Just need to vent a little.  I have to have my ring inspected every 6 months for the warrantee.  I do this in Feb and Aug, since I am getting married 9/4/99, I was going to wait till the last week in Aug to have this done, cuz they clean it up and make it sparkly.  I decided to go this morning to take one of the things off my "to do" list.  good thing I did.  I have a 1/2 carat marquise stone with 6 smaller ones around it.  The marquise was starting to wiggle loose, and I need to have it fixed.  This is going to take 10 days!  It is a big sigh of relief when I think about how I almost waited till a week before hand to take it in!!!  So glad! Heather (to Kurt) 9/4/99 — Check out my web page! www.athenet.net/~hgollnow/

Response:

Just a little side note, your ring sounds soooo pretty!  Is it gold, white gold, or platinum? – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text -> Just need to vent a little.  I have to have my ring inspected every 6 months > for the warrantee.  I do this in Feb and Aug, since I am getting married > 9/4/99, I was going to wait till the last week in Aug to have this done, cuz > they clean it up and make it sparkly.  I decided to go this morning to take > one of the things off my "to do" list.  good thing I did.  I have a 1/2 > carat marquise stone with 6 smaller ones around it.  The marquise was > starting to wiggle loose, and I need to have it fixed.  This is going to > take 10 days!  It is a big sigh of relief when I think about how I almost > waited till a week before hand to take it in!!!  So glad! > Heather (to Kurt) > 9/4/99 > — > Check out my web page! > www.athenet.net/~hgollnow/

– Sarah and Jim July 1, 2000 Share what you know. Learn what you don’t.

Response:

It is mostly gold with a little platinum.  It IS very pretty.  I love it so much!  It has only been 2 days and I miss it so much!  I have been wearing it for 1.5 years now, so I am pretty used to it.  8 more days till I get it back! 3 weeks till the wedding.  I am soo excited.  I already have butterflies! Heather (to Kurt) 9/4/99 : Just a little side note, your ring sounds soooo pretty!  Is it gold, : white gold, or platinum? : : > Just need to vent a little.  I have to have my ring inspected every 6 : months : > for the warrantee.  I do this in Feb and Aug, since I am getting : married : > 9/4/99, I was going to wait till the last week in Aug to have this : done, cuz : > they clean it up and make it sparkly.  I decided to go this morning to : take : > one of the things off my "to do" list.  good thing I did.  I have a : 1/2 : > carat marquise stone with 6 smaller ones around it.  The marquise was : > starting to wiggle loose, and I need to have it fixed.  This is going : to : > take 10 days!  It is a big sigh of relief when I think about how I : almost : > waited till a week before hand to take it in!!!  So glad! : > Heather (to Kurt) : > 9/4/99 : > : > — : > Check out my web page! : > www.athenet.net/~hgollnow/ : > : > : : — : Sarah and Jim : July 1, 2000 : : : Share what you know. Learn what you don’t.

Response:

>>Well, we finally picked a hall! I really like it, though it’s not at all >what either of us pictured when we set out to choose where to get >married. Maybe I’ll post that long, detailed saga some other time, but >right now I need some help with regard to a colour scheme. ><snip long post concerning colors of hall (plum and gold) and what to >do about wedding colors)

I’m trying to picture the colors in my head and I’m not sure exactly what would work, but three things have occurred to me, but they’d all have to be carefully matched with the plum. You could go a shade of pink that would compliment the plum, a maroon/burgundy/wine color that’s sort of a red version of the plum (this might make your fiance’s family happy) or you could go blue. Or gray/silver that has the same color quality as the gold. I like dark table clothes, so I’d go with a dark color there. For centerpieces, what about mirrors with candles in glass holders (either votives in bowls or glass candlesticks and tapers) sitting on the mirrors? On a dark tablecloth it would look absolutely elegant. You could include one or two large white flowers in a floating bowl or bud vase. I forgot to check when your wedding is, but if it’s after Christmas check some party stores for Christmas things that might work. I bought some silver stars on wire that I was going to coil around things but they got forgotten by the time the wedding rolled around. You might look for similar gold or silver star themed things that aren’t Christmassy.         Johanna —         Computer User Services Reed College –>j/lnghlm: It’s not just for Elbonian pizza anymore

Response:

>Well, we finally picked a hall! I really like it, though it’s not at all >what either of us pictured when we set out to choose where to get >married. Maybe I’ll post that long, detailed saga some other time, but >right now I need some help with regard to a colour scheme.

