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In addition to working toward my BA in English, I’m a preschool teacher. I don’t usually blog about this because if I started, it’d open a floodgate–what cute things each kid has done that day, etc. And of course, I want to protect the kids’ privacy. So I’ll just say “I’m a preschool teacher” and leave it at that.
I landed the job in September of last year, after our wedding date had been firmly established. It was shortly after that, though, that I discovered when the last day of school is: Yep, May 25th. If the wedding were in my college town, or the preschool were in Kansas City, you bet your bippy I’d be there on the last day. But alas, it just isn’t possible.
This really makes me sad. Many of my students will be advancing to kindergarten, so I won’t be seeing them again very frequently, if at all. It breaks my heart that I’ll be missing their last day; that I’ll have to say my goodbyes several days prior.
But I’m not just telling my sob story for pity… Did your wedding accidentally coincide with another big event? How did you/will you cope with it?
That’s it. I’m relocating the wedding. The cuteness of these favors/placecard holders surely warrants a 2,441 mile move to the Adirondacks, doesn’t it? Hello? Shirley?
At 3.25 inches high, they come standard in natural–or they’ll paint them for $1 more each (although I think this is the sort of DIY project that even I could handle). Check them out here. Oh, and the minimum order is six; very, very small weddings need not apply.
And the best part is, you can sell any leftovers to people who collect these. Just say it’s a previously undiscovered Eames design.
It’s time to make the babies! Okay, it’s not. It’s time to change the way I DON’T make babies. As sad as it makes me, watching my hard-working eggs give up month after month, I need new birth control. I know this has been blogged about previously, but I figured why not give the topic another spin.
I’ve been on the same birth control pill for nine years. That’s a freakin’ long time to put something hormonal into your body. Well, since I’ll probably be using another form of birth control with hormones, that’s not really what I was concerned about. I think I was lucky, no side effects of the pill when I took them. Maybe some of my weight gain has to do with it now, though. (Just fishing for other reasons I’m fun-sized.) Is it possible to have side effects nine years later? I dunno.
Anyway, I’m looking for a switch. I’d preferably want to be put on another pill, possibly a low-dose pill, although I’m not quite sure how it works. Also, I’d hate to have to spend a large amount of money on a new pill. I’ve heard there are different types, but the ones without generic pill options can be a real fund-wrecker. I don’t know what I’d like to do, to be honest. I’d really rather have something that you do once a day (or similar) instead of every time you feel like “getting down”, although I’d really rather just not use anything. Ugh.
What birth control do you recommend?
As I look at all of the couples passing me on the streets of Vegas, I can’t help but wonder how many of them will be impulsive and have a quickie wedding this weekend. The statistics say that there are 120,000 weddings in Vegas each year, but many of those are planned weddings. And since Vegas got rid of the 24 hour marriage license service there must have been a slight decrease. Still, I am sure that there are several weddings going on as I type this message.
What do you think of Vegas weddings (spontaneous or planned)? I have known two couples who got married in Vegas, one planned and one quickie, and both couples are still together, both have had children, both seem incredibly happy and have wonderful relationships. In my opinion it all comes down to the intentions behind it. If you are with the person that you know you will be with for the rest of your life then I don’t think it matters much where and when you get married, so long as you are making that lifelong commitment freely and thoughtfully.
The question that I would have is “are you able to make that sort of commitment on a moment’s notice?” I suppose that most of us make that commitment the moment that we say yes to any sort of spontaneous proposal, whether we get married that day or a year later. What do you think - can a quickie marriage last? Is there any conditions under which you would’ve considered a quickie Vegas wedding before you got engaged?
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The best posts from this time last year…
Update: Html added! 
Thanks to everyone who entered yesterday’s Bridal Show Goodies contest! We had no idea so many of you would enter, so we used our random number generator to select one winner. Congrats to hanhk! We’ll be shipping out your prize this week.
And here’s something that’s a little fun - we had a couple of weddingbee buttons made for any of you that want to put one on your blog. We hope you like them!
Create the honeymoon of your dreams.
Ok, so in the comments of Miss Kiwi’s “Gimme Gimme Money” post, Sarah wanted some info about giving cash (or a check) as a gift:
How much is expected? How much do you usually give? What is expected? Do you cover the cost of your plate or is that etiquette from the past?”
Paying Your Own Way?
The one that I can answer (or so I believe) is the “cover your plate” query. You don’t have to do that. I mean… That could get pretty pricey, especially if you had to attend a wedding like this one. And on a more realistic level, even a very high end NYC wedding could have you considering knocking over a convenience store. To keep it real, more than a couple of venues start at $250/per person, not including the 22% (!!) service fee (don’t confuse this spurious, rip-off fee with a gratuity-your vendor will expect that on top) and the 8% tax. I’m no mathematician, but that seems like a heck of a lot of money to give as a gift. And the same goes on the other end–if someone has a modest backyard wedding, you ought not reduce your gift accordingly. So, yeah, to summarize you should give what you give, cost-of-wedding notwithstanding.
