Ring Dishes and I can’t believe I haven’t blogged in two months

A lot can happen in two months. I should have blog about.

Two weeks ago, the countdown clock for the wedding finally began to click. Four months until the big day. And now, on Christmas Eve, there’s only 3.5 weeks until I say I do. It would be nice to be able to say that I’m freaking out about it but I’m not. It would be nice if I could say that there was some big wedding drama that I could report but I can’t. In fact, the wedding planning has so far been going TOO smoothly. And since I stopped reading most wedding blogs due to a crimp in my schedule, I don’t really have enough wedding trends to complain about. It’s not as if things haven’t been happening – things are rolling along on schedule – but I have no real desire to complain about current wedding trends. For an opinionated fellow, this is a sign that there’s something wrong with me. Or maybe I’m just too excited for my own day that every other wedding in the world is being completely blacked out at the moment. That’s probably it.

So, in these last two months, things have been happening. A friend of my fiancee’s married in Massachusetts which means I should share those photos soon. My fiancee’s blog was picked up by The Knot. We’re currently in Florida, visiting her family and people are still wishing us congratulations on our engagement that happened a year ago. We’re gathering addresses to send out wedding invites, our wedding website is active, and we finished our registries (and added a new one). We’ve started discussing our ceremony and found our officiate (since our church is between pastors at the moment). Oh. And I keep eating my body weight in pie. I love this time of year.

My fiancee, last month, asked me to buy something for our wedding. While perusing the internet, she discovered ring dishes. Have you heard of ring dishes? At first I thought she said candy dishes but I was mistaken. I don’t wear much jewelry so the idea of having a dish to put your rings on never entered my mind. It makes complete sense though – where else would you put your rings when you’re not wearing them? So my fiancee gave me an assignment – find a ring dish where we could put our rings during the ceremony. There’s no need to have the wedding party hold them; we’ll keep are thin platinum bands in a little dish on the altar or the baptismal fount. Less fuss, no muss, and I get to pick the dish out. What could go wrong?

The problem with ring dishes (they can also be called ring keepers) is that most of them are incredibly cheesy. Having my wedding date on the dish doesn’t bother me – having some line such as “love never dies” engraved on the dish makes me kinda want to throw up in my mouth. I dislike the idea of having a Hallmark card on my dresser for the rest of my life. Don’t get me wrong – I like adorable and ridiculous things. The c word is part of my daily vocabulary. But even a sensitive fellow like myself can’t help but die a little inside every time he sees a Hallmark card engraved on a piece of pottery. So after countless pages on Etsy, I discovered that I’m not the only one who feels this way. In fact, there are some ring dishes that are exactly up my alley.

Bailey Bowls made these for me.

Aren’t they great?

I, of course, got these pre-approved by my fiancee before I ordered them but you can’t go wrong with little rabbits holding onto your rings. And what rabbit wouldn’t like holding onto two carrots? The bad jokes just write themselves.

Quick Hits October 22, 2009

Bridezillas Casting Call

Bridezillas is looking for more brides to act up on tv. I especially like the bit about “tell us why you’ll be a great bridezilla”. It’s taking pride in being a jerk. I know I should be against it but, well, it makes good tv as long as you can fast forward through the really obnoxious parts.

Disney’s Wedding Dress

There’s a new Disney wedding dress named Tiana after the princess in The Princess and the Frog. I really want to hate on Disney’s wedding dress line but I really can’t. They’ve taken the desire for some brides to be a “princess” on their big day and marketed something to that demographic. And the products that are offered are actually pretty good. Trendy but not too trendy, classic but not boring. They’re actually fairly legit. But where’s the line of tuxedos for grooms. I’d totally like to wear a suit of armor and ride a white horse into the chapel on my wedding day.

Quick Hits for October 7, 2009

Chris Daughtry is, well, I dunno

While going through my celebrity blog feeds, I noticed a quote from Chris Daughtry : “The last thing I bought her was a really awesome diamond ring that should probably keep me out of trouble for the rest of my life.” At first glance, I thought that was pretty good engagement ring advice; buy an awesome ring now if you can afford it. Don’t be the typical guy and complain about it’s cost. But the more I thought about it, the more I realize that the quote is your typical guy behavior – it almost follows the Kobe Bryant method of resolving differences (i.e. the bigger the screw up, the bigger the carats). I know what Chris Daughtry said is probably a throw away comment, a joke, one of those unrealistic statements that are an exaggeration of reality, but it does illustrate an attitude that many men, and grooms, have. And that attitude is really not the best to have on your wedding day.

Luxury Bridal Underwear

La Perla will be unveiling a new line of luxury bridal underwear in November that is inspired by the 1920s. The underwear is going to be old fashion, modest, and expensive which means the hipster in you can go ahead and pick that up to feel special.

An ugly platinum wedding dress

This gown costs over $500,000 dollars and is ugly, ugly, ugly. It’s crap like this that gives the wedding industry, brides, designers, and our tasteless grooms, a bad name. I know that she gets to pick the dress but grooms, if you are involved in the bridal gown picking at any time, if you see something ugly, say that it’s ugly. Actually, be more tactful than that by picking another dress for your bride and emphasizing why it’s better – it shows off her figure more, make her look thinner than a rail, the amount of cleavage won’t scare your grandmother, etc etc – while, at the same time, thinking to yourself that her first pick was ugly. U G L Y.

White Wedding

Manolo for Brides basically explains how my bride thinks when it comes to our wedding day colors.

Sigh. I’m against this.

I’m against carving your name and your SO’s name into a tree. People do it. I’ve had good friends do it. I’m sure George Washington did it after cutting down a cherry tree. But, yeah, I’m not a fan.

(Don’t assume that, for a second, there is a rational explanation for why this bugs me because there isn’t.)

