Holy Crap, I just got ENGAGED.

[TrainSafe]

This is super exciting. Congrats.

Everyone will give you advice for weddings, and I'm no exception. You get to pick and choose which ones to ignore. The best advice I got was from my little brother regarding the planning of the wedding: "She'll ask a lot of questions. You need to have an opinion, but not a very strong one."

 

[Xaphoeous]

"She'll ask a lot of questions. You need to have an opinion, but not a very strong one."

These words...I will heed them greatly. Thanks for the tip!

"heed them greatly" - does that actually mean anything, or is it basically just moron-talk?

 

[TheMan]

Here's the way to do it:

-Bought tickets for a Leafs/Caps game on Dec. 23.
-Reserved a room in advance downtown Toronto. Went there early, and set up ice bucket with champagne and roses.
-Arranged a limo to pick us up from the hockey game. Stopped by limo place early and dropped off bag with long underwear, hot chocolate, mittens, toques, and skates.
-Took public transit to the game. Leafs lose of course. Right at the end of it, said "lets go, surprise time", and we go out of the arena and hop in to the limo.
-Tell the woman to put on long underwear in the limo, give the driver a bit of a show.
-Limo drops us off at Nathan Philips Square for some Christmas ice-skating. Very nice.
-We go ice skating for a while, then I suggest we break for some hot chocolate. While I make her fumble around with cups/thermos/etc., I pull out the ring and get on one knee by the big Christmas tree. I say a bunch of romantic garbage. She says "of course I'll marry you". Mission accomplished.
-Immediately afterwards, we hop in to the limo again, and get dropped off at hotel.
-Open door to room with roses and champagne, and yadda yadda, time to drive home the next morning.

No further Christmas presents necessary. Although I did buy her some nice slippers to open up on Christmas morning. She tells the story better than me.

You can't do that...you just yadda yadda'd over the best part! (Seinfeld anyone?)

Btw, when they ask about when the second child is coming, just tell em you went back to anal.

 

[beersteiner2345]

These words...I will heed them greatly. Thanks for the tip!

"heed them greatly" - does that actually mean anything, or is it basically just moron-talk?

This phrase literally saved my life a few times during the planning:

"Honey, it's not that I don't have an opinion on [insert random item, i.e. napkins or something], but my opinion just isn't strong enough to contradict yours, since I know you've had your dream wedding picked out for a while."

Best thing we did was hire a Wedding Planner/Coordinator. Not that expensive, I think ours charged about $3,000 (10% of the total wedding cost, which was a bargain considering the amount of work she and her assistants did, I bet they made less than $5 an hour). That was far and away the best money we spent.

At the very least, hire one to direct the day of. Only costs about $200 and relieves so much stress (especially from the bride).

 

[drainbamage]

These words...I will heed them greatly. Thanks for the tip!

"heed them greatly" - does that actually mean anything, or is it basically just moron-talk?

When you have a lot of options on something, it also helps to narrow down the selection a bit, and let SWMBO make the final call for herself. As in, "Well, I like A & B more than C or D. Which do you prefer out of those?" That way, you can contribute without stepping on her toes (unless you always manage to rule out the options she likes most...don't do that ).

 

[JonM]

I think the only things I'm going to have a strong opinion on are 1) I will not request the pleasure, the honor, or, God forbid, the 'honour' of anyone's company or presence and 2) I will not tell people to join us "at half-past the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon on the sixteenth day of [month], two-thousand-and-twelve." That sh*t drives me crazy for some reason.

 

[TheMan]

I think the only things I'm going to have a strong opinion on are 1) I will not request the pleasure, the honor, or, God forbid, the 'honour' of anyone's company or presence and 2) I will not tell people to join us "at half-past the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon on the sixteenth day of [month], two-thousand-and-twelve." That sh*t drives me crazy for some reason.

That drives me nuts too! Why can't they just write 2:30 on June 16th, 2011. Anyone would agree that seeing the numbers is far easier to recall than writing it all out. Does anyone know why they actually do this? 6 weddings I have attended this year and all of them did this...apparently it's the thing to do...

