If you’re getting married and have started to explore wedding-related sites, you already know there are tons of sites out there that sell lots of absolute crap (and look more than a bit sketchy doing it). This is what makes Top Notch Gift Shop and the people there such a breath of fresh air.
First of all, they started their site as a home-based business back in 1999 (which is ancient for the Web, BTW, so they have a long track record) for much the same reason that I have started online businesses – because they didn’t like how existing sites were serving customers and thought they could do it much better. And even though they now operate out of a much bigger warehouse in northern CA, they still provide people with personal service and offer some great wedding gifts.
Whether you’re a bride and groom looking for gifts for bridesmaids, groomsmen and parents (or for each other), or if you’re a wedding guest looking for a gift for the happy couple, you will get some great ideas at Top Notch Gift Shop that you likely wouldn’t find elsewhere. For example, I was just browsing through their online store and found this awesome Dom Perignon Champagne Gift Basket for the happy couple as well as this nifty Groom’s Survival Kit (it has everything you need on your wedding night/weekend except the requisite protection). And, if you’re looking for bridesmaid gifts or groomsmen gifts, you’re sure to find something cool and unique on their site (heck, they even have Jeff Gordon steak brands for branding your ribeyes as well as cufflinks made from an actual seat from Yankee Stadium).
So, if you have a few minutes, wander on over to their site and give them a visit … you’ll definitely find something you didn’t know existed (and will definitely want to have).
(BTW, in case you are curious, this is not a sponsored post … I simply thought their site stuck out from all the fluff I see everyday online and was worth talking about.)
Not everybody changes their last name … my wife kept her last name (mostly because the end result would have given her initials that mirror an unfortunate acronym). However, most brides do change their name, as do some grooms (via hyphenation). But regardless of who you are, there’s quite a bit to do when changing your name, as discussed in this article on the name change process.
I spoke with the folks over at MissNowMrs.com, a Web-based service that takes care of all the name-change paperwork and details for you, and they said that you don’t really need to wait until after your wedding to begin the name change process. This process includes tracking down the dozens of required forms as well as completing and filing each and every state and U.S. government form and sending notification letters to all of your creditors. Sounds like a pain, huh?
Enter MissNowMrs.com. It was specifically created to save you the hours of time digging for information and forms, to offer you a fun, stress-free transition from Miss…to…Mrs.! Whether you are in the planning stages of your wedding, are now celebrating being a newlywed OR even if you have even been married for years, you can complete MissNowMrs.com’s 3 easy step solution: Questions, Forms, File! After you register with them, you have up to 6 months to access your online account with them, so that you can complete your forms at your leisure.
If you want an easier way to a new name, stop by their Web site or drop them a line at 800.301.9296.
Look, we all have at least one odd, socially-acceptable-yet-slightly-embarrassing-in-certain-circles obsession. It’s an obsession that you don’t mind mentioning to your friends (and even might boast to them about) but you would rather not have a perfect stranger (especially one whom you are trying to impress) privy to. You know, something like … “Did you know Joe collects brown dress socks; he has like 87 pairs of them?” or “Have you ever seen Laura’s troll doll collection? You know, those little plastic dolls with the crazy shock of green or orange hair? Her house is full of them.”
This stuff is all fodder for fun and laughs among friends, but they aren’t things that you want to come up in a job interview or when you’re meeting the President. A friend with knowledge of these little foibles will just smile knowingly and say, “Well, that’s Laura for you.” But a stranger with this knowledge will smile politely the entire time they are whispering “FREAKSHOW” under their breath and backpedaling to a different corner of the room (despite the fact that the stranger also has at least a few of these little skeletons in his/her closet).
Sorry to say for those women out there who are obsessed with planning your wedding, but being a bridezilla is an obsession that falls into this category. In your circle of friends, being a bridezilla is a “cute” fact about you, something that your friends giggle about and shake their heads in wonder. Some of them may even encourage it, being former/future bridezillas themselves. But when this little detail about you makes its way to a complete stranger, more people than you think will roll their eyes and wonder what other harmlessly deviant tendencies you have.
I think any activity or hobby that becomes the focus of one person’s free time (or even their entire life) becomes open to ridicule from others. I’m not saying this is deserved or right, because we all have little foibles like this. It just is, and it probably arose from some trait inherited from our caveman/woman forebears to keep everyone in the village in line and from doing anything too different that might jeopardize the welfare of the tribe.
I’ve corresponded with many brides and planners over the last year or two, and for the most part, the bridezillas to whom I have talked have been very friendly, engaging people who simply happen to be engrossed in every detail regarding their wedding. And as long as this doesn’t encroach on your relationship with your fiance or how you treat other people, it is harmless and falls under the rubric of “peculiar but ultimately endearing personality trait.”
