Elegant And Budget Friendly

Monday, December 8, 2008

Saving money and stress: avoid the pre-wedding diet craze

The admonitions to slim backs, legs, arms, waists, and what-have-you saturate popular wedding sites, often in the form of Health/Fitness blogs, messageboards, and articles.

As Dr. House said on last week's episode, 'Not many women have the courage to admit that they'd rather be pretty than healthy' (I'm paraphrasing).

The truth is, most of these health/fitness sections have a lot less to do with actual health and actual fitness. They're more about feeding into the anxiety, paranoia, and obsession most brides in America have with weight loss before their wedding. If you don't believe me, check out some of the articles - they're mostly about "targeting" certain body parts for shrinkage, and "looking your best" in various kinds of dresses, and so forth. A quick perusal of the messageboards of these sites shows many disordered eating habits, crash diets, and expensive personal trainers being employed to whittle a body down to fit into too-small dress.

So save your money and save yourself stress:

Don't buy into the obsession with losing X lbs before the big day. If you're concerned for your health in general, embark on a long-term regime, and don't beat yourself up if you don't lose a significant amount of weight. Health and weight are only tenuously correlated: and one often can become healthier through exercise and moderate nutritional modifications not lose a significant amount of weight.
Don't buy into the idea that a thin bride is the only bride that can be pretty. Find the right kind of dress for your unique body type, find a dress that fits at your current weight, and rock it! There are many benefits to this approach: you'll save expensive alterations, the stress of dieting at the same time you're planning a wedding, and possible health issues during the wedding ceremony (many women crash their way into a too-small dress by fasting the day before and day of their wedding. This can lead to fainting spells, irritability, fogginess, etc).
Don't be afraid of being yourself in your wedding photos. Do you really want to look back twenty years later at a person who only somewhat resembled your true body, and beat yourself up that you can't any longer fit into a wedding dress that you barely fit into the day of your wedding?

So save yourself stress and money: avoid the pre-wedding diet craze. Your body, and your wallet, will thank you for it.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Playmobil wedding

Growing up I was never allowed to play with Legos (too many small pieces I guess) so instead we had to find some entertainment in Playmobil. While not as many free things one can build their people have a lot more detail and come with lots of weird random stuff.

After perusing eBay to see what wedding stuff they offered up I thought I should share.

If you or your fiance were into playmobil when you were little these could make a really cute picture on some stationary object (STD's, Invitations, Reception card, Thank You note).

Friday, December 5, 2008

Geeky well wishers

If you've always wanted a different spin on those little scraps of paper people put out for their friends and family to write well wishes on and are also a huge computer geek why not try putting some of these on a few tables:

Both are available here for $5.

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

Music Lover

These planters would make adorable centerpieces for any music lovers. And wouldn't be too hard to do yourself if you wanted to have the music to your first dance song. Just get the sheet music, adhesive spray it to the planter then cover in acrylic to give a nice sheen.

Not that these are too costly either at just $3.77 a piece. Add some flowers to the real planter and viola a gorgeous centerpiece that is also functional after the wedding.

Tuesday, December 2, 2008

Some STD Inspiration

Some of these pictures would just make the most adorable STD's:

The link

Such a gorgeous woodcut, that would be adorably sweet

The link

I love the title of this one "Love Makes us Bloom"

The link

Such a cute start to a love story

El Linksky

Ready to start your home together?

I really want a simple wedding, but....

My parents want to throw a huge party and invite all their friends and lots of extended family. This is the situation that I dealt with when planning my wedding. My parents had visions of inviting everyone and their dogs to the wedding. The problem is, my mom's side of the family is quite religious and is very set against drinking and such, so we had to figure out how to keep them happy too.

For those of you that are dealing with a similar dilemma, here's what I eventually settled on with my parents:

We had a small, family only wedding (except for those friends who were actually in the wedding and their significant others). Following the ceremony, those that attended the wedding were served food. Those that were not invited to the ceremony were invited to come at a later time, so it also cut costs by quite a bit by not serving as many people supper. Here's a pic of me and my best friend as she was helping me get ready.

Those who came later were welcome to eat the left-over food and have some cake (we did get plenty of cake, but that's a whole other rant). After the food, the reception was exactly what my parents really wanted. I know there's no way I talked to everyone. There was plenty of booze to go around. Everyone had a wonderful time. My bridesmaids didn't allow for too much leftovers as you can see by this picture. We propose this should become a picture that everyone has to take for their wedding because it's just too much fun to take.

As far as my mom's family, they're the type that won't stay out late, so by setting the time for the large reception a bit later, her family was gone by the time the booze came out (at least in large quantities).

So, for those of you dealing with this problem, either you want a small wedding or maybe the tables are turned and you want the big wedding and your parents don't: consider meeting in the middle. It saves tons of money and you've compromised enough to hopefully make everyone happy.