*kellis*

I just read this article on The Knot and it helped a little. Obviously it's a bit different with a DW in that people don't want to travel alone but some of the more confusing and not as cut and dry situations(someone wanting to bring their entire family including kids vs. inviting random friends with them). http://wedding.theknot.com/wedding-p...r%2007,%202009

Wow so this thread completely helped me put photographer's package pricing into perspective. I am completely in love with a photographer's work, his pictures are amazing. I have wanted to use him since before FI and I were engaged. But his packages start at $2000 and I guess I had a bit of sticker shock(been happening a lot since I started planning) but now this helps me not feel so bad for spending so much. Pictures are really important to us.

Quote: Originally Posted by bridetobe1515 It's comforting to know that I'm not the only one pulling my hair out trying to co-mingle the families. My FMI hates me. I'm convinced of that. Every year they volunteer me to host Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I try to get in good with her so I agree to it. Now my mom is flying off the handle saying that she is sick of always skirting around FI's family plans. I invited her to come since I'm hosting and for the first time she agreed. That may sound great...but it isn't! I can picture the rude remarks and ham flying across the table now! I just pray that it all goes smoothly and everyone keeps their comments to themselves. You're braver than I to host it yourself. That would be a great solution with my family(at least the ones who all live in AZ) but I would be so overwhelmed hosting any holiday with my parents, FI's parents, my younger siblings, and my older brothers who all are in relationships. Not to mention the Aunts, Uncles, Cousins, and Grandparents. Eeek! I don't think I'll be able to handle that for a few years or at least not until we get a big house to fit everyone.

Love, only the original scent. The other stuff gives me a headache. Diffusers

Monday November 30th 11:40 PM Watching the 3 Amigos with my roommate, admiring my Christmas tree, and not wanting to work tomorrow. I'm in denial that rent is due tomorrow too.

This is seriously going to be a source of stress for me for awhile, I can already tell that. I already have a blended family and am used to splitting Christmas between my mom's family here and my dad's family in CA. The last couple years that has already gotten more complicated with my father not wanting to make any more trips to the airport Christmas day and now I have another family to add into the mix. This Thanksgiving FI and I drove 45 minutes away to have lunch at my aunts then back across town to have dinner at his moms. I was glad to get to see both my and his families on Thanksgiving but I barely ate anything at either places because I was trying to make sure I wasn't rude to the other lol. I have no clue how Christmas is going to work this year. My father and step mom seem to think I should come up to CA for Eve and Christmas day but we can't afford to both go and while I can deal with trading off seeing one family for a holiday, I'm not willing to have a holiday with FI. Every time I think about it I start stressing so for now I'm just not going to think about it yet.

yeah, now that I see the picture I realize I need to move stuff around haha. I guess that's the plus of a prelit fake tree, the lights are in all the right places. I just LOVE the smell of real trees though. Our apartments smells amazing now.

bad quality because it was on a phone camera but, here's ours. We got a real one earlier then is probably wise since trees dry out so fast here but we're moving in a couple weeks and we wanted to have some decorations for a little while. And yes that is LT from the Chargers hanging from the star at the top, FI's special touch lol. Our roommate and I decorated the whole thing and he added that.

