rodent

i agree with what has been said. set a budget you can afford on your own. then if family members do contribute, that is bonus. you can either increase your budget for something or have more to save. it would help if you knew upfront what to expect, but if they don't offer it up I wouldn't ask. we paid for our wedding, but were surprised that our family gave us monetary gifts. we upped the budget a little after that & saved the rest. my original budget was $5,000 & would have been totally manageble. if you can't afford it on your own, you can either consider a long engagement or a really small wedding. you could always renew your vows later or take a great anniversary trip.

i love it!!!

i just got back from a huge shopping trip. My fridge is now stocked with lots of healthy stuff. I'm so excited about BL4 starting this week!!! my only worry is that thursday night I have a work dinner at the best restaurant in town. we usually have lots of wine & amazing desserts. I'm going to skip the alcohol & dessert and just get a veggie meal for the 2 courses. Then friday is a dinner at my bosses house. Social things are the hardest for me when I'm eating healthy.

I listen to NPR's This American Life weekly. Recently they did a very different show explaining the mortgage crisis. I listen to many financial shows, but this explained it better than anything I've heard. here is the episode This American Life Today I listened to a follow-up episode. This American Life The first half of the show is a different story, but the 2nd half talks about the mortgage crisis. The first half is also very interesting. It's about people who scam the internet scammers in Nigeria. I just thought some other people might be interested.

thanks everyone. i also got some good tips on DOF for getting the ring sharp. i'm taking it out this weekend for practice.

Quote: Originally Posted by becks Ummm... can we include pirate jokes? You know what the pirates wife's name was, dontcha? Peggy... (oh that was so bad) arrr, we ought to make ye walk the plank fer that one, matey

Quote: Originally Posted by bride2010 Thanks for the extra tips! I'm now wondering if there is any risk at all to hiring a local photographer or going with one from a different province/state/country. Is there a certain governing body that oversees all that? I would assume a deposit is made through Paypal or something similar and the rest paid the day of the event. What guarantee do I have that they'll show up? I almost want to laugh at myself. It's probably a really silly thing to think/ask about, but I'd rather ask and look silly than let it pass and be sorry later. -row- there are many local photographers that are popular on BDW. I felt comfortable hiring a local because I knew their reputation from all the girls who hired them before me. I did pay with paypal, but there was a % fee to do that. I ended up switching my photography over to videography with the same company & flew in a photographer. I would be nervous to hire someone in another country if we didn't have the internet where you could find out their reputation. because if something went wrong it would be so hard to do anything about it. but, after browsing around the forum & seeing other's experienced I think you will feel comfortable hiring a local photographer if that is what you decide to do. glad to hear barcelo changed their policy. i hate the no outside vendor policies. PS. you might be interested in multi-quote. click the MQ button for every post you want to quote. at the end, click the quote button. then you can reply in one post.

Quote: Originally Posted by Christa Oh my...I am totally crying right now Morgan! What a great thread, I am just now finding it. I don't live close enough to my grandma to be able to do a drive by anymore, and that sucks. It seems like every time I go home she's out of town, so I haven't seen her in a year! I am going home this weekend and I am going to try my very best to go see her. She is in the early stages of dimentia, so it's pretty hard sometimes...one day she'll be clear as a bell & the next she's calling me Carol (my mom's name). And, unfortunately, I don't have a daddy But, I do have a friends dad who was/is very close to a daddy figure. I'm going to give him a hug & buy him a beer this weekend! I'm 24 hours away from my grandma, so I mailed her a card with pictures. she really enjoyed it. my mom stopped by her house yesterday to see the pictures I sent. my gma on my dad's side had dementia. she also had good days & bad days. i used to call her every sunday. but, it got too hard for her to talk on the phone. she was much better in person, but i lived 4 hours away. so I started sending her postcards from everywhere I went. she hung them on the fridge & it made it much easier for her to keep track of what I was up to. sometimes she would forget that I lived in north carolina. so I got some cards from all around here & it helped her keep that straight. after she passed away, i still bought some cards on our next trip. so i started to send them to my other grandma. i'm surprised I wasn't sending them both cards all along. but, my mom's mom was so vibrant & healthy that I was focusing all the attention on my dad's mom.

do a search using some keywords & you should find lots of info. many brides shipped stuff in advance. i tried to keep stuff I took to a minimum. I always kept in mind when I bought stuff that it had to be packed. I wasn't willing to spend extra on shipping.

New assignment: Do something randomly nice for your dad. At my brother's wedding, my dad's knees were really hurting him. It was so bad he asked us to see if we could find him a wheel chair to get him out to the car. Luckily, the hotel lobby had one. Otherwise he wanted us to cart him out of the reception on a luggage cart. The next day I realized he wasn't wearing supportive shoes. So I bought him some insoles for easing knee pain. I hope they help. I'm mailing them off tomorrow. My grandma enjoyed the card & pictures I sent last week.

