mandalinn, you are too funny. You from "I'm thinking of maybe doing this..." to "I finished it yesterday" in the blink of an eye I'm glad you're feeling good about where you stand with the big day coming up so soon and that everything is falling perfectly into place (despite the delayed bamboo, but it's lucky, right? so it will arrive on time ).
I have the slideshow up on youtube if anyone wants to see it...of course, its like 10 minutes long and probably not all that interesting if you don't know us...but I thought i'd offer anyway.
Sometimes I get a little bit over-the-top with showing people pics/videos/etc when it comes to the wedding, so wanted to make sure someone was actually interested before i posted the link - hehehe.
Jill, your ring is just gorgeous - you must be thrilled to finally have it! I still catch myself looking at my diamond all the time! I really like the setting of the sapphires - very unique!
Nothing new to report here - been doing a lot of online catalog searches for bridesmaid dresses - found a couple I like at Newport News, and one at Chadwicks. If the quality is ok, these would be much more reasonably priced alternatives to something from a bridal shop. One challenge I have is that one bridesmaid, my sister, is 41, and the other, Pete's niece, is 16. It's hard to find a style and a color that will work for both.
Cindy
i personally do not like the whole garter belt thing either, esp. in front of my grandparents!!!!! I think its kinda tacky, but that may be a cultural thing. Anyway, my fiance wants to have it, I told him he could wear the garter. As for throwing the bouquet, i was thinking about putting a gift certificate into some flowers and throwing that instead. Right now I'm trying to convience my fiance that having a wedding on a Friday is not illegal and that its okay have the ceremony and reception on two different days...siiigh...i have a loooong road ahead of me. Good luck to everyone else.
Jill – What a gorgeous and unique ring! You must be thrilled to have it on your finger after all that searching.
madalinn – You sound like you’ve got things just about all set. That slideshow is such a fun idea, I bet your guests will love it.
That gift certificate in the bouquet is a great idea. I think I’m going to have a smaller “dummy” bouquet made for the toss. And then lob it directly at my cousin who has that whole rapidly-approaching-30-must-find-a-man-to-marry-now syndrome. I don’t get it myself, as I would have been prepared to go my whole life without getting married if I never found the right person, but I know it would make her happy to catch the bouquet.
I got myself measured for my bridesmaid dress for my friends’ (my maid of honor and my fiancée’s best man actually) wedding in the fall. Another chocolate brown dress I will probably never wear again, but oh well. It is quite cute but strapless so I really gotta start being more consistent with my lifting, must firm up my “flying squirrel” arms.
We put out deposit down on our ceremony site, so I feel like it’s really official now. Our date is May 25, 2008. I’m glad we’ve got more than a year because I think I’m going to need it!
Despite my crazy and stressed/busy state over the last couple weeks the scale is actually on the lower end of the range it’s been fluctuating in lately, so that’s good. I’ll feel better once I’m consistently weighing in the 160s again.
Jill - Your ring is GORGEOUS. You must be so thrilled with it! I have never seen one like it, you're right. And you know, the unique shape of it would allow you to do some pretty fun things with a wedding band, if you don't mind getting it custom made..... I'm just looking at the shape and I think it would look really neat to have a wedding band that nestles up in the little triangle-shapes made by the rotated sapphires. Maybe rotated square-cut diamonds in the band so that it kind of "locks in" with your engagement ring and works as one unit? That would look really neat, I think
Mandalinn - wow, you are really almost there, aren't you? You've accomplished a lot! I felt like I had done well by just calling and making hair appointments for me and my bridesmaids the other day Of course, I still don't have an officiant, but eh, what does that matter?
re: garter toss: NOT doing it. Creepy. Don't want people watching my fiance travel up my leg under my dress like that!
re: bouquet toss: can't decide. I don't have a whole lot of single friends anymore anyway... The gift certificate idea is actually really good, though instead of hiding it inside I could toss my bouquet and then whoever catches it can give it back to me and I give them a gift certificate I don't really want to give away my bouquet!
I finished my gift registry yesterday.... Which was a bigger task than one might imagine. Seeing as how Leo's not here to help, and I'm generally an indecisive person, it was hard! I'm really happy with what I've selected, though. I was planning on not making a registry and just asking people to pick things out themselves, but we met with SO MUCH resistance to that idea that I broke down and registered. I guess people want to be sure that we'll like what they pick!
Hey gals - britomart brings up a question I have: What are you doing for registering?
