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!

I'm just terribly sad Teppy is non-glutinous, so I can't persuade her to take ME as her helper for wedding-cake tasting at The Bonbonerie.

I understand they do some gluten-free stuff now, but I don't think that extends to their cakes. Laura is right -- you'll have to be my gluten-taster! Although Tim might cry if he can't test cakes. There is a gluten-free bakery (or maybe just a baker) up in Mason, possibly, that made an amazing cake for a friend's birthday party. We have to check that out.

My mom and stepdad apparently went to a wedding where there were cupcakes instead of a cake, and they thought that was the coolest thing ever. Their enthusiasm last night for cupcakes was comical. (I'm not opposed to cupcakes, but they were like cupcake evangelists.)

Steph , btw how is your brother doing?

As far as I know (meaning, unless he's not telling me stuff), he's doing pretty well. Still cooking lunch at the Threepenny Tap Room, but he wants to get out of cooking.

Not sure whether this is evidence pro or con cupcakes, but Taylor Swift had cupcakes instead of a normal wedding cake at her wedding.

Argh. Way to make me paranoid: so, I had a mammogram the other week, because my mom had breast cancer at 40. No other family history, so it was basically "ok, let's get a baseline". I know people have to get follow up all the time, and my doctor pretty much said they probably wouldn't be able to tell much because I have very dense breasts. OK, NBD. Did it, it was fine, not as uncomfortable as I was worried about. Get the letter in the mail "please call and schedule follow up we need more it's probably not cancer" OK, still NBD. ...but when I call, and you ask if I want first available, and I tell you I"m available days X, Y, and Z, due to being out of town, and you tell me to hold on, and then get back to me saying "I had to get approval to add you at 4pm, so we'll squeeze you in on Day Y" that...makes me feel like this is rather more urgent than I had hoped it was. If you know what I mean. Grrr.

Since my DH couldn't eat the wedding cake, we had a cupcake we used to mock the cutting of the cake. I never got a chance to try my wedding cake, but on our first anniversary, he had the baker overnight a cake and frosting in the flavors we'd ordered and we put it together. Note: our baker was on an island off the coast of Washington state, and for our first anniversary we were in a little cabin in the Maine woods.

Seriously, this is so true, and SO BAFFLING to me!

It is soooo crazy. I tell every engaged couple that says anything about not having a registry that there will be crazy backlash. And there always is.