jess13's Profile

@Ladybug5: I conquered that problem by buying a nice big desk with a filing drawer built in (Craigslist, used, paint is awesome). That way I wouldn't need to have a seperate piece of furniture and I also got a nice big workspace for crafts or whatever. I filled it with hanging folders with labeled tabs to make organizing mail super fast.

Dude, you are my hero, this kicks so much ass!! Love MS Wrought Iron, it's my leading choice so far for painting my front door.

I love the tampon box idea!!

Wow, I was not expecting this sort of reaction in the comments to a woman who is being very proactive and responsible in planning out her activities leading up to giving birth to her first child. As someone who is planning to get pregnant with my first next year I found her advice very helpful, and found most of these comments very unhelpful and inexplicably condescending. Just because you screwed things up by not prepping well enough doesn't mean it's somehow necessary for other new mothers to make the same mistake.

Relax and enjoy the journey? That's the overwhelming advice here (and from a "professional" no less)? Sure, well while you're relaxing someone ELSE had to do all this crap to get ready for this huge change in YOUR life. Not all of us have the luxury of passing off all the work to someone else. Or maybe your method to life is just to let whatever happens happens and insult others who actually bother to put some effort in as "managers" or "uptight," etc.

I applaud responsible, forward thinking women like the author, this is how I have lived my life so far, why would I change all of my successful methods to prepare for the birth of my child? Reading these comments seriously makes me dread having to spend any time at all with other parents after I have children.

That's a damn shame about your photographer, and not at all uncommon. On Wedding Bee you see those sorts of stories a lot on the forums, I just don't understand why those people even do photography if it's such a chore for them to deliver the product. Anyways, before you go to small claims court please try contacting a local lawyer and pay them the $200 to write a formal letter (on their letterhead) and send it certified mail to the address you know this woman is still at (make sure first). Just have the lawyer make the demand in the letter for a CD with all your photos on it, no copywrite, no watermarks. Because that's what you want really, not as yet undeveloped photos or some sort of refund. Give her a time frame and expected delivery date, say 2-3 weeks. Tell her that if she does not deliver on this you will take her to court, but don't mention it's small claims, just 'court.' The lawyer can help you, they write these 'scare' letters all the time, it's just a bit of persuasion.

I had one wedding photo printed on canvas, it's maybe 16x20. Plan on hanging it in our bedroom after we paint. It's not a formal look-at-the-camera shot, it's us looking at eachother walking toward the photographer in a forest, it's overwhelmingly green and lush. My favorite shot :)

Yes, spend the extra $$ and get an angled Purdy brush, I love my little 2" cutter.

Just what in the hell is eating that chair in picture #2. I think animal control really dropped the ball on that one.

Don't spray paint your toaster. Don't spray paint your toaster. Don't spray paint your toaster.

Also, light fixtures are not "appliances." FFS.

The best wedding I've been to was my own (hear me out), but what really makes me happy is that many of my guests went out of their way to tell us it was their favorite as well. We rented out a country B&B for the weekend, so all our out of town guests had a beautiful, free place to sleep and not worry about hotel and getting lost and renting a car, etc. This was actually waaay cheaper than renting a hall for the big night. It was a DIY affair, I made all the food (which turned out to be delicious) for the reception and my sister made an outstanding oversized tiramisu for our wedding cake. We set out bottles of wine, beer, champagne and had 2 big glass drink dispensers with homemade iced tea and mojitos with fresh mint. There were self serve high quality chocolate covered almonds and greek almond cookies guests could put in little paper bags to take home. The favors were small containers of local honey. Family members decorated the tent and ceremony area for us. It was really nice to get to spend 2 whole days reconnecting with the most important people in our lives.

The ceremony was in a little clearing in the woods, and there was a 4 piece string quartet to play the party down the winding burlap aisle. As I walked down a breeze blew and showered everyone in tiny white flower petals from some tree above. We didn't bother with any of the typical wedding activities other than the first dance and the bouquet toss. It was small, 50 of our closest friends and family, so there was plenty of time to connect and talk and have a lovely time. People still bring it up 3 years later, how it was so relaxed, how the food was so good, how pretty the setting was. That's really precious for me, that people remember it as fondly as I do.

How the hell did you invite them without their addresses?

Stop complaining about having to thank people, it makes you look like a complete asshole. Seriously.