Twitter has been a great source of wedding info for me over the past couple of weeks – when it’s not being all fail whale

People tweet about contests and giveaways and I’m finding there’s a LOT more out there than I thought. I might have missed a lot of them if it wasn’t for their tweets. So without further ado, here are some of my favorite wedding peeps over on Twitter:

@wedshare – offers some good advice and links to some interesting articles. Stuff outside of the ‘how to make your own paper flower pomanders’ variety.

@MarthaStewart – mmm Martha. All things crafty and wonderful. You already know the deal.

@WeddingWire – they tweet a lot about special sales and promos when they hear about them. Important stuff for brides on a budget.

@WeddingPaprDiva – they make glorious invitations that will one day be mine. Yes, yes they will.

@themanregistry – cause you know we gotsta have a little sumthin for the boyz. Ye-eah.

@weddingbee – my obsession. I can’t deny the bee love. A lot of the current bee bloggers also have twitter accounts. Take a look at who Mrs. Penguin is following here and you’ll figure it out!

Since getting engaged a few weeks ago, we haven’t really done much planning. At first, I think it’s nice to just letting the whole thing sink in. We only get to be engaged once, and I’ve had a lot of fun telling all my friends and getting used to saying “my fiance”.

We broached the topic with FMIL last night, and she thought our time line for planning was a good one, and she offered to visit places with us if we wanted. While I’m ready to move forward on this with just FH if need be, it’s nice to know we have that support and that his mom is understanding even while things are tough. So now I just need to make a list of NEPA wedding venues to call!

Did anyone else ever have family health issues or drama delay their wedding planning?

She picked it up at Starbucks, but it looks like you can get it on Amazon, among other places. It’s a cute gift for brides to be and it beats the normal cliché wedding/engagement gifts.

Have you gotten any unexpected gifts after getting engaged?

It turns out that the quality of the setting really was lacking. It was so lightweight – I was shocked, and sure I’d destroy it in no time. Being the klutz that I am, I knew I needed something a little more sturdy. Thankfully the wonderful team there had gone through their catalogs and pulled out a couple of alternatives. In the end, I found one that looked even closer to my original inspiration from Brilliant Earth. They also didn’t charge us any extra for ordering the second ring. Yay!

After that I was left to wait in suspense for the proposal….

Did anyone else ever run into some unexpected snags while picking out their ring?

I also liked the stance they took on ethical diamond mining. Unfortunately, they were a bit out of our price range. I also wanted to see what we were buying before making a commitment. I’ve read a lot of stories about people having a great experience buying diamonds online, and I’m sure it’s all true. It just makes me nervous. The plus side is that this was a chance for us to avoid the chain stores and support a local business!

We took a weekday in January to go around and visit several local jewelers. Most didn’t have a style like the one I wanted in stock. They were very willing to custom make my ring, but it cut into our budget. Then we went to Rainbow Jewelers. The staff there was extremely helpful and went through several catalogs to find the perfect setting. We found one that looked very similar to the ring above at half the cost of a custom order. Yay! We were able to pick out a beautiful stone and we sealed the deal.

Of course, nothing ever goes according to plan. We got a call from the jeweler about 3 days later with some bad news…

]]> http://nepabrideblog.com/2009/05/26/the-ring-search-part-2/feed/ 0 nepabride Brilliant Earth http://nepabrideblog.com/2009/05/21/the-ring-search-part-1/ http://nepabrideblog.com/2009/05/21/the-ring-search-part-1/#comments Fri, 22 May 2009 03:26:55 +0000 nepabride http://nepabride.wordpress.com/?p=21 ]]> So, I wanted to take some time and share the journey that brought us to my very own Ring Of Dreams.

FH and I started talking about marriage seriously last December. We both knew we wanted to spend our lives together for a while before that point, but our financial situations got a bit more stable and we realized our ‘someday’ was now!

After that, I spent a lot of time online trying to find my ideal ring. FH told me he wanted me involved because while he had a good grasp on my taste, this was going to be something I wear the rest of my life. I started browsing sites like Blue Nile and Jewelbasket in order to figure out what I actually liked. My jewelry style tends to be pretty simple. I go for a pendant on a thin chain over a chunky necklace. As a result, solitaire rings really caught my eye.

At the same time, I didn’t want a plain, ordinary ring. I wanted mine to be unique (like every bride before me, I’m sure). I was really attracted to rings with sapphire side stones, or even blue sapphires as the main stone.

I didn’t expect FH’s reaction to my idea of a sapphire engagement ring – he didn’t like it! Well, if I had really wanted it, I think he would have gone for it, but he wanted to get me a diamond since it is the traditional stone for an engagement ring. I didn’t argue it because at the end of the day, he was doing this for me and I was still getting some sparkles.

And that’s when I found the perfect mix of simple and unique….

FH came over my house Wednesday night. I was in the back yard playing with Barney:

Me and Barney at Rickett's Glen

When I hugged FH, I felt something in his jacket pocket, but I’ve been kinda paranoid about the impending proposal, so I put it out of my mind. We went inside and were watching tv together for a while. He was being a good boy, rubbing my neck a bit (back to that whole stress thing). He got up kind of suddenly, and went out to the living room, where my parents were. Now, he gets along just fine with my parents, but neither of us have been known to, you know, chillax with them without each other there. That’s when I realized he was asking for their blessing – with me in the next room!!

I didn’t go out, and I didn’t mute the tv to hear what he said. I did start freaking out a bit, but I checked myself before he came back. When he came back into the room, he pulled out the box and got on one knee…. and that’s as far as he got before I went batshit crazy! I was so excited I just hugged him and cried and he clearly knew my feelings on the matter.

So that’s my story! We’re all excited and ready to start this crazy journey in earnest now. I guess it’s time to start figuring out what I actually want to do…

FH (future husband) and I went down to Rainbow Jewelers yesterday and he paid for my engagement ring. I’m freaking out a little inside. We’ve been talking about this and he’s been saving for almost 6 months. We went to a lot of local jewelers, but I got the best feeling from Rainbow. They were also able to make my dream ring a reality for much less than other places. I’ve got about a two week wait for it to be made, and then a undetermined wait for the official proposal.

Holy crap I’m getting married you guys!!