Wedding Blog
Mr. D’orsay and I have lived in lots of different places in the past year, but we haven’t always lived in the same places together. We’ve had time differences of 8, 7, or 5 hours, depending on my location. As you can imagine, this often makes catching up and staying connected a well planned operation. Being an international couple, we’ve found Skype to be a lifesaver. It was $2 a minute on a regular landline to call Mr. D’orsay, and I really couldn’t afford to talk to him for more than 2 minutes that way (I once had a phone bill over $400!!!). Skype is a FREE internet phone service. You simply download the program onto your computer.
When we first “Skyped”, I purchased a headset from Best Buy. So we were a go with audio, but we weren’t able to see each other since I didn’t have a web cam. My own laptop died so I hunkered down and purchased a Macbook instead of a PC. Then, we were able to video chat as well.
Surprisingly, connecting was much easier when I lived in Arizona.
Being 7 or 8 hours off meant that as Mr. D’orsay was having dinner, I’d be waking up, and vice versa. After I moved to Miami, the 5-hour difference was awful! I worked long hours and Mr. D’orsay would have to wake up at odd times just to speak to me!
Gchat is also a huge lifesaver. When I’d be at a desk, I’d always be on Gchat or Skype chat with him. In my experience, being a part of a long-distance couple means you have to use whatever technological means you deem necessary to stay connected and in touch with each other.
Are you and your beau in different time zones? How have you dealt with the time differences and staying in touch?
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i think i know my fiance better with a distorted voice and fuzzy webcam picture than face to face!! gotta thank the great person who invented skype though. they have been the savior to all long distance lovers all over the world!
Skype is awesome, have been using it for over 4 years now!
I just started my three month stint as 1/2 of a long distance relationship — so far texting and gchat have been the way to go. We also have webcams and did you know that gchat now has video chat?! All from within your gmail window! It’s great quality and really helpful so you don’t have to keep open too many applications. I love hearing about your long distance relationship — if you guys can do an 8 hour time difference — we can handle three!
For the first six months of our relationship, Mr. Cookie lived in Denver and I was living in Washington DC, a two hour time difference. We had a set time of 9:02pm Eastern, when my unlimited phone minutes kicked in, to talk every evening. I didn’t get a lot of sleep those six months!
Skype is such a lifesaver!! I’ve been using it for the last four years, with the beau in Scotland and me in Texas/Connecticut.
I’ve also found that phone cards can be a pretty good deal too, for when one of us is away from a computer for an extended period - http://www.zaptel.com has several that are around 3cents per minute US to UK, and you can buy phone cards in any UK post office that get a decent rate too. Very helpful for calling the family back home whenever I’m visiting him, since my parents can barely turn on a computer!
@ englishmuffin, I know what you mean! Half the time he sounds like R2D2 and looks a bit like Kermit the Frog!
We have Skype “dates”- once a week we set a time that we “meet” online and spend time with each other. Before we started doing that, we were both too busy and tired and opted for phone conversations instead.. but it is so important to be able to see the face, at least once a week!
I really need to fix the internet at home. I would totally be Gchatting via video and skypeing the FI. (Can’t at work…understandable but a bummer.)
I do like the phone cards and a lot of them don’t realize that a UK mobile starts with 07, so I still get the landline rate of 3 cents. (Sprint however has caught on, now it’s like 50 cents a minute to a mobile.)
FI and I have a set time on weekdays to chat. 4pm (9pm for him) on MWF and 5pm (10pm) on TTH. Rugby always gets in the way of phone calls…so we work around it! Weekends, it’s after both our rugby matches and it works out really well.
While I was studying abroad in London with him on the West Coast, we were 8 hours apart and definitely lost a lot of sleep finding times to skype. Then the roommate that was paying for internet moved out and I couldn’t really afford the set up costs for my own (yes, this was when the exchange rate was at its worst!) so we started just recording videos for each other and emailing them. It would have been torture without skype, I don’t know how long distance relationships ever worked without technology!
i love skype. i’m 3 hrs behind the bf so we rely heavily on phone calls [often late night we're so tired we're practically mumbling but it's better than not hearing our voices type of calls] and we recently added skype to the routine when we purchased webcams last year. skype makes the months between visits not as horrible. at least i get to see him.
Yeah Skype and Yahoo voice has helped my relationship since I am in iraq now. We are nomally deployed if not both of us then one of us is most of the time. At one point I was in Afghanistan and he was in Iraq thank God for Skype because I am not sure I could have made it out of that horrible place without talking to him on a regular bases.
Right now I am working nights here and it works out fine for him since Iraq is 8 hrs ahead. I can talk to him while he is up and don’t have to worry about waking him up in the middle of the night.
I’m so happy that I’m not the only one who had been in a long distance relationship. My F and I have been long-distance since we first met in Italy. With him in CT and I in CA and different cell companies, bills came out to be very expensive (once for me $600). We’ve recently discovered Skype and I must say what a difference. We try to talk every night just to see each other <3
Mr Peng and I aren’t exactly long distance… we’re married, of course, but I’m typically away from home 4-5 days a week working. We communicate via phone… he refuses to embrace my love for GChat. He is so old skool 
He calls me at lunch and then right when he gets off of work every day. I’m glad he calls… I’m afraid I would forget if he left it up to me. I am a horrible wife.
Mr. L and I skyped for about a week before going back to the good ‘ol phone. Seeing him but not being with him was actually pretty hard for me! What saved our long distance relationship was finally getting on the same cell phone provider. And like Tea, I’m usually incoherent and half asleep when we finally say good night to each other.
You know what I love about Skype? My Skype logs with Mr. Avocado. We were friends that used Skype A LOT before we started dating and I love reading through our logs to see how our relationship developed. I was always trying to drop little hints and he never seemed to get any of it.
we did phone and aim — i was in la and mr. bee was in ny. luckily he was a super night owl, so it actually worked out perfectly.
We discovered Skype when I went to Italy for most of 2007. I can’t say enough about it…I mean, free webcam chats? It did wonders for my relationship. We talked nearly every day, before I went to bed (dinnertime for him). We were able to discover that we really enjoyed and cared about each other, even with the physical part an impossibility. I moved back to be with him, and in early 2008 we were engaged. Thank you, Skype gods!
text and phone calls. We have the family account for Verizon and we have free verizon to verizon calls.
Verizon is ever more awesome since my FH is all over the place in the military and can always get a signal with them.
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Mrs. D'orsay, Baltimore/Lancaster UK
Age and Occupation: 24, Stay at home fiance (formerly in nonprofit communications)
Fiance's Age and Occupation: 29, Web site developer and designer; co-owner of men's skincare shop
Engagement Date: August 10, 2008
Wedding Date: August, 2009
Venue: Oakland Manor
About Me: I'm a Maryland raised environmental policy wonk/activist/organizer and communications aficionado. In the past year I've lived in Baltimore, MD, Tucson, AZ, Miami, FL and Lancaster, England. In my not so spare time I enjoy planning trips with Mr. D' Orsay, visiting friends and family and crafting like a mo-fo. I also enjoy modern dance classes, rugby and soccer but have been banned by my mother, MOHs, and Mr. D' Orsay from playing till after the wedding. I have an unnatural addiction to cheese and shoes, but love Mr. D' Orsay more than either and can't wait to become Mrs. D' Orsay!
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