Wedding Details

[July09Bride 1]

So how about the rings??? Anyone have those yet? When I was 18, my mother gave me my great-grandmother's engagement ring. It was a simple round diamond on a simple thin yellow-gold band. When I graduated from college, I took all of my graduation money and bought a pendant and chain. I took the ring to some family friends who owned their own jewelry store and had them take the stone out of the ring and have it placed in the pendant.

Right now, since the financial squeeze is on, with my mother's permission, we're taking the diamond from my pendant and I'm going to have it mounted on a wide (6 or 7mm) plain bright yellow-gold band. He wants a simple plain yellow-gold band as well. My engagement ring will become a ring I will wear on my right hand. If we can gather the extra money (doubt it - but it is a possibility) we're going to also get a thin band with some diamonds (set paave' (sp?) style) to wear beneath my wide band. I have another ring I don't ever wear that has 18 small diamonds around the stone. We'd take those stones and have them placed into the thin band. That way, we don't have to buy diamonds, too. A friend of mine's husband is a jeweler and if all goes right, he says we could have all of the rings taken care of in about a week!

The plan is to take time this weekend (maybe!) while I'm in London, to go to jewelry stores to determine exactly what we want (size-wise and width-wise) and then just let him know. If we can't do it this weekend, we'll go window shopping as soon as he moves over here in June.

I'm SO excited!!!

[July09Bride 1]

Okay, I can't keep track of everyone's date in my brain... so I thought I'd start this list. I know some of these dates are the "party" dates (as the "legal" weddings are taking place soon or have recently taken place), but these are the dates we've been discussing.

Any dates I've missed? Feel free to copy this and add your date to the list!

June 11, 2009 - PopRocks

July 17, 2009 - July09Bride

August 6. 2009 - HuggleBuggles

October 10, 2009 - Minnew

September 4, 2010 - JillA

September 25, 2010 - SapphireDreams

Hey PopRocks... you've got ONE MONTH lady!!!

[TimandJoyce 1]

Anyone pick out their cakes yet? I love cake! I'm pretty excited about ours

Tim and I met in Hawaii in '06, and hopefully...if all goes well of course...lol..should be getting married this Sept. I don't know exactly what the cake will look like yet...but we're going to do a Hawaiian Luau for the reception! So I'm hoping to track down a cake topper of Hawaiian tourists!! LOL I'd like a palm tree, and probably pineapple on the cake somewhere...maybe tropical flower petals...the possibilities are endless here. I saw a web site out of Toronto of a company that does personalized toppers, and they did have one for Hawaii. The price of course kinda threw me for a loop..lol. Can't remember the site right now, I had Tim save it on his computer..lol.

We're also hoping to have a spot where guests can put their faces through a cut out of Hawaiian tourists, and have pictures taken!! Thought it would be a great little keepsake. Plus we're giving everyone a lei...although..they're the cheaper plastic kind.. We may order real ones for ourselves, direct from Hawaii. I can't wait for all this to happen...it's going to be so much fun!!!

Show us your cake Huggles!!

Edited May 10, 2009 by TimandJoyce

[July09Bride 1]

On a totally unrelated note... we finally had to take the invites to the printshop yesterday. The color laser printer we bought didn't like the paper we bought and I like the paper much more than the printer, so we kept the paper and found a printshop(alphagraphics.com -- LOVE alphAGraphics... miss them.. they're all over the place in AZ and only one store here in MI and it is near me!! YEA!!!) who can do our invites AND cut them for an amazing price! We're having 160 invites printed and cut to specification (5 cards worth) for $178!!!!! I'm so excited!!! Great price with a 2-day turn around (with a Sunday in there no less!). Yea!

As for the name issue... I gave in and my mom says she truly doesn't care. So, biological dad's name stays on invite. But, we gave him until the middle of June to come up with his 1/2 of the wedding costs... cash. That way, there's no backing out of paying for this or that. Plus, if he doesn't come up with the money by then, plans can be changed and he won't need to have a role at all. Go figure... he finds this out yesterday (courtesy of my step-dad (aka REAL dad) and hasn't said word one to me. Gee... am I surprised? Nope.

In any case, the wedding will be great fun and the recepetion will be a BIG party. He's not going to ruin this for me. Not at all! I'm so fed up with stupid people and their inability to make good decisions. This one day is about Duncan and me. Our day. And now that the invites are being printed and can be picked up tomorrow afternoon... EVEN BETTER!!!!! Yippeeeee!!!!