<snip long post concerning colors of hall (plum and gold) and what to do about wedding colors) >Just call me: >PQ (May 10, 1997) >___ >* UniQWK v4.2 * The Windows Mail Reader

Have you thought about having ivory linens with a forest green or emerald green runner?  Then use napkins, etc in the same green. For centerpieces try ivy (english being my preference) and intertwine it with muted gold candle sticks and small dusty rose colored flowers (roses again being my personal preference).  I recently did a wedding that was almost precisely those colors and it was elegant and absolutely beautiful.  Good luck! Christi Brogan "Conjugal Creations" Wedding Designer San Antonio, Texas Ask me about NACEC!

Response:

Well, we finally picked a hall! I really like it, though it’s not at all what either of us pictured when we set out to choose where to get married. Maybe I’ll post that long, detailed saga some other time, but right now I need some help with regard to a colour scheme. We had originally planned to have a very simple, dark green/white colour scheme. That was before we’d even picked a hall, mind you. (Advice to those planning weddings: don’t get attached to a scheme before you pick a place.) However, the hall we’ve chosen (where both the ceremony and reception will take place) is The Great Hall Centre, and I don’t think what I had in mind will work. It’s a 107-year old building in downtown Toronto and is large, with an incredibly high (white plaster) ceiling, a sweeping balcony and a small stage.  The colour scheme is plum and gold: the stage curtains are a deep rich plum velvet, the chairs are covered in plum fabric, and the walls are painted a soft golden colour. It has a new, light coloured hardwood floor. There are overhead lights and soft wall sconces, both on dimmer switches. The lower edge of the balcony is completely edged in tiny white lights, creating a sweep of twinkly lights around the room. It’s a combination of grand and funky, and it’s different from every other place we looked at. What I can’t figure out is what to do about colours now. Neither of these are colours I would choose under any other circumstances, and yet they look lovely in the hall and I’m content to try to work with them.   My main concerns are the setting/decoration of the tables… I’m not trying to coordinate any clothing with these colours (and we’re not having any bridal party anyway, at least not so far–it’s not done at all in my fiance’s religion).  Nothing can be affixed to the walls or property anyway, which is fine, the room doesn’t need it.  We will have lots and lots (and LOTS) of candles, both in candelabra stands and on tables, etc. Flowers are no problem either, I know I can find flowers that will look lovely in the hall. But: while I think it would look nice to have plum-coloured tablecloths with white china and white napkins, I really doubt I can find plum linens. Even if I do, I bet it’d be hard to match the plum of the chairs… most of these deep reddish-purple colours tend to fall to grape, burgundy, magenta, eggplant… I’m painfully sensitive to colour and even if no one else noticed it would drive me crazy if the colours were too far off.  I could live with plain white tablecloths, but with white dishes? I feel like the tables will be too boring and colourless, even if I can find plum napkins (which I can probably find in paper). (As it is we’ll probably be criticized for the subdued colours involved… my fiance’s family is Indian and their weddings tend to involve lots of red, green, shiny shiny gold, etc.) My fiance will be wearing traditional Indian clothing, completely in ivory/creamy white, and I plan to be wearing a somewhat untraditional dress with a white top and a skirt in a colour called "platinum" but it’s not silvery, more of a pale dusty taupe. I know his family will probably hate the colours involved, but that’s their problem. I don’t think having just coloured napkins with the white dishes/white tablecloths will be enough, unless the centrepieces are pretty spectacular. (And I don’t have any idea what to do about centrepieces either… all I know is that they must incorporate candlelight.) I want to stay away from using too much gold, I really don’t like gold at all and neither does my fiance. (We like silver colours… my rings are white gold and his will be titanium.) The colour on the walls is fine but I don’t want to have a whole lot more of it. I keep thinking maybe I could incorporate a third colour–dark green being my first choice–but while I think dark green looks fine with plum OR with gold I can’t quite convince myself it looks good with both. (My fiance was also skeptical, though he said if I felt it would work he’d go along with it.) I’m turning over in my mind the idea of copper touches… not bright shiny cooking pot copper but more of a burnished, Arts-and-Crafts era copperwork type thing). It’s also hard to figure a "theme" to work with this…nothing suggests itself and nothing I’ve thought of works.  I’m not dead-set on having a "theme" but some sort of motif would make other choices and planning easier (choosing favours/flowers/etc.)  The only theme attached to the hall itself (in their advertising, in the pattern on the window curtains) is stars…which I could incorporate, I guess.  The ceremony will be a late afternoon-early evening one, by candlelight. Sorry to go on so long… just trying to give enough details for those inclined to help… Anyone else faced similar problems? Any ideas, suggestions, etc. would be MOST appreciated. Thanks in advance! Just call me: PQ (May 10, 1997) ___ * UniQWK v4.2 * The Windows Mail Reader

