The Engagement/Wedding/Honeymoon thread

[Busty St Clare]

Twenty posts and only one guy.




Pretty much sums up weddings to be honest.

 

[Samadhi]

lol, Pop was even more present than me at times, when it came to our wedding. Probably because while it wasn't a small do, it was so fucking laid back, we could have slept through half of it - no meltdowns, shit went smoothly in the lead up, bridal party bought/chose their own clothing (with limited guidance from us). I think i was really lucky - he wasn't one of those classic "oh, i'll leave all of those decisions to you, darling" men, thank Christ.

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

Twenty posts and only one guy.




Pretty much sums up weddings to be honest.

Yeah, lol apparently I don't have to worry about my boyfriend coming into this thread and seeing my hinting. lol

Aislinnna, wow. I love love love your photos! There is something very hazy and dreamlike about them, in a very cool way. Your dress is epic pretty and I love the umbrella. Samadhi you had one of those too, didn't you?

 

[Fawkes]

agreed, aislinnna! those photos are fantastic! i love the parasol!

Samadhi's photos are phenom, too! how did you ladies find your photographers?

oh, and i'm with MNIND and n3o in the "Boyfriend Ask me ALREADY!" Club. but that doesn't mean i'm not already in the planning stages. :D

 

[RedLeader]

My little sister is getting married in a few weeks. I am so incredibly proud and happy for her and her fiancé - it's wonderful knowing that they find each other to be soulmates. Anyway, I am not a religious person, but my sister is (as is her partner) and I am looking around for meaningful and unique ideas for a wedding gift for them. They are both Pentecostal fundamentalist Christians and consider their faith to be as important as anything to themselves on a continual basis.

Anyway, their wedding is going to be very much themed in dedication to their faith and though not specified, wedding gifts will echo this. Now just because I am not religious does not mean that I don't find many aspects of it to be beautiful and appealing (yes, even Pentecostalism ). So I would really appreciate any suggestions that you guys 'n gals have on a solid wedding gift for the couple. Again, this is unknown territory for me, but I feel like getting them a faith-based gift would be very respectful and kind. I just need pointed in a right direction.

I'm willing to put a few hundred US dollars down on this, so you have a bit of freedom to work with with respect to money. This is very important to me (it's my freaking baby sister getting MARRIED!), so I really would appreciate any ideas offered up. Thanks in advance, everyone!

 

[_a_A_C_c_]

^maybe you can donate money to their church in honor of their union?

 

[ChickenScratch]

getting married is really all about the honeymoon.

we went to maui.

we got pregnant on the first night.

best mistake ever.

 

[Kenickie]

My little sister is getting married in a few weeks. I am so incredibly proud and happy for her and her fiancé - it's wonderful knowing that they find each other to be soulmates. Anyway, I am not a religious person, but my sister is (as is her partner) and I am looking around for meaningful and unique ideas for a wedding gift for them. They are both Pentecostal fundamentalist Christians and consider their faith to be as important as anything to themselves on a continual basis.

Anyway, their wedding is going to be very much themed in dedication to their faith and though not specified, wedding gifts will echo this. Now just because I am not religious does not mean that I don't find many aspects of it to be beautiful and appealing (yes, even Pentecostalism ). So I would really appreciate any suggestions that you guys 'n gals have on a solid wedding gift for the couple. Again, this is unknown territory for me, but I feel like getting them a faith-based gift would be very respectful and kind. I just need pointed in a right direction.

I'm willing to put a few hundred US dollars down on this, so you have a bit of freedom to work with with respect to money. This is very important to me (it's my freaking baby sister getting MARRIED!), so I really would appreciate any ideas offered up. Thanks in advance, everyone!

my first guess is a really pretty beautiful rare bible, perhaps with space for writing in her family tree that can be passed down within their family?

lystra suggests going to a chrisitan bookstore and just explaining what you need and going from there. OR what about a certificate for a Christian Retreat weekend somewhere.

 

[Kenickie]

another thing is a Kiva loan certificate. I know you might feel weird giving to Planned Parenthood bombing charities or what not, but there are religious 'teams' who focus their loans on helping people of their faith across the world.

http://www.kiva.org/community?category=Religious+Congregations&sortBy=overallLoanedAmount

 

[chrissie]

Just saw this on someone's facebook and thought it was really cute

___________


That reminds me... when did getting professional engagement photos taken become the norm?

 

[MynameisnotDeja]

oh, and i'm with MNIND and n3o in the "Boyfriend Ask me ALREADY!" Club. but that doesn't mean i'm not already in the planning stages.

lol... I never thought I'd be one of THOSE girls. :D
No really though, it's no rush. If anything it's just funny because we talk a lot about getting married as if he's asked or something, and I always have to be like "NO! Stop it! You're making it totally not special if you ask now!"

It is fun to think about but I'm not in any rush. I want it to be super special and hopefully unexpected when it happens.

I love that save the date thing! SO cute!

 

[aislinnna]

^ I know that for our wedding, our photographer did an engagement shoot for free. It gave us a chance to make sure that we liked her style of photography, and also gave her a chance to work out how to best capture us on the day. I know a few a couples who have used the engagement shoot photos as a background for their wedding invites.

