gdp's Comments

The Broke-Ass Bride : Wedding Inspiration: BAM! KA-POW! Comic Book-Inspired Decor, Outfits, & Accessories

Thu, 6 Oct 2011 22:18:16 +0000

Man, that has to be my favorite groomsmen shot in a long time. Normally, I'm not a big fan, but that. Is. Awesome.

Crasstalk : How Not to Be a Jerk at Comic-Con: Day 2

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:52:33 +0000

It's like you've never visited a Fry's Electronics.

Crasstalk : How Not to Be a Jerk at Comic-Con: Day 2

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 03:51:21 +0000

4 times because security and the police would not let anyone out of the room because we were all "witnesses" to a minor kerfuffle in the WAY back of the room, and they couldn't start the next panel until the police sorted things out, first aid was given to the victim, and the idiot with the pen was shackled. In the meantime, the natives were hungry and restless. So they entertained us with Owls. Again and again and again and again. It was so effective that we did not go see a single movie that was shown in the Trailer Park.

The Broke-Ass Bride : {Can't Afford It/Get Over It} BHLDN Decor edition!

Mon, 16 May 2011 16:33:28 +0000

I think the thing that bothers me most about the BHLDN line (besides the name; bring back the vowels!) is that it is incredibly pricey versions of the DIY-chic crafts that blogger brides have been doing for years now in order to keep their wedding costs down. Oriental Trading, Save-on-Crafts and Etsy have been our craft-supply go-to places for this wedding (drawstring bags from Oriental Trading; stamp made by Etsy; rafia from Save-on-Crafts; 2 hours of my time; Tada!).

The Broke-Ass Bride : Healthcare Nightmare (a rant)

Wed, 11 May 2011 21:34:57 +0000

I am so, so sorry to hear you are going through this on top of everything else. I hope it gets cleared up for you soon. Our health care system is a nightmare.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Repurposing Wedding Paper Scraps

Tue, 10 May 2011 18:31:45 +0000

We've been folding origami butterflies to use in our escort card-type-things, and I have noticed that Tony keeps picking up small scraps and turning them into tiny butterflies. I'm collecting them to scatter around the tables.

Crasstalk : TV's 10 Greatest A-Holes

Wed, 4 May 2011 00:39:12 +0000

netflix has the whole series on streaming. We're rewatching them.

The Broke-Ass Bride : The Engagement-Period Stuff Freeze

Sun, 3 Apr 2011 18:47:17 +0000

No stuff freeze for us, but we solved that problem by not registering. Unfortunately, the stuff hasn't exactly been showing up on our doorstep without the freeze, either.

Crasstalk : Five Lessons I Learned from OKCupid

Sat, 2 Apr 2011 03:50:01 +0000

I AM taller. By a whole 1/2 inch.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Save-the-Dates for Only Slightly More Than Zero Dollars

Thu, 24 Feb 2011 05:44:04 +0000

I love that picture. You guys are ridiculously cute. I'm impressed with your $70 save-the-dates. Between ink cartridges, magnets, envelopes and stamps, we ended up spending about $80, which was a lot more than the $0 I had budgeted, too. I love that picture. You guys are ridiculously cute. I'm impressed with your $70 save-the-dates. Between ink cartridges, magnets, envelopes and stamps, we ended up spending about $80, which was a lot more than the $0 I had budgeted, too. On the bright side, we used the leftover envelopes as our invitation envelopes, we had enough ink to print all of our other stationery (including the photos we used in the luggage tag project), extra stamps for our invitations, and free fonts from our artist friend that we've used on everything, and some leftover magnets that we can use to make photo magnets with wedding and honeymoon pictures later. Waste not and all that rot.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Avoiding Harried Hostess Syndrome

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 06:12:56 +0000

Oh, geez. I am a sufferer of Harried Hostess Syndrome, and I fear it may have already infected my wedding plans. Just today, I tried to reduce some of the symptoms of the HHS by deciding to eliminate an entire project from my to-do list. I haven't completely come to accept it yet.

The Broke-Ass Bride : {Provocation} It's OK to Get Married the Weekend of The Big Game

Mon, 7 Feb 2011 23:06:38 +0000

So, I think we're one of the very few families in this country that was parked in front of the tube for the World Cup and spent Sunday wandering around an antique market, doing chores and wedding crafts and watching movies. We checked Gawker for the nerd's-eye-view of the highlights. Game? What game?

The Broke-Ass Bride : An iPhone 4 Wedding Video? Why yes!