Quote: Originally Posted by Evan Baines Can't say on the after-package average, but the average couple in the US spends about $2500 on photography, +/- $500 depending on who you talk to. This includes both the couples who spend $500 on the Craigslist budget-type photographer and the couples who spend $10,000+ on Joe Buissink. Here are some questions that aren't on many brides' radars that I think can be useful: 1. If the photographer offers digital files, ask for specificity on what form they will arrive in. "Digital Files" can mean edited or unedited files, RAW files out of the camera or downsized JPG's that won't look good past a 4x6 print. Ask about what reprint rights you will be granted. 2. If the studio you are considering is pushing "two photographers" as a competitive advantage or upsale item, you should be seeing two portfolios. Many photographers use untrained spouses or photo-students working for free/peanuts as second shooters, and these seconds are sometimes nearly worthless. You should be able to judge for yourself the quality of the second's work and decide based on that whether they represent real value. 3. Ask if any of the portfolio work on their site was shot as a second for another photographer. Many wedding shooters get their start working under someone else. This is normal and good. However, you deserve to know if your photographer has actually experienced the hot-seat with all of the responsibility and additional concerns of being the primary. This is not to say you shouldn't consider an experienced second, but you should be aware that you are taking a calculated risk and the services should be priced accordingly. 4. Ask if any of the portfolio work on the site was created in a workshop or "model shoot." Many of the images on photographer's sites now are created in workshops led by top shooters in the field. These workshops often feature professional models, who are placed and posed by the workshop leader. Often times, the participants in these workshops are able to obtain images that they would not have the skill to create on their own. Professional development is great, but you should be sure that the images you are seeing are comparable to those you can expect under "real world" conditions. 5. You should see at LEAST one complete wedding album, and preferably more than one. Even a monkey, given a typewriter and enough time, will write Hamlet. You should see both excellent individual shots AND a high sustained level of quality throughout the day. Hope this helps! these are very good tips!

digital negatives were really important to me. i love photo projects, so having my files is wonderful. is barcelo a place with strick vendor rules? it rings a bell. you want to look into that. there are ways around it. you just want to be aware of possible issues.

i used to work at a gym that had a tanning bed so I had to get certified. tanning beds do not provide any protection from burning. i do find that if I lay out in moderation & get some color I won't burn as easily.

we paid about $60 a lesson i think. it's been a few years. maybe it was $45 per lesson for the first set we bought. we paid $20 for an intro package & $45-$60 for 3 more private lessons. we need to get back to practicing though.

i also live in NC. you need two witnesses. you go in & sign some papers. but then you go to the clerk & saw vows. there was even a "you may now kiss the bride" part. What about having the gparents be your witnesses? the only problem was we had a lot of walking to do that day from one courthouse to the next & up and down stairs. we went with 2 friends who couldn't attend the wedding. we just made a fun/ silly day out of it. afterwards we went for lunch. it didn't take away a single bit of our wedding day. nothing could have taken away from that day. it was too great. I loved legal day. it was like having one more wonderful day to celebrate.

i read some stuff about this. there isn't any clear info you can trust. but, 4 kids vandalized a bunch of buses & two went to his high school. then track was sent to school in michigan his senior year & returned to graduate with his class.

that is the dreams resort photog right? i've never seen anything from someone who hired him. which is strange with all the people who get married at dreams.

Quote: Originally Posted by Be Photography LLC i cant see the images from the computer I'm at right now - but I'd suggest investing in a macro lens if you plan on doing any kind of small product work. it's not work, just a hobby. I definitly wouldn't want to get into jewelry photography. those people have some major equipement. i just want to learn how to make ring pics look better. i posted on some other forums & i guess there are not particular tricks for photographing a ring during a shoot. just make the pic as sharp as possible. i'm going out with my e-ring soon to practice. i just wondered if there was some key to doing it. i might get an adapter for my lens to do macro. i still need to look into that. i don't do enough macro photography to spend the money on a macro lens.

8x8 is big enough. 5x5 is too small. that's like a pocket brag book. you need a minimum of 20 images to make a book. more like 40 would be better.

Quote: Originally Posted by AnnR I used to play almost daily, but now it's just as often as I remember. Yup, you will get a PM, only if you win. I saw that you still play. i thought, "what is ann doing playing the lotto." tammy needs to put something really cool on the forum that costs a huge number of points. that way you have something to save up for. I'm trying to think what would be worth saving for. maybe if you can replace your user name with an emoticon. so people have to call you instead of ann. of the bdw member formally known as ann.

my wedding was in puerto aventuras. the town of paamul is a couple of miles north from PA. it's more authentic. it's where locals go for a beach. we had the beach to ourselves. everyone was in this open air restaurant while we were there. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/fo...957#post440076 there are some pics of paamul here

and a fat mouse. the mouse line is called FATTY only pick your favorites for badges. i am not trying to overwhelm you with fat animals. i just can't control myself. well, we all know that after what happened with the ferret thread.

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_hk4u_4FvsKc/R4...I/DSC_0492.JPG here is a fat hippo

Quote: Originally Posted by *Heather* I couldn't agree more Most of us are young enough that we can wait all of these dips out. The key really is starting young and keeping it in there for the long haul. yes, and having an emergency fund. also, emotions can work the other way. like in 1998 when people saw how much money was being made in tech stocks they piled all their money into them hoping to get rich fast. we know how that went. also in 1984 when there was a big crash, people pulled out money or stopped investing. so they missed out on some great years for growth right after. investing internationally helps diversify too. i keep my house down-payment money that I'm going to want within 5 years in a CD. the money in the market is retirement or money I don't need at any set time. also, i want to make sure everyone knows that you can have your roth IRA (or traditional) be any type of account. so don't let the fear of the markets keep you from saving for retirement. my first IRA was a five year CD with a credit union.