Response:

Worst?  Dalek shaped cookie jar (exterminate!) Best – Jay says my mom covering our budget overage as a surprise on the morning of the wedding (in the form of a hidden check as we were dressing).  Probably both our favorites was a set of three hand painted pillows with Erte designs, two small, one large, with the big one including our names and the date of our wedding.  Hand made by the friends who gave them to us, they really seemed the most personal of all the presents. Denisen (who married her sweet fellow 8/10/96)

Response:

>(Username) writes: > >So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your > >wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? > >Just Curious. >The best:  A fire extinguisher >The worst:  there wasn’t a worst

Engagement Presents The VERY best:  gift of professional cleaners to houseclean my old house after the movers left. After working with the movers & packing all day I got to relax a bit before driving across the country. Wedding Presents: The best:  33 gift wrapped boxes each with sayings on love and marriage …. to be opened one per day for our honeymoon month ….. wonderful!  A gift that gets smaller every day, never needs dusting, and brings us daily smiles.  :) Next best:  a framed artist’s proof personalized for us by the artist, given by the artist and some friends The worst:  an acrylic photo frame …. just not our "taste" in frames at all Kathi & Craig  10-15-96

Response:

>Worst gift would have to be champagne flutes #12-24 from William >Sonoma – 2 people, it seems, were walking around 2 different sonoma >shops on the same day, with the same list – and one of them got us 4 >flutes, bringing our total up to 12 – the other person got us 12 more >champagne flutes – which we just didn’t have room for : ( >They’ve been turned into very nice pasta bowls.

We had on our registry 16 wine glasses and ended up with 32 wine glasses, but only 4 champagne glasses. 12 of the wine glasses got turned into 4 cordial glasses, a knife steel and …something else. My mom bought us the whole flatware set even in a box. But we got 1 plate, 1 salad plate, the creamer and sugar and a serving bowl from our stoneware pattern. We ended up buying 12 place settings of the china later from money sent by my step-grandmother (only met her once). We opened presents in front of everyone on Sunday and it got pretty funny as we kept opening box after box of glasses. So it wasn’t a bad present, just funny. The best present… was definitely everyone being there. And the two women (MOH and bridesmaid) who made my dress, one made the lace, the other sewed it. And the cake a coworker made… the large monetary present from my dad was a complete surprise and welcome. Mostly I was just touched. We could have done the wedding without it, but he felt it was his "social responsibility". Which coming from my dad was very sweet and a little mind boggling. The worst… a cheesy, pastel colored, framed 9 square grid of "love is X" and "love isn’t" with cutesy little drawings. It’s just not us at all… though I do love the cousins who gave it to us, so it’s o.k. (I don’t think they’re on the net.) I finally put something else in the frame recently and it works in our guest room quite nicely.         Johanna —         Computer User Services Reed College –>j/lnghlm: It’s not just for Elbonian pizza anymore

Response:

(Username) writes: >So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your >wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? >Just Curious.