Edited May 10, 2009 by July09Bride

[SapphireDreams 71]

That's an awesome price for the printing and cutting July! I think I'm going to look into getting mine printed and cut and then adding stuff and assembling them myself. I'm so torn... but I know the invites are one place I need to cut down the costs since I keep going overboard on everything else!

[July09Bride 1]

That's an awesome price for the printing and cutting July! I think I'm going to look into getting mine printed and cut and then adding stuff and assembling them myself. I'm so torn... but I know the invites are one place I need to cut down the costs since I keep going overboard on everything else!

FYI... there are AGs in NYC...

I think the thing that helped us with the price of printing and cutting, was that we provided the paper. Granted, I spent $70 on the two reams of paper, but we will also be able to use the same paper for our programs. If we go back to AG (which I am already planning on doing) for the program printing, if we go with plain black printing, the cost would be $22 for the printing and cutting (our programs will be 4 1/4" x 11" -- so, one cut down the middle of the paper). If we go with color printing, the price would be $48.

I was so afraid to do the invitations ourselves! Partially b/c my mom wanted the raised print and she wanted something much more traditional. Once she opened herself up to our style and realized that what I wanted was just as nice, doing the invites ourselves actually made more sense. So, altogether (minus postage) the invites cost... $370ish (I think - if I did the math right) for 160. I was able to spend about the same amount for the invites I wanted as we would have for invites I didn't like as much. If we were to have purchased invites like I wanted (similar to the ones we made), the cost would have been about $640.

And, with postage, we're just about on budget!

BTW... new stamp prices go in to effect tomorrow (5/11)! There is no "Love" stamp. Instead, here are the new prices with the new "Love" version of stamps.

1 ounce envelope or less = $.44 stamps with two gold rings, one on top of the other

1.01 ounce - 2 ounces = $.61 stamps with a white wedding cake with some scrollwork on the cake with greenish flowers on top

Edited May 10, 2009 by July09Bride

[Hugglebuggles 60]

We got our rings a while back! My fiance actually bought my wedding band when he bought the engagement ring. It matches really perfectly! Its just a thin white gold band with a line of diamonds going across the top of the ring. There's actually 2 bands, one for the top of the ring and one for the bottom, I'm not sure the etiquette on that. Some people tell me that I'm suposed to wait and add the second one after the first anniversary? I dunno, I want it now! I'm obsessed with symmetry, he knows me well We went and got his band back in February, and we decided we wanted them to match. So his is a thick white gold band with three small diamonds on the top. He was so against the idea of diamonds at first but once he put it on his finger he was sold.

That's a nice deal on invites JulyBride! Especially since you are getting exactly what you wanted. I wasn't confident enough in my designing skills and I found some invites I loved so I just bought them. I guess when you only have 50 invites to send out the need to be economical is much smaller. Although I paid the same for 50 invites then you did for 160! I'm not sure about the postage stuff yet... Does it matter what the stamp looks like? I didn't even realize there was different stamps to choose from!

The centerpiece saga may have a conclusion. Turns out my fiance's grandmother has a friend who designs and makes centerpieces for weddings. I saw some of her stuff and they look good! We're probably just going to get her to do them professionally. My attempts to design something have been... well not that good! I think I'm too picky. I want something dynamic and original!

I wish I could post a picture of what our cake is going to look like but the baker uses some weird slide show thing so you can't copy images from his site.

You forgot BermyCat's big wedding in Bermuda! I think its the 18th...

[JillA 2]

Okay, I can't keep track of everyone's date in my brain... so I thought I'd start this list. I know some of these dates are the "party" dates (as the "legal" weddings are taking place soon or have recently taken place), but these are the dates we've been discussing.

Any dates I've missed? Feel free to copy this and add your date to the list!

June 11, 2009 - PopRocks

July 17, 2009 - July09Bride

August 6. 2009 - HuggleBuggles

October 10, 2009 - Minnew

September 4, 2010 - JillA

September 25, 2010 - SapphireDreams

Hey PopRocks... you've got ONE MONTH lady!!!

Woohoo!! July and Poprocks; you're next! Can't wait to see your pictures!

