Happy Halloween

This year I am going as BRIDEZILLA.... be very, very afraid.

Another Happy Football Weekend

Ohio State won their game on Saturday!

Thursday Thirteen - Engagement Pictures are Better than School Pictures

Van and I had our engagement photos taken last Sunday and the drama of deciding what to wear reminded me of picture day at school. Here are thirteen ways that engagements pictures are better than school pictures. 1. After three hours of shooting, there has to be at least a couple of good pictures. 2. Walking around downtown Richmond and Belle Island is much better than sitting on a stool in front of some cheesy backdrop. 3. The matching jean skirt and vest combo has been replaced by my Sass & Bide jeans. 4. There wasn't 20 other classmates standing in line waiting for their picture to be taken. 5. I have thoroughly out-grown the akward bang stage. 6. I have also thankfully out-grown teenage acne. 7. I now know the joys of Photoshop. 8. Instead of staring at the beautiful day outside the classroom window, we were outside enjoying it. 9. Having another person in the picture takes the pressure off. 10. I didn't have to worry about messing my clothes up at recess. 11. Let's face it Don is a much cooler photographer than any of the ones who took my school pictures. 12. It is much easier to smile with Van joking, laughing and teasing than in front of random strangers. 13. I am much more comfortable with who I am.

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Apartment Craziness

Our landlady sold our apartment and she is expecting to close at the end of Novemember. Amazingly enough she had no understanding of our lease and told the new owners that they only had to give us 30 days notice and we would move out. So last Saturday the new owners called to casually give us 30 days notice.

We very politely informed the new owners that it didn't work that way. The last couple of days have been spent accessing our options, consulting our realtor and lawyer, and negotiating with the new owners. Thankfully, we are lucky enough to have the resources and understanding to have options and to know that we don't have to move unless we want to.

There were many reasons that we signed a 2 year lease on our apartment. The number one reason being that we didn't want to go through the trouble of moving. We especially did not want to move after only seven months in our apartment. Van and I aren't looking for a fight and we certainly don't want to cause ill will with the new owners, but we aren't just going to move for fun. Moving is incredibly expensive and time consuming.

At this point we are still don't no what the outcome will be. I am hoping that we will have some resolution by next week so I will keep you posted.

Sweet

I think that things have finally calmed down at work. I am excited to get back to my normal routine.

The Price of Paper

Van and I have been on the hunt for wedding invitations and it has called into question the alarming cost of all things wedding. There was survey done in 2005 that found the average costs of weddings to be more than $26, 000. I am quite sure that it has increased over the last two years.

Sure there are many things that we are splurging on that are important to the enjoyment of ourselves and our guests. For example, the beautiful reception location, open bar and an amazing photographer. However, there are some items where we both draw the line. (I'll save the story about the DJ who wanted to charge us $1,500 for four hours of music.)

Sure, we are ordering 200 invitations complete with response cards and about 125 additional enclosure cards for the reception in Ohio. But I think it is crazy to spend $1,000 or even $800 on 200 pieces of paper.

It's not like we are being unrealistic. We aren't trying to get all the invitations professionally printed for $100. For the $500 we want to spend, we feel that we should be able to buy really nice invitations.

A couple of weeks ago, I stopped by the little invitation store by my office to inquire about invitations. They quoted my $1,000 to create the invitations that we were looking for. I have spent hours (at least 15 hours) searching online only to come up with several designs we loved that were way outside our budget.

Thankfully, I am persistant and I did, last night, find a couple more options that were in our price range. We will see how they look when we get the samples. I'm hoping that we will be impressed.

I just have to wonder where it will end. If we and other couples like us continue to pay these prices they will continue to increase. Knowing what I am spending, I have to wonder what the average cost of a wedding will be in 20 years? $70,000?

Having a wedding where a couple can celebrate with family and friends shouldn't be a luxury. A nice wedding shouldn't be something that couple has to go thousands of dollars in debt to do.

Home

I made a quick visit home over the weekend. There is nothing like being in Columbus on a Saturday during football season. Everywhere you look people have Ohio State shirts and jerseys on. Even the mall was a sea of scarlet.

Being so inspired, we stopped at the bookstore before dropping Adam off at his dorm. Thanks to our good shopping and Dad's credit card, we all ended up with new OSU shirts.