flea is me. We spent maybe $3000. My dress was $500 (bridesmaid's dress in white) rings were $250 and $300. Venue was his parents' front yard. My uncle is a florist. Jon was working for a liqour company. Family made the food. Cake was a little over $100 from a bakery near mom's place. Another friend played piano for music. I bought the bridesmaid's their dresses (little black sheath dresses) for about $40 a piece. Oh and invitations, though if I remember correctly, my mother did those and we just bought the stationary.

I still look at those pictures and marvel that my family cleared me out a beautiful spot in the woods, built me a canopy and an aisle and made me a gorgeous banquet. Makes me tear up a little.

Ours was not far off from that, but the bulk of the money was spent on the (amazing) venue and the (possibly more amazing) food and booze. eta: Plus, Bay Area blah-blah-incredibly-expensive-cakes; a comparable wedding in a lot of other places probably would've been at least a third cheaper. Though it was probably worth it just for the Oz-and-Willow cake. I'm fairly certain the wardrobe for our entire not-small wedding party, including the flower girl and ring bearer, was less than the cost of the average dress.

Which reminds me, Emmett needs a new tuxedo. We know this because he reminds both of us at least once a week. I think this time he longs for tails, and if he thought he could talk us into a red brocade cummerbund and a gold watch chain he'd go for that too.

Isn't that not very far off from average annual income?

About 3/4 of the gross, so probably more than the average adult's net take-home pay.

Yeah, we spent about $3500, all told. Most of that was for food and booze. My dress cost about $300 between fabric and seamstress time.

I'm really glad we didn't spend any more than that, given what happened after.

So is there a message on my answering machine? What do you think?

And the pine trees are pollening so I've got a fine dusting of neon yellow powder EVERYWHERE.

cool t-shirts

So, who's got a good fruit salad recipe? I'm supposed to make one for a birthday dinner tomorrow, and I can't get ahold of my mother to get the awesome coconut-laced one. (And I find it hard to believe it has sour cream in it, like the internet's trying to convince me...)

I think we spent $7-9K on my wedding. Mom paid for everything and wasn't that upfront about the actual costs. We cut some places to spend more in others. My dress did cost about $1K.

My sister spent half that for her dress recently. They're keeping the wedding small but splurging on the reception (dinner for 200 people) so they will most likely spend somewhere in the range of $10-12K.

Ailleann, I just mix a bunch of fresh fruit together. Am I doing it wrong?

Ailleann, I just mix a bunch of fresh fruit together. Am I doing it wrong?

Yeah, I always just do "bunch of fruit and yogurt"

t sits in simple fruit salad corner w/cashmere

I do apples, oranges, and bananas, maybe nuts if I have them lying around, other fruit if it's handy and sounds good, cut into bite sized pieces and then tossed with a dressing of yogurt and lemon juice. It's my great grandmother's recipe, though she made it with mayonaise instead of yogurt. I could dig up precise measurements, but they really aren't necessary.

edited for commas