Gah.
JW is away, again. Since February I have spent four weekends with the man whom I am marrying in January. That's about one weekend a month, and all-up adds up to about a fortnight spent together. Not happy about this particular series of events, as you can imagine. Nor about having to do everything by myself when he's away either.
And I have my period and I have a stomach ache.
And I'm listening to Hack and it's amazing how many people think the guy's comments from McLeod's Daughters (about the best boobs in the business) is all a bit of a joke. Yeah, and I've heard way worse and had worse directed at me, but it was at an awards night. It was on TV. It was about the guy's work colleagues. If one of my colleagues stood up at a televised industry function and said I had fabulous boobs I'd skin him alive and then boil what was left and feed it to the dog.
(Told you I was grumpy.)
And the roof in the laundry leaked and rusted out the bottom of the washing machine. Which is still working and hopefully the damage is just cosmetic. But it's so annoying. I'm sick of living in this leaky crappy old house, with the deck that's falling apart and the draughts and the spiders and the ants and the weeds and the windows that don't shut or won't open and the flaky paint and the grubby bathtub no matter how many times you try to clean it.
And wedding magazines. Jesus H. Christ on a crutch are they awful. All I want is a nice list of suggestions for reception venues, with pricing and maybe a picture. And what do I get? Pages after pages of airbrushed dolls in ridiculous gowns, naff home-made bomboniere-y things, hideous scrap-book ideas, Worlds Ugliest Invitations, and advice on how to save money.
Actually, this last wouldn't be so bad, but here was the advice: move in with your parents to save money for your nuptials.
O RLY?
Anyway, turns out I'm already doing quite well on the saving money front. My dress, which I bought a couple of weeks ago, cost me $400. The average price for a wedding dress is somewhere between $1500-3000 according to my lazy googling. So there's a minimum of $900 to spend on something more important. Like booze, so we can make it through the joyous day without killing ourselves or anyone else.
I feel much less grumpy now, by the way.
It's good to vent sometimes. I did that yesterday and felt much better, by writing something I may or may not remove from the drafts folder.
My heartfelt commiserations. My venting (or the root cause of it) was immensely similar to yours - husband away, doing everything alone, crappy house that needs things done to it (like the back door back on its hinges, for one), tired of it all.
You sound like a Sensible Bride. Bloody brilliant. I was one, too. Apparently, it's a rare breed. Good luck with it.
Posted by: Ariel | May 07, 2007 at 08:51 PM
Go the Sensible Brides! I also spent far less than the average on my bridal togs, we were married in a friend's waterfront garden, and we hired a local community hall for the reception.(Of course, this was back before the days when councils thought they had to make a profit from hiring out community halls. For members of the community.)
Roll on the subversion of the Wedding-Industrial complex! (I didn't hire a professional photographer, either - I had several friends who were keen amateurs and I gave them heaps of film and video and let them have at it - our wedding photos are fantastically unstaged and warm and intimate).
Posted by: tigtog | May 07, 2007 at 09:07 PM
We got married in a park for free, subject to local council approval. We had our reception in the town hall, which we had to pay for and we did a serve yourself buffet style thing. Much cheaper and people can eat what they want. Of course, you may want something completely different which is your perogative. But congrats on finding a dress for $400, that is quite a coup.
Posted by: Mindy | May 08, 2007 at 05:17 AM
Yes, we had a buffet too - and it was great. My sister-in-law made the wedding cake (a cupcake tower), we got married in the garden of my mother-in-law's beach house - where we also had the reception and my mum made my dress. My sister handmade the invites. Music was a lovingly (actually, obsessively) composed iPod selection by The Husband. And we didn't hire a photographer either, we got happy snaps, like Tigtog, including the old 'put a disposable camera on evey table and and let people go for it' trick. The only thing about that is we were so casual we didn't really pose for any photos, and in hindsight, we should have taken ten minutes out for that. Ignore everyone who tells you ridiculous things like 'you CAN'T have a wedding for under $20,000'. (Yes, we got that.) Ours was under $5000.
Posted by: Ariel | May 08, 2007 at 10:31 AM
Good work on prioritising: food and drink are far more important for a decent social event than clothes (unless of course you go down the very wise routes of fancy dress or scuba wedding).
And it's not quite true that a bigger drinks budget'll help you stop killing anyone at your wedding. Just ask any police officer how often they've been called out to nuptial altercations---they're worse than Christmas for intra-family touch-ups.
Posted by: The Devil Drink | May 08, 2007 at 05:29 PM
Awww, Kate, here's some cyber-chocolate... Hope you feel better soon.
Posted by: Helen | May 10, 2007 at 07:07 PM
Yeah, the disposable camera on every table is an awesome idea.
Candid shots showing people as they really are are worth more.
Do you REALLY want to get down from dancing on the table to do some staged shots?
Not when you'll have 50 people taking photos of you on the table.
One of them _has_ to be your best angle.
(Angles 2 to 10 will probably also be covered.)
Posted by: harry | May 17, 2007 at 05:49 PM