rings

Jun222010

June 22 TMW Post

Tweet: Today is my parent’s 39th wedding anniversary.. in 39 years & 3.75 months, we’ll be celebrating ours too! 😉

There’s not a whole lot to say about this one. 39 years. That is a loooooong time! In those 39 years years they’ve owned 3 houses, raised 3 children, and owned hundreds of exotic birds and probably about a hundred dogs. Not to mention the odd creatures like goats, tortoises, koi, iguanas, and whatever else they’ve had. While we’re not going for the animal part, having 3 kids after 39 years is something I’d love to emulate. Even if there’s only 1 perfect kid – me, of course! 😉

Tweet: wedding ring mailed yesterday, remake payment just made… now to wait 8 horribly long weeks to get it back. going from 7.5 to 9 #justincase

My beautiful ring finally got mailed back. And what’s better, it was received 2 days later. Before I could even check the tracking, I got an email from the jeweler saying” it arrived, he’d use my old stone and crate the new one… and as a reminder, the current waiting time was 8 weeks.” Le sigh. 8 weeks until I have my precious back in my hands. The timing is pretty dead on since the wedding is just shy of 4 months away.

Tweet: The result of careful counting & lots of painful hot glue injuries: http://twitpic.com/1x510b

Tweet: All I need now are the pillars. #cupcaketower http://twitpic.com/1x6ag8

Tweet: Mini us! Now to hook to the base & varnish the whole thing #caketopper http://twitpic.com/1xannv

That’s right, I finally got some wedding DIY done… or at least seriously worked on. The cupcake bases are complete and I just need the towers. The cake topper is done and I just need to varnish them. We have normal varnish from the kitchen cabinets, but I’m thinking that it wayyyyy too thick. All the sites I was referring to used spray varnish. Too bad a bottle of spray varnish is about 10x what I need and costs like $8. Can’t they just sell a tiny bottle for me?

Tweet: Embossed envelopes… It’s a start! #wedding http://twitpic.com/1yki33

I am actually please with how these turned out. All the stamps I purchased and carefully planned and showed to people… they won’t work for embossing. I tried. All the text runs together. I guess that means everything else will just get stamped onto the envelopes. I did start that part… the stamping onto the envelopes. Our snazzy and complete fab return address stamp got stamped onto all 100 RSVP envelopes over the weekend. Only a handful were either too light, ink missing, or something else unusable. Not too shabby!

And I leave you with this, from Monday…
Tweet: 111 days until 101010! (cc @brokebride2be!)

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Jun152010

June 15 TMW Post

Tweet: Plain water bottles would be appreciated as much as customized, right? #wedding #favors http://twitpic.com/1vkz23

For those that have been keeping track, I’ve been wanting to do personalized water bottles as favors for our Vegas guests. Personalized as in some design I would create. But even with the 20% off coupons I’ve got for DiscountMugs, with art work it’s figuring to be about $8 each bottle once all is said and done. During an errands run to Big Lots, I spotted orange and blue aluminum water bottles (amongst other colors) for $4 a pop! Sure, they’re not personalized, but do people really care? I may just snatch them up, make cute “thanks for coming” tags and call it a day.

I’m contemplating getting the $0.90 tote bags from CheapTotes and stuffing them with goodies including the bottles. My main issue now is how the heck do I transport it all? Mailing it to myself at the hotel? Mailing it to a friend in Vegas and hoping we get together in time to set up the bags? Send the bottles in advance to my guests? Well, the last option isn’t viable since I want them to have the bottles IN Vegas and they might forget them.

Tweet: I sorta wish I hadn’t bought our wedding rings last April… While I still love it, it’s too small on me & his is too big

Tweet: ok folks, do i send my fabu wedding ring back & spend $120 to have it sized &/or spend $25 on a simple band? he says $25, i say $120

Tweet: the matchy matchy rings: http://twitpic.com/6j3ro

Tweet: So I’m ok w/ easily dropping $200 on the #iphone4, but hesitated on an add’l $120 on my wedding ring. Talk about screwy priorities! …. Ring’s going back this week for resize/ remake. It’s going to last about 5000 times longer than the phone 🙂

Tweet: oh boy.. the remake/resize is $170. so long #iphone4 perhaps it’ll be a 3gs w/updated software instead. #ihatemoney

I know, lots of tweets, but for a very good reason. My ill-fitting ring is front and center on my mind right now. Steve’s fits well enough that it won’t fall off. Mine fits so well that it is painful to put on and take off. As in, it barely fits! Since buying my ring last April (yes, in 2009!) my finger has expanded. The ring is a US7.5 and a 7mm thick titanium band. I think I’d be happier with an 8 or 8.5. However, titanium isn’t resizable. The jeweler that made it (JewelryByJohan on Etsy) said I could send it back and he’d remake it for 60% of the price. I paid $200 for it last year, and it’s gone up considerably to $316, so 60% is $90. Holy freaking hell. I saved a boatload on airfare, hotel and clothes, but don’t want to spend it all on my wedding ring!

I did email him as I was tooling around his site and saw the exact same ring paired with a plain men’s band for $254. And on his non-etsy website, the ring is listed for $197. Hopefully I don’t sound nit-picky, but that is a crazy price increase, and an inconsistent one too.

I was looking on Etsy and Ebay for “replacement” titanium rings and can get a 3mm-4mm plain plain plain band for about $25. Bear in mind that my wedding ring was going to completely replace my e-ring. So the plain band would live all alone on my finger. Steve thinks I should get a stand-in because $190 is a lot and my original ring might end up fitting again.

What would you do?

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Jul282009

Wedding Info Dump from my Journal

Evening my lovelies!

So I have had an online journal for many many years, but it’s locked down tight since I discuss everything in the world on it – good, bad and very ugly. There is a good chunk of stuff on it that relates to the wedding, and I’ve decided to pull all that out and put it into this blog. Prepare for an influx of ideas! 🙂

since getting engaged in April 2008, we have discussed getting married in port before a cruise (honeymoon) sails, getting married on an island mid-cruise in the Caribbean, getting married in Miami, Chapel Hill, and Vegas; having a big 100++ person bash or having a handful of people in either Vegas or Miami and the reception for 100++ later; eloping to the JoP. in all this discussion, the date just kept getting pushed back and back and back. i think we’ve actually settled on 10-10-10 finally. we needed a memorable date for Steve – his mind is great with math, but not numbers, whereas i can still remember my first ever cell phone number but am terrible at math.

my wedding ring was ordered on April 22, 2009. Steve’s ring arrived on May 27, 2009. mine was ordered through Etsy seller: JewelryByJohan, and his was ordered through Etsy seller TitaniumKnights.

apparently loads of discussion culminated in a definite Vegas wedding on February 17, 2009, according to my other journal. 🙂

We went to Miami to visit my [entire] family and for Steve to meet them. he asked my dad, very non-nonchalantly!, if he could marry me. dad, of course, said yes since everyone loves Steve! April 5, 2009 from my journal:
daddy said yes. no surprise there though. my older brother likes him. younger one seems to as well. and of course mom and dad do too. pretty much everyone he met this weekend thinks he’s awesome and that we’re awesome together.

my darling bridesmaids bouquets consist of…

1 stick of red/ orange orchids – palaneopsis i think, 2 bunches mini white Calla Lilies, 3 sticks of Stephanotis (with pearls in the center), 2 things of grass for more green.
the stems are wrapped up and pinned tightly with a dark blue ribbon and a sheer white with silver stars ribbon overlay.

no clue what mine will look like. probably the same flowers with a few deep orange large Calla Lilies. we shall see.

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