Flea, since Teppy is non-glutinous she NEEDS you to do the wedding cake testing.

black coffee

The overwhelming majority of garter fetching and placing wedding moments have been just fun and silly in my experience.

My church had a money tree at the reception that anyone could tie money to at any time. It struck my younger self as sort of gauche--why did we buy all those presents if we could have just stuck money on the tree?--but it seems much more civilized.

Sox and I both had some sibling rivalry to roll our eyes over, because our fathers are 12.

Yours might be 12. Mine is 4. And your wedding was the bestest. The guy you hired to do the balloon animals for the kids? Totally excellent.

All quiet here. Stayed home --will be packing today.

Steph, you kept your cool admirably in a tough situation. Maybe future wedding discussions with your father should occur over breakfast?

I was at one wedding where the girlfriend of the groom's brother caught the bouquet. Several other men pretended to compete with brother for the garter. Note the word "pretended."

If Hubs and I ever hold a reception (we celebrate our 25th anniversary next year! good grief!), I'm going to try to talk him into "registering" for donations to one or more specific charities.

I haven't been to a wedding with the pin the money on the bride down, but I know it happened at my second cousin's wedding. He married a nice Catholic girl and they got married in the Catholic church and part of her Texas Catholic traditions was the pin the money on the bride.

This was considered scandalous by several of my family members. I was raised with the idea that giving money as a gift at a wedding is lazy and means you don't care enough to buy the couple a gift from their registry or something that you think they might like. For a while my great aunt (the cousin's grandmother) refused to attend the wedding because it was being held in a Catholic Church. But no one fell for her power play and it was pointed out that if she wanted to miss her oldest grandchild's wedding then it would be her choice.

I find it interesting how there are all different traditions and expectations.

Steph , btw how is your brother doing?

Do not try to tell people you aren't registered for gifts, regardless of the reason. They will be pissed and before you know it, angry mob.

Seriously, this is so true, and SO BAFFLING to me! That was probably the single biggest issue that arose in planning our own wedding. My mom, in particular, got all bent out of shape about it, for reasons I still don't entirely understand, and actually felt the need to tell me I should still "be gracious" if someone did give us a gift. WTF? Sure, because otherwise I would have just called them up and cussed them out, right?

Attempting to do a dollar dance when you don't believe in dancing? There is no way to do that and look suave.

Ahahahaha, this mental image is totally cracking me up. Along with the idea that there are people who think dancing is not OK, but dancing FOR MONEY is right on!

If Hubs and I ever hold a reception (we celebrate our 25th anniversary next year! good grief!), I'm going to try to talk him into "registering" for donations to one or more specific charities.

We did this for one of our gift options* and I thought it worked out very well. People were appreciative.

*(Our gift options: #1 You don't have to give us anything! #2 If you want to give us something, you could contribute to our honeymoon fund. #3 Or a charity; we suggest Partners in Health. #4 If you feel so inclined, homemade gifts are awesome too!)

All quiet here. Stayed home --will be packing today.

Good luck, sumi. Do you have a confirmation on the new place yet?

Yikes, Teppy. Best of luck getting the wedding you want and keeping the relatives out of the decision making. A small wedding wasn't really a choice for us. It was either elope or well over 100 people.

I have black beans in the crock pot for tonight's dinner. They smell delicious!