Either way, I think carving your wedding date on a tree – on an aspen tree no less – is a faux pas. Oh. And the cross. Oh man, that bugs me. And it bugs me because when you carve one Aspen trees, you’re not just hurting one tree. You’re hurting the entire grove of Aspen trees. An Aspen grove is one single living tree. For a time, the largest living creature in the world was an Aspen grove (but it eventually lost out to some mold or something). So it’s not that adorable if you think about it. It would be like slapping a random stranger and then their entire mitochondria dna related family would feel it and go “ow”. Would you want to slap someone and cause that? Would you?

I’m going to ignore the 83% of you who answered “yes” to that question.

And I’m also going to ignore that part of my problem with this picture is, well, is that I want to take a picture like this but I never seem to be around the right Aspen groves. Ah well.

200!

200 days till our wedding. Our cake topper has arrived.

(by nakked peggies)

Bridezilla the Band

There’s a band called Bridezilla. They’re from Australia. Some people are probably wondering if they’re any good. I think the more important question is if they know kung fu. Also, if we could get the band put in a cage match against some real life Bridezillas, I’d watch that. Are you listening WE tv? You could have an awesome season finale right there.

Quick Hits for September 6, 2009

I’m clearing out my google reader because I woke up earlier than expected today.

Protesting on your wedding day

A couple got married and decided to protest the Central Park carriage ride at the same time. At first, I found this obnoxious because I find PETA obnoxious but, to their credit, the horses in Central Park do look sickly compared to horses from other cities. I also don’t agree with handing tracts out at your wedding. I support the cause though I I do find that the bride’s comment about what the most wonderful wedding present in the world to just be illustrate a lack of imagination. Why not give the horses jetpacks? That would definitely be an awesomner present.

Don’t forget your busty friends

If you are going to have bridesmaids, please think about all aspects of your brides. Basically, if you don’t have a larger cup size, and your friends do, please let them actually wear a bra at your wedding. And if you’re a groom, please have the same consideration for your groomsmen. Don’t pick a suit that is an ugly color for the one tan guy in your party. Don’t pick ugly ties that will clash with your hipster friends mountain man facial hair. Flat toed shoes should not be worn at all. And if you’re forcing your groomsmen to wear pleated pants, you shouldn’t be allowed to get married at all. I know, it’s your wedding day, but don’t believe that your wedding party will be able to outshine you. They won’t. Let your wedding party look their best because if they do, they’ll have more fun. If they have more fun, the bride and groom will have more fun. And if everyone has more fun, there’s a better chance you’ll all end up on the dance floor doing the Hoedown Showdown with your grandma Sally and someone will trip and land in the cake. That would make a lovely picture.

I really have nothing to add right now

A lot of my recent time, when it comes to wedding planning, has been sitting around and not thinking about it. My fiancee has done a good job ordering those things we need. We have a cake topper coming. Her bouquet arrived. My fiancee’s love of Etsy continues to grow unabated. She’s always looking, planning, thinking of new things to do while I just sit around and wait for things to happen.

So much for being an engaged groom.

Though once you finish the big planning steps, there really isn’t that much to do. My finacee and I are still 7 months out till our big day. I’m still unemployed and looking for work. I’m also the head of the process of finding my church a new pastor so there’s even a chance that our church won’t have an official pastor on the day of our wedding (but we’ve already arranged for a coverage pastor if need be). We’ve already arranged most of the menu in our head. Decorations are going to be light with most of it being just splashes of color to make the undercroft of the church a little more lively. Invitations will probably be made once the church pastor search advances a bit. And I’ve already done the website. What more can I do right now?

I could keep complaining about wedding trends but, really, after you complain as much as I have, there isn’t much new under the sun. The same ugly styles are just repeated over-and-over-and-over again. It’s like shouting at the ocean to stop throwing waves on the beach. It just ain’t going to happen. I do get tired of reading the blog posts where a bride or groom spends weeks showing pictures of every.single.minute of their wedding. I personally don’t want to see 5 blog posts all about the bride putting on the dress or 3 that detail the groom’s desire to have a “Reservoir Dogs” photoshoot. That’s why God gave us the little x on the corner of our screen to close windows.

We’ll see. I’ll try to come up with something new to blog about soon. My brother is coming for a visit today and will be here over the weekend. I’m sure he’ll say something about married life that I can mention.

Quick Hits August 22, 2009

The World’s Most Expensive Wedding dress

$1.5 million for a dress made out of peacock feathers? Wrong. It should be a tux made out of peacock feathers. I would totally rock that.

Orange Candy Buffet

I like how this is laid out.

Mad Men Weddings

I like some of the looks the only problem is that it doesn’t fit the story line. Where’s Don Drapper sleeping with the bridesmaids? Where’s the guy chasing after the 18 year old freshman from college who is the bride’s sister? Where’s the closeted gay? I need more more more people.

PIE

The more I think about it, the more I want pie at my wedding. Only problem is that pie is hard to eat and if you don’t have many tables, this could be a problem.

This is awful

What an awful wedding dress. Ladies, unless you are being married while scuba diving, do not expose your midrift at your wedding. If you must, do it at the reception but lets keep covered up at the ceremony or else I’m letting your groom walk around in a tube top on his big day.

Quick hits for August 15, 2009

Those Bridezillas

Another Bridezilla is facing possible jail time. This one actually wasn’t on the show but she did write a bad check and try to launder money to pay for her photographer, DJ, and other wedding day events. She was arrested 2 days before her wedding. I wonder if they waited to arrest her until right before her wedding day to make a point. That is something I would have done.

A 1.2 mile train

This might be a little excessive.

Subway shots

My fiancee and I aren’t the only ones who want to do this. Hopefully our shots will look less artsy, more comical than what seems to be the norm in NYC.