1. How old are you? 21 2. At what age did you/will you get married? 22 3. Do you have children? Nope 4. Did you think you would marry the person you are with now? Not at first but it didn't take long to figure out I wanted a future with him. 5. Were you ever engaged or married to someone other than the person you are with now? Engaged yes 6. Do you want a garden wedding, beach wedding, or the traditional church wedding? I've always wanted a beach wedding. 7. Where did you/will you get married? Intercontinental MonteLucia resort in Paradise Valley, AZ...no beach but still beautiful 8. First dance - classic waltz, slow and sexy, or fast and spicy? Fast and Spicy, we're learning a dance to Smooth by Santana and Rob Thomas 9. How many guests did you/will you have? 75...so much for the small wedding 10. Do you want/did you have an extravagant wedding or a simple wedding? I wanted an an intimate unique wedding. 11. Vows - traditional or something you make up on your own? A mix 12. How many layers of cake did you/will you have? I haven't gotten that far yet 13. Is/was your wedding/reception at a hotel? Yes 14. When did you/will you get married - sunrise, mid-day, sunset? Right before sunset. Our cocktail reception will be while the sun is going down. 15. Did you/will you have your reception outdoors or indoors? Cocktail reception outdoors, reception indoors. 16. Plan every detail down to the napkins or let someone else decide? Depends on if I get my wedding planner or not. 17. How did/will the bride enter? Through the huge double wood doors imported from Spain(I'm in love with these doors) with my dad and my step-dad on each arm. 18. Song to walk down the aisle to: Amazing Grace played on violin or cello, it's a surprise for my mom since she used to sing it to me when I was little 19. Song to make your exit: FI wants Radar Love...we're still "debating" on this one. 20. Will you/did you have a solemn ceremony or a light one? I want it light and funny 21. At what age did you think you would get married? 20-25, I always knew I'd get married young. 22. Who to invite - practically everyone or a select few? My huge family(which you can't pick and choose from) and then a select few friends 23. Wedding menu - fine dining or simply delicious? Both, FI is a chef and is working with the chef at the resort to create a personalized spanish inspired menu, maybe tapas, for our reception. 24. Champagne or red wine? I'm more of a white wine person. But we're toasting with Cava, a spanish champagne. 25. Honeymoon right after the wedding, awhile after the wedding, or no honeymoon? FI is planning it, so it'll probably be the week after the wedding. He didn't go for my mini moon idea of a weekend honeymoon and then our longer one a couple months after when everything calms down and we can get more time off of work. Oh well, we'll see. 26. Was your/will your honeymoon be at a place special to you both or somewhere brand new to you both? Kind of both. We're going to Hawaii which he's never been to and I've been 3 times to Maui but we're going to an island I haven't gone to yet. 27. Who will pay for the bills? We already have our finances together, and then we both just keep track of when our own bills are due. 28. Living together: Not before marriage or absolutely before marriage? I wouldn't say absolutely but I think it has been very good for us to live together already. 29. Anything else about marriage you'd like to say? We're determined to always be challenging each others perspective about our marriage and not lose sight of enjoying being with each other and working towards things together. We come from blended families and we want to do things differently. __________________

Um...wow... That's the wrong ad for a forum full of taken ladies lol.

I'm sorry your mother is having such a hard time adjusting. My dad was the same way at first in that he and my step mom feel we are rushing to get married(a year engagement isn't really rushing is it?) and he wants me to wait at least a couple years before getting married until we are finished with school. Well, considering I'm not even in school at the moment and don't have any immediate plans of going back...that's not gonna happen. The way I see it, you want to get married. You've chosen each other. And you're going to be together so why does it matter to her that you aren't married for those 3-5 years she wants you to wait? If its an issue with your FI or with the relationship than she should be honest with you and say it. And if you have been with him for 3+ years, you obviously don't feel the same way about it. You only mention your mom, maybe this is why she doesn't want you to get married and it has nothing to do with it being too soon but with her not agreeing with marriage? In that case it's a whole other issue entirely. And that is her issue, not yours. If you want to get married then do it, whether it be 2011 or 2015. If she's not going to support you in your decision if you do it tomorrow then she's not going to in 2015, she's just stalling so she doesn't have to deal with it.

I'm so in the same boat. It seems like I've been choking up about everything since FI turned me into a big ball of romantic mush. Even the new jewelry store commercials(zales I think?) where they turn to the other person and just say "I love you" randomly. I almost started bawling with just how sweet it was. Or the song Christmas Shoes on the radio yesterday, I definitely started tearing up driving in the car. I'm crossing my fingers the wedding day isn't like that because I'll be busting into happy tears every time someone says something nice.

Quote: Originally Posted by Karen Aucoin Okay, I can finally vent!! I have three: -the socks...which I'm seeing is a theme on here but the worst part is we have two dogs and so they'll find one of these "said socks" they run and play with it, present it to me as a toy and when I go to grab it to play fetch I realize that I'm grabbing on to a dirty sock!! Gross! -when he tells me to "chill out" or "relax" I become enraged! -his lack of memory. I could ask him to pick up three things at the store: bread, milk and eggs and he might, and I say might, remember to stop but will come home with juice, margarine and chips and look at me as if to say, "Did I do good?" Haha, I laugh just thinking about it. He tries I guess. FI does the last one too. Just yesterday we were at my parents and he was going to run to the store and get 2 things. As he was walking out my mom asked him to get her dinner rolls. He comes back with a bunch of stuff and the dinner rolls and neither of the 2 things he went to the store for in the first place. His reasoning was that he was trying so hard to forget what my mom asked him to pick up. Guess I should give him a break on that one.

