Been Busy

I know, i know....I suck at keeping these things up. With a vacation looming and a recent job change plus trying to figure out this whole houseing market, there hasnt been much new development but I figured Id better update.

First of all, my faith in Ebay has been restored. Ebay and I have a sorted past due to an issue with a certain seller who decided to send my purchase to the wrong address....in the wrong state.

Anyway, I was over frustrated at the thought of spending $25+ per tie for something that will- lets face it- probably never be worn again. So I was looking on ebay for Richards suite when I happened upon the ties I had found on another site, but for $10.99 each! And thats not all- the seller was offering FREE shipping. Now I know this is a great deal in its self, but Im trying to do this fairly inexpensively, so I emailed the guy. I told him that I was trying to outfit my bridal party and didnt want to try to buy from 7 different people. I explained that I was interested in purchasing 3 purple and 3 green ties, and asked if he would be willing to cut me deal. I didnt expect to get anything back, but the next morning I had an email saying he would give me all 6 for the price of 5 :-D After I paid him i started to think that maybe it wasnt the best idea, seeing how we actually went outside of Ebay for the transaction ( meaning if he screwed me there's nothing I could do) BUT, luckily the ties have arrived and they are wonderful! See?!

Next: Rings! Or rather, just mine considering Richard doesnt want another one. When Richard proposed he gave me a plain white gold band. This confused a lot of people because traditionally "A diamond means engaged and a band means married". Well if theres one thing this wedding isnt going to be, its traditional- so why would the engagement be traditional? Richard's philosophy is, the wedding is more important than the engagement so why would you give the diamond that the engagement instead of at the wedding? If you do things the "traditional" way then your relationship has peaked and is now on this way down, where as if you do things the other way around then its a sort of a "the best is yet to come" situation.

That being said, we've been on the lookout for the "perfect" ring. And as you all know, I'm picky but Richard is IMPOSSIBLE to please when it comes to stuff like this! So after visiting a few sites and stores, we've decided on a custom ring. One that we will design and take to a jeweler in the area to have made.

Now that alone is going to cost a pretty penny, so the other thing we are going to do is go with an "immitation" stone until we can afford a real one. Richard wasnt so willing to go this way- he wanted me to have a real diamond- I on the other hand couldnt care less if it was a real diamond or if it was cut glass. As long as we are married and happy, thats all that matters to me.

So I did some research and found DiamondNexusLabs.com. These are high quality created stones- and best of all, the have a Life time product and LOSS warranty. Who can beat a 1 carat loose stone for $104??

And finally: More crafty stuff! Yay! I found a great tutorial on- of all places- MarthaStewart.com that shows how to make roses out of coffee filters! How fun is that? Im going to be buying some filters and water colors this week to try these out. I love real flowers, but if I can make my wedding flowers then that is going to save me a TON of money.

:-)

More to come! (I promise)