So You're EnGAYged, A Gay Wedding Blog

We are so excited to launch our redesign of So You’re EnGAYged on Monday! With our one year anniversary coming up, we thought a new, colorful look to our site was in order. Not only have we added some pop to our website but we also added some new functionality. Specifically, our vendors pages are more comprehensive and easier to navigate than ever. We would love to hear feedback from you when we launch! Love it? Hate it? Feel you would like something tweaked? Let us know :D

You can always use our contact form. Or comment on this blog post.

These dresses are from the 7th shop I have been to and maybe that is a little excessive.  I saw on a local wedding blog that there was a new bridal store in town and to celebrate they had a 50-70% sample sale. Now, I have been very fortunate that all but one sample size dress has fit me so far. So I called and made an appointment because even though they were probably still too expensive, it seemed like I should at least check it out. I showed up for my appointment and realized that because they were a new shop, they had only a very small selection, out of which there was only one dress I thought was interesting at all. However I have learned that I should just try everything on because I don’t know what I like until it is on my body. So I let the consultant dress me up. I didn’t really like any of the dresses, even the one I thought I liked.   On the plus side, my friend made faces at all the dresses I thought were face making worthy.

The most interesting part of the appointment was when the consultant told me two disturbing things. One, that I would be itty-bitty by the time the wedding rolled around because I would be so stressed and two, that the dresses would look better when I was wearing Spanx. First off, I am happy that I fit all the samples, doesn’t that mean I am a good size? Why do I want to be itty-bitty and why is she threatening me this impending starvation stress? And I am not going to be wearing Spanx. If I am paying a couple hundred dollars for a dress, it should make me look like magic all by itself! This will be my most expensive article of clothing ever, especially after alterations, and it should make me look amazing all by itself without the help of Spanx.

(more…)

Crescendo Photography is offering 15% off any wedding (not portrait) collection to any client who states they found them on So You’re EnGAYged!

Jenny GG is offering a 10% discount on her “Gaze” or “Gawk” packages to anyone who mentions So You’re EnGAYged!

Liz and I told ourselves to take things slowly.  We’d wanted to set up a General Tasting with Melons Catering and sample some more generic fare before ponying up $150 each (applied toward your bill if you book them) for an Individual Tasting.  We were booked in for the evening of January 20th along with a few other couples.  But then Melons had a production meeting, and the chef realized that to feed us at the General Tasting he’d have to make essentially three different menus — one vegetarian for me, one to accommodate the things that Liz hates to eat, and one for everybody else.  So Shannon at Melons dropped me a line and told me the great news: they were going to give us an Individual Tasting and waive the normal fee.

This is just one example of how nice and thoughtful the folks at Melons are.  One small part of their package to us of brochures, proposals, and personalized menu included the words “bride and groom” (as in “the bride and groom can select…”).  I pointed this out to Shannon and within half an hour she sent me an apology and told me she would fix it  (I wasn’t upset, for the record, just pointing it out in case they book future same sex weddings).

photo courtesy Melons Catering.

(more…)

Last week, I finally finished the origami balloons.  I started in September with the goal of making at least 1200 to decorate the inside of the tent.  I ended up folding 4 day-by-day origami calenders.  This is what almost 1500 balloons look like.

photo via me

To be honest, I feel a little lost now.  Have you ever had a craft project that takes so long that when you are done, you don’t know what to do with yourself?

The day after Xmas, J and I bought some string lights on super sale.  I was planning on attaching the balloons now, but J thinks that they will get all smooshy between now and July, especially with the drive to VT.  I just want to get the project totally completed.  Any thoughts?

Lasso’d Moon Designs is currently offering 10% orders over 100 invitations for a limited time!

So after the phone call with my father ended on a very sour note where I said something to effect of “I don’t do ultimatums and I wont be bullied. If you don’t want to pay or attend my wedding thats your choice.”. In all honesty I wasn’t all that opposed to inviting my aunt I just wanted to make sure a game plan was hammered out before we went and booked her a plane ticket. The brother situation is a horse of another color…

My parents expressed to me at one point that my brother was ordained and that they would like him to be our officiant  however we had already chosen a close friend of our to be in charge of that so I politely explained the situation and they were not very happy. You see my brother is not in my wedding party either I had actually chosen him to be one of the people who supports the chuppah in our ceremony. (For those not in the know, The Chuppah is a Jewish wedding tradition involving a canopy which represents the new home you are building under god, the people who support the chuppah in some ceremonies are symbolized as being the foundation that supports the union you are creating) A role I assigned him not too lightly and felt very strongly about. When I told my parents his role (though I didn’t explain it as throughly as I just did) they still seemed uneasy as though I were giving him a throw away task like handing out programs or something. They kept pushing for him to officiate but I kept repeating that I liked where his position was, so the ultimatum that he had to officiate really lit a fire in me. My father called back shortly after and apologized for his behavior and withdrew his statements as unthought out reaction to my mothers feelings being hurt. I later more fully explained my brothers role in the wedding to my parents and they finally gave in.

(more…)

Ok, so when I last left off Alex and I were a) out a wedding venue b) without a signed contract or deposit and c) unsure of what to do next. The holidays, like the holidays always are, were crazy. For us, it was a matter of balancing family time, Christmas time, university work and wedding planning. Hey, we survived.

Celebrating with Alex’s parents over the holidays, there were a few different discussions took place:

• Alex’s mum & us. Advice: Talk to the manager of the hotel and hold your ground.
• Alex’s dad & us. Advice: Talk to the manager of the hotel and demand that the contract (verbal/email) be held accountable; I’ll talk to my lawyer friend, and use me as the ‘bad guy’ if you need to
• Alex’s dad & the manger (in the pub). (One-sided) Conversation: This is your problem, not ours; fix it (to the manager).

This was during the run-up to Christmas, and it wasn’t until New Year’s Eve that we actually got to hold a (brief) meeting with the manager of the hotel (did I mention the hotel was three doors down from my in-laws? Yeah, there were a lot of awkward “Oh, uh, Hi. Yeah, we should meet a talk” before we ACTUALLY sat down, or stood rather, and talked). Thankfully, the conversation was a lot less scary than any of us in the family had anticipated.

(more…)

Before I proposed to J, I had never thought about wedding colors.  At first, I thought they were some kind of wedding industry invention that only applied to ballroom weddings.  In the end, I changed my mind.  It was so much easier ordering tablecloths, paper, craft supplies, etc. if there were specific colors.  If I could order tissue paper in 50 colors, but having two specific ones made my life easier.  Also I am terrible at visualizing colors together.  I didn’t want to accidentally end up with a vomit arrangement of colors.

Once we decided on a carnival theme, the color choices were narrowed down.  I saw two color boards and emailed them to J.   One of them was aqua, red, and white and the other was turquoise, red and white.  We ended up choosing turquoise.

Turquoise has caused a number of issues.  First people have different ideas of what the color looks like.  I cannot pick turquoise out of a teal, aqua line-up so if I am going craft shopping I bring the vellum envelope from the Save the Dates as a reference.

(more…)