Wedding Bands, and being resourceful

Sometimes things don't go as planned, but that is okay...   Aaron has taught philosophy classes for the last 2 semesters at a small college in town, and as far as he knew, this semester would be no different.  Well it turns out that they don't need him this semester, so our budget became a little skewed in the wrong direction.  Luckily, his bride to be is resourceful in the finance department and a professional bargain shopper!  Well I don't know if anyone has been watching the market, but gold has been at it's highest level in a super long time - and the first rule of smart money moves is buy low and sell high.  All of these places in town have been advertising like crazy to come sell your gold for top dollar (it was even on the evening news), so I thought I'd check into it...

My Mom and I cleaned out our jewelry boxes and found the gold stuff that we weren't into anymore, and today after I got off work I headed down to Houston Gold Exchange.  

I must interject that my original thought was something more sentimental.  Well kind of.  I budgeted for rings when gold was reasonably priced back in November, and now rings everywhere seem to be much higher.  But anyway, I thought I could take these old pieces and have them melted down into two wedding bands (and turned into white gold somehow...) but the man at the shop said that doing that was not recommended unless it was something really special to you because when the gold is melted down then reshaped to something else it will become very porous (?) (with pores) and basically be a not as good quality of end product.  Especially for a ring that you intend to wear for the next 50+ years.

I don't know if that is exact science or not, but it is what this dude said, so it is something to google for later.  

I got my free appraisal and all this stuff pictured below is worth $380 bucks!

 The current market price for gold is $1785.80 an ounce.  And you have to figure that these places are here to earn money, so you won't get 100% of the value.  I read that most of these Houston jewelers in the business of buying gold pay 60-70%.  The news story I saw recommended getting a few estimates and such before you sell, and I agree.  There are a few under the radar places that you can send in your gold and they mail you the money and pay around 85-90% but you really need to do your homework on them.  I will say that I have heard nothing but horrible things about cash4gold.com which advertises nationwide that they will rip you off bigtime, so whatever you do, don't go there!  So far a top pick I have seen is www.midwestrefineries.com.  Another thing about sending it off is that they may start melting away before you give then a yay or nay on their offer, so don't send grandma's old wedding ring unless you are sure you don't want it anymore.  So there is your mini-lesson on selling gold, lol.

A funny thing happened though.  The afternoon right before I went to see Houston Gold Exchange, I was looking on www.amazon.com for pictures I could take in to show the type of band that I wanted to have made:

www.amazon.com

A simple pave diamond white gold band.  Well amazon was having a super blowout clearance summer sale on jewelry and this $700ish band was on sale for $150 bucks!  So I told Aaron that we should get it since it was such a bargain, and it has a 30 day window to return it if I don't like it (but I think it is really pretty and just what I wanted).  Win!  Now we just need to get a ring for Aaron, but he just wants a basic band, so it looks like we will come in under budget on the rings.  Awesome!

And Aaron has an interview tomorrow to be a tutor/teach an SAT prep class for highschoolers, so send him some good vibes :)

Updates and things

Phew, I am taking a break from my endless to-do list to write a blog.  So things have been coming right along, I just feel like everything has a deadline of last week (which isn't really the case) so I am freaking out a little bit.  I could also be freaking out because in a mere 3 days Aaron and I are roadtripping to Las Vegas so I can meet his Mom and their family.  EEK.  I have never been super nervous about meeting parents of guys I have dated, I can be personable and friendly when I try ;), but never has it been more crucial for me to need to be liked (and I have never met parents of someone I was engaged to...).  I mean, I guess if they hate me I will just have to deal with that, but I really want them to think I am the best thing that has ever happened to Aaron, lol.  No pressure.  I think it will be fine though - but I will tell you guys all about it!  And in addition to the trip being to meeting the folks, I am co-hosting a bridal shower for my super awesome friend Angela, and Aaron is turning 30 (OMG, old.) that Saturday!  So I have been put in charge of decor and games for the shower - I don't want to ruin the surprise, so I will have to blog about these things after the fact.  And I am not certain what we are doing for Aaron's birthday yet either. I should probably add that to the to-do list for today.  

Oh yeah, so Friday, I had an appointment with Distinctive Details, so I brought my mom along and we looked at dozens of options for table linens, and the best chairs ever.  I really liked the owner and her assistant who helped us, and they have lots of experience outfitting the Petroleum Club, which was good.  I did feel nervous though, that not one word of price was mentioned.  I like setting my parameters before hand, so I don't fall in love with something I totally can't afford.  I think that is a wedding biz trick - they want you to fall in love with the thing, then they ask you to empty your wallet.  I see it on Say Yes to the Dress like every episode.  But I mean, it is a table cloth.  I am not going to fall in love with something so not that important.  My equation for loving inanimate objects is:

Love = Fabulousness x (The price I estimate it to cost - the price I actually pay for it)

Therefore, there is no love without a sense of a bargain in my book, no matter how high the fabulousness is.  Wedding vendors try to knock out that half of the equation.  I am on to you!!!