I ask because I am 43, and really don't need a lot of stuff. I've been living on my own forever, and have a fully stocked kitchen. I have a few neat items I want from William Sonoma, and I need silverware, but beyond that I'm stuck.
Do you gals have any suggestions for me? I wouldn't worry so much if it were just the wedding, but I am having a shower, and typically people don't give $$ for a shower.
Cindy
Cindy - you can register for just about anything these days. Major stores have like Target, which carry just about anything you want, have registries where you can add all kinds of things. Also, you can set up a honeymoon registry through several travel sites - pick your location and things you'd like to do, and guests can buy you each experience. You'd register for things like "sea kayaking and snorkel trip" and someone would pay the website the amount that thing cost - your vacation experience would then be pre-paid!
We also had much of our stuff, but we're still pretty young and a lot of it was hand-me-down or cheap college purchases, so we are mostly upgrading our equipment and then having a garage sale to sell the older items. We also registered for some furniture, including a new wine cabinet, to replace older items.
Sarah's mom will be attending the wedding as a guest, but won't be in any of the family photos, because she doesn't agree with the gay thing. So on her wedding day, my beautiful, loving partner won't have her mom with her. She just spent about half an hour throwing up from a stress migraine, and I am basically ready to kill someone.
Oh, by the way, two years ago when her mother got married, we disagreed strongly with her choice (he's pretty much an alcoholic, and super-controlling, and the second time we met him he got so drunk he peed all over Sarah's dads floor). We both attended the shower, even though we had to fly on a just-out-of-college budget. Sarah drove down with a car-full of flowers and did all the flowers for her mom's wedding. We went to the wedding, and even though I was engaged to her daughter and had been with her for 4.5 years, I wasn't in a single picture, even the big one with all the sisters and cousins and whathaveyous. She put me as an "And Guest" on the invitation (and again, we'd been together 4.5 years). We were there early to set up the flowers, we were there to take the pictures, and we generally smiled and acted jolly and never gave a hint of the fact that we didn't think this was a good idea.
Fast forward to now - she doesn't come to the shower, she is coming essentially as a "guest" at the wedding and isn't going to be in the family pictures, and is acting like we should be grateful she is showing up at all.
That is a shame. There was some drama at my wedding as well. DH's sister (her BF specifically) and his parents weren't getting along so they did the whole "I'm not coming if so and so is coming" thing. So DH's sister ended up not coming. It was a shame but there had been friction months before but they started the drama stuff about a week or 2 before the wedding.
Oh and about registering. We didn't register. We ended up getting some nice gifts as well as gift cards and money. We basically have everything.
Jeff and I have everything we need right now (since we've been living in our apartment together for a year and a half, and we'll be moving into a townhouse *hopefully* in the fall), but I want new stuff. Like others have mentioned, practucally everything I own is second-hand (or third or fourth) from friends and family. My dishes are so old that the blue design pattern around the edges is rubbed off in most spots. My silverware is an, hmm, eclectic collection of pieces from many many different styles, my crock pot is probably about 20 years old (that nice dark gold colored pot with the fake wood grain brown on the outside), my microwave is one my parents were going to throw away but gave to me when I went to college (7 years ago...)...you get the idea. Everything is functional enough, which is why I haven't replaced them, but I want something NEW and all my very own for once, ya know?
I've got quite a while before I get to think about registering for anything, though--I think at the earliest, we'll be tying the knot late spring 2008.
I’m sorry mandalinn, that really is a shame. I hope it doesn’t bring you down too much on your big day. Unfortunately we can’t control how family will react to our choice of partner.
Our wedding will be the first time my family will meet my fiancée’s dad with his partner, I’m really hoping it doesn’t get too awkward. His partner a wonderful and kind man, but being that he’s Iranian, Jewish, and let’s just say flamboyant, he’s kind of “out there” by families white, Catholic, midwestern sensibilities. I’m not sure how/if I should preface the situation before the wedding. What do you say? “By the way, df’s dad is gay, please don’t embarrass me by acting like small-minded bigots”?
Jill – I’m in the same boat with you regarding the registry. I can’t wait to have silverware and china that match! I’ll be making a few trips to Goodwill with donations after the wedding.
I'm glad you're feeling good about where you stand with the big day coming up so soon and that everything is falling perfectly into place (despite the delayed bamboo, but it's lucky, right? so it will arrive on time 
).
Of course, I still don't have an officiant, but eh, what does that matter? 
