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I would recommending calling your Senator or Congressman and seeing if they can help!

oh and thank you I love my rings too! Still can't believe hubby picked them out himself!

Well I could give you the name of the jeweler and maybe you could describe what you're looking for and see if he has a name for it? The store is A.R. Morris and the guy we worked with is Bret Morris. Here is their website: A.R. Morris Jewelers - Wilmington, DE - tax-free diamonds, watches and jewelry

LOVE IT! Sarah - you are massively talented!

hmmm, mine looks kinda like that! I bought it at a jeweler in Delaware (no sales tax) but I have no idea who designed it... Not very helpful huh

haha not toooooo gross, but more just lovable because I mean who else in our lives talks about ecoli so passionately?

I love them! They have so much energy in them. And ditto what the other girls said -- you have nothing to be self conscious about!

Morgan -- too cute! I am cracking up at the ecoli drawings! ewww

are they free? I think the best free blogs are from WordPress.com Get a Free Blog Here. It's a free open source software and there are lots of free templates you can use to customize it. Your domain would be xxxxxxx.wordpress.com if you had this blog. (So it's like blogger/blogspot, I just like the software better personally.) can people find them if they google you or your name? If you want your blog to remain anonymous, you could use pseudonyms, initials, first names only, or anything you want. Lots of bloggers do this. can you tell who looks at it? You can easily install widgets that help with this. Like someone said above, StatCounter is a popular free one that tracks the last 500 visitors at any given time. It will tell you IP addresses of visitors, but not their names though (I'm not sure of this) how many hits? Also on StatCounter (or SiteMeter, or Google Analytics, etc) is it hard to maintain? I think it's more of a habit than anything. You could try it out for a few weeks and see if you are good at keeping up with it. It's more fun once you start getting comments. It's like you need some momentum. Who would you want your readership to be? You could start by finding 5-10 blogs to read regularly, and then start commenting. If you feel like you have a lot to say to the comments and topics to write about on your own, maybe the next step is to get a blog yourself. Here is a good article: Be More Than a Blip in the Blogosphere - washingtonpost.com

Okay here's mine!

Dreams will be cheaper for you, maybe more expensive for your guests (just because of the nature of all-inclusive), but I guess it depends on your room rates. There are lots of girls on the board who had amazing Dreams weddings for the kind of budget you're talking about. The Hilton is gorgeous but more $$? More current brides should be able to help you out...

our were more in the $500-$700 range, if that helps.

great thread idea -- I gave up meat for lent so I have been eating a lot of beans, chickpeas...and cereal. Yeah, I know, but I get bored with the freaking beans!

welcome! i live in DC too (too expensive for weddings here -- destination is a great idea)

welcome! We were a Cabo wedding on a budget too. How many people are you thinking of inviting? Have you thought about all-inclusive or not? Just curious, we're here to help!

Here's mine. We have 2 cats, one is my favorite and one is DH's favorite. I kinda wish his would "accidentally" run away from home and never ever come back! He annoys the crap out of me. Would it be so bad if I let him loose "on accident"?

I swear I read the paper but I've totally missed this! Why would they boycott her funeral?

Glenda -- cool post idea! I've been to Boston a few times and it's a fun place, but definitely different than NYC! Next you have to come to DC and tell us what you think (hint: it's a great place to live but nothing like NYC and people dress so much worse here!)

My bedroom is only about 1/2 done, and I keep changing my mind about what I want. Actually, my whole house is in a state of 1/2 done and I don't seem to be good at making progress!

I work for a children's advocacy nonprofit doing fundraising and strategic planning. DH is a political pollster.

I love them! the lighting and the movement are amazing

I have an etsy addiction too! I bought my wedding earring there 2 yrs ago and about a zillion things since then! I love that the money goes directly to the artist who made the item.

no you aren't crazy. Just assign different people to take care of things ahead of time (ie bridesmaid distributes the bouquets, MIL makes sure the guys are on time, etc etc) so that you don't let things stress you out the day of. Have cash in envelopes set aside for your vendors ahead of time. Give all the important people a timeline ahead of time and just ask them to follow it.

We love our Dyson animal -- seriously we would live in a giant dust bunny cat hair ball without it...

stephanie you look so hot! you have a great aura of confidence and sexiness in those photos -- he is going to LOVE them!