rodent

If you can find $15 per person that's still $1,500 for food. That's over $200 per bridesmaid. There is still the tip, invitations, decorations, etc. Plus they will buy a gift. Even if you can find a place that's $15 per person, is it still something your girls can do? maybe we just keep it a lot cheaper where I'm from, but I'm in shock at a shower costing so much. A friend told me recently that as a bridesmaid she was told to contribute $75 for a shower & I couldn't believe it. But I guess if this is common in other areas, then BMs are used to it. They might want the same type of shower when they get married and won't think anything of it. Will all 100 people show up? If a lot live out of town, they may not all make it. That might help some cost.

Quote: Originally Posted by Morgan My version will only support 250dpi for an 8x8 collage. I'm a little worried how this will look. I'll post once the project comes in. I may have to get your help for the 11x14. I'll let you know. I'm working on a photobook right now. I'll post it soon. UPDATE- both looked good. Although 300dpi is considered ideal, lower dpi images can still work. I set my biggest dimension (width or length) to 2000 pixels and see what my dpi ends up being. I have made even 12x12 photobooks and the resolution was good. For the 11x14 collage, I made a 5.5 x 7 page at the highest resoltion I could. The collage poster printed nicely. I am happy to see the essentials program I bought can do everything I need so far. I had a hard time deciding to spend $40 for the program & now I use it all the time. Everyone's christmas presents were made with lumapix. I have definitly gotten my money's worth. The other thing I've noticed essentials won't do is allow you to make a margin to keep the pictures from getting tucked in the cracks of the book. I just have to make sure not to put pictures too close to the edge. The better versions of the program will draw a red line their for you. You can get the line with essentials, but you have to remove it before exporting. Thanks Sarah for getting my hooked on lumapix! I'm going to take some pictures & post my recent projects this weekend. I have a box full of them to take home for Christmas.

The other day I thought I saw xxxxx xxxxx bought xxxx on overstock.com. The name was a faculty memeber at my university, but he isn't on my friend list. I don't know that he is on facebook. That is really creepy.

double post

I couldn't imagine spending over $100 as a bridesmaid for a shower in addition to all the other expenses. I have thrown one shower, but it was simple & at my house. I probably spent $50 & some other BMs brought food they made. With a group so big, I understand why that's not an option. But, I would consider other, cheaper options. I think it's very considerate of you that you are thinking about your BMs & their situations. As one of many bridesmaids, it's nearly impossible to speak up for yourself if you don't want to spend that much money on any of the wedding expenses. The girls are likely to say it's fine, but just because they don't want to upset anyone. Then people always say they can find a way to afford it. But, often the way people find the money isn't something you'd want your friends to do. I'd feel terrible to find out a friend had charged it on a credit card & paid it off at high interest. Or to learn they depleted their emergency savings, etc. Maybe it's just that they did without a new purse they wanted. But either way, it shouldn't take a lot of sacrifice to be a BM. Even though they accepted the position, maybe they had no idea what it would actually cost. You never get the full expense up front when asked to be in a wedding. Even if they were concerned about cost, it's nearly impossible to say no to being a BM without really hurting feelings. It's a really stressful situation when you have no control over how much money you are spending for a wedding. Another thought is, often the showers are thown by aunts, family friends, etc. Most of us are 20-30 something. It's such an expensive time because people are buying their first home, having kids, paying for their own wedding, paying off student loans, etc. In the weddings I've been a part of lately, it was women other than the BMs throwing the shower. They probably had plenty of disposable income & enjoyed throwing the shower. It was also their only wedding related expense so wasn't as much of an issue. Maybe you have some family members/ family friends who would want to be a part of the planning process. Sorry this got so long. I just always push for keeping it cheap for the bridesmaids. I've been a BM so many times & I've seen a lot of my friends get really upset about the cost of being a BM. You sound worried about the cost & I think as a group we could come up with something that would save your BMs money & still be great. Maybe rent a place where you can bring in your own food/ alcohol. I've also been to showers inside the person's church rec room. And I often see people have several small showers like someone mentioned before. They are usually each thrown by different groups of people. I also like the idea of having it at a park.

Quote: Originally Posted by carlymcmullen I thought youtube had a private option, where only people you invited to see it could view it. But, I haven't been to youtube in months, so I can't be sure... That is good to know. I'll have to check it out. I had a video I wanted to share, but I'd hate for it to become the next internet sensation. I've only watched videos. I have never uploaded them.

I did the 100 free vista print postcards. If you get the standard size you'll save money on stamps too. I think they were 26cents. Another cheap option would be to order postcards & glue a small magnet to the back. Then they would need to be mailed in envelopes. My friend was just married at gulf shores, alabama. It looks very pretty. Here are some of her pictures in a book I made her http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t10921

I think some people put it on youtube just to share it with their family & friends. Some are obviously wanting strangers to watch it. I haven't found a good way to share videos for free where strangers can't watch them. Onetruemedia.com seems safer because less people go there just to watch silly stuff. But, I'm pretty sure anyone can still see your videos. Photobucket videos are just like youtube, too. I'd like to do one of these dances, but I wouldn't want the world to see it. I think it's more private if you don't give it a descriptive title. Then less people are likely to come across it.

