Saturday, December 31, 2011

Blog Repost: Vocabulary Lesson #2 - Papa (or Mama)-razzi

I found this on 'Kiss My Tulle' and it made me laugh so hard that I had to repost it here:

The Ranty Bride: Vocabulary Lesson #2 - Papa (or Mama)-razzi

Papa- or mama-razzi: relatives who think - because they have a digital camera and a Facebook page - they have been ordained to capture every single second of your wedding, resulting in photos of bridal party members and guests looking annoyed, chewing, not paying attention, or just out of focus, like this:
122711 b
(sorry, Jenna - I tried to stop him)
Or, this:
122711 c
(note how NOT A SINGLE PERSON is looking at the camera, or doing anything interesting, unless you think the fact that they're wearing an ugly holiday sweater un-ironically in early October interesting)
Or this gem:
122711 d
(my mother *insists* she is not flicking off my father, but you be the judge)
They do this despite the fact that you're paying - handsomely, I might add - a professional photographer, and, unlike that professional who is trying to capture candid, heartfelt moments in an unobtrusive manner, the papa- and mama-razzi manage to be as obtrusive as humanely possible, including, but not limited to, preventing the bride and groom from eating, talking to their guests, or, you know, getting photographed by the REAL photographer. Additionally, the focus they devote to their photographic duties prevents them from paying attention to things like, for example, your wedding rehearsal, so they will be completely unprepared on the big day. Don't say I didn't warn you.

A la TMZ, their goal is to post BREAKING NEWS of your special day as quickly as possible, so that filter that would normally say, "Eh, maybe not this one," is overridden by their journalistic urgency, causing them to put shit like this on Facebook, captioned, "My son and daughter":
122711 a
...not realizing that people (ok, me) might think it's gross when people are commenting, "Congrats, you two!!" until someone points out it's a photo of the groom's SISTER creepily clinging onto him (in velour, apparently), and not, you know, a picture of the bride and groom, as the commenters (not just me! Ha.) were expecting.

Sidenote: shout-out and thanks to all the random FB people who pointed out it was, in fact, creepy, so I didn't have to. Also the, "I think it's, 'Look, it's my widdle brother all growed up!'" comment? Not helping your cause. And it's 'beaucoup,' not 'boo coo,' for Christ's sake. That is totally unrelated but REALLY pushing my grammar button today.

Yes, it should have been a warning every time he interrupted your dance recital rehearsals to take fuzzy, poorly lit photos of you and random kids whose names you won't remember twenty years later, and good thing it was the 80s, because now? They'd probably call the cops. Or Chris Hansen.

Friday, December 30, 2011

Reality TV Wedding Goodness

Source
Have found the most hilarious new* TV show called Four Weddings that I watched for the first time the other night. First The Man was watching it and asked me what it was about and then I sat down and had a squiz so I could explain what was happening and now today I am frantically googling it to see what there is to know about it.
It's hilarious! All these brides who are probably lovely in the real world are snipy and horrible to each other and they criticise EVERYTHING, like one bride had her wedding in the police chapel and one of the other brides said the chapel was a bit boring (or something like that - it was not a resounding pat on the back for the bride's choice of applause for the wedding ceremony venue anyway).
Here is a picture of the boring police academy chapel. Totally average as I'm sure you'll agree. And then elsewhere in the show, one of the brides ordered scallops at the reception even though she didn't really like them and then begrudgingly admitted that they were really good.

Source
And way back when me and my non-engaged friends were young(er) and well before my bub was ever thought of and before I'd ever even met The Man, I used to go to my friend's place and watch Bridezillas and we'd laugh at the craaazy people on there. I have so many favourites, and again I am sure these ladies (and sometimes men) are perfectly normal, sane, rational people, but TV editing does not do them any favours. There was the chick who made about 20 cakes as centrepieces for the tables at her reception and then thy; the whiny chick from Texas who didn't like her fiance's haircut, the woman who had about 20 bridesmaids and had her wedding in a castle and who was being a princess in all definitions of the word, the man who wanted everyone to be ferried to the wedding in golfcarts for free and the wedding reception people said no. And the money they'd spend. ABSOLUTELY CRIMINAL - 'oh, my budget was $80,000 but I've gone over and now it's $110,000'. What? Where do you get that much money to spend? Where do I go to get this money? Anyway, now that friend is an old married woman and I am an old un-married woman with a baby, and so those days of Bridezilla marathons are long gone. Plus I don't have AusStar so I don't get those good TV shows.


Source
And the other wedding TV show that I used to love, that I also used to watch with my married lady friend on her AusStar was Engaged and Underage. This one was fascinating firstly because all the people on the show were at least 8 years younger than me and had boyfriends/girlfriends and in some cases babies. Also because it was Bridezillas with children! So much more scope for tantrum-throwing. I used to stream this on my laptop because it was so fascinating to watch. I used to pretend my zipcode was 90210. It was a fantastic show to watch because of the couples seemed so mature and other couples were... um... less so. What I DO remember from this show is that one of the couples started their own non-profit organisation To Write Love On Her Arms which I thought was pretty cool.


