Prewife dot com. You proposed. She said yes…|NOW WHAT?

The amazing thing about all the planning, scrimping, worrying, arguing, imbibing and saving for a wedding is when you actually pull it off. The successful arrival of all your guests to your island paradise, the sigh of relief knowing that both sets of parents get along so well that you can stick them at the corner of the wedding table and not have to check up on them too often. These are just some of the things that make you breathe a sigh of relief, look your Prewife in the eye knowing all is well with her too, and then go hit the beach.

Of course, even the best wedding is not all smiles and sunshine… From our own personal experience – we learned to be very flexible. We saw our guest list drop from 50 to 15 people. It worked out well, since in the end it was actually quite an intimate affair (and what I wanted all along). We went from having a full band and a buffet style beach dinner, to a DJ and buffet dinner, to an iPod hooked up to speakers at a restaurant, to what was playing at the Restaurant. This was fine as well as the restaurant was excellent. As usual props go out to the Prewife – always cool under pressure, and nary a hissy-fit in sight. Gents, make sure your Prewife has nerves of steel and the flexibility to match. Getting married at an island destination is not for the faint of heart.

The one thing we did not scrimp on was the photographer. If there is one thing we can say is most important, it is the photog. Now this doesn’t mean you have to blow all your money on the most expensive one. But make sure to get the best one you can afford. Take your time on this. If the wedding is local, look at their pics and talk with the photographer and find out how they interact with you. If they have references, by all means use them. If the wedding is a destination, then as soon as you decide where to have it, find out who is going to shoot it. Check out their website, email them, etc. Destination weddings tend to be in beautiful places that sometimes have limited resources – such as a photographer’s availability. So get the best one you can quickly, before they are snatched up by another wedding party. Do not rely on friends or relatives for anything more then “fun photos” or you will be very disappointed.

If you happen to be going to Turks and Caicos, where we had our wedding, the photographer we used was Ileana, from Tropical Imaging. I cannot say enough good things about her. Professional, relaxed, engaging, on the ball, excellent photographer, the list goes on, you get the idea. Tropical Imaging’s setup for picking out pictures you want to keep is straight forward and is as easy as opening up your laptop, logging on to their site and selecting the images you want.

So, this week and next, we here at Prewife will focus on some great locations for destination weddings.

Weddings. Is there ever a time so special in ones…… OOps, sorry wrong script…

Let’s face it. Weddings in the best of times can be a bit a pain in the butt. However, planning a wedding when the bottom drops out of the economy can be downright depressing.

THE YIN
Our wedding is to take place on a charming island in the Caribbean. White sand, blue water, sun, me, her, all our friends, family… what could be better? We planned to keep it small, under 40 people. The wedding is on the beach, with a beach BBQ afterward accompanied by a DJ. Then it is off to the Honeymoon suite to knock-up, impregnate, make sweet music with my newly minted wife… BLISS

THE YANG
With amazing alacrity, the economy nosedived and with it most of the RSVPs to the wedding. One by one, friends who were so excited to come and frolic in the surf for a week and have a vacation while watching their friends get hitched came to realize the reality of their situation: no one’s job is safe. Belt tightening is a must. Our guest roster dropped from 40 to 13 people (including me and the prewife)

Now let me go on record as saying that I do not blame any single one of our friends. Flying thousands of miles to a foreign country to stay in expensive hotels is a lot of cash to spend, especially in these times. Personally, I am thankful we have the cash to go and get hitched.

The amazing thing about my prewife is that with all the changes and the frantic emails back and forth with the wedding planner and our friends dropping off the roster like flies, she has been resilient, taking the whole thing in stride. Quips like “more food for us”, “more intimate”, etc. grace her lips as she adroitly adjusts to the new reality of our wedding on a daily basis.

I have seen other prewives crumble into a heap over less.

So the question of the day is: do you invite kids to the wedding or not. Mind you, I don’t mean babies, which should not be invited at all (besides they can’t read the save the date card) and yes I realize that means that the mom’s probably can;t come either and that also means the husband’s of said wives would probably be brow-beaten if they came home tanked after a fun filled wedding. We all know what happens at weddings… mmm hmmm…

Cnn posted a story yesterday about how kids actually add value to a wedding. So I am on the fence about this one. So I put it to you, gentle reader. Sound off about whether you think having rug rats children attend a destination wedding that IS NOT Disney is a good idea or sheer Folly.

In the wild, wonderful, crazy, expensive, nutty, world that is your engagement, nothing else is quite befuddling and expensive as “Save the Date Cards”. You see, you poor sap gentle reader, save the date cards are Pre-invitation wedding cards to notify your loved ones of the joyous days approach…without actually explaining very much except the fact that the wedding is indeed Read the rest of this entry »

Weddings are expensive. Upwards of 20,000 – $50,000. So, unless your wedding is to be at the place where I was raised, ($20 worth of buckshot, five cases of Pabst Blue Ribbon and a trip to the WalMart; set you back $150 total) looks like you’ll need an investment strategy.

Of course there is no bigger investment for the man than the engagement ring. This thin piece of metal capped by a tiny Huge clear rock basically determines your status in the world to her friends and plays a role in determining how many times you can expect to get laid in any given month. Essentially, this is something you want to get right, because you only get one shot.

Of course how to find out what Read the rest of this entry »