bride-foo

A Good Day, in Two Parts

Part One: The fitting took all of 10 minutes. I put the dress on, it fit perfectly down to the hem, and the only thing I need the seamstress to do is put in the single-loop overbustle. At the cost of a whopping $10. Woot!

Part Two: We *finallly* booked the honeymoon. I sat Jason down with the laptop and his credit card and made him look at travel web sites. We decided on Hotwire.com, and we got our airfare (round-trip out of Austin), a rental car for five days, and five nights in the W Hotel New Orleans for a whopping $1100. We made out like bandits. More money to spend on the jazz brunch at Court of Two Sisters and the Creole Queen jazz dinner cruise. Boo-yah!

The MyGatsby site has a really helpful tips section regarding wedding invitations. (Select 'wedding' from the dropdown menu)

Also, the USPS says that square cards require an extra 0.12 in postage. Something to think about when deciding!

If you've been holding off on buying any sort of crafty supplies, Michael's is having a fairly large sale right now -- including a coupon you can pick up in the store for 50% any single item. I bought a couple calligraphy books and some pens, and purchased the equipment I'll need to make our invitations.

Yes, I could just buy them like this. But I want to customize them a little. I also want to feel like I'm doing more for the wedding than making phone calls and mailing checks.

[FYI: The invitations above are from the Something Different line by Carlson Craft. They're actually the best line I've seen in terms of the price-originality-customization sliding scale. Like most invitations, some of them are really cheesy or cheap looking. But there are a handful that are really classy and mimic a lot of the more expensive custom designs you see out there.]

Pepe Le Pew

Do-It-Yourself Pew Bows!

I am SO going to get all Martha Stewart on you now.

Makeup won't last a day, but debt lasts forever

For Richer or Poorer: How Can Brides keep from going broke?

The average bill for a wedding is $22,000, and if that average newlywed couple put all their wedding expenses on their credit cards and paid only the minimum balance every month, they could celebrate their 38th anniversary before they paid off all those expenses.

The cautionary tale of Henry and Brenda Vasquez of Yonkers, N.Y., is enough to give me nightmares, especially since I'm already carrying a hefty college-loan debt. But, thankfully, the author offers a few tips that may help trim costs during the planning process. Having a 16-month engagement is obviously out for the three of us, but I wonder if we could get sponsorships...

It's not a completely crazy idea. Todd and Debbie did it, and there's a whole other site devoted to the topic.

I'm not cheap, I'm practical.

I stumbled across a Weddings by Design site. It's pretty cheesey (what is it with these wedding people - can't they code?!), but did seem to have a great idea in their bouquet holders. The idea is to use the bride and bridesmaid bouquets to adorn the head table instead of paying for another floral arrangement.

Here's the link to the actual product. This idea was new to me, but seems very practical and financially smart!

plan your taxes

I've seen repeated advice to look into your future tax situation before the year in which you will marry, either by talking to an accountant or just filling out a pretend tax return. Our 2004 taxes will be as married folk for the entire year (there's no pro-rating), and nasty surprises can await if we're paying single withholding through March/April. The "marriage benefit" tends to only be a benefit if one of you makes substantially less than the other (and I don't know how much "substantial" is), otherwise it can be more of a penalty.

So, sit down yourselves or with an advisor before December and check it out, because you may need to bump up your withholding starting Jan 1 (you don't have to change your marital status; there's a field where you can just pay an extra $X per check). I think we're all saving up to buy houses, and it would suck to have to give up a chunk of down payment for the IRS instead.

The personal anecdotes I've seen regarding this involved tax bills thousands more than expected.

It's my money and I'm keeping it

There are a host of vendors in Texas who offer discounts to couples just for mentioning their web site. Photographers offer free prints, caterers offer free food, and discounts range from about 10-35%.