Wedding Nonsense - In Sum

Clearly, I'm not going to get around to writing extensively about all the cost-saving tricks we used for our wedding. So here's a (hopefully) quick summary.

All told our wedding cost a hair over $4,000. That includes the rings, my dress, his suit (purchased, not rented), two nights at a hotel, all the equipment for the photobooth my husband built (web cam, printer, ink, photo paper, wood, etc etc), anyone we hired (officiant etc), monetary gifts to those who helped considerably, and much more. A quick run down of our cost-saving techniques:

1. Invites: designed by ourselves, printed at Costco: very cheap
2. Hiring people: the only person we really hired was the officiant. We gave money and giftcards to a family friend, her granddaughter, and her granddaughter's friend for more-or-less running the potluck part of things. Friends and family took turns grilling food, and we paid a friend of my husband's brother to check on grilling and other things.
3. Renting equipment: I must be the luckiest girl in the world. After I'd called around to find out the price of a tent, tables, and chairs, I learned that my uncle rents tents and other equipment, and that we could borrow tables and chairs from my parents' church and church-friends. My uncle also had several drink dispenser machines, a popcorn machine, a bubble machine (probably the most awesome thing we had), and much more. Oh, and we have friends with a sound system. I made a playlist, and that just ran for the evening.
4. Dress: Ah, the dress. Often a big expenditure. I tried on a traditional wedding dress or two, but really didn't feel like myself. Then I tried on a mostly white bridesmaid dress, and that was it. $145. Awesome.
5. Alcohol: We bought a few bottles of hard liquor, margarita mix, and a case or two of Trader Joe's wine (it's good stuff). One of my mom's cousins works at a winery, and he brought a keg.

Am I missing anything? We skipped many of the traditional wedding things. And it was perfect. Despite rain and lots of mud. At one point, my flip-flop got stuck in the mud and the resulting suction threw mud up the back of my dress when I pulled it out (the photo in this post shows the mud, although it's a bit hard to see it). And I thought it was hysterical. :)

A friend even wrote a review.

The one drawback was that it was a lot of work. We had to do all the setup and takedown ourselves. My husband and I coordinated almost everything - how the items and equipment would get to the location, where it would go, who would take it back, etc etc. It's a lot of work on top of being the center of attention. As my best friend said, we should have found someone else to do all the day-of coordination.

But still, totally worth it for a very nontraditional, fun, laid-back wedding.

Recycling Old Computers

To buy a new computer or not to? That has been the question I've been asking myself for probably about a year now. The last time I got a brand new computer was in 1999 (laptop). Then, in about 2004 or so, a friend built me a computer (desktop) out of old and new parts. Later, when I moved in with my now-husband, he gave me one of his hand-me-downs (desktop). It was probably around the same age as the 2004