Image by Cotton Bud

A link to a very interesting article was posted recently on a thread over at the forums on Wedding Wire, that discusses the many tiers of a bride – based on her budget.  Naturally, I landed on the bottom rung, which didn’t surprise me.  What did was the seeming lack of respect the author had for brides on such a small budget.

Here’s a direct quote:

“DIY Bride: (Budget: under $5000) Someone who probably doesn’t have the resources to get married just yet and is likely to turn most of her wedding into an Arts and Crafts project.”

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To show our love and appreciation to our friends and family is very important for Towie Bear and I. Once we receive a gift, we immediately send a thank you note. According to wedding etiquette, 3 months is the maximum time allowed to send your thank you notes.

A couple of tips that I’ve learned about thank you notes are:

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With so many things to remember as we get closer to the big day, I began creating a diary of sorts to write down all my thoughts and notes so I make sure to remember everything I need to get done.  One of those things is gratuity for everyone involved in making sure our day goes exactly the way we want it.  There are definitely varying ideas out there, but thanks to my good friends at Southern Bride magazine who provided me with these great gratuity suggestions so I make sure that everyone gets an added bonus for helping with our special day.

jarrodskeggs.com

These amounts are recommendations only. Please be aware that some vendors, especially caterers, bar services, and transportation companies, may add gratuity to their total bill. Check each contract carefully before deciding on gratuity amounts. Etiquette states that you needn’t anticipate gratuities for the consultant, florist, photographer, or videographer unless extra-special service is received.

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Why do people not return their response cards? I guess it is difficult for me to grasp because I always return my response cards and RSVP for parties and events.  ALWAYS.  I also do it in a timely manner.

Today is the day we had asked all of our response cards to be returned.  We are meeting  in 4 days with the planner at our reception site and need to have almost exact numbers for things like food and chairs.

These are our actual response cards.

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Well Garden, I think it’s time to address my sometimes severely Type A personality. Most of my Future In Laws already know that my shout of “I WIN” to making good guacamole or winning at Banagrams is just genuinely me. I like to make everything into a “fun little game” and then focus intently on the way to WIN said game. To quote Maria Bamford’s set “Life isn’t a game, but if it is- I’m winning.”

Source

No one would be grading my “wedding work” so why did it all matter? Because I am a self-confessed-sometimes-perfectionist. I found reading blogs about less than perfect people to be quite helpful. But the greatest gift any wedding blog has ever given me was this one simple article… Your Wedding is Not a Contest by the Offbeat Bride. Finally someone telling me in no uncertain terms that it’s okay to break tradition and it’s okay to be somewhat traditional too- and that there was really no way to get it wrong. It’s just about us.

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If you read my second blog about having wedding dress nerves… you’ll know I was afraid of falling out of love with my dress.

I received so much encouragement for you awesome buds and blossoms and some great advice for long term storage (fabric bags hanging bags, not plastic!).

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As a business student the wedding industry makes me feel powerful! Lilac Dude and I are the first in our circle of friends to tie the knot. One of our friends proposed to his girlfriend today and she said yes! It got me thinking about how many newly engaged (or almost engaged) couples have come to us for recommendations. In the past six months, 10 different couples that we know have become engaged. (And we have a few friends who we predict will be popping the question soon!)

Lilac Dude has counseled several guys on engagement rings and we counted ourselves lucky to help another friend figure out how he wanted to propose to his lovely lady. I find myself talking dresses, flowers and photographers with different brides to be. This is where I have power, I can recommend using certain vendors and recommend steering clear of many others (David’s Bridal for one).

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So when Lilac Dude and I were looking at the budget for our wedding and there is a line on a budget that really, really bugs me. It’s the postage line. No one cares about our stamps but stamps can’t be overlooked they are extremely important because that’s how our save the dates, invitations and thank you notes will get where they need to go.

I like things to be pretty so of course wedding postage was appealing to me! Then I saw the price! Ouch! $19.70 per sheet of 20, that’s almost a dollar a stamp…. the post office only cares that there’s 44 cents on it.

From Zazzle.com

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I read an interesting article on vanguard.com entitled “Why spendthrifts and tightwads marry—and what to do when they do“.  The reason it was interesting to me is because Periwinkle Dude and I have different spending habits; sometimes different from each other and also sometimes different from ourselves in different scenarios.  I wouldn’t say either of us is a “tightwad” or a “spendthrift” 100% of the time, rather we are varying degrees of those categories, in comparison to one another.

Source: http://www.pwbooks.co.uk

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We are now in the full swing of wedding season, and I am sure I am not the only one who is running the wedding circuit before your own this year (or next).  I thought I would take a post to talk about wedding guests and what is expected of them and accepted of their behavior.  Now as brides, we live by the wedding etiquette rules that are out there, and do everything we can to not offend, hurt or upset any of our guests.  Shouldn’t the same be expected of guests?  I am the first to admit that there will much over-serving at our wedding, so many of the typical faux pas (terrible speeches, crazy dancing and dropping things) will be unstoppable and just add to the fun.  But when is something too much?

Today, I received an email from my boss (I have a great relationship with my boss and we often talk about things outside of our work life) asking if it was ok for an acquaintance of hers to wear this certain dress to a friend’s wedding.  This person was just an acquaintance of my boss, not a friend, which is actually pretty normal for my boss, as she is definitely known for her sense of style. She forwarded the email to me, with a picture of the dress attached, and asked me my thoughts.  I figured it was a harmless email… that is till I opened the image. There it was in all its glory… a long, flowing, WHITE dress.

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