I wish cableboy and I could elope, but because of previous drama with his sister, his parents never got a wedding with her. Plus, he's the only son (very important for Asian families), so we must put on a wedding for at least his family.

I'm already stressed out trying to find a venue for the ceremony and reception. Being in the Bay Area, everything is ridiculously overpriced. I've been looking into city-owned sites, and the site fees alone range from $1650 to $2500. The wedding is going to cost a bundle, and I don't even have very extravagent taste...okay, I lied, I do have extravagent taste in food (mm, filet mignon), but I don't want a fancy gown or truckloads of flowers. Just the site fees and catering together are going to cost over $10k for 80-100 guests!

How do you guys keep your heads when it comes to wedding planning? When I browse through other wedding chat boards, I suddenly have insane urges for THE PERFECT WEDDING. I try to remind myself that I'm having the wedding as a big party for friends and relatives to have fun, eat good food, and dance drunkenly into the night. I find myself too often obsessing over chair covers, centerpieces, invitations and a myriad of other details that I forget why I'm planning a wedding at all. I guess I'm torn between my usual laid back self and my latent bridezilla. I sometimes feel as if I have two personalities...normal me and BRIDE MEMEME. Am I going insane?

congrats to all the newly engaged!

I have other friends who have done the same thing. I guess the restaurant owners realize that they'll make a lot of money without having to really do much. I don't know if that is something that would work for you, but it is a way to keep some costs down.

And minxx, register for everything you've ever wanted! I didn't register for much because my friends and family don't have much money. But we got everything on the registry, and I really wish I'd registered for more.

*edited because I got confused about which thread I was reponding to*

We registered for the usual... china, silver, crystal, bedding, etc from a department store. But we also went to Target and just played like kids in a candy store. Anything that looked like something we might consider wanting, we registered for. If you just look at it like fantasy shopping, I'm sure you'll come up with tons of things in no time.

RE: Lots of guests, not so much $$$. When we originally made up our guest list, we had about 300 people. And we knew we wanted a traditional wedding. So here's what we're doing.... we're having our ceremony on a Friday night with just a cocktail reception for about 125 people. That will be our fancy, formal, reception. The next day, Saturday, we've rented out a park in the suburbs, and we're just going to have sort of an open-house reception for our co-workers, friends, etc with barbecue food. That way we could afford to include everyone without breaking our budget.

As far as my wedding goes..... 100 days from today!!!! Aack! Okay, I'm actually not at all stressed, which stresses me out a little bit. We got our first response card back in the mail yesterday which was super exciting. I can't imagine making my own invitations... just addressing 75 of them with the inner and outer envelopes was work enough for me

I have everything for my dress now except for some sexy lingerie for underneath! I'm not sure where to look for that, though, as most stores (VS, Fredericks, etc.) don't carry anything for me. Suggestions?

This Friday afternoon I'm hoping to meet with a few bakeries and florists for cake and flowers. I really need to get moving on that... those were my "least interested in doing" categories, I've been procrastinating horribly.

Finally... we're ordering my wedding band tonight. It's so purty. I wish I could post a picture for you guys, but it's custom made, so... no pics till I get it!

quote:

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Originally posted by Dewgirl:
Okay, I'm actually not at all stressed, which stresses me out a little bit.

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This is how I feel. I'm just 32 days away now, and I'm feeling like, shouldn't I be crazed right now? Because I'm totally not.

Actually, I just spent all day writing thank you's for my shower, which stressed me out. I took longer than I should have, because the shower was a month ago. When I got a thank you from Boy's cousin (I ranted about her shower a few pages ago) yesterday, I freaked because her shower was a week after mine. So, she made me look a bit lazy, but hey, I'm over it, because I just took the last 2 weeks to move! That's a good excuse!

I think thank you's will one day be my downfall. I've hated writing them ever since I was little.

I made my invitations, but mostly I designed them on the computer, printed and trimmed them. No construction or glueing involved. But it sure is satisfying when people complement them. They turned out really well, I think.

quote:

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Originally posted by Dewgirl:
I have everything for my dress now except for some sexy lingerie for underneath! I'm not sure where to look for that, though, as most stores (VS, Fredericks, etc.) don't carry anything for me. Suggestions?

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Could you have something tailor-made? That would probably be expensive, but on the other hand, nice lingerie can be worn over and over. Every woman desserves to have some beautiful underwear!

I know that over here, it's possible to have bathing suits and lingerie custom-made in some specialty stores.

quote:

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Originally posted by gemini:
Dewgirl, I'm curious. . . you said that VS and Fredricks don't have anything for you. Do you mean they don't have stuff you like, or do you have some special requirements that I don't know about? (I'm picturing a third boob. )

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AAAAAHHHHH! Now I am too!! No no no! Bad gemini....

Yeah, and even though I've been engaged for nearly a year, I only planned the wedding in the last six months. If you just sit down and do it, it really doesn't take that much time, unless you're doing something completely over the top!

OK, gotta run. Phil's on the other computer in the hotel here - he's like, "who are you writing to?" and I said "who do you THINK i'm writing to?" and he got it right - "digsmagazine.com?!" So, yay for digs.

OK, can you tell I'm tipsy from the free booze?

I'm married too! The day was very special. Everyone got all teary at the ceremony (except me, grinning like a fool), our best friends did beautiful readings from John Donne, Dad got a standing ovation with his Father-of-the-Bride speech, in which he said we'd chosen an auspicious week to get married as Ronald Reagan had died. One of my favourite moments wasn't caught on film - sneaking out of the reception to have a spliff with the bridesmaid and the best man. We did look odd, a woman in a wedding dress, a Chinese guy in a kilt and a woman in a blue silk dress clustered furtively at the bottom of a sordid alley.

Honeymoon in Sri Lanka was great too, after a bumpy start (5-star resort in Dambulla was full of obnoxious and abusive Italian soccer hooligans, but we found better places in Kandy and Galle anyway). We got to wash elephants in a river and play with the baby ones, and shopped like lunatics. Jewellery is my big weakness and I thought my finances might be reeling after a visit to the world's gem centre, but everything was so much cheaper than anywhere else in the world - please excuse my bragging as excitement, but I bought a 3.5ct sapphire ring for about 1/4 of what I would have paid here! I am dying for my first cocktail party......