Wedding Blog

Hi meg!

i did a 4 part series on similar companies (win free honeymoon, come listen to a seminar about cookware) that you can read here: http://www.weddingbee.com/2006/03/08/bridal-spam-and-scams-part-iv/

often the seminars involve high pressure sells, and the trips have so many restrictions that you really aren’t getting it for “free.” google them and you’ll come up with tons of entries. just be careful and do your research.
if it were me though… i’d be pretty wary.

good luck!

Meg — I’ve gotten several calls from companies like that where they tell me that I’ve won a vacation of some sort and I need to come to something at the Executive West in Louisville or something. Every time, I look up the company on the web, and I’ve never heard good things about them. I’d be very wary of anything associated with these companies.

melodiouscarol- In cutting down our guest list, with oot guests we asked- How often do we talk with them? If we haven’t had much contact over the last 6 months we cut them. With local guests we asked- If we move (which may happen after the wedding) will I keep in touch with this person? If not we cut them.

With A & B list just be sure you don’t send invites with the A list to people with friends on the B’list. There are people from my church who are A-list, but they won’t receive their invite until the B-list goes out because I don’t want it to get around that some people got their invites a month later.

I have a new question: where can I find a 2.5 mm eternity channel-set band that allows engraving on the inside of the band? The only eternity bands I’ve seen only allow engraving on the side of the ring.

melodiouscarol~ We’re having guest list issues too, not because we have a venue limit, but more because we want to keep it to close and personal friends who are genuinely happy for us and want to be there to celebrate our marriage. Here are some of our guidelines, albeit a bit harsh:
1) How often do we meet up w/ you? We’re planning on hand delivering our invites, not just to save on postage ;), but ’cause we figure if we don’t see you often enough to hand you an invite face-to-face, you’re not close enough to be invited.
2) They have your cell phone number. Am I the only one dealing lots of old school friends who I’ve, for the most part, fallen out of contact w/ but they all mistakenly assume they’re invited?? And I KNOW some of them don’t even have my current cell phone number- do you really expect to be invited to the wedding of someone doesn’t even show up on your caller id?
3) If you’re B-list and a belligerent drunk, you’re off the list. lol, this one is harsh. But I have a few iffy friends (mostly from #2) that I know would get completely smashed off the open bar and they’re not happy drunks~ they’re belligerent, probably-would-throw-up-on-my-fiance’s-shoes-kinda-ppl-and-I-will-NOT-have-that-going-on, esp if I was unsure about inviting them in the first place.
4) Did they congratulate you? I know when I hear about my friends getting engaged, I call them right away to say congratulations. It’s only natural. If you haven’t sought me out but you still assume you’re invited, you have a lot to learn about friendships, buddy.

But despite these guidelines I made for myself, there are still old friends that make the cut The girlfriend from high school who though you haven’t seen in six months, you know when you meet up, you can pick up the relationship right where you left off. And the friend you’ve had since elementary school, though nowadays you only see him online. It’s all about who you truly want to be there to share in the happiest day of your life =)

Melodious,

We separated ours into 3– A, B and C. I know it sounds bad, but it works to help organize and we are still only planning on 2 waves of invites, not 3. Anyway, List A was the people who absolutely HAD to be there. Immediate family (which for us includes aunts, uncles, first cousins, etc) and those in the wedding party went on this list. List B was family that didn’t fall into the immediate category and close family friends. List C was friends and our parents’ friends. Technically, Lists A and B would consitute most people’s A list and C would be the B list; so it really isnt that much different, but dividing it this way helped us visualize things better.

GeLLiBelly–I’m not sure you’ll be able to find anything like that; at least not in a quality piece of jewelry. You see, diamonds need space underneath to “breathe” and allow light in so it will sparkle more. You might be able to find an eternity band without the holes/spaces underneath, but I’m not sure I’d buy it.

Another option you could consider would be a 1/2 or 1/3-eternity band: it’s the same look, only not a true eternity. This is the route I would go, because I don’t like eternity bands–they’re very trendy, and personally I would always worry that one good bang of the ring could knock out stones–since they go all the way around, there’s no way to position the ring to protect the stones. Though diamonds are very strong, the *can* shatter or break, and by putting diamonds on the inside of your hand where the diamonds would frequently come in contact with hard surfaces (doorknobs, knife handles, shopping bags, etc.) offer too many opportunities for the stones to come loose and fall out. With a partial-eternity style, you can still have the “look” of eternity, w/o the dangers (and you can engrave the back half!)

hth!

Cessa-I leave mine on all the time, although I have a “flat” ring–not a sticky-up solitaire diamond. I just make sure to go back to the jewelry store where I bought the ring–a really nice independentally owned place, so they have great service–to have the ring checked for loose stones. They also clean it for free when I do this. I have to admit that this is one of the reasons I have a $600 ring instead of a $2000+ ring. I didn’t want it to be the end of the world if something happened to it.

Toki- Eggplant stirfry with tofu is just about my favorite dish. Think about any asian dish that has veggies and then substitute tofu for the meat. Like ginger stirfry with tofu or a curry. Or that dish with broccolli and it’s covered in peanut sauce.

Cessa: I wear my ring everywhere–I clean it with a toothbrush while I’m showering. I wear gloves when I’m doing the dishes.

If you have an activity that you don’t want to wear it for (like dishes or sleeping), you might want to invest in a cute ring holder and set the ring holder in a place you always take the ring off. That way if you’ve taken it off, you know where it is again afterwards.

Before I got my ring sized I took it off a lot, and I had several frantic searches of my apartment to try to find where I’d stuck it.

Thanks so much to everyone who answered my question! Fiance also said it sounds fishy, so we didn’t go to the presentation tonight. Mrs. Bee, your 4 part series was SO helpful! thanks!

haha! Thanks so much for your input, I found some of them amusing but helpful too! I will definitely start working in the direction you guys did.

any other brides out there paying for the entire wedding on their own? I am watching TV shows and hearing about other brides who’s families are helping them out. 2 cousins in my own family have their parents paying for 90% of their weddings. FI and I understand our parents have not offered to help out and that is fine, but it just feels terrible when you are struggling to pay for the wedding of your dreams and you have to watch money every step of the way. Anyone else feel the same way?

jess, my fiance and i are paying for our own wedding as well. (parents cannot afford to help us). i do find myself being very envious of other couples who do not have to worry too much about the cost of every item. even though they have to adhere to a budget, it still hurts more when it’s your own hard earned money! but my fiance and i also feel that we’ll appreciate every moment much more since we worked hard to pay for our day.

Lily,

I am using a DJ/MC from chinatown that knows mandarin, cantonese, and english. My FI saw him at his friend’s wedding and had to book him for ours. Check out http://www.sangalong.com