Since this is turning into more of an advice thread than a pit thread, I decided to start a new one in MSPIMS so we can continue to rant here if needed.
Great idea, badbadrubberpiggy!
I feel much better now, and Elza and Jess have expressed my disgust much better than I could (you know sometimes you’re just too gobsmacked by the stupidity of others that it kinda makes you stupid for a bit too?) so I’m done bitchin and ready to wedding talk with more sane people over in your MPSIMS thread!
Can I give you a tinny bit of unasked for advice? Putting a white-white dress next to a black-back tux will make life difficult for your photographer. Please, even if you don’t normally, wear makeup so you won’t look washed out.
Oh, I’ll be wearing make-up! I’m pale normally, so I’ll need it for the pictures anyhow. That’s why the white dress - ivory and other off-white shares are too close to my natural skin tone, and just looks awful on me.
It’ll be inside, anyways, so at least the lighting will be consistent.
Jess: * I still post there, because I really love etiquette… Also, I’m in the midst of starting a wedding and events planning business with a friend, so it’s an appropriate place for me to hang out. *
As a fellow Miss-Manners fan, I say yay for you, but I have to wonder if you know what you’re taking on in starting that business of yours. Any etiquette-loving person who gives professional advice about weddings these days is going to end up either spending a lot of time reasoning very gently with etiquette-oblivious Bridezillas, or else biting her tongue—off at the root, just about.
I learned recently that one of my sister-in-laws is STILL angry at me because I got married on her birthday. 12 years later, she still bitches about it.
Well, first of all, that was the only day we could get the church. Second, I had no idea it was her birthday, and even if I had, so what? She and my brother weren’t even married yet.
Talk about ‘get the fuck over it already’.
O-o-o-o-kay! Maybe remaining single for life isn’t so bad! :eek:
CJ
Sis, the only three things you need to know for a wedding are:
[ol][li]the pertinent statutes of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania[/li][li]pages 422 and 437, BCP[/li][li]how to keep G happy[/ol][/li]
Everything else is custom and frippery, to be used or not at your choice.
If any one ever finds a good wedding board, let me know. I have until 2008 to plan my wedding, so it’s not like I’m in a hurry. 
I actually wasn’t going to start planning for at least a year, but my cousin insists all the nice places are booked years in advance. So I may start planning in the next couple of months.
My best friend planned her wedding over a year in advance. Food, photographer, decorations, you name it. She was getting married in her grandmother’s backyard in Florida, and she drew diagrams to scale on graph paper to make sure there would be room for all the guests and tables and things. They wrote their own vows. Her grandmother made the wedding dress; my friend made all the bridesmaids dresses. They rented out a small resort to house the wedding party and all the guests from Missouri.
And it all went to hell when Hurricane Frances (I think it was Frances; whichever one came in late September, anyway) hit on her wedding day. The reception was canceled, the ceremony had to be moved up an hour, the photographer couldn’t get very many decent pictures, and the owners of the resort bugged out, telling them, “Stay as long as you want, we’re getting out of here!”
I asked my friend if she was upset. “Why?” she said. “I got married!” Truer words were never spoken. And besides, as I pointed out to her, “You got married in the middle of a hurricane! How badass is that!”
None of which has much to do with the OP, but I guess my point is I’ll never understand why so many brides get so frothy at the mouth about their wedding. If you’re married at the end of the day, doesn’t that make the day a success?
Hush, would you! He hasn’t even asked yet!
CJ
Hey, I called the initial relationship right, before you ever even met him! Now I’m stretching my skills as Official Psychic of the Episcopalian Mafia to predict the next step! 
Yeah, that’s a concern. However, we are planning on specializing in affordable weddings and that will, hopefully, weed out the worst of the 'zillas. Also, I’m very easy-going – I’ll be sure to tell my brides the etiquette answers, but I’m capable of keeping my mouth shut if they insist on going against my advise. And, the beauty of events planning is you know up front that you’ll only have to deal with the difficult people on a temporary basis – until the event is over. We hope to get at least one real Bridezilla, though – just to have a story to tell!
I actually joined that board you sent me, and I see what you mean about the bridezillas! You can’t disagree with them about anything - then you’re EVIL. Anyway, it is a good place to see what wedding dresses are going to be common when I go to buy mine - then I can make sure I don’t get one that will make me look like everyone else!
I dunno, I kinda figure that you’ll be the only one in the room with that dress, regardless of how popular it is. 
I just don’t want to get a dress where people will say, “oh the last three weddings I went to, the bride had a dress just like this!”
I wonder if her hurricane was the one that affected my own wedding - we got married on September 4, when Frances was going strong. Which wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as our wedding was in VA, but most of my family and our officiant, my uncle the minister, lives in Miami and hadn’t left by Friday :eek: .
Luckily, my dad is a bail bondsmen, so we had a couple of magistrates lined up in case something happened - it’s good to have a dad who knows everyone in town. My uncle did make it, though.
Honestly, we were at the county courthouse on Thursday to get our marriage license and ran into one of those same magistrates. It took all we had not to ask him to marry us then and there so we could avoid the big public ceremony.
Your friend sounds awesome - it sounds like she had a great wedding, regardless of weather issues. And I’m sure she’ll say the same thing - but I don’t remember much of the reception right now, but I remember every second of saying my vows. That was my favorite part of the entire wedding.
(sorry…still a newlywed and I still like discussing my own and other people’s weddings…;)).
E.
I am hoping against hope that my marriage, shold such an event come to pass, proceeds simply, with me and Mrs. Bandit getting the hell out of town before the reception completely ends. Not b/c I might dislike my family or my ambiguous may-or-may-not-exist future bride, but because I bloody well want it over quickly and to be gone far, far away from the ruckuss.
Instead of leaving bodies in trunks of Cadillacs at the airport do you leave them in the trunks of Buicks at the golf club?
Anyway, and I’m addressing the ladies, have you given any thought to how creepy big weddings are? You are burning vast amounts of money and gaping holes in your stomachs for something that will leave you so frazzled and worn out that you’ll need the photos and videos to remember it and your hundreds of guests, when asked of details a week later, will remember none of it–and that’s with a CASH bar!
Please, take some advice from an old guy who knows better: Get married at the courthouse or in a very small church ceremony and use the money you would waste on a fancy dress and reception as down payment on a house. And tell yourself that any regrets you have for not having a dream wedding are based on exactly that, a dream and a fantasy. Weddings suck for everybody, especially the principals, and start a marriage off on an extremely stressful foot.
I see what you’re saying, dropzone, and I agree that in some situations big weddings can be a giant stressball for all. But I think you’re wrong to imply this is always the case. I have very much remembered and immensely enjoyed many large weddings I’ve been to, as do many people I know, including the brides and grooms.