The best:  A fire extinguisher The worst:  there wasn’t a worst Suzie (& Phil) July 13, 1996 — Suzanne Glass                       Santa Fe, NM                             http://www.rt66.com/~glass/

Response:

So far – Most surprising – $1000 from his grandfather =:o Best not yet received – Handmade quilt from my aunt – she makes awesome quilts and she asked me months ago what colors we were having in the bedroom.  My mom has dropped the hint enough that I know there will be a quilt from her.  I can’t wait – this will be the best gift, I’m sure. Worst – No bad, strange or odd ones yet… Funniest – 4 silver place settings (from Mark’s parent’s neighbors, whom I’ve never even met – what a surprise!  His mother just kept saying, FMIL:  "No Mark, there are 4 pieces of silverware in each box – they must have sent one setting".   M:  "No, Mom, we counted the boxes…  there are four 5-piece settings here".   FMIL:  "No, Mark, your’e wrong – they couldn’t have sent ***4**** settings!".   M:  "Well, Mom – Kellie and I are here, we opened the box, then the boxes inside that one and there are 4 salad and dinner forks, 4 knifes, 4 soup and teaspoons- really, there are 4". FMIL:  "No, there can’t be!".  etc…. It was quite amusing.  Now he understands the frustration!) kellie

Response:

>So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your >wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? >Just Curious. >Thanks for the input in advance, >Terri

The worst:  6 of the ugliest, cheesiest placemats and napkins ever seen.   They looked just like those plastic-y, quilted mats you see at Denny’s and they smelled musty and smoky, which makes me suspect that the giver (a famous garage sale shopper) got them used, somewhere. Ugh! The best:  I can’t choose just one, I have a selection: A beautiful wooden box with a hinged top, shaped to look like an oversized book. It’s a memory box to put mementos in. My mother gave us 6 of my grandmother’s silver place settings, which I have loved since childhood. I always volunteered to polish the silver for holiday dinners and I look forward to using the silver for my family dinners in the future. My aunt knitted us a gorgeous, 100% wool, ivory afghan as a wedding quilt.   It’s beautiful workmanship and very practical too. My parents in-law gave us 4 of our silverware place settings, which for some reason no one else bought off our registry (same price as our dishes, so not a money issue. I guess people just wanted to give dishes)  I guess the best classification comes here b/c they got us what we wanted, but they saw what hadn’t been given already and got that for us. Very thoughtful. Kirsten Krebs Thomson

Response:

> We didn’t get any great white elephants…although some were, shall we > say, more utilitarian than others? Like the fabric – Handmade! – plastic > grocery bag holder.

We didn’t get anywhite elephants either, but we DID get an elephant present – an Arthur’s Court pewter bowl with an elephants-walking-around-it design on the rim (actually, going almost all the way thru the inside). But our best gift, other than the china cabinet from my parents, and the armoire & trunk from Aaron’s parents, was the Fertility God & Goddess from barely-pre-Columbian Mexico, which were given to us by a collector/dealer friend of my parents. Worst gift would have to be champagne flutes #12-24 from William Sonoma – 2 people, it seems, were walking around 2 different sonoma shops on the same day, with the same list – and one of them got us 4 flutes, bringing our total up to 12 – the other person got us 12 more champagne flutes – which we just didn’t have room for : ( They’ve been turned into very nice pasta bowls. heidi & aaron since 10/19/96

Response:

**: So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your **: wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? ** Best gift – we got a lot of really cool things, like pottery from two of our favorite local artists, or a set of stainless cookware, or a ceramic knife (we gave the giver a penny for the old superstition!). MY favorite was the sixpence and old handkerchief given to me by a co-worker’s wife. I had never met her until the wedding, but she sent me a lovely card (after having her husband ask me if I’d mind her offering these things) with them inside. We also were given a quilt that my great-grandmother made before she passed away 16 years ago. My mom and grandma finished it for her. She made one for each of the great-grandchildren to be given as wedding gifts…that was a really good one. I guess the ones from the heart or that weren’t off the registry, but got a little more creative were the most fun. Oh, the one from the couple who went to Williams-Sonoma and loaded a box full of cool kitchen gadgets…very nice. Most unusual – a Royal Crown Derby Chipmunk….perhaps a wry commentary on the Ohio State University’s unofficial rodent? We didn’t get any great white elephants…although some were, shall we say, more utilitarian than others? Like the fabric – Handmade! – plastic grocery bag holder. Amy — Amy Breslin Program Assistant THE Ohio State University Materials Science and Engineering Dept.

Response:

> We didn’t get any great white elephants…although some were, shall we > say, more utilitarian than others? Like the fabric – Handmade! – plastic > grocery bag holder. > Amy

Hey Amy- We got one of those, too!!  Brown and orange calico print with a scalloped lace edge and a little poem attached.  You’ve gotta love Great Aunt Ethel….  ;-) Bet you didn’t get any yarn-covered clothes hangers, though, did ya? -Leslie (who gets teary when she thinks about how much love these wonderful women put into their very thoughtful handmade gifts–makes store-bought crystal seem thoughtless)

Response:

So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? Just Curious. Thanks for the input in advance, Terri

Response:

>So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your >wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? >Just Curious. >Thanks for the input in advance, >Terri

The best – my engagement ring! Amethyst set in white gold The worst – haven’t gotten anything yet! (sniff) —    If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down?  We might, if they screamed all the time, and for no good reason.

Response:

: So let’s have it! What’s the best gift you’ve gotten thus far for your : wedding (or engagement) and what’s the worst? We’ve gotten only two official engagement gifts, but I’m willing to bet they’ll be our favourites (maybe because we aren’t likely to get any others?  We’ve been engaged 6 months but with 30 months to go). My fiance’s favourite engagement gift is the clock in a brass casing from his grandparents, which has a plaque on it, reading, "Barbara and Julian, 16 May, 1996′ My favourite is the silver plated huge oval frame, from his mother, which has a plate on it, reading, "European engagement, May 16, 1996" Both are really sentimental, ‘heirloom’ type gifts, not expensive but with high sentimental value (especially since they’re from family).   An unofficial engagement gift is our Waterford crystal ring holder, which I bought on my mom’s credit card account when we visited the factory in Ireland.  I needed a nice holder for my beautiful ring, and we rationalized that Mom and Dad would ‘like to get it for us’.  Kinda pretenious, I know, but I know my parents well, and don’t think they minded! My sister’s least favourite gifts were from the shower attened by my mother’s friends.  She just couldn’t use the crock pot or the sandwich maker (I fell heir to the latter, which suited me fine.  I make 3 minute muffins in it so I guess even bad wedding presents don’t have to go to waste).  –Barbara

Response:

|> >I am thinking of proposing to my boyfriend on this date.  Anyone else |> >doing the same.  Any ideas?  I was thinking of an engraved necklace but |> >he’s not into jewelry.  I liked the plain engraved white gold ring idea.   |> >May go with it. Hi Debbie! Not sure if this helps, but here is how my girlfriend "proposed" to me: She didnt! She just looked at me with her oh-so-big-oh-so-loving-green-eyes in an oh-so-wunderfully-romantic way for five minutes – I just couldn’t do anything else than proposing to her… This happened on Saturday, July 29th, 1995 in Geneve in Switzerland during our summer vacation, and we bought rings together the next Wednesday, back home in Hamburg, Germany. And one more thing: I never was into jewelry at all, not a bit! But without the golden ring, I immediately feel alone and sad. I can’t live without this ring almost like I cannot without her! Hugs to everyone out there! Andras

Response:

>I am thinking of proposing to my boyfriend on this date.  Anyone else >doing the same.  Any ideas?  I was thinking of an engraved necklace but >he’s not into jewelry.  I liked the plain engraved white gold ring idea.   >May go with it.