 

[Samadhi]

We decided against an engagement photo-shoot. I feel quite self-conscious in front of a camera, and i know it's just my neurosis about it, but felt it was way too corny for me. In saying that, i've seen lots of beautiful engagement photography - it just wasn't for me (or for my husband, as he felt similarly to me).

Fawkes - our wedding photographer was phenomenal -he was the loveliest bloke, as was his wife. Each time he came over for planning, etc, his wife came - she's very involved in the business. He was originally a horticulturist, so he also knew what trees/flowers would be in bloom in the garden of our venue (which didn't matter as it torrentially poured). The fact that it rained and he still nailed our photos is a testament to his skill.

Here is his website: http://www.stephendamen.com.au/portfolio/weddings.html

All of my wedding pics are on Facebook - i'd be happy to add anyone who wanted to take a look at them

 

[LoveAlways]

OMG CONGRATS AMY!!!!!!!!!

getting married is really all about the honeymoon.

we went to maui.

we got pregnant on the first night.

best mistake ever.

Awesome! I guess Maui can do that to you =) I met my husband the 1st night I came out here and we got pregnant 4 months later. We never actually got a honeymoon, but we live here on Maui so we just did a little road trip with my brother and his gf, it was fun!!

Where are you honeymooning Amor?

I have to say I think my wedding was the best ever! It was as stress-free as it could possibly be! We planned absolutely everything in 3 weeks. The most expensive thing we spend money on was $200 for the guy who married us. We got married on the beach with our feet in the ocean at 4:20pm =) haha Followed by a potluck dinner =)

 

[AmorRoark]

^ Thanks girl! Your wedding sounds awesome. We're working hard trying to figure out where we're going to honeymoon. It's kinda hard because we're not paying for it and we haven't exactly been given a solid budget.

Here's my gown (minus the black belt... couldn't find a pic without that belt)

Here's a close-up of the way it's fitted.

 

[LoveAlways]

Gorgeous!! Can't wait to see pics of you in yours!!

 

[L2R]

hot!

the wedding i described is only the most relevant to this thread. prior to that we had a celebrant and two (hungover) friends witnessing, and subsequently we had two ceremonies in china. bit different over there, the process goes something like....

1- groom has a tea ceremony with his parents at their home, photographers present. many money envelopes prepared.
2- groom driven over to bride's house and begs to be let in. he has to literally beg and bribe to get in.
3- once inside, he has to find two hidden shoes somewhere in the bride's bedroom (i didn't know this one until i got there )
4- once the new shoes are found, the groom replaces the bride's old shoes with new ones
5- the groom has a tea ceremony with inlaws
6- the groom then carries the bride to the car outside, and then they are driven to their place, where he carries her again into the house.
7- photo shoot somewhere outside
8- at the reception, the bride and groom (and parents) stand outside for hours greeting the guests as they arrive and start their meals.
9- eventually the emcee (we had a rapping one!) introduces the bridal party into the reception, the bride and groom only go to the stage and do speeches, the special bows to each other and to the parents, the linked arm drinking of champaign and things like that. we even had some indoor pyrotechnics!
10- for the rest of the reception go table to table drinking spirits with each and every one.

by the time this ends, the guests are already packed with food and alcohol and ready to leave. the bride and groom hardly get a chance to eat at all.

 

[RedLeader]

my first guess is a really pretty beautiful rare bible, perhaps with space for writing in her family tree that can be passed down within their family?

lystra suggests going to a chrisitan bookstore and just explaining what you need and going from there. OR what about a certificate for a Christian Retreat weekend somewhere.

I feel like a Bible is not quite original enough for what I am going for (I'm obsessed with giving people unique gifts). I agree that nice Bibles are really cool, but for the reason above as well as the fact that my sister is attached to her "personal Bible" and really does not even give other ones a chance, I don't think this is the right gift.

A Christian bookstore might be a good place to pick up some ideas. I also really like the idea of a gift certificate for a retreat, though that does sound a bit pricey so I will have to look into it further.

another thing is a Kiva loan certificate. I know you might feel weird giving to Planned Parenthood bombing charities or what not, but there are religious 'teams' who focus their loans on helping people of their faith across the world.

http://www.kiva.org/community?category=Religious+Congregations&sortBy=overallLoanedAmount

This would definitely come down to investigation. I'm not giving my money to charities that support X, Y, Z, etc. on principle, but if I can find something a bit more moderate than this could really work. I love helping with aid/relief effort if I can. I would hope that there could be some form of tangible component to this (aside from a piece of paper showing that I donated $X), though.

Thanks for the quick ideas.

 

[Jabberwocky]

If a couple is going to be living in tight quarters initially and you have gotten a look at their decor some nice nested tables could be good present. If they seem workable I wouldn't get them online though unless you have been able to see the same model in a showroom or someone's house. Good looking nested tables are even good when people have a lot of room.

There are a lot of nice electronics one can get a couple, but almost all of them will be outmoded in ten years or less. Pretty much eliminates my favorite kind of shopping when it comes to weddings where I want them to have a gift that is really going to last.

 

[Busty St Clare]

getting married is really all about the honeymoon.

we went to maui.

we got pregnant on the first night.

best mistake ever.

My ex wife fell pregnant during our honeymoon in hawaii also. There must be something in the water. Either that or the fact the store down stairs sold $2 Steinlager tallies and VH1 was showing a bio- movie of Def Lepard every day that week.