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 21:33:28 +0000

I had planned on having family members hold our iPhones for the ceremony, but I didn't think about the getting ready part, too. This video confirms my intent. Thanks.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Battling My Inner Four-Year-Old

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 17:46:37 +0000

Oh -- also, a couple of suggestions to get what you really want. Do a search online for pocket envelope templates. Buy your own paper, and fold, glue, fold glue. To get the invitations that we wanted at a price we were okay with, we shopped around. A LOT. I bought the envelopes at Michael's. They came in packs of 10 for $1.99. I found sheets of beautiful paper that I cut into envelope liners at an art store. These cost $2.99 each, and I was able to get 15 liners out of each sheet (I used the leftovers for our place card project, which is more complicated than names on card stock and I'll blog about later). I collected vintage postcards to use as our RSVP cards -- this was the fun part. I found larges batches of them on ebay and etsy for super cheap. I picked up some pretty raffia and sealing wax that goes in a glue gun to tie around the invitations at Save-on-Crafts, and I shopped around for pretty heavy linen papers that were pre-cut to the correct size (more expensive than getting standard-sized sheets and cutting them down myself, but worth it to save myself some math and some extra steps). I had a lot of suggestions for where to buy papers. Ultimately, I ended up at www.envelopperinc.com because they had the widest selection of precut sizes. If you are interested in the other sources I looked at (all came recommended and looked to have very nice quality options), let me know. I'm very happy with the quality of the paper we bought, but I did go with the lighter card stock to make sure it would feed through my printer. They had a heavier option that I wish I had, but alas, we're home-printing.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Battling My Inner Four-Year-Old

Sun, 23 Jan 2011 21:07:27 +0000

Well, you already know how often my inner four-year-old has bothered me about invitations. She won the Fancy Photographer battle. Currently she is telling me that I need to rent the house for several more days so that we can play longer in San Francisco. That kid needs a time out.

The Broke-Ass Bride : {Can't Afford it/Get Over it} A Groom's Request for His Bride

Tue, 11 Jan 2011 19:28:44 +0000

I love that Destinations dress. If I were looking for a one-shoulder, I think I would start there.

The Broke-Ass Bride : A Broke-Ass Primer on Popular Wedding Themes

Sun, 9 Jan 2011 19:26:17 +0000

We have buzzwords that confuse the hell out of my mom, who keeps asking, "Why don't you just have a wedding?" Don't tell her, but she's totally right. Our buzzwords: Kindergarten Craft (when your flower arrangements involve cutting up egg cartons); vintage travel; San Francisco. The least budget-friendly part of our plan is definitely "vintage," the most sanity-checking is "craft."

The Broke-Ass Bride : {Meet Robin} Under-the-Radar Wedding Spending

Mon, 20 Dec 2010 03:41:43 +0000

Bwahaha! Awesome first post, Robin. Congrats on the new gig.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Can't we all just wed along?

Fri, 5 Nov 2010 18:14:16 +0000

We're also doing a destination of sorts (although not nearly as far away), which is why the first person I hired was a Day of Coordinator who would be willing to run around doing last minute errands (napkins? ice? pick up our food? pick up our cupcakes? run around finding replacements for things that I forgot at home), who could take care of bringing in and taking out chairs/tables/linens/glassware/etc. We couldn't afford a full-tilt wedding planner, but having someone who is there to run the show for us and take care of the details was really important.

The Broke-Ass Bride : Broke-Ass Rehab (or, damn we really is broke)

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 23:49:58 +0000

We're using a snowball debt calculator to help us pay off our debt. The Snowball debt reduction plan works like this. First, figure out how much money you have available each month to pay toward your debts. I initially included three out-of-control credit cards and our car loans in this figure. You can also include student loans, but I did not include the student loans because my loans have the lowest monthly payment and interest rate of all of my debt, and the interest I pay on my student loan provides tax benefits. When we started planning the wedding, we set a total budget, which I also entered into the Snowball calculator so that I am setting aside money for the wedding each month. Once you have a monthly budget for your debt payments set, take a look at all of the loans you want to pay off. For each loan, you need to know the total balance due, the interest rate on each loan, and the monthly minimum or fixed payment. If your minimum payments are not fixed, you will need to know the percentage of the balance that the credit card company uses to calculate your monthly minimum payments. Then you go to an online snowball calculator to plug in these numbers. I found this calculator to be the best of the bunch (I tried several) because it allowed you to enter different kinds of debts (variable rate credit cards and fixed payment car loans, in my case): http://www.whatsthecost.com/snowball.aspx?country.... The calculator will help you set a payment schedule based on paying off the debts with the highest interest rates first. It will show you, for each month, how much to pay on each debt, how that payment affects your balance on each debt and on your total debt, and (the very best part) when each debt will be paid off!