Anyway, after we had our appointment I took my Mom by the club to check it out, since she hadn't been.  She liked it, and I think the creativity wheels were a turning in her head of ideas to set up the space.  

Saturday night Aaron and I had fancy date night pt 2.  We went to *17 for dinner.  If you think you are experiencing deja vu, you are - this is the restaurant of one of the wedding reception hotel prospects I visited earlier this year.  The food was absolutely fantastic and tt is literally down the street from Jones Hall, where we caught the season closer - Dvorak's Cello Concerto.  They had a guest Cellist - Alisa Weilerstein, and she was incredible.  The whole performance was beautifully performed, as per usual.  Musical Fireworks, Indeed!

As you can see by his plate, Aaron thought the food was terrible

That is about all going on over here, break time is over!

Photo booth deal!

www.groupon.com

Can I get a 'heck yes'?!?!  I am so lucky my little brother is looking out for me and my budget and informed me of this killer deal on something that I was planning on getting anyway!  Photobooths are mega fun!  I was at a wedding a few summers ago with one and had a blast!  Groupon, you amaze me and I love you!! 

Things that make you go hmmm....

So I made a huge mistake by trolling the internets for wedding blogs.

I found this - http://2000dollarwedding.com/
(and funny side story - Sara and Matt from the blog lived right down the street from us before they lived in Colorado) ((I don't know them, but I learned this from an old blog post on that blog))

I read this blog in almost it's entirety and their wedding looked like so.much.fun.  It was very personal and sweet, and low key, and very DIY.  Then I think, maybe I am going about this all wrong, maybe I should try and have a more personal and reasonably priced reception.  A (and my Mom) is all for us not blowing our life savings, and we have this silly life dream of becoming incredibly wealthy by owning a lot of laundromats - so the money we save could be parlayed into our laundry empire.  It is very tempting.

So now instead of checking out all the hotels and such downtown, should I add parks and public buildings?

A few problems for A and I's situation.
1. We live in Houston.  Sara and Matt lived in Colorado when they got married, so naturally the scenery is incredible.  Houston, not so much - it is all concrete and flat.  Sure we have parks and stuff, so that could work, but A and I aren't really nature people.  We like the inside with air conditioning and no bugs.
2. A and I are pretty set on a January wedding.  Houston weather is really weird in the winter - this time last year there was ice on the road and they were canceling school, this year we can eat lunch on patios and I have hardly turned my heater on at all.  So I would feel uncomfortable doing anything outside during that time.  Also in the Orthodox Church, there are certain times when you cannot get married, including fasting times before Easter and Christmas, so if it isn't January we'd have to wait until May and we are far too impatient for that.  Plus the summer here is totally gross and we don't want to do anything smack in the middle of the school semester.
3. We are getting married at our Church.  This is a blessing in disguise because it narrows reception places down to 20 instead of 100 only because I don't want our guests to sit for over an hour at our wedding then have to drive 45 minutes somewhere for the party.  I guess that is a problem for people living in gigantic cities.  So this limits the options of places to find a super cheap or free venue.  And also, getting married at the church already bumps up the formalness of the occasion as well.  So I would have to incorporate an outfit change if we go from church to a park or something, and I'd rather not have to do that.

I feel like I am talking myself out of a super-budget wedding right out of the gate but I don't mean to.  I think super budget weddings such as Sara and Matt are great if that is your style and personality - and the weird thing is that A and I are totally low key/no frills kind of people.  We don't dress super well, we live in an apartment building that is older than our parents (who are very young, but still ;) ), we drive modest cars, etc.  But when I am doing a one shot thing, my spending style is 'go bold or go home'.  My wedding is one of those times I think.

But then I also think about the 8000 couples whom, after the fact, say that they wish they didn't spend so much money on their wedding.  Money is also a huge source of tension and fighting between couples, so maybe we should consider that as well.  And I totally dig Sara's message of making a good lasting marriage is waaaay more important that one day will ever be, so don't worry about it so much and rock your $15 Target dress.

I don't know what A and I's big day will be like just yet - the amount of different possibilities are overwhelming!  But I think if at the end of the day I am Mrs. A and we are surrounded by family and friends, it'll be all good. :)