Alfred Angelo is a chain discount bridal store. Another chain is David’s Bridal. Both have bridesmaid’s dresses, too. The quality at these shops isn’t as high as real designer dresses, of course, but so much cheaper!
Good luck at Filene’s Basement. Should be an experience.
caveman: *I just did the knee-and-ring (without the knee part, as the gound was rather soggy) with my brilliant and lovely girlfriend, promoting her to full-fledged fiancee. *
Quick tip, caveman: that’s the way for her to describe it. The way you should describe it is that you got promoted to full-fledged fiance. An engaged man talking about his marriage proposal as though he were a boss graciously bestowing a promotion on a deserving subordinate has a high wince-and-retch quotient.
Your elopement-and-reception plan sounds great, and best of luck with everything! But before you recruit your grandfather to officiate at the actual marriage that’s supposed to be kept under wraps from the rest of the family, better make real sure he can keep a secret. (Also, if there are more than about seven people total at the actual ceremony, and especially if your bride is wearing the asset-displaying gown then instead of saving it for the later reception, and especially if there are any photographs, it may bump the perception of the event up from “elopement” to “small wedding”, and local family members may be lastingly hurt that they weren’t included. Resist the temptation to make a local elopement anything more than a fast legalization, no matter how beautiful a wedding site your local park may be.)
Could you have a family member or friend ordained for the day? Then you could write the ceremony to include what you want and wouldn’t have to worry about rants about gay marriage or birth control or whatever. I know there are places online where you can have people ordained for a day, since one of my guilty pleasures are the wedding planning shows on TLC.
The question that brings is whether or not a person who is ordained for a day on the internet will fit the legal requirements for marrying us in the state of New York. Which is why I"m glad we have almost two years to plan.
I’m sorry. I know nothing about clothes. I have no idea what a 50’s style tea-length dress looks like. Or kitten heels.
Do what Mrs. RickJay and I did;
Wedding dress off the rack: $400
Shoes: $90
Veil: $40
Tux rental: $150
Flight and 5 nights in Vegas: $720
Meals for 2 for 5 days in Vegas: $300
Drinks at Golden Nugget while playing video poker and getting astoundingly hammered: $0
State of Nevada marriage license: $55
Wedding at “Chapel of Your Dreams”: $250
Limo: $120
Car rental and trip to Hoover Dam: $70
Gambling losses: $900
Giving my parents a framed photo of us in our wedding togs under the “Fabulous Las Vegas” sign on the Strip: Priceless
Cost of framed photos: $90
Total: $3140
Worth a wedding ten times as expensive. Best time of my life.
What about a civil servant? Contact your town hall - they likely have a list of Officiants who can perform your wedding for you. I’m getting married October 8th, and we are looking at licenced non-denominational officiants, and there are lots of them to choose from in Quebec. Our wedding will be at the same inn as the reception, and Im sure it will be beautiful.
Quick Gooling of “new york state officiants”
Good luck!
Morelin, sorry, here we go.
A nice dress, sort of mid calf length, strapless or with straps in whatever neckline you prefer. A slightly puffy skirt (just enough so that it doesn’t droop, not so much that you look like you’re about to dance Swan Lake). They look nice under cardigans, wraps or suit jackets, since you’ll be outside, and suit women of most shapes and sizes.
http://www.jimhjelmoccasions.com/teas/index.html
That kind of thing (some are much nicer than others, and the models are…model-like, but you get an idea).
Kitten Heels are the lowest kind of heels, the ones about half the height of your thumb.
Obviously, just making a suggestion, I know nothing of your personal style, so please forgive me if I’m way off base.
In a word, yes. A friend of mine was doing his wedding on the cheap and asked me to perform the ceremony. It takes a quick click on the Universal Life Church (the name has nothing to do with abortion) and you are in FOR LIFE. My friend and his bride let me decide upon the entire ceremony myself, and I took a lot of latitude (though they knew where they had to be when the rest was a surprise). I have been meaning to make a MPSIMS thread about it and may do that soon.
Anyway, it is a great way to do things and everyone who attended the wedding (from college kids to grandmas) said it was by far the best, and definitely the most entertaining, they have ever been to. New York is a difficult matter, but this says that it should be fine. They will need to get the ball rolling early though. If you want to make it easy just go to Pennsylvania, there you can even get a self marrying license where you don’t even need an officiant.
Good luck, this should be fun.
You, sir, are a good man. ;j 
I’m going to take a cue from Johnny L.A. and simply congratulate everybody who is getting married. I hope it lasts forever.
I see. Thank you. Some of that stuff looks just right.
Racinchikkihttp://marriage.about.com/cs/marriagelicenses/p/newyork.htm
I was about to suggest finding a county that will register an officiant for a day, as mine did (my Dad did our ceremony), but New York doesn’t allow that. Nor can you use a ULC “minister”:
http://nycmarriagebureau.com/about/officiantregistrationinfo.html
Retired judges, open-minded clergy, and the like advertise their services as wedding officiants; look in the Yellow Pages, or online.