[minnew 4]

So how about the rings??? Anyone have those yet? When I was 18, my mother gave me my great-grandmother's engagement ring. It was a simple round diamond on a simple thin yellow-gold band. When I graduated from college, I took all of my graduation money and bought a pendant and chain. I took the ring to some family friends who owned their own jewelry store and had them take the stone out of the ring and have it placed in the pendant.

Right now, since the financial squeeze is on, with my mother's permission, we're taking the diamond from my pendant and I'm going to have it mounted on a wide (6 or 7mm) plain bright yellow-gold band. He wants a simple plain yellow-gold band as well. My engagement ring will become a ring I will wear on my right hand. If we can gather the extra money (doubt it - but it is a possibility) we're going to also get a thin band with some diamonds (set paave' (sp?) style) to wear beneath my wide band. I have another ring I don't ever wear that has 18 small diamonds around the stone. We'd take those stones and have them placed into the thin band. That way, we don't have to buy diamonds, too. A friend of mine's husband is a jeweler and if all goes right, he says we could have all of the rings taken care of in about a week!

The plan is to take time this weekend (maybe!) while I'm in London, to go to jewelry stores to determine exactly what we want (size-wise and width-wise) and then just let him know. If we can't do it this weekend, we'll go window shopping as soon as he moves over here in June.

I'm SO excited!!!

My wedding band came as a bridal set with my engagement ring, so I am covered there. It is white gold with channel set diamonds to match my engagment ring that has almost a 3/4 carat diamond with 4 channel set diamonds on either side. I am not sure if I told this story yet or not, but my engagement ring diamond came from my fiance's mother. My fiances dad bought an anniversary ring for his wife and unfortunately the diamond fell out of this setting. Well needless to say his mother accidentally vacumned the loose diamond up! She tore apart the vacumn bag to search for it. It had no scratches or chips! She kept the diamond but did not remount it on the anniversary ring as she could no longer wear it because it did not fit. His mother offered the loose diamond to my fiance for my engagement ring. Let me tell you his father has excellent taste as well as his son! The clarity and sparkle are amazing, more than I asked for!

Anyways, so he went to Vegas for a week for training at a base nearby there and his family came to vegas to visit him as well. She gave him the diamond then. I come to visit a week or two later and as I was straigtening out his apartment (used to be our as I had moved back to Canada) I throw out a tiny envelope that says "key" on it. Anyways, needless to say the diamond was in the envelope! We had eaten supper and he was scraping his plate into the garbage and saw the envelope in the garbage...reaches into the garbage and puts something into his pocket. I honestly didn't even think to question why he was doing that. Of course he couldn't tell me that he was freaking out inside until after he proposed (2 months later) and I felt like a complete tool! SO yeah! I am sure this story about how his mother..then me almost lost the diamond will come up at the wedding!

His wedding band...well that is still TBD...I swear he is pickier and more indecisive than me! We have been to so many jewelry stores and he still can't decide! The last one that we went to, I hope is the the one that he likes the most, at least it seemed like it anyway. It's a men's band that looks like carbon fiber design with one tiny diamond on the top. He won't be wearing his daily though because of his job in the AF maintaining aircraft, heck he can't even bring a cell phone to work with him, he has to leave it in the car!

Anyways, I am starting to look at invitations and wording and such and he is being picky about the invitation wording...ugh! I need to talk to my mom and his mom and see if we can agree on something because it's both parents hosting, well technically all 3 of us but the larger share will be from the parents. I will be sending out Save the Date emails courtesy of the knot.com that have a nice design to coincide with my website, ASAP after returning from Vancouver! I doubt we will have 60 come, but you never know...they all know of the "tentative" date. I want to order the invites ASAP after May 28th, pending approval in Vancouver! OMG i just realized its two weeks away!!

[Hugglebuggles 60]

Wow all this diamond talk makes me want to create a, "show us your bling!" thread... but in my experiences that does nothing but create catty female competition I think its because I'm from ghetto Welland and if you actually have a diamond you're one step ahead! I went to a get together with some female friends from high school last week and there was another girl from our old group of friends who is engaged. Everyone asked to see my ring and I showed them... Then after she REFUSED to show anyone hers and sat with her hands in her pockets! I love my ring, I think its gorgeous, but Its not a huge showy diamond or anything! I don't know what her problem was...

