Registries, Money, and a Movie

Hello to all my amazingfully numerous blog readers... ;)

It's been a while since I last posted, again. My laptop charge cord died (again! I have no luck with these things. I don't even know why. Just one day it decided it didn't want to do its job anymore.) and since my sister is taking a class online right now, my mom was writing report cards, and my brother has no internet connection at his place and comes to our house to use the computer, I haven't had much of a chance to blog about weddings in recent times. But now I have a new charge cord and I am content. So on to weddings!

My parents actually just came back from a wedding themselves today. I don't know the couple who got married, but I've heard all about their wedding. Apparently it was a really expensive wedding, in the tens of thousands of dollars range, I think around $40,000, maybe? I don't remember the exact figure at the moment. But isn't that crazy? Yikes! And my mom was commenting on the extremely expensive taste of the bride. She had, for their registry, registered things such as these 2 frying pans: one for $149.99 and the other for $159.99. Can you believe it? I mean, my mom was saying, "Imagine. I could've said, 'I bought the married couple a frying pan.' Doesn't that sound like I was cheap? But no, this frying pan cost about 150 bucks!" Haha. Like, really? My mom ended up buying white towels, which actually weren't on the wedding registry, because the bride had registered for two sets of towels. One of them were really expensive and my mom said ugly too! And the other set, there was some confusion because no employee could tell my mom which set exactly was registered. So my mom went with an elegant white towel set that would look nice in any home. And she still paid a pretty penny for it, but not the outrageous price that the bride had requested for that one set. Oh, and then, the bride had registered this plate setting, complete with a bowl, teacup, plates etc (6 pieces in total, I think)... Wanna guess how much? $100. Per place setting. And she wanted 12. Well, no one had bought any, and my mom was not going to buy just one place setting or all twelve! Haha. Oh my...

Anyways... Oh! Totally unrelated to weddings, but the other day I watched "The Young Victoria," a movie about Queen Victoria, with my family. SOOO good. I highly recommend it. Very interesting, and though they dramatized a few elements, it was mostly all historically accurate. It had Emily Blunt in it (who, among other things, played 'Emily' in 'The Devil Wears Prada,") and Rupert Friend (who played Mr. Wickham in the 2005 version of "Pride and Prejudice," the one with Keira Knightley [oh, also, on the topic of Keira Knightley, I say "Atonement" the other day, too. Really good movie! But really sad!]) -- I loved Rupert Friend's character especially. He was so ... noble and kind. He plays Prince Albert. The movie also had notable English actors such as Jim Broadbent (Professor Kirke from Narnia and Slughorn from Harry Potter), Miranda Richardson (Rita Skeeter from Harry Potter and Madame Giry from the 2004 movie of "Phantom of the Opera"), Paul Bettany (Chaucer in "A Knight's Tale," JARVIS from Iron Man 1 and 2, Charles in "A Beautiful Mind"), and Mark Strong (Mr. Knightly from the Gweneth Paltrow version of "Emma"). They were all so good in it and I think that the movie has become one of my favourites of all time. I didn't know much about Queen Victoria, but I learned a lot about her life after watching this movie. SO good!

Anyways, though. I'm off to sleep shortly. I'll try to post some photos soon!

Lots of love,
M.

Bonjour!

So... It's been a while. Sorry to everyone - life has been crazy! Among other things recently, I moved, it was my birthday, I was sick with the flu... And then everything else on top of it! So I haven't had much thought of weddings at all. Until recently. I've been watching "Say Yes to the Dress" a lot (especially since I was sick and since we got a new TV system set up)... Man, that show is so good. But sometimes a little crazy! I can't believe these brides who come into their appointment saying, "I'm comfortable spending up to $10,000 on my wedding dress." I mean, really? For one dress, for one day, for a few hours, you're willing to drop 10 grand? I mean, let's keep it real. For $10000 you could:
- Sponsor 2 children for about 14 years (on the rate of $30/month)
- Give 100 women in developing countries the chance to get literacy training for a year, including pre-natal, delivery, and post-natal services (based on Samaritan's Purse "Free a Woman from Poverty, Abuse and Exploitation" gift of $100).
- Provide 250 adults in Liberia with education for several months (based on Samaritan's Purse "Literacy Training" gift of $40).
- Buy antibiotics for 3333 children (based on World Vision's "Antibiotics" gift option).
- Buy 667 mosquito nets that can save up to 5333 children from malaria-bearing mosquitos (based on World Vision's "Mosquito Nets" gift option).
- Purchase 1667 fruit trees such as banana, papaya, mango and orange that can give families the vitamins they need (based on World Vision's "Fruit Trees" gift option).
- Give 167 Afghan farmers the chance to become pomegranate, saffron, or pistachio farmers (based on World Vision's "Help an Afghan Farmer" option).
- And a whole lot more!
(I hope my math was alright on all of these! But I think it was.) If you want to learn more, just google organizations like World Vision and Samaritan's Purse!
Ok, I'll get off my soap box now.
But, I promise, I really do love "Say Yes to the Dress" -- how could a weddingaholic like me not?

Photo-moneygrab-ers

Who knew photographers were expensive? Well, yes, I knew. But I didn't know just HOW expensive! I was just researching their prices, not thinking they'd be THAT bad... but just the top few off of Google in my area cost about $4000!!! Wow. No wonder no one gets married nowadays. It's too expensive!!

I mean, I want photos that are really beautiful. But... $4000?!?!? And the price will probably have gone up by the time I get married....

Sigh... Why is the world so expensive?!

Say NO to that Dress!!!

So I have a crazy busy day ahead of me, but I'm on the bus right now, on the way to school, so I figured I'd blog for a bit....

Well. I actually don't know what I feel like blogging about... Oh, I know. I was watching "Say Yes to the Dress" yesterday - man, I love that show! (No surprise there, though! Haha.) It was the first time I'd seen it in a long time, actually, because it's usually on Fridays and I'm at my church on Fridays. But it was Wednesday and they had two episodes playing! Lucky me! Haha. But ANYWAYS, yeah, I was watching it and I was thinking to myself just how crazy it is how much people are willing to spend on a dress! I mean, I know Kleinfeld's is expensive, but whoa! Like, there was a woman there who had a budget of $5000, which, to me, is a LOT already. But then she fell in love with this dress that was $11000 and change. She ended up getting a "discount" and paying $9900!!! Is that CRAZY, or what? I cannot imagine paying 10 grand on a dress I'm only wearing for a few hours for one day!! I mean, that was the price of that hold club resort I was looking at. (Or s year's tuition and board at a local Bible school!) I cannot fathom spending that much for one day. Yes, I want my day to look special, but I am not going to spend that much money when I could instead use that money to make a downpayment on a house... Or feed a million African children or something! Seriously!

But anyways. That was my tangent. I really do love that show, though! Haha.

More later!

Miss Marian.