Well, alterations to my wedding dress are free. However, since Mom is making my wedding dress, that was pretty much a given. 
rjk and I will be getting married in just a few weeks. And because I’m nuts, I’m putting together a not-formal-but-with-many-of-the-bells-and-whistles type wedding. Well, I’m nuts because we couldn’t start the real planning until Bob got his fiance visa, and he got that right before Christmas. And I surely wasn’t going to let him languish in Vancouver on Christmas just so I’d have more time to prepare. And that only gave us 90 days to get everything ready.
I will triumph.
Ceremony site and reception site are booked, invitations are nearly done. Wedding dress is getting there. Oh damn, what else do I need to do? :eek:
My mom’s making my dress too. It’s going to be a 1950s-style tea-length dress, with a three-tiered skirt, princess cut and very narrow crinolines - just enough to give a nice flare, not the full-on true-'50s boof. I’m considering wearing flats, becausce I don’t want to tower over Gunslinger.
Despite the fact that it is forever away, my mom’s insistence on getting started planning now so we can do the budget and book the places means we have pretty much decided, though not finalized, most of the details. I basically told my mom I want to have a very small ceremony - maybe 25 people. My sister had a ton of people, and I have the same budget as she did, so with my small wedding I want to give everybody a delicious dinner, a semi-open bar (we’ll pay for drinks made with the most popular alcohols, but if you want top shelf or something weird, you’ll have to pay for that yourself - that’s what my sister did for hers), and have as many fresh flowers as I can get in mid-October for cheap. The theme is 1950s cocktail party, hence my tea-length crinolined dress; Gunny will probably wear his vintage blue sharkskin suit, provided we can find a tailor who can alter the jacket to fit nicely.
One thing my mom and I are having conflict on is the color scheme. I want navy blue. I hate gold, and want silver for anything metallic. She thinks we should do something with autumn colors, to be seasonal. Can my concept and hers mesh?
Other than that, I’m pretty much letting Mom do what she wants. I want things to be simple, elegant without being uppity, and I want everybody who comes to have as much fun as if it were just a normal dinner and cocktail party, not a wedding. (People don’t usually have fun at weddings, have you noticed?)
Oh, and I intend to get matchbooks printed up and give them out.
I found a beautiful dress online, but I don’t want to get it now, since the wedding’s not for another two years. 
I hope I find one half as nice when I go to actually look for them - I want to lose weight first. I wish I had someone to make it for me, then I could just copy the dress I found and not worry about it. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll find something I love when the time comes!
You should have checked out my link where they specifically discuss that law. In effect, you cannot use the little certificate you print off of the web, but you can ask them to send you a copy of their registry of clergy that includes your name. In fact, they will do this for free. It all depends on the guy you are registering in New York with and how much of a pain he wants to be. If you get it done early, with enough time to jump through any hoops they put in front of you, you should probably be fine.
Well, so far, my dress exists in the designer’s imagination…I’m not seeing the sketches til the end of this month!
It’s going to be white, A-line, sleeveless, strapless, with a train and is going to look Irish in some as-yet-to-be-decided way (probably celtic embroidery). I saw a dress I liked in a shop, but it wasn’t quite right (I’m having gold detailing, not silver, and it wasn’t scaled to my height), so I used it to inspire some of the design, but the end product will hopefully be unique to me.
Irishfella and I are officially going to Venice for our honeymoon!
He just booked it. It’s not going to cost us the earth, because the hotel is in Mogliano (?sp) 25 mins by train from Venice, and not the island itself. Call me crazy, but I’d prefer to spend an hour on the train every day and stay in a 4 star hotel, than walk out the door of a fleapit hostel.
With as much lead time as you have, there may be a way to find someone to make it for you, if you don’t mind spending a little legwork and possibly wasting some money. Oh, and if the dress of your dreams doesn’t involve hand beading (unless you want to do it yourself) If mom hadn’t volunteered to make my dress, this is what I would have done.
Go to a local fabric store and ask if they have cards for local seamstresses - get several. Also, check out the pattern books to see if you can find a pattern you would likeDrool over the wedding fabrics
Call the seamstresses. Ask if they will make a garment if you provide the pattern and materials. (If they will, I would ask for a ballpark figure on a moderately tailored wedding dress - note that you will have fabric costs on top of this)
Next you will want to have the seamstress make something for you, so you know she will do a good job on the wedding dress. (Here’s where you may end up wasting some money. Or not) Once you’ve identified a seamstress you want to work with, go back to the fabric store and pick up a blouse pattern that is moderately fitted. Pick out a fabric to make it up in, and the notions you will need (a salesperson should be able to help you with this).
Have the seamstress make up the blouse.
If you are happy with this, you can start looking for a pattern, fabric, decorations, etc… Make sure you find out from the seamstress how much lead time she/he will need to complete the gown so you can get it started in time for the wedding!