I agree that the wedding you described sounds lovely.

Also, that Zenkitty's plan is excellent.

I picked up a Peeper the last time I was in New England and enjoyed it quite a lot.

Oh, yeah, beer. I have beer. I need beer. What should I do?

Yeah, *I* want to take some time to enjoy your engagement, Teppy, so you damn well should be able to. And also, you are TOTALLY ALLOWED to be All Engagement All the Time for a while here.

Teppy, laugh at everyone who asks. Just laugh out loud. If they don't get how crazy the question is based on your laughter, then laugh at how stupid they are. If y'all wanna elope, take a trip out here to CA, and I'll hitch ya.

Oh, and for the record, just had a THREE hour home owners association meeting. THREE HOURS! ow.

Javachik FTW!

But seriously, your proposed wedding sounds lovely.

But beyond that, there's the dress and the shoes and the guest list and the invitations and the venue for a shindig and the food and the booze and the photographer and the music and and and. t edit (Tim, having been married before, is all, "We get to test cake, right? When do we do that? I want cake!" So he's got that part covered.)

My mom is retiring at the end of June, and then she'll have copious free time. I seriously just want her to plan it. All. She does that shit as part of her job, so she can do this. I'll even wear what she wants me to wear if all I have to do is just show up.

I have to go give my ring back to the jeweler today so it can be re-sized, and I'm all "Mine! My ring! No one gets the precious!" But I want it to fit right, so I'll hand it over.

I do have a stand-in to wear, and it is for real a diamond engagement ring. I don't remember if I've told this story here. My mom's family has a diamond engagement ring that's been getting passed down since my great-great aunt. Back in the day, my grandma's brother eloped, and his wife bitched that she never got an engagement ring. So my great-great aunt (whose first 2 husbands committed suicide, for real -- WTF? I have never gotten the story on that) said, "You can have my engagement ring, on the condition that, when you die, it stays in MY family."

So it went from my great-great aunt, to my great-aunt, and then to my grandma. My grandma was already married, so she just kind of hung on to it. She eventually gave it to my oldest aunt, and when she was married, she gave it to my mom. When my mom got married, she gave it to my youngest aunt.

(Sidebar: before my youngest aunt, the ring looked different than it does now. It had 2 small diamonds set on either side of a larger diamond. My youngest aunt decided to have the small diamonds made into earrings and the ring re-set. This has caused GREAT controversy in the family. Seriously.)

When my youngest aunt got married, she gave the ring to my oldest (female) cousin, and when she got married she gave it to her sister. And then when her sister got married, she gave it to me. I actually wore it on my right hand for several years, because I loved the idea of it being a family ring.

So, anyway. I was digging through my jewelry tangle box last night to see if I had something I could wear as a stand-in. I was seriously looking for a mood ring or a Batman ring or something. I think I have a cool metal skull ring somewhere that I wear on Halloween. But I found the diamond ring, which actually fits my ring finger, and I asked Tim what he thought about me wearing it as a stand-in (because I thought maybe people would think that was the ring he gave me, and then when I have the real [awesome] ring back, they'd be all, "WTF happened to your diamond ring, man???"), and he said it was a great idea, since I'd be giving the family ring away soon, anyway. (The only candidate is my cousin's 16-year-old daughter. My family does not procreate.)

But I'd wear the HELL out of a Batman ring if I had one.

But I'd wear the HELL out of a Batman ring if I had one.

You could have a little Bat sigil inscribed into your wedding ring.

Tim said the sapphire in my real (AWESOME) ring is like my own Blue Beetle scarab.

D'awwwwwwww!!!

(Although I have blue scarab earrings with hieroglyphs on the back. I've had them for 20 years. Because dung beetles have always been cool.)

Teppy, your engagement posts are making me so happy.

Two of my facebook friends have taken to using their page to sell nutritional supplements. One of them also constantly posts about how many calories she's burned as well as various "motivational" things. I'm totally justified in blocking them from my feed, right?