K laughed at this one, but I don't think it's going to make the final cut.

My ring (Triton tungsten band). I love it and get a lot of compliments on it... but the silver portion gets scratched pretty easy. It does come with free re-sizing (you actually have to mail it in and they send you a new one since you can't re-size the ring)... so maybe if I go half a size down the marks will magically disappear

I'm thinking about buying a cheap pure tungsten band that I can wear for work.

That's a nice ring blue. I like it a lot

Suggestion for those getting married:

Get a photobooth. We had one and it was a hit. It's also pretty cheap (couple hundred $, I believe). Your wedding day flies by so fast and there's so many people that you hardly get to see (or see at all). After the wedding you get a copy of all the pictures taken in the photobooth. It's hilarious and also great to see others having a blast, especially those that you didn't get to spend so much time with.

+1 to this. We just set up a makeshift one just outside from the main party area... nothing special, just a few disposable cameras, used a sheet as the background, and got some cheap props from an arts and crafts store. Seeing the pictures that have come back from this has been great... and watching the kids (and adults) walking around the reception with the props was a good laugh.

We were thinking about doing a video guest book, setting up a bench and a few things so people can give us a spoken message.

just found this thread...

getting married August 25th, now going back to read the whole thing!

Congrats. Not sure how much help is in here for you, but if you want to talk about your wedding planning, feel free to post whatever.

Finally got 5 minutes to post.

KitchenAid is a must, sadly we didn't get it at the wedding showers but got some gift cards to use and getting one.

+1 on the photobooth

Luckily my future wife is very crafty so she's making tons of stuff and saving some $$ that way. We also had two close friends get married earlier in the summer so they are letting us use random stuff.

Wedding is outside in northern Michigan, overlooking lake Michigan. Looking like this:

Ah good idea.. if you are close to anyone that is getting married a bit before you.. and they are doing some of/a lot of the decorations themselves.. ask if you can rummage through their leftover materials. I'm sure most couples would love to get that extra stuff out of their way (I know we are).

Heh. Our reception will be overlooking Lake Ontario.

Wookie,

Are you sure you don't want to go with The Lion King angle?

Few people seem to appreciate the value of traditional simplicity, and instead they reach for the "original." While I do advocate for true originality, leave it for the places and situations where originality is called for. Just stick with the time-honored, or else you'll (not you, Wookie) make a fool of yourself.

Most important items in an invitation: date, time, place. And maybe even a handy map for those without a GPS. And double check the GPS directions just in case they will confuse your guests.

The reason why I found those wordings was precisely because I was looking for "traditional simplicity." I haven't been to enough weddings to know what constitutes "traditional simplicity" and what constitutes failed attempts at "true originality." We both wanted something that wasn't overly embellished but that made mention of both of our sets of parents, as they're both making significant contributions to the costs of the wedding as well as being significant parts of our lives -- past, present and future.

With that meager constraint, I went out searching for something boilerplate but not really knowing what that would be. When looking on a site that purported to offer boilerplate invitation wording, I found a ton of trashy crap, and that was pretty common among other places I looked. I posted those just for the amusement of the forum. K ending up putting some finishing touches on one of the ones I picked out as being acceptable. The final product might actually be original, but the readers probably wouldn't recognize it as being different from "traditional simplicity."

So, I'm going to once again vote for bucking this trend. No husband wants a bridezilla, and one of the best ways to avoid a bridezilla is to reduce her stress level. Unless you're an incompetent future husband, I'd advocate for men in my position to actively seek out jobs their brides can delegate to them, esp. where they are more proficient at the task than their brides. For example, K is working on invitations. She wants to include a map of the events for people to follow from place to place in the invitation. I banged that **** out in an hour, drink in hand, WHILE producing a top quality product, and it would have taken the bride at least twice as long to work out the same. Simple way to earn brownie points and ward off the bridezilla. She might change some fonts and colors and ****, but that stuff changes quickly, esp. with my template in place.

I'm not stupid enough to meddle in things like "colors" or "artistry," but taking some of the heat off when it comes to some of the technical aspects is a solid strategy.

Wow, just wow!

But then she'll miss out on folks not being able to find those obscure other-surnamed early papers.

hmmmm

even more hmmmm

Was at a wedding this past weekend with a photobooth. Fun, and I dread how inebriated I appeared. eep.

Bonus tip: Articulate your alcohol set-up. Wedding mentioned above had a 1-hour open bar/reception, which converted to cash bar once we moved inside for dinner etc. Kinda got caught by surprise with that one, especially since mixed drinks were $10 per. Had to go scour for an atm at the last minute. FFFFFUUUUUUUUU Boston!!!!