However, when it gets to the point where a bride is shrieking because the lavender bows on her floral arrangements are one shade off, or she has to drive 500 miles to buy her third $4,000 wedding dress because the other two might not be the “perfect” one, well, this is when we guys take pause and we begin to think “Do I really know this person to whom I am getting married?” Definitely not a question you want your guy to be thinking.
I’m co-owner of a business in which we sell online wedding software to engaged couples and wedding consultants, and I actually had a consultant call me who said that her bride client had screamed at her because our software didn’t work right the first time she logged in (the client was using the wrong password, by the way). Are you kidding me? I felt so bad for the consultant, who seemed to be at wits end trying to please this client who was completely out of line and becoming more irrational every day.
So what I’m saying is, if you’re a bridezilla (and only about 15% of you out there really are), make it an endearing part of yourself and not scary. Because we all eventually flee from scary.
There’s nothing like getting married on a beach or a mountaintop, but making that vision come true requires some special planning on your part to make sure everything goes smoothly. We got married in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico (which is our favorite Mexican resort town – not nearly as Americanized as many Mexican resorts, plus lots of great restaurants and very friendly people), and I would do it again in a heartbeat. But here are a few things to keep in mind before you dive in.
1. Find a reliable, on-location partner – There’s really no way to plan a destination wedding abroad without having someone local who is running point on your behalf. It took us at least a month to track down the right combination of venue/planner who was on-location in Puerto Vallarta, spoke the language, had existing relationships with vendors, etc. I would highly recommend either hiring a planner here in the States who regularly plans destination weddings and can do everything for you, or find an all-inclusive venue at your destination who will pull everything together for you. Because, if you plan to go it alone, you better be patient; fluent in the destination language; and willing to arrive at least a week earlier to set everything up. (Hint: You could use a wedding website like this to keep track of all your guests and timelines, and then have an on-location venue/planner take care of everything else.)
2. Getting legally married here vs. abroad – Before you decide on this one, check into the legal policies of a legal marriage at your destination. I know Mexico requires you file for a legal marriage at least a few days before your ceremony, so you need to be in country at least a few days before your ceremony. My business partner got married in St. John (an American territory in the U.S. Virgin Islands) so their laws were pretty much the same as the mainland, but other countries may have different policies that make it tougher (or impossible) to legally get married in their country. We went the easy route and simply picked up a marriage license at our local courthouse (in Colorado, you simply need to file for a marriage license and sign it and you are legally married … so easy).
3. Size of wedding – Most destination wedding are smaller simply because of the demands made on guests (that is, it usually requires more money and time to attend a destination wedding than it does one locally). But you should consider the desires and means of your guests to attend a destination wedding before you move ahead with your plans, and ask around to see if your “gotta-be-there” guests are okay with taking more time off and spending more money. SECRET HINT: Attending a destination wedding usually has lots of extra expenses for everybody (like more expensive plane flights, hotel rooms, food, etc.). But the wedding itself is usually cheaper than holding a wedding the same size in the States. We spent around $7K for our wedding of around 25 people, and the same thing would have easily cost us $11K-$12K in the states.
4. Designate a “social coordinator” for your stay – We were in Mexico for a week for our wedding, and although we loved having our family and friends near us, there were lots of demands on our time and few opportunities to get moments alone. So I would recommend appointing someone in your family as social coordinator, who makes plans if people want to get together for dinner or see the sights and generally is the person who coordinates guests during your stay. This takes pressure off you and lets you relax and enjoy the week instead of being Julie McCoy (anyone who doesn’t remember the Love Boat can Google this).
BTW, the venue where we had our destination wedding was awesome. It’s called Vallarta Adventures, and you should ask for Nicole; she was our planner and was fantastic.
Groomasaurus Guy and Gal at our destination wedding
You know how sometimes you speak to a person on the phone numerous times but never see their face and wonder what the heck that person looks like, or you read their words either here on the Web or in a book or magazine but would love to hear their voice to get a better sense of how they sound. Well, the Wedding Podcast Network is a great place to go to hear hundreds of experts in the wedding industry talk about the ins and outs of weddings … and as of this past weekend, you can hear me there, too.
They were kind enough to pick my brain for 45 mins or so and actually record and publish the session on their site for all the world to hear. The host Robert and I basically chatted about a groom’s place in planning a wedding and what we guys can help with, plus I shared some recent data on engaged couples that can help give grooms and brides a sense of what’s happening with other couples. Here’s the Groomasaurus podcast for grooms, and you can find lots of other great audio podcasts from true wedding celebrities on their Web site.
Also, if you’re a groom and are trying to come up with a unique way to make your half of the wedding attire come to life, there’s a site where you can actually design your own men’s custom dress shirts. It’s called Blank Label, and you should drop by and check it out … however, be careful, because you’ll find their online design tools addictive, and once your shirt is designed, you’ll definitely want at least one.
