Farmer's Almanac = Bride's Best Friend?

I consulted the Farmer's Almanac early in the wedding process. Not that I totally believed in it, but I thought it might have some merit. I believe the entry for our week (because it doesn't hone in on specific days) was periods of showers.*

Wouldn't you know that 5 out of the next 10 days are forecasted to shower? coincidence? I think not.

Brides, get thee to the bookstore and consult that farmer's almanac before you pick your date.

*Not that I care about rain, cloud cover makes for good photos, I just don't want a torrential downpour.

Photography

We are on a pretty tight budget. Mostly because we decided to get married in one of the most expensive cities in New York. Yes, yes, I know, I could have totally indied it out and had a super budget wedding, but in the end, I don't want my last memory of my elderly relatives to be their continual harping that their boxed lunch didn't have chips. They shall have dinner. Just no favors. or save the dates. or other little things that end up increasing the costs.

Now, about the photography. I have been known to cry when viewing online galleries of friends' weddings (esp when set to Feist's Limit to Your Love, geez, waterworks!). So, we wanted someone good. But then you contact photographers and all of these terms start floating in your head, high res cd, low res online gallery, art edits, full resolution, blah blah blah.

I had no idea what to ask for. After interviewing numerous photographers, we went with someone affordable but awesome and I'm really excited.

Here are my helpful hints/questions when interviewing a photographer:

1. Make sure they bring a sample of their books
2. Look for the photos that you want yourself to be in
3. Ask what their timeline is to getting you photos after the wedding
4. Ask what their timeline is to getting you the completed package you sign up for
5. Ask that those timelines be included in the contract
6. Ask for contact information for at least 2 of their former clients, get their feedback before you sign anything
7. Do they have liability insurance (required by most venues)
8. Do they mind having a list of "must have" photos
9. Do they require a second photog for over a certain amount of guests? ours doesn't and i find it odd that a few do
10. How long have they been photographing?
11. Look for pictures in all sorts of light
12. Do they ENJOY what they do and can you tell from meeting with them that this isn't just a way for them to make money when they really want to shoot fruit for a magazine all day
13. Would you want to be friends with them? because you want to be comfortable with the person caputuring some of your most intimate moments.
14. Are they confident enough to handle your most annoying relative? you know, the one with the disposable camera ruining your professional pictures with their interference?
15. Do you get rights to all of your photos? you'd be surprised, some make you pay
16. If albums are your thing, how much will they help you?
17. What is their payment structure? I'm not comfortable paying the full balance until I see the product. I find it to be a huge leap of faith.

Just my thoughts.

Ummmm

We have 13 months to go until the wedding. And, so far, we have taken care of

1. The Church
2. The Restaurant for the party aka reception
3. My dress (impulse sample sale, still feeling good about it)
   
4. His tux (already had one, he's so fancy)
5. Wedding party
6. Priests (2 of my uncles, one of the perks of the big irish family)

I think that's a lot. To have done so far ahead of time. We've spent time moving in together and enjoying our engagement, talking about our future lives.

So I don't know where this is coming from or why I'm expected to hand over the rehearsal dinner to the future in laws. Because they are asking us every. chance. they. get. about the rehearsal dinner. and what do we want. and usually the parents of the groom handle that. and you need to MAKE. A. DECISION. RIGHT. NOW.

Where did this come from? We don't need this pressure. The rehearsal dinner will be just that. A dinner. At a restaurant. I'm pretty sure restaurants know how to handle 40 people for dinner and we don't need to do much else. And I'm pretty sure that the restaurants we are thinking about don't need to be booked 13 MONTHS IN ADVANCE.

I'm trying to understand where they are coming from, but FH has two sets of parents, so we have to consult with everyone, yet one set of parents is dominating the conversation right now. I feel bad doing this, but because my initial reaction was to say 'F-off' (don't worry, I didn't do that, I just pointed out that we had 13 months), FH is going to have to handle communication with his family for now.

It was a piece of advice I got early on from a coworker: If the future in laws start asking you too many questions about the wedding, just tell them, 'I'll mention that to FH and he'll get back to you' or 'FH is handling that, why don't you ask him'

priceless advice. and free!

So True

This article on money matters: The Key to Wedded Bliss? Money Matters. While the couples they site are totally in a different income bracket, as one who has struggled with debt and came from a household that stuggled with bills from time to time, I can't agree more.

Agreeing with is easy, putting into practice is a whole other matter. I think planning and paying for a wedding definitely sets up how you talk about money for the rest of your marriage. For that, I'm grateful that we are picking up the majority of the bill, it will give us experience and provide challenges that will hopefully make us a stronger team.

The Unmarried's Advice to the Marrying

I'm always amazed when people who have never been married are the ones with the good marriage advice. Usually I take it with a big old grain of salt. But in the case of Maureen Dowd's recent article, I have to say that Father Connor has some good marriage advice out there along the lines of who you should and shouldn't marry. It should be repackaged as dating advice...but who am I, the lapsed catholic, to give advice to a priest.

If you haven't read it yet, you should, it's a great article.