*Well, it's new for me at least

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Cake Horror


I am petrified that my wedding will end up 'lame'. It will almost be a destination wedding, because the people from my adopted hometown who think driving 20 minutes is ridiculous won't love travelling TO ANOTHER TOWN! And the people from my actual hometown who actually are travelling 90 minutes or more just to see me and the man prance around in fancy clothes,
One of my biggest wedding related fears comes from one of my favourite blogs, Cake Wrecks. The terrible terrible cakes that appear on this blog make me realise that these cakes could happen to me. And oh, God, if I was appalled at the slap-dash effort put into icing my bub's birthday cake, I will be horrified by a wedding cake that's anything less than awesome.
And while all the Cake Wrecks were enough to strike horror into my heart, this one totally freaked me out because the person who made it hd totally no contact with the people who ordered it, then it turned up as you can see, right before the reception, also it tasted awful.
Fail. Fail. Fail!
I don't know what kind of cake we are getting, but I know it has to be awesome. I will not settle for second best.
I know, I KNOW I am a Bridezilla in the making, but at least I am up front about it.
And to further entertain you, here is a link to Wrecky Wedding Week over at Cake Wrecks. It's from last year but the horror and bad-cakemanship lives on. Specially for the people who paid good money to have these cakes made.
*Shudders*

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Wedding Planner

So the other day I was saying that I was too too cheap to hire a wedding planner, and that I was a proud Budget Savvy Bride and all that jib jab.
Then I thought about my recent big birthday party, and how too many people had a say in it, and it ended up crazy unorganised*. Even as far as certain people taking over the music and the room being too big and there not being many people.
So now I have thought about it and I think I want to pay someone to run everything, from food, to music, to things running to schedule or whatever. And I want to pay them so I can tell them exactly what I want, so that it happens the way I want, and if I doesn't happen the way I want it and I chuck a tanty, then I won't be reminded of it until the end of time.
Because, oh yes, I will be a Bridezilla. I know this for a fact.
So now I am not sure if I want a proper 'wedding co-ordinator' or just a clued-up DJ (is that what they are called these days?) who will not play a tonne of Meatloaf, or AC/DC, or Justin Bieber, or Khe Sanh (looking in the direction of my brother) just because the guests ask for it. I mean, I like all these bands and they are OK I guess, but I don't want people to remember my wedding as a Meatloaf-palooza.
Also it'd be good if someone had the job of setting up the reception the way that I want it, and not 'guess' and then I roll in after the ceremony and cut sick at people because it looks crap.
Hello, I'm a perfectionist here! I will not settle for mediocre just because someone else doesn't care about how it looks. My bub's birthday was nearly two months ago, and I asked someone to put the butter icing on her cake, and was amazed at the lack of effort put into a seemingly easy job. Totally gets on my nerves!
So what do you reckon? How do I find someone to do all this stuff for me, as the reception venue doesn't have a function manager/co-ordinator/boss? Honestly will cry if my wedding doesn't come up to my standards which aren't sky-high, but matter to me.

*I had FUN at my birthday, but I could see how we could improve things a bit.

Saturday, December 10, 2011

PANIC! (nah, not really)

Let's visit my guru in wedding preparation, The Knot. They helpfully send me an email every so often with suggestions of where I should be in my wedding planning. Some of the items listed below even had alarm clocks to emphasise to me how important it is that I do them NOW!

Begin envisioning your wedding (I am imagining this being said in a calm sing-song voice, with incense in an oil burner and whale-song on in the background) --- formal hotel or friend's loft? Backyard barbecue or exotic beach?








I decided (notice the 'I' and not 'we') that if I couldn't have a cool wedding date like 10/10/10 or 11/11/11, I would have one that repeated itself - 12/01/2012 (12012012) - cool hey? As its on the tail end of wedding season (have a mental image of brides running around the bush and people in cams shooting at them), everything seems to be available *fingers crossed*.

4. Begin interviewing wedding consultants (if you'll have one) AND / OR start asking family AND friends FOR local wedding vendor recommendations.
We aren't having a wedding consultant because to me it smacks of spending more money than we have - I aim to be a budget savvy bride and want to do as much as I can myself to save money.
Regarding asking family and friends for suggestions - all my family live far away, and I don't know anyone who have gotten married in the town where we're doing our wedding. Plus all the family have lost interest in our wedding, except for one or two of the ladies, but really - nobody seems to really care! So we have figured out stuff for ourselves.

5. Brides: It's never too early to begin thinking about your gown. Start by figuring out what style will look best on you.
I posted about dress dramas a few weeks ago. I am fairly sure that I know what sort of dress I want to have and I have lined up a friend to make it for me if she will agree to do it. All can tell you so far however is that it will not be foofy (ignore definition #1) and it will not be strapless especially because recently I went to a family dinner and my maxi-dress (gifted to me by another mummy friend) fell off revealing my nanna bra to my future brother-in-law.
Embarrassing. To. The. Max.
And I'd imagine my undies on my wedding day might be more revealing than a nanna bra so I really don't want that for myself, or for anyone else.
But if anyone has some kind of dress generator that they can direct me to so I can get some ideas of other gowns that I might like, that'd be cool too.

6.