Like I've never been a big fan of my legs and love the idea of still wearing dresses and skirts this winter. Skinny Jeans?

Congratulations and welcome to the forum:) Just some thoughts. I think the biggest factor in deciding whether to have one of not from the family angle is, how important is it to you that your family be there? If it is extremely important then you need to find out if your close family is willing and able to travel. Also, a huge thing to consider is if you are counting on your family for financial support. If not and you and FI plan on paying for the wedding, you can decide on wherever you please. If you hope for family support, then it really is dependent on if the involved parties are supportive of the idea of a DW. They can be more cost effective because of the smaller guest list but travel and all that adds up.

I'm so happy you were able to work things out. Sometimes realizing that you do love each other even when you do stupid idiotic immature things just shows that you're good together. I know it's so easy to want to give up when you have so much stress for other sources on top of relationship issues but sometimes you have to take a deep breath and realize that it is one thing, one situation, and you aren't being taken advantage of on a regular basis, that he isn't lying to you about everything, that while it hurts and its not right and you deserve so much better than what he did, he still loves you and wants to spend his life with you. Its so easy to automatically get defensive and start trying to protect YOU but a marriage isn't like that. Not that I'm condoning what he did or saying that people should stay in unhealthy relationships but sometimes its not cut and dry. Sometimes great people make really stupid mistakes and have issues that have been there since before the "us" period. As long as it's not a recurring theme in many parts of your lives together, you can forgive each other and know that this is making you stronger. So you've given him enough time to fully feel your wrath, hopefully by now he is thoroughly ashamed and understands that he needs to change not only to keep you but also because it is what is best for him and for your future life together. And you've gotten past that hardest part of forgiving even when you don't know if you want to or if he's really sorry or just sorry he made you mad. Sometimes it takes us longer to feel like they're sorry than is actually necessary but you two have gotten through it. Call me idealistic but I say that if anything you two working through this shows that you will be able to have a strong marriage. If we waited until we were all "deserving" of marriage, then would it ever happen? Your relationship doesn't get easier after the wedding, but neither do problems automatically come out of the woodwork. Maybe it used to be that way before we all dated for years and lived together before marrying but not anymore. Your life together has already started and this has been one huge step for you two and will bring you closer if you let it and give each other more credit then you deserve. Okay, off my soapbox now.

We're doing sparklers when we leave the reception. I've seen wedding pictures of this and they turn out really cool. I like the bubble idea too for a beach wedding.

Oh yeah, didn't think to put my BDW name on the email. It'll be coming from elliswedding83

Sending you an e-mail now. Just getting 5 of them. Hope the price of shipping still makes it worth it. We'll be able to pay through our paypal account to you right?

Quote: Originally Posted by roo66 My Fi cliks when hes relaxing watching tv.He leaves his mouth open tongue out and moves his bottom lip.What ive described sounds like hes a dim witt lol .It drives me nuts i spend most evenings reminding him hes doing it.We will switch the light out at bedtime and i go Paul stop clicking.A co worker says every sentence at the start middle and end " as i say" wtf as i say as i say i hear her every day as i saying !!! haha madness x Hahaha FI does this too!

Quote: Originally Posted by Preciousmi811 Ha ha I am dying laughing reading all this. My FI just forgets and leaves his fly down ALL THE TIME. It is so embarrassing when people point it out. One time a co worker had to pick something up from him in the morning and he went out in his PJ's, talked with her a few minutes then came inside. Well he didn't button the PJ and of course when he came inside I see someone peeking out. Good God she probably thought my FI was a perve. What was I suppose to do run after her car and let her know he does this all the time don't take it personal?? Gotta love him though! Hahahahaha omg I would be so embarrassed, and not even for him. FI has the same problem with his favorite pair of jeans, the fly never stays up and I'm constantly hoping no one notices when I'm across the room signaling to him. Lets just pray he doesn't suddenly decide to start going commando.