[minnew 4]

Wow all this diamond talk makes me want to create a, "show us your bling!" thread... but in my experiences that does nothing but create catty female competition I think its because I'm from ghetto Welland and if you actually have a diamond you're one step ahead! I went to a get together with some female friends from high school last week and there was another girl from our old group of friends who is engaged. Everyone asked to see my ring and I showed them... Then after she REFUSED to show anyone hers and sat with her hands in her pockets! I love my ring, I think its gorgeous, but Its not a huge showy diamond or anything! I don't know what her problem was...

Wow that ridiculous, an engagement ring can definitely spark competition. I do have to admit though that the girls that have the HUGE bling really turn me off I think just care about the ring more than they do the actual marriage. I have a friend who got engaged around the same time as me, well her fiance insisted on getting her the biggest, nicest ring he could afford. I can't believe men can be the same way about bling. She didn't want a huge ring as it would not look proportional for her size, she's barely 5 ft and 100 pounds, nor is it practical. Well who do you think won that one...the fiance, when my friends and I go out together who do you think gets more attention and compliments? How can you not notice a 2 carat ring on a tiny finger? That ring is heavy! But it's also in a platinum band. The thing is she hasn't let it go to her head, I think she is more embarassed by it, because my first reaction was OH MY GOD! she's like does it look that bad? Anyways, the motto of the my rambling is that having a showy diamond does not always mean a happy marriage or a happy fianc(e)

Edited May 10, 2009 by minnew

[SapphireDreams 71]

A diamond ring is a very personal thing I'm finding. There are lots of people who prefer not to spend money on a ring, simply can't afford a big ring, or people who want to spend a lot of money and that's okay too. To some a ring holds a lot of meaning or significance and to others it does not.

It's also possible to get really good deals on diamonds or to prioritize one of the four C's over another. For example, my ring is a pretty decent size and cut, but the colour and clarity are not as good. My fiance decided to spend the $$ on the size because he couldn't really see the difference in colours and clarity. He also found a really reputable jeweler in the diamond district in NYC, who is almost like a wholesaler. Jewelry stores in malls and really any retail location is going to over price their diamonds. For example, my friend got her ring for almost the same price as mine and mine is over twice the size and in platinum! They got hers from a really popular place here called Spence Diamonds. Such a rip off!

I've gotten some pretty nice reactions to my ring, but I'm very detailed oriented and so even through it's probably one of the most simple rings you'll ever see, as lot of thought went into it - it's a round brilliant cut in a tiffany 4 prong platinum setting, and the band part is very slim with a knife edge. I plan to get a pave rounded diamond band, with 3 rows of tiny tiny diamonds around 3/4 of the band, very slim and dainty. But, if we decide not to spend our money on that right away, I'm just going to get a plain knife edge platinum band and then the pave one later on for an anniversary and wear them both.

[July09Bride 1]

DATE UPDATE:

May 18, 2009 - BermyCat

June 11, 2009 - PopRocks

July 17, 2009 - July09Bride

August 6. 2009 - HuggleBuggles

October 10, 2009 - Minnew

September 4, 2010 - JillA

September 25, 2010 - SapphireDreams

BermyCat has ONE WEEK! Woo hoo!!!

PopRocks has ONE MONTH!

[July09Bride 1]

WEDDING DATE UPDATE (again!)

May 18, 2009 - BermyCat

June sometime, 2009 - PopRocks

July 17, 2009 - July09Bride

August 6. 2009 - HuggleBuggles

October 10, 2009 - Minnew

September 4, 2010 - JillA

September 25, 2010 - SapphireDreams

BermyCat has ONE WEEK! Woo hoo!!!

PopRocks has ONE MONTH-ish!

[July09Bride 1]

My dad (step-dad actually) picked up the invites tonight from the printers... I measured right, but I also measured wrong. So, as excited as I should be, I'm actually not. I'm taking them to school tomorrow to take off about 1/16 of an inch to 1/8 of an inch. I measured a FULL 5" and I should have measured inside the folds. **sigh** One would assume this should be a happy day. On top of the day I've had, having measured wrong is just the cherry on a really bad, horrible, painful, and excruciatingly hurtful day. Too bad this day, of what should be filled with joy and happiness, is being overshadowed by senility (for real) and frustration by someone whose memory is going, and makes cruel accusations.

I'm trying to put on a happy face... but right now, the frown and sadness are easier than being excited over our invitations.