Dos and Don'ts of Wedding Planning (so far)

Do: wait out online vendors

This one I found by accident and it's borderline sneaky, but online vendors SOMETIMES will give you deals if you create something and don't order it right away. Now for the love of God, please do not hold me to this because I'm not saying it's always going to happen. 

When I made the save the date's I wasn't sure if we were going to order them or not so I just saved them and forgot. Low and behold a few days later, the company offered me free shipping on my saved order. It saved me about $15 dollars in shipping. 

I'm not saying that it'll always work or that  they'll give you some stupendous deal, but you may cut out a few bucks here and there. Just make sure whatever you're ordering isn't going out of stock soon!

Don't: go dress shopping alone!
Mike and I were checking out our now booked reception site (:D) and I decided to go into town and go dress shopping. Alone. Big mistake.
Now, I'm not saying that you can't find a great dress on your own, because I totally did,  but I am saying you'll be avoided like the plague by the sales lady. Especially if they have another client that has her mom, sister, grandma, and ten bridesmaids with her.
I was at the salon about an hour, picked out the dresses I tried on, and was left in the dressing room for 10 mins each time, and alone on the podium for 15 mins while she attended to the other bride... not fun. Sales people want to make sales (duh) and you might be the low man on the totem poll if you go in alone.


Do: check out Michael's for wedding supplies like invitations.
I have a friend that works at a very lovely little shop downtown that sells wedding invitations. Mike and I wanted to check it out so we set up an appointment and went in. The invitations they had were amazing and they could do just about anything we could ever want. Then we asked about price.
The invites themselves were $5-$7 each for about 100 invites. That's, well, you can do the math. What really got us was that the reply cards were as much as the invitations themselves!
It was getting a little pricey to say the least, so we thanked them and left. That weekend, my mom and I checked out Michael's and found that they have a wonderful selection of invitations, among other wedding related items. We found a set that included invites, ribbon, envelopes, reply cards and matching envelopes, as well as great instructions and templates for what to put on your invite. Grand total  $50.00 for a set of 100. That's $0.50 an invite, way more economical than the $5-$7 we were talking about.
We're going to add a colored backing and peacock feather on our own, but that only brings the cost to $1.50 per invitation! For something that people are going to inevitably throw out, Michael's, with a little Do-It-Yourself, is a great deal!


What wedding Dos and Don'ts have you experienced or heard of? Share them for everyone in the comments!

HE PUT A RING ON IT!

That's right! I've hopped on the wedding train and am officially engaged! Mike, my fiancé, asked me at Disneyland in the pouring rain outside of Cinderella's castle. That wasn't his original plan, but I thought it was perfect. We immediately started calling family and friends, put the engagement on Facebook (because nothing's official until you put it on Facebook) and everyone seemed genuinely excited and happy for us. Everyone that is, except my dad. 

After two days of not hearing back from my dad, we finally got a hold of him and scheduled a day for the three of us to go to dinner. Dinner was like a scene out of "Meet the Parents" complete with the lie detector interrogation part. The meal started with my dad looking at us and laughing then saying "you two will go your separate ways soon", and ended with him just ignoring Mike for the rest of the meal. No "congrats" or "welcome to the family" just a big dose of "this is going to end in divorce". 

Now don't get me wrong, I don't hate my dad, he's normally a fine guy and his experience with marriage has been less then stellar. But after that meal I was ready to jump on the first bus to Vegas and get married right then. I didn't for any mom's that are reading this, but I was pretty annoyed.

So what do you do when you've got a family member that doesn't support your decision to get married? Do you go "fine, if you don't support us then you're not invited?" or do you be the bigger person and try to win them over? 

Every bride-to-be I've talked to has run into this problem with some family member or friend, and from what I've gathered there is no good answer. On your big day you want people around you who support and love you, and if they can't do just that then why have them there? On the other hand, if that person is your close family and has supported you up until then, you're probably going to miss not having them there.

Ultimately I think it's up to both the couple getting married and the person with the issue. The person with the issue has to decide whether they're going support you and be at the wedding, or not support you and stay at home with the cats. The couple just has to decide if they want the aforementioned person at their wedding or not. Does that mean that you can't show them that you're a great couple who loves eachother, and that you want them in your lives? No. But it doesn't mean you have to beat a dead horse. 

All Aboard the Wedding Train!

"A wedding should be fun, but you've got to plan for the day after because that begins your life together. Talk about how you're going to live together: in-laws, kids, geography, religion, sex and division of labor. If you have the same expectations, OK. If not,  you've got to negotiate a middle ground." -Phil McGraw, aka Dr. Phil

Say what you want about Dr. Phil, but personally, I think he's got this one dead on. I have to say, I'm not a huge fan of the guy normally. He reminds me too much of a muppet and I swear he's got a caterpillar growing under his nose, but all that aside, sometimes he gives out some good advice.

A wedding should be awesome. It's a celebration!! Just remember there's going to be a day after the wedding. Before you jump on the marriage train, stop and think about all the stuff involved with being married. The certain sacrifices you may have to make, shared expenses, children (if you plan on having them), family obligations, etc. that come with being married. I'm not trying to say that any of this is bad necessarily, but it's not for everyone. Don't get so excited about one day that you forget about the rest of your life. After you've thought about all that and are still on board then go have yourself one heck of a party!

