MUCH better shape - and better yet, we're actually right on target budget-wise, so thats good.
Jilly - what a GORGEOUS ring. Its so nice to have something unique!
I do have to take it back in to Jared today, though, because it looks like one of the prongs for the micro-set diamonds on the band is missing. They cover both the metal and the stones for life, so even if it is broken and a diamond falls out, they will repair/replace it, but I'd rather get it fixed before it gets to that point. It's not a noticable thing at all--you REALLY have to look hard to notice anything is missing--but I WAS looking hard because I'd tried on the same setting at Kay, and one of the side diamonds was missing, so I was super-checking everything over.
I love animals, and we live 10 minutes from DC, but being at a zoo, I don't think I'd want to wear much of a fancy dress 
With my bouquet, my first thought was I spent $75 on it and I'm supposed to throw it? I think not 