All About the Benjamins (and Jacksons, and Lincolns, and Washingtons…)
Now onto the cold hard numbers-what do you give?
It know it’s trƒ¨s gauche to discuss dollars and cents, but I also know (because I sure have looked!) that there’s just a dearth of answers out there. Let’s overcome this problem, Bees, and complete a little poll to help me all of us get a handle on what the kids are shelling out these days. And, to be somewhat specific, let’s divvy this up by regions/types of areas to make it a bit more accurate. Feel free to elaborate in the comments!!
Find your geographic area and then click on what amount you give, per person (since a lot of us give joint gifts as a couple, just divide that number in half so we can get a per person idea of things).
In today’s hive:
To add your question to the beehive, leave a comment below and we’ll update this post to include your question. See all past beehives here.
I got to wait in the room where mothers and their babies sit during church–a room where you can see out but not in! Cool, eh?
My dashingly handsome Mr. Peach waiting to enter:
Big news! Mr. Lovebug and I have our first cake consultation tomorrow! I’m so excited! I’m going to get this wedding ball rolling! I’m completely, utterly unprepared!
We found this amazing, Siberian-born pastry chef named Ella. She was recruited by the Moscow government to be, like, Yeltsin’s personal baker or something, then subsequently schooled in Switzerland and France. Even just speaking to her on the phone, I can tell she’s a top-of-her-class, type-A pastry wunderkind. Her cakes are absolutely jaw-dropping. I’m absolutely terrified to meet her.
Every cake she bakes is designed from scratch based on the couple’s ideas. Ella is clearly a master craftsperson used to women with definite opinions about what they want. She asked us to bring our “thoughts and inspiration” with us. Dress swatches, ribbon, flowers, photos, sketches…
We’re bringing a necktie. Read more…
In my “Gimme Gimme Money!” post, Suzy posted a difficult question. What do you register for when you live in Asia, but your wedding is in America? Ever since my brother moved to Australia, I know it’s hard and costly to ship things back and forth from here to there, and the outlets aren’t the same. So sending a blender their way wouldn’t make much sense!
Suzy has the same predicament. While she’d like to register for things in the States for their guests’ convenience, it would cost a lot to ship these items back to Asia, when they already have most of their housewares anyway. I know I’ve publicly blogged about honeymoon registries and things like that, but it sounds like Suzy has no other options: cash, honeymoon registry, or nothing.
I don’t know Suzy, but I do know most brides aren’t marrying for the gifts/money that come with it, and we’d all love for our family and friends to enjoy themselves at our weddings, and that’s gift enough. Most guests, however, want to give a gift of some sort, so…
What do you think she should do?
Since our wedding reception will be a dessert buffet instead of a sit-down dinner, and our day-after celebration will be a brunch, the only ‘real food’ of the wedding weekend will be the rehearsal dinner. And man, am I looking forward to it!
The rehearsal and dinner will both be at the venue, which makes things easy for us! We’re starting the rehearsal at 5:00 and plan on doing two run-throughs. Dinner should start at 6:00, and we’ll be feasting on:
Buffet dinner to consist of:
House Salad with choice of 2 dressings
Toasted Ravioli and dipping sauce
Chicken Spiedini w/ lemon & garlic marinade (side of spaghetti & red sauce)
Fettucini Alfredo w/ shrimp
Green Bean Almondine
Assorted Rolls & Butter
Assorted Desserts (Tiramisu, Cannoli, Cheesecake)
Soda, ice tea, water & coffee
Wine and beer Read more…
My friend Judith, who I met through Ladies Who Launch, recently started a DVD invitation company called Reel Invitations. In order to build up her invitation gallery, she’s giving away a DVD invitation package to one lucky couple!
The DVD contains:
Everything will be packaged in an envelopment tri-folder with a traditional paper invitation and RSVP card and envelope. Judith is super nice and easy to work with, and I’ve heard that these dvd invitations have been a huge hit with guests.
For more information or to enter, contact Judith at judith@reelinvitations.com. This offer is restricted to couples who live in New York or the surrounding area, and are getting married within the next 8 months.
A few weeks ago I found out that Mr. Bluebell’s brother (who’s in high school) has a facebook account. (Not so surprising, eh?) So I figured I should invite him to be my friend the next time I was on facebook, since I am very very rarely on there. I asked him the other day and today I finally got around to checking and he accepted! So that was nice, but not the point of my post. The point is that he also filled out the little “how you know each other” option and he chose “family”!! 
I cannot tell you how much that made my day! I just love thinking how all his friends will be scrolling along and see me and think “who’s that girl?” and then say “oh, she’s in his family!” Haha okay yes, I am a loser, but it just warmed my heart soooo much knowing that this high school kid really considers me a part of his family. High school boys don’t tend to be the mushiest people out there, so it really got me choked up.
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