Year of the Wedding

Forget the year of the rabbit, this is the year of the wedding! The count of couples I know getting married this year has officially hit the double digits. The coolest part is now people that I've been friends with since the diaper days are getting married! My boyfriend Mike has multiple weddings in the family this year. Today he was asked to be a groomsman in his oldest brother's wedding. Needless to say, he was pretty dang thrilled! 

Not to sound too sappy, but being part of someone's wedding is a really special experience, and  a great memory to have for the rest of your life. Unless you really hate that person. In that case... well you could make a voodoo doll or something? If you're the bride or groom, picking out the right people and then asking them can seem like a daunting task. Asking them in person or over the phone is, to me, the best way to go. But if you're A) terrified of human contact, or B) Don't know how to work a phone, then here are some fun ways to ask someone to be part of your bridal party!

Propose to your bridesmaids! Ok don't stop reading yet, I'm not asking you to go all "Sister Wives" on me. There was one bride I read about who's future bridal party was spread out around the country. So she went to a craft store, got jewelry boxes, and put a ring pop inside with a note that said "Will you be my bridesmaid?" Cute right? 

Give them a doll. One of my friends that was getting married last year is in LOVE with Barbies. "Made of plastic, it's fantastic!" She went to Target and found a barbie doll that had a dress that matched her wedding colors. She bought 5 of them, for the five women she was going to ask, made a label that said "Bridesmaid Barbie" and stuck it on the box. Once all that was done she took all of her future bridesmaids out to lunch and gave them the dolls! 

Make a puzzle. Another bride I read about was super into crossword puzzles. She decided she wanted to make a crossword puzzle that had the words "would you be my bridesmaid" on it. She went on her computer and found some website that did it and, ta da!

Costcouture

I think my favorite thing to do as a kid was to go to Costco and run around the store pirating food from the food sample carts. Now that I've grown up and matured...I can't even finish that sentence, that's still one of my favorite things to do.

One of the best things about Costco is that it can save you a whole ton of money if you know what you're doing. Yes, there is a science to shopping at Costco.  Something new you'll be seeing at this mega-retailer shortly? dum dum dum dum wedding dresses! Yeah, you read that right, according to the LA Times , Costco is going to sell wedding dresses. 

The designer, Kristie Kelly, formerly the designer for Disney Bridal before Alfred Angelo took it over, is now starting a new line of affordable couture bridal gowns for Costco. Proclaiming her dress line “Costcouture”. Like Alfred Angelo, the dresses she'll be designing will be affordable for almost any budget. The dresses start at $699 and end at $1,399 and will be sold at trunk shows in Costco stores.

Is this the new beginning of Costco bridal chic? Will other mega retailers soon pick up the trend?? Could there be a new line of Walmart wedding dresses in the near future?!?

I'm not sure what to think about this new endeavor, but man would that be convenient! I mean, you can get your 100 pound bag of dog kibble, month supply of paper towels, and hey! Don't forget the wedding gown!

McWeddings

Fast food junkies rejoice! According to an article by the NYT, you can now be married under the golden arches of McDonalds! Get this though, the service is only done in Hong Kong. I'm floored that America, the land of  the drive-through-window wedding, wasn't the first to adopt this! But I'm sure we'll be seeing Ronald McDonald shelling out marriage licenses soon enough. I'm 100% on board with this, but that's only because I have a sick obsession with McDonald's milkshakes.

You may be wondering, "why would anyone want to get married at a place like that!" Well I'll tell you. It's the cost. Not unlike weddings in America, an average wedding ceremony in China costs $29,200. A wedding at McDonald's starts at $1,280. That includes food. Would anyone like a second helping of McNuggets?  Looking better already, huh? Ok maybe not, but you gotta admit that's a huge difference!

The price of a wedding is stupendous! Especially if you don't have help paying for it, plan on winning the lotto, or have been saving for ten years. It's no wonder that things like McWeddings are popping up. My question is, why aren't there classy places to have a super cheap wedding? Was that an oxymoron?

The Art of the Proposal

There's this wonderful thing about Eugene, well actually Springfield, OR. It's that we have a $2 movie theater. It's the place where movies go between the expensive movie theaters, and dvd. It was rainy and boring at home, so I went to see Meet the Focker's with my boyfriend. In the movie, there is a part where "Kevin"(Owen Wilson) wants to propose to his Paris Hilton esq girlfriend. I won't ruin the movie for you, but think of his proposal idea like the halftime show of the Super Bowl. He tells his proposal plan to "Greg"(Ben Stiller), who says it's too much, that Kevin should just speak from the heart. The next scene we see that Kevin has been dumped for his uninspired proposal.

So, was this girl a materialistic snob or what? Well yes she was, but the point is, if you're going to propose to somebody, know what they like. I guess, know them! Hefty feat maybe, but in the course of a relationship you should be able to know what kind of person they are and what they MIGHT expect from a proposal. When Greg told Kevin to dump his over-the-top proposal and to speak from the heart, he was unintentionally telling Kevin to be Greg, to do what he would have done to ask his wife. Now, should Kevin really have been with this girl? Probably not. She was kind of a she-devil. When it comes down it,  you don't need to change who you've been the entire relationship for the proposal.

Just for fun, checkout this video of extreme proposals. If you feel inclined, share your proposal story in the comments!