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.
Sara-I wouldn’t say it was tacky (to each his own) but maybe a little poor in taste. Only because I have family that I too know will not be coming and they are saving my invite as a collectable type of thing. Overseas postage really isn’t that much especially if they do end up sending you a wedding gift, which they likely will. Personally I would send them the real invitation.
Ooooh. I have family in England too — I hadn’t even thought about the cost of postage to send there. Grr!! These silly little costs! 
I have a question. Does anyone have a reccomendation for a hairdress in NYC? We got 1 quote but it was $100 per bridesmaid. Is that the norm?
Need to start thinking about printing invitations, but coming from a Chinese family, I know both sides of our parents will want chinese in addition to English on the invitation. However I really like letterpress and was wondering if letterpress is available in Chinese?
You might want to try contacting Bella Figura (www.bellafigura.com). I talked to them briefly about printing my invitations in letterpress, which included arabic script. They said that wouldn’t be a problem, but it would be an extra fee. It might be worth talking to them about your options.
Jackie,
Your printer may not have Chinese type, but he/she can probably make a photo plate for letterpressing if you find provide the Chinese font and wording digitally.
Sara, I wouldn’t think so at all. I mean, only if you knew they would save your invite like bliss mentioned. But I don’t know anyone who saves invites unless maybe it is REALLY close family. (Again, to each his/her own, of course.)
Jackie - not sure if you are in the NYC or San Francisco area but H2 cards has bilingual printing in chinese. Just fyi, the instore selection is much greater and has more “american” styles.
I fell in love with this veil: http://www.ericakoesler.com/catalog2007s/veils/new07/pages/680-60_jpg.htm but it is rather pricey. Does anyone have any suggestions of a similar one for less then $200.
A friend invited me as a date to his friend’s wedding. I met the happy couple twice so we know each other but not well. What is the proper gift-giving etiquette for those who are the “plus one’s”? Does my date handle the gift? Do we give together or separately?
Sara- An alternate idea that is very much traditional-etiquette-sanctioned is to send them a wedding ANNOUNCEMENT, which is just one page generally, instead of a wedding invitation. The announcement can be sent any time right around or after the wedding; generally it’s better to send it afterwards so that the people don’t get confused about whether they’re actually invited or not. That might save you a bit of postage and money for invitations!
jackie- letterpress is now usually done by outputting a digital file and making a plate from the file rather than assembling moveable type of individual letters ala the guttenberg bible. so you are limited only by the fonts available on the computer of whoever lays out your invite. if you want to design your own invitations, mercurio bros letterpress (among others) will print your files for you. if you want to hire a company to do the layout and design for you, i assume you would discuss the chinese issue with your vendor extensively before hiring. you might also consider a hybred, where you hire a vendor to do most of the layout and design, but you send them the exact chinese text and they integrate it into the layout.
The one key I have figured out in all this is to send text to the printers after converting it to “outlines” - basically it turns all the letters into individual little shapes so the letters are properly visible even on computers that don’t have that font. Of course you can no longer edit the text after converting it to outline.
ERIKA:
I’m going to Paul LaBrecque Salon & Spa for my wedding hair and makeup.
They’re about $150 for bridesmaids but worth every penny!
Jessica, the Wedding Coordinator, is amazing.
http://www.paullabrecque.com/Bridal-Hair-Services-W66C96.aspx
I know this has probably been covered in Beehive before, but do anyone in Sf Bay Area have suggestions for makeup artists and hair stylists? I live in Berkeley. Thanks!
Hello! We are trying to insure my engagement ring and finding a good, reputable insurance company has been a bit difficult. As with most wedding decisions, the choices seem endless. Ideally, we would like a cash replacement policy (would be willing to pay a higher premium) but have discovered that replacement value insurance is what most companies offer.
I have already looked into Chubb’s and they now require that you have renter’s/homeowner’s insurance with them or purchase the ring from bluenile.com before they will insure the ring.
I am trying to decide between State Farm and Jeweler’s Mutual at this point. The premium is about $450 yearly for both companies so there is no difference there. Both companies do not offer cash replacement value insurance which is what I really wanted. State Farm will replace the ring though a jeweler of their choice while Jeweler’s Mutual will allow you to choose your own jeweler. My fiance’s thought is that State Farm is a large company and we can deal with an actual agent that we meet with. Also, Jeweler’s Mutual policy seems more like an actual cash value policy which is less than desirable to us.
Does anybody have any experience with State Farm vs Jeweler’s Mutual or would recommend any other company to insure an engagement ring? Sorry for the long post and would definitely appreciate any input. Thanks!
[...] M fell in love with this veil, but would like to find a similar one for less that $200. Can anyone point her in the right direction? [...]
Question: What does a bride do with her engagement ring during the ceremony? Move it to the other hand? Leave it on the left hand?? Thanks…
Jackie - If you want chineese characters letterpressed get a hold of me. It’s as easy as just about anything else. You get the characters correct and it’s no biggie printing it.
Cody
Beehive
Feature Launched: Aug 31, 2006
About: A forum for readers to post questions and get feedback from the hive, aka the weddingbee community.
Sara–do they read weddingbee? Honestly, if it’s at least a plausible looking invitation, they’re absolutely not coming, and they’re unlikely to talk to the Stateside crowd about the details of how the invite looks, I can’t see any harm in, say, leaving out the detailed lodging information. And if it’s a matter of the difference between a big ol’ boxed invitation (or a thick, expensive-to-mail square invitation) and a simple flat 5×7, that seems reasonable. On the other hand, if your “normal” invitation is a simple flat 5×7 and the overseas one is a postcard…that might be a little tacky, yeah.