 

[JonM]

They read it in Grandma's moldy old etiquette book and never questioned it, regardless of how silly it is. Or they saw a post on the Internet which was written by someone reading THEIR Grandma's moldy old etiquette book.

 

[WhineinAlbany]

I think the only things I'm going to have a strong opinion on are 1) I will not request the pleasure, the honor, or, God forbid, the 'honour' of anyone's company or presence and 2) I will not tell people to join us "at half-past the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon on the sixteenth day of [month], two-thousand-and-twelve." That sh*t drives me crazy for some reason.

You would have loved the invitation to my husband's cousin's wedding. The invite read something like "join us at half past two blah blah . . .when the dew drops glisten on the grass and the leaves turn the color of amber." Just a big long poem and no mention of it being an actual wedding anywhere. I called around just to be sure it was a wedding.

 

[Xaphoeous]

I think the only things I'm going to have a strong opinion on are 1) I will not request the pleasure, the honor, or, God forbid, the 'honour' of anyone's company or presence and 2) I will not tell people to join us "at half-past the hour of two o'clock in the afternoon on the sixteenth day of [month], two-thousand-and-twelve." That sh*t drives me crazy for some reason.

One quarter past the hour preceding dusk a fortnight after the equinox of spring in the two thousand and twelfth year of our Lord.

 

[Xaphoeous]

I suppose I could provide a pic of the new fiance...

 

[sergio_69]

re the topic: I am so sorry to hear that, run before you go thru with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Xaphoeous]

re the topic: I am so sorry to hear that, run before you go thru with it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Haha, a few of my friends had similar reactions..."I'll gas up the car, we can be to Mexico before the weekend...they'll never find us."

 

[gak27]

Congrats!

Now that you're engaged, you can introduce her as "your ex-girlfriend". Goes over great. Trust me.

 

[Xaphoeous]

Congrats!

Now that you're engaged, you can introduce her as "your ex-girlfriend". Goes over great. Trust me.

I'll try this tonight at the ceremony/reception venue we're seeing

 

[JonM]

One quarter past the hour preceding dusk a fortnight after the equinox of spring in the two thousand and twelfth year of our Lord.

Haha! In the Year of our LORD (written in small caps), MMXII, anno domini.

 

[Xaphoeous]

Haha! In the Year of our LORD (written in small caps), MMXII, anno domini.

hahahaaaa, I think I'm going to have to do this. Then, in parentheses and smaller font beneath it, the actual date and time in normal format.

 

[pksmitty]

I suppose I could provide a pic of the new fiance...

HOLY CRAP! You did good! Marry her now, before someone else snatches her up!

 

[JonM]

Haha, a few of my friends had similar reactions..."I'll gas up the car, we can be to Mexico before the weekend...they'll never find us."

A friend's wedding was at a park on Milwaukee's lakefront. During the rehearsal, he made a move like he was going to run for it. The pastor says, "Don't do that. ... Look, your guests will be in the way. Go THAT way!There's a stairway down to the road, and then the highway is right there!"

 

[Xaphoeous]

HOLY CRAP! You did good! Marry her now, before someone else snatches her up!

Hell yeah, she sure is easy to look at!

 

[CoalCracker]

Congrats, I just pulled the trigger as well.. About a month ago. I have helped plan a bit so far, but the flowers are her deal. And as someone else said, don't have a strong opinion unless it's warranted. You'll get the stink eye real quick. Hardest thing for me is coming to the realization that you are going to spend an A&& load of money for ONE DAY!!! I'd rather use it to buy a house but, this is what they think about for their whole lives, better make them happy!

 

[Xaphoeous]

Congrats, I just pulled the trigger as well.. About a month ago.

Congrats!

Our funds are very limited, as we have to pay for it all on our own without any help from family. I'm pulling for a big BBQ with friends and family to keep costs down. She already had the big blowout wedding to her best friend (lasted 6 months before they said "oops") so she said a big event isn't important to her. This is my first (and hopefully only) wedding, so I'm hoping I get to mak ethe call the keep it small/cheap.

Yeah....riiiiiiiiiight.