Wedding Wednesday 3/54 aka Ding Dong the Witch is Dead

ha ha.

Remember that witchy bride to be from last Wednesday?
Gone!**
yaaayayayayayay
Why?
Because I sucked it up and made a budget for Jam. And a DIY wish list as well as decoration/accessories list for ceremony and reception list that itemized each element of whatever so I could get exact costs. I wrangled Jamaal into sitting down on Sunday morning, before T&K's wedding, to crunch the numbers. He looked at the "bottom line" and said "oh. seriously?"

"Yes" I said nervously, internally freaking out...."uh of course this has not calculated in the cost of the honeymoon, the rehearsal luncheon/picnic, and, if we choose to have one, the friends and family next morning brunch at 12.75 per person, estimating approximately 30 guests...."

"Oh" he said. I watched his eyes scanning my excel spreadsheet.

"One great thing," I prattled on, "is that the estimated decoration cost made by the budget generator was way off...I put everything I could want and more onto this wish list and only came up to $500, which is great. It would require us to do a lot of work ourselves, but I think it's a reall cost-effective solution. The only thing is we'd have to see who could help us hang paper lanterns...oh wait, that is, if you want paper lanterns because..."

"I like this" says Jamaal.

@@#$*(&##$_(#*$)#$(*^(*$&#!!!!

"What?" I ask nervously.

"Everything! I really wanted paper lanterns (who knew?!) and the budget looks great. It's $20,000!"

"That's what I promised" I said.

"I know," he said, "but I didn't think you'd actually pull it off."

Oh ye of little faith!

So there it is. We agreed on the budget. Which has now dropped below $20,000 because a friend has agreed to do the videography for the cost of a night's stay in our hotel block. This is incredible because it's not like a guy with a flip video camera (which I thought sounded fine if we needed to cut costs in the end LOL) but Steve has legit equipment, mikes, booms, heavy-duty camera, etc, and is just about the most unobtrusive person I could think of. I did not want him to feel pressured, as he and his wife will be invited guests, but Jamaal was up front about asking and working out a deal and it all fell into place. This means that all of the vendors/people most important to me are done: reception, ceremony, minister, photographer, videographer. YES. Now we have to work on Jamaal's duties: transportation, DJ, cake. Flowers too, guess that's me.
We are getting a lot done and it makes me happy!

I also want to formally ask my bridal party. I made these cute cards that I started to fill out. I did one and gave it out to one of my ladies. Though I spent a lot of time on them, after reading wedding blogs I thought they could have been better, but decided to stop beating myself up about it and just go with it....then I made the mistake of trying to do the rest on a moving bus. Wow. Nothing takes the charm out of a cute card like wobbly, messy handwriting. I'm going to have to redo two or three of them this week. Oh well. I think I have plenty of paper.

After I do that it's off to work on the invites. Why? Because we are probably going with the fantastic A Printable Press and I want to order invites, save the dates and thank you's in one fell swoop. This means organization. And ordering early. Yuppers.

Maybe I should work on a wedding registry too. I dunno though. I want to, but it's frustrating because I don't know what Jamaal and I will need. But then again, we'll "need" pretty much everything since he's leaving his furniture and stuff for his brother, who will be taking his apt in Brooklyn.

And even though I've heard it's crazy and stupid and pointless, I am registering for china. You betcha.

FINALLY
I think I have bought my last wedding magazine. I spent 6.99 for one last night that lured me in with its glossy images and heavy paper, but it turned out to be a bust. I got about .30 cents worth of inspiration. Dang! I am imposing a self-moratorium on wedding mags from here on out. DONE!







**this is not to say I won't be witchy about other things. like public transportation. or how I hate ham. or how the Red Sox and Pats lost in the same weekend! grrrrr!!!