Quote: Originally Posted by Melidell This is going to sound stupid, but FI will pronounce nachos like "nat-chos" on purpose because he thinks it's funny and it makes me claw the walls. He'll also get bored at work sometimes when he's working a night shift and call me three or four times (before I go to bed) to chat but have nothing to say and that drives me, too. I know, I know, I'm a bitch. Still bugs me though . To be fair though he's pretty easy to live with: good company, does his share around the house and is extremely easy-going so I don't have much to complain about, really. Haha who knew pronunciation could be so annoying?? I have the habit of losing my train of thought(maybe because I talk too much) and I tend to try to backtrack alot by saying, "k, so..." and I'm not kidding you, EVERY time FI says, "that's spanish for cheese!" ugh. So stupid to let bug me but still...

Okay my turn to weigh in. I'm Team Jacob but not because I think Bella should be with Jacob rather than Edward but just because I honestly liked his character better. And I just feel so bad for him. lol. As for the movie, took my 13 year old sister to the midnight showing. Reminded me how much I love her because we sat there texting each other observations of the people waiting in line around us All in all I thought it was better then the first one. I too had a love/hate relationship with Twilight. As much as we all loved Robert Pattinson and some of the scenes, not to mention the amazing soundtrack, it was hopelessly cheesy and Kristin Stewart tries too hard. Don't know if I'm the only one that feels this way but from the books, I wanted Bella to look more..."normal" I guess in the movies. Her hair is way too perfect. I think they did a lot better with New Moon. The change in directors made a HUGE difference. Just some thoughts... ~The one liners were priceless, I laughed so much during this movie and I think that was a great direction for them to take. ~ It seems like the special effects were kind of made to be over the top cheesy. Like the jumping to the window scene, or the wolves fighting and knocking over a camera on the way into the forest? ~ The scene where Edward leaves her needed a ton more emotion, but we already know that Kristin Stewart isn't capable of that so I guess I shouldn't have expected too much. ~I loved both Charlie and Alice in this one. They both had great screen time and became better individual characters like they are in the book. ~ The depression sequence was alright, didn't care too much for the e-mail angle and once again, her hair was too perfect. Come on, how many of us have hair like that when we're moping around the house? ~ The Edward visions? I know its hard to visually portray hearing his voice and seeing his face in her head but really?? The part in the water was just the worst, people in the theater were laughing at how ridiculous it was, totally killed what could have been a thematic moment. ~ The Volturi was great and makes me look forward to seeing more of them...Jane was so cold it was amazing to see her like that. ~Jacob was...sigh...I feel like a preteen. Also, the cougar jokes make me feel less bad about finding him so beautiful. haha. And I'm sorry but, whatever team you're on, you can't deny that seeing his hunky self without a shirt most of the movie made Edward taking his shirt off seem less exciting, something was going on with his chest...not doing it for me anymore lol. Okay I'm done...Gotta say though, these movies have the most amazing scenery. (Minus the Phoenix parts, I get to see that everyday) Makes me want to move up to the Pacific Northwest and buy an old truck. Thank you ladies for entertaining me, FI gives me such a hard time about my mini obsession with the books and for going to see the movies.

haha this thread just made my night. I would have to say its when FI is just too dang silly sometimes. I love his sense of humor and that he always makes me laugh but god, when I come home from work and I'm trying to check my e-mail (or catch up on BDW ) and he thinks its funny to keep pecking me on the cheek or something equally small but annoying it gets infuriating. Its like gah, just get off me! Then I realize I REALLY need to lighten up and this is why he is good for me. Oh and also when he feels the need the to stroke my hair or put his hand on my neck when I'm driving. It really shouldn't bug me but t's distracting!

I've been thinking about this a lot lately too. Obviously if someone is in a relationship the invitation will include their significant other. And there aren't many if any at all that are single and don't have friends that will also be attending. This seems like a good idea in my head however FI brought up the other day that his four groomsmen are all single so they may want to bring someone as a date. Correct me if I'm completely off on this but I don't want some random chick at our wedding(not to sound mean but I haven't really liked many of the ladies his friends are in the habit of "dating") and it seems really wrong that we would have to not invite some friends or family members to keep the list small but some person we don't even know and probably won't know for very long either is coming and we're paying 150+ for them to be there. Sucks that it comes across to FI that I just don't like his friends, its not my fault that all my bridesmaids(with the exception of my little sister who is 13 lol) are in relationships so of course I included their guys in our guest list and none of his close friends are dating anyone seriously. Ah the politics of weddings.