Mine is pretty casual so I'm thinking about shortening it after the wedding & wearing it to the AHRs. I learned it was sold in a short version too. I wish I would have just found that when it was still in stores.

YouTube - Dance Revolution You're right, it looks like they did take stuff from here. We are talking about doing something like this now & seeing if the hotel disco can play our song. I'd like to do a mix of songs like this one. So maybe we can just bring a CD. Even if they can't play it, we will have fun learning it.

YouTube - Doug & Jesse's Wedding Surprise First Dance This one is awesome!

My FMIL sent me this today. I asked her if she was hinting she wanted us to do this. We probably would do something silly like this, but we aren't having a dance. I imagine we'll still do many of these moves in the hotel disco. This is my favorite one of these that I've seen.

When I was there they said "make up forever" would be a good brand for a wedding. it sounds sort of like MAC to me.

Quote: Originally Posted by cheese_diva We used Love of My Life by Dave Matthews and Santana.. Matt is a huge Dave Matthews fan and we've been to a few concerts together. We liked the hispanic flare that Santana's guitar brought to it.. our DJ shortened it to about 3 mintues and then went straight into Hips Don't Lie by Shakira (inside friend's joke) We are not having a dance, but i want to use love of my life for one of the songs playing before the ceremony. I plan on cropping it a little too. I love that song. I love shakira too!

It finally got to her. She really loved it. Her email was so nice & made me so happy I had done this. Photobooks for all wedding gifts from now on

my friend has one platinum & one white gold band. They are even sodered (sp?) together. I think it might make it a little more difficult to maintain. White gold needs rhodium dipping & platinum needs polishing. update- I learned she gets them both rhodium dipped.

Quote: Originally Posted by bounciekat i used aylee and it worked out well for me because she offers one free design. you pick out of a million monograms and then just tell her your info and colors. it took a few weeks but i'm pleased! I think she stopped offering the free design. It's pretty cheap anyway.

Another option for cheap cute monograms Aylee Designs - Monograms & Logos if you are not that in to using a computer to design one, might as well buy one. They are pretty cheap.

I do think you could find a nicer dress for the same price. Oprah had models wearing all the different styles of target dresses. You were supposed to guess which was the cheap dress. I thought they all looked cheap & sure enough they were. I think a cheap dress is great (mine was $220) but I think the target dresses are over priced even if they are less than $200. They do have some good options for BMs. I've seen some beautiful david's bridal $99 gowns.

Good thing you were dressed appropriately. We can see you in the ring. I saw this website where they collected pictures of people from ebay listings. They were trying to take a picture of the item they were selling, but didn't know you could see their reflection and they weren't wearing enough clothes. I always make sure I'm wearing something thats OK before I take a picture for ebay now. I think the prices are definitly realistic. Jewelry stores have huge markups & sell stuff for what people would be willing to pay, not based on the cost of making it. Tungsten & titanium are cheap metals so it doesn't need to cost $100+. It's just a simple band so there isn't a lot of craftsman ship that goes into making it. I told Mike I found him a $10 ring & he was really happy about that. Thanks again for posting this. I'm really excited to know his size and order the ring.

Happy birthday!!!

Quote: Originally Posted by MoBride I don't know much about make up but I went to Sephora to have mine done and they used bare minerals. It was perfect for me because I'm not used to wearing a lot of make up. They sell bare escentuals kits which come out cheaper than buying everything separately so I bought it and took it to Jamaica with me and had the stylist that did my hair apply my make up. It turned out great. It wasn't too heavy and it stayed on all day in the hot sun. so it photographed well?

Quote: Originally Posted by amyh I have not tried either, however, many, many people (cousins/co-workers) have reccomended Bare Minerals. I plan to get it soon. I don't wear make-up during the week, my face break out with make-up, but I've been told this is great for sensitive skin. my skin gets red & itchy with makeup. Not like breakouts, just irritation. It doesn't do this with bare minerals.

I bought mine at sephora. I had them put it on me first. Then I went shopping for a few hours. I felt like that was enough time to know it wouldn't irritate my skin. I also got to check it out often while trying on clothes to decide that I liked the look.

I bought bare minerals about a month ago. I really like it. My favorite is the warmth. I use it as my blush & it gives my face so much color, but looks really natural. I always hated the feel of makeup so I rarely wore it. This doesn't bother me at all. I've heard that because of the zinc in bare minerals it's not good for a wedding because it will reflect white in pictures. I haven't noticed a problem in any pictures I've taken with the makeup on. I'm thinking about wearing it next month when I'm a BM & then decide what I think of the look in pictures.