TAHOEJENI

Interesting concept - in suite party. Might have to look into that for my Mackinac Island wedding. Thanks. Jeni

Way to pull together BDW gals! Bummer it happened.

Definitely thinking outside the box. Thanks for sharing. Jeni

Thanks for sharing.

How awesome are those? I might just have to play around with that. Thanks

If nothing else, it's nice to read the Just Venting/Funnies thread

Awesome photos.

Awesome Awesome Awesome -I love it and although my proposal was while riding bicycles in TN on vacation, I'm kinda jealous of your maggot story! You've got a ringer for contests!

Duh - that was supposed to be Goodwill + $4.59 = Wedding Dress

Yep, this budget bride found an awesome bridal gown at Goodwill while trying to find a suit jacket for the fiance for a funeral tomorrow. Ha! Anyone score a find like that? Not sure if I'll use it for my TTD shoot but at less than $5, I couldn't pass it up. No pictures to post as I don't have a full length mirror. Will post some soon though! Jeni

Holy Crap! Those are freaking fabulous!

Way too awesome! Way to overcome.

Wow! In the three pages of postings I didn't see that many people concerned about the issue. From my perspective, it's a huge red flag being flapped in front of my face back and forth. Considering the majority of marriages end over finacial issues, this is HUGE. Every day I drive to work thankful that I have a job. We both have our 6 months of SAVINGS incase either one of us was to be handed a pink slip. Sleeping is much easier when you know you have something to fall back on. While we might think buying/upkeeping a motorcycle is stupid (my FI has motorcycle - not that I mind) a wedding from their persepctive might be equally as dumb. I'm sure plenty of the guys think it's dumb to spend a lot of money on ONE day when they could be golfing, riding, jet skiing, etc for days on end. Don't approach it as an item, approach it as a behavior. Both parties need to be involved in the day to day books of keeping the household afloat. As a Dave Ramsey and Suze Orman disciple, things just work better that way in our house. Jeni

The Island (as us locals call it) is really a great place. I had the pleasure of growing up in the Upper Peninsula about 16 nautical miles from there. We would drive our boats to the Island and hang out all the time. After college, we all moved away to get jobs but my best friend had a wedding at the Grand a few years ago. She held it in October and we had almost the WHOLE island to ourselves. It was a very unique experience, even for a local. The Island prohibits cars, and the only ones you might see are the fire crew and ambulance. Everything else is horse drawn carriage or bicycles. Okay, well we cheat in the winter and drive snowmobiles but that's about it. The clip clop of horse feet striking the pavement on the way back to your condo or hotel after a night's worth of festivities, catching glimpses of the Bridge and the northern lights shimmering across the sky is priceless. If you're looking for a remote location without having to step foot out of the country, you have found your spot. Going home in 3 months for the 4th of July - can't wait! Jeni

Long story short - so we were doing a Tahoe wedding but after I started contacting venues, all the places I thought about were already booking up for Summer 2010. I don't have an opportunity to go to Tahoe and scout any locations until this fall which means slim pickings. So - let's get married where he proposed! It's still a destination for us as we live in Cincinnati and it's five and a half hours to where he proposed in Nashville. I did a simple google search and started an excel spreadsheet of places that interested me. Then I started whittling it down. I spoke to a few places and started planning in my head. You know how it is OCD ladies, that's everything I would think about. Then I'd find a website with some more links and go "oh that place looks even more AWESOME!" I'm scared to fire up the computer and find yet another beautiful place. Tell me that this has happened to you?!? Tahoe Jeni now Tennesse Jeni

Remember it could ALWAYS be worse. Congrats on the baby. I remember this time last year when we went to house after house after house for months trying to find something we liked. Everyone that has a "good" house isn't selling and the only thing we could find was crap, short sales, and foreclosures. The house we're in now (closed last April) was the third house we put a bid on BUT YOU KNOW WHAT - we absolutely love this house so we would do it all over again. Besides, I read the title too fast and thought you were complaining that it was "So darn difficult to buy a HORSE!"

Oh my gosh, that's such a great story. He kept your picture all that time. What a keeper.

Hey girl, I'm in Colerain so we're close. There's another Nati girl on here too named Kim. I really haven't looked at any vendrs yet but have thougt about doing my own STD and invites along with OOT bags. Kim and I plan to get togeter and do some work so I'm sure you would be more than okay to join . Welcome to the boards. Jeni

Adorable. If looks could kill when some sleazeball tried to hit on her! The nerve. :-)

Yep - my father is not invited. He's a lying sleazy man who even conned me out of thousands this summer. Something I never imagined possible as I was his "favorite" daughter out of all seven of us. Yeah right. He was storing a limited edition Saab convertible of mine in his incredibly large garage and sold it. It had originally been titled in his name as he cosigned on it 12 years ago when I bought it. I made EVERY single payment. It's 100% my fault as I never retitled it, giving him the ability to sell it. Even when I confronted him with the truth, he lied about it for months. (We live a couple states apart and I had much better things to do with my vacation time then confirm something that I knew to already be true) I finally got a typed letter from him saying "I don't know why I did it and I don't know why I lied to you about it every time you called me". In talking with my other brothers and sisters (half and full - he's been married four times) he's stolen/lied from a lot of us! Pathetic!

Sorry to hear - I'm in the same boat. My mom and I are not close at all. We might talk three times a year. I beleive there's some mental illness that's never been diagnosed. (no friends, recluse, no bathing/cleaning) etc. I felt it would be nice to treat her to the wedding as she doesn't really have an income to speak of. My FI now feels obligated to pay his parents way even though they own their own retail business and can afford the trip. It's not the money in this case for them, it's that his mother would be perfectly happy never leaving the house. She's a real home body and we've been told by FI dad, that she won't have any fun even though his dad has always wanted to go to Tahoe.... Parents - what to do? :-) Jeni

The title probably doesn't make sense - I wrote a post on my FI being concerned others would hijaock the entire time we are out there. (Lake Tahoe) Several of you mentioned that you had suggested your guests come Thursday through Sunday (I'm assuming a Saturday wedding) so as to make it abundantly clear that the new bride and groom would not be hanging out with the entire guest list while they are there for the whole week. Did you do this in your STD's or something else? Thanks Jeni

Thanks for the replies so far. One thing that he's pretty excited about is trying to get a group ride together. We figure some of our teammates will come as it's a huge mountain biking destination. We've talked to two seperate videographers who are drooling to shoot a mountain bike love story! I plan on doing a newsletter or two with several potential activities for people to do on their own..... hint hint :-)

So, the abridged version - which will still probably be freakishly long! We both race for local cycling teams here in town. A few months ago, I won us a free mountain biking Bike trip to Northstar Resort in Lake Tahoe. Along with the trip, we won a couple grand in spending cash. His father (before we were even engaged) suggested we use it to tie the knot. Great idea. We're both very non traditional and that sounded awesome. The stipulations of the trip was that it had to be taken by October of 2009. Due to other commitments it would have to be August. In talking with my sister,she said they wouldn't be able to come as it's a NO DAYS OFF period for her husband's work. I told her not to worry, as we had just planned on the two of us along with video and pictures with an AHR. Over New Year's with my sister and best friend in attendance, we announced our engagement. My best friend of forever exclaimed "oh we will SO be there"! She was so happy for us! Talk about bittersweet. My sister looked absolutely devastated. I had secretly wanted people to be able to come, if they wished. My best friend and family were coming and my own sister (and husband and little girl) weren't coming. After apprised of the situation, my best friend suggested forfeiting our deposit on the July 09 vacation (we all go together) so my sister and husband could go to Tahoe with us as we had already allocated the money and time off. Everything was solved! Hooray!!! Then reality set in. How the heck were we going to plan this in 7 months? If my friends were going, Geoff thought it was only appropriate to open it up to his side as well. Well sure! So then in a matter of minutes it gets REAL big! Invite everyone and see who comes! lol Thankfully - When the company that awarded the trip to us found out we had planned on getting married while there, they elected to give us a prepaid VISA for the whole trip and then there were no longer any time constraints. July 2010 it would be. Geoff is concerned that the week / week and half that we spend out there will be hijacked as we'll be obligated to spend every waking minute with all of our guests (how many that might be, who knows). He finds it rude to just "disappear" rationalizing that people will be spending a lot of money to travel to Tahoe. I keep trying to tell him that the people (Ohio and Michigan) that choose to come will most likely make a vacation of it too and have their own agendas and to quit worrying. Any ideas for the pessimist? He wants to go back to the original me/him arrangement. How do I calm his fears? It's not a money thing, it's a time manipulation thing. Thanks!!! Jeni

Kristy - that's how a post shoudl read. Tell us the info that's most important and then mention not to waste our time on the rest of the site. WTG! Lord, knows I'd be on it all day, trying to find other "deals". Instead I can waste my time on other websites. lol Jeni