Go for it!  It worked well with me!  If he is in need of a new watch, maybe buying a nice one and having it engraved would be a comparable engagement symbol. I went ahead and bought a matching ring for myself, too– just a plain white-gold wedding bamd.  And it’s really nice to look at it and know that he is wearing his at the same time I’m wearing mine.  :) kate.  | Patron Saint of rec.arts.comics.marvel.xbooks, and Really Short Person |  | I have a web page! (at http://student-www.uchicago.edu/users/keweizel) |  | Keeper of the RAC.MX Read Before Posting and Where Can I Find It? FAQs |

Response:

Well, I am. That is my birthday so we will have lots of things to celebrate about. Hank – Hide quoted text — Show quoted text ->I am thinking of proposing to my boyfriend on this date.  

Response:

I am thinking of proposing to my boyfriend on this date.  Anyone else doing the same.  Any ideas?  I was thinking of an engraved necklace but he’s not into jewelry.  I liked the plain engraved white gold ring idea.   May go with it. Debbie

Response:

> >Anyway, one anecdote he’s told is of a particularly nervous bride. … > Robert Fulghum is your minister? > (This story is taken nearly sentence-for-sentence from one of Fulghum’s > books.  _It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It_, I think; my copy is > currently packed away.)

Someone else pointed this out in e-mail. No, Robert Fulghum is not my minister. My minister (Bob Karnan of Portsmouth, New Hampshire) told at different times stories from his own experiences and from books he had read. I apparently mixed the two up in my recollection of his anecdote. Dave Kennard

Response:

|> > |> >Anyway, one anecdote he’s told is of a particularly nervous bride. … |> |> Robert Fulghum is your minister? |> |> (This story is taken nearly sentence-for-sentence from one of Fulghum’s |> books.  _It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It_, I think; my copy is |> currently packed away.) |> |> —                    __ You know…., I thought that story seemed too familiar to me!  One of my best friends in college got that book from a relative and would read a different story out of it to us (she and I shared an apartment with one other girl) when school started to get stressful.  I remember that she read the "barfing bride" story to us on a night before I had 3 finals! It still made me snort out loud from laughing so hard. Michelle Bork Michelle Wright Bork                   – You cannot achieve the impossible Hughes Information Technology Corporation                       Reston,VA  a subsidiary of Hughes Aircraft Company

Response:

>In talking with our Minister before the wedding, we brought up the movie >"Four Weddings and a Funeral", mentioning the wedding (the second one I think) >where the priest was newly ordained and had a great deal of trouble with >the ceremony.  Our minister said that he hadn’t seen it, but relayed a story >of HIS first ceremony… >Apparently, as the bride first started to walk down the aisle, he motioned >for everyone to stand, but then never told them to be seated.  Everyone ended >up standing throughout the entire ceremony, and he did not even realize it >until someone asked him about it as he was leaving the church.

That happened to us, too!  Our officiant was a really good friend of ours who had a Universal Life Church credential, but he had never done a wedding before.  Everyone stood for the processional (or at least at the bride’s entrance), but he never told them to sit down.  I didn’t realize people stood for the entire ceremony (20 minutes) until I saw the videos! Maddi & Cliff 10-10-93 The wedding?  The was 2 years ago! — Another unwilling pawn in Netcom’s quest for world domination

Response:

: > : >Anyway, one anecdote he’s told is of a particularly nervous bride. … : Robert Fulghum is your minister? : (This story is taken nearly sentence-for-sentence from one of Fulghum’s : books.  _It Was On Fire When I Lay Down On It_, I think; my copy is : currently packed away.) : —                    __ You’re right.  A very funny story, but strangely similar to the one in Fulghum’s book.  Hey, if he _is_ your minister, my boyfriend and I would like to use him for our wedding….  – Andrea Safstrom                 "The beaten generation. Reared on a diet                                  The beaten generation, the beaten generation.                                  Open your eyes. Open your IMAGINATION!"                                                                 — The The

Response:

> Every year or so my minister … gives anecdotes of humorous or disastrous > weddings as illustration of how things can work out even if the wedding > didn’t go "perfectly"….. > Dave Kennard

Thank you!  This episode really made me laugh!

Response:

Every year or so my minister gives a sermon on marriage and weddings he’s done over the years. He gives anecdotes of humorous or disastrous weddings as illustration of how things can work out even if the wedding didn’t go "perfectly". Anyway, one anecdote he’s told is of a particularly nervous bride. Part of why she was nervous was because for the year leading up to the wedding her mother had been working on making this *the* perfect wedding and social event of the year. Completely over the top. The father of the bride had long since resigned himself to simply writing checks without asking for explanation. The bride-to-be got more and more stressed out as the time approached and the pressure and expectations mounted. Despite all the complexity and high demands, the mother’s plans were working out and everything was in place on the day of the wedding. The bride, however, was a complete wreck as the ceremony neared. To calm her down a little, her father gave her a couple of Valium and put her in a quiet side room to wait out of the chaos until they were ready for her. This side room where she was placed was actually the reception room, all set up for after the ceremony. The bride, to get her mind off things, took a look at the buffet to see how the (carefully chosen) food looked. She sampled something –just a little bite– then something else. Then, in her nervousness, she basically went into a full feeding frenzy and worked her way down the table. When her father came for her to escort her down the aisle she was looking a bit green. Stress, Valium and a wide assortment of food had done a real number on her, but she gamely staggered down the aisle on her father’s arm. However, as they reached the front of the church it was all just too much for her. She stopped, swayed, then turned and vomited directly onto her mother’s lap. Powerboot. She then fainted dead away. Mom screamed, then also fainted. So, there’s the father of the bride standing next to the first row of pews with two unconscious women at his feet, one of whom is covered with vomit. After thirty seconds or so of dead silence in the congregation a laugh starts: the father of the bride can’t help himself and just stands there laughing at the whole thing. The bride and her mother eventually came to their senses and were cleaned up in another room, then everyone got back into place and the ceremony continued –in a somewhat less stuffy mood than before. The whole mess was of course captured for posterity on videotape. At the fifth anniversy party nobody laughed harder than the mother of the bride. Dave Kennard David & Margaret  6/25/95

Response:

I was MOH in a wedding where the groom decided the week of the wedding that even though he did’nt plan to wear a wedding ring in regular life, he did want to have a double-ring ceremony. We went tearing around trying to find a cheap one-time-only ring compatible with the bride’s white gold wedding set, only to be sneered at by department store jewelers.  (Hmph!)  Finally the bride’s sister found a pair of silver hoop earrings that thread (let me clarify) that forms a continuous loop once the thread is closed.  Looked nice, job done.  But I and a couple of groomsmen in the know couldn’t help stifling giggles as the pastor raised the rings to be blessed.  "This ring is a symbol of devotion…." made us think "and luckily, the best man has a spare in his pocket!" My fiance and I also attended a wedding where the bridesmaids were serving cake, slicing from all tiers but the top, wihtout having bothered to separate the tiers–we all felt challenged to duck in and out for cake without being there at the fatal moment when it all collapsed.  Luckily someone’s aunt noticed what was going on and came to intervene. Amy (& Scott, July 22, 1995–wow, this year now!) — Grad Student, Case Western Reserve University, English Dept. "Well, I was born Mary Patterson, but naturally I took my husband’s name, so now I’m Neil Patterson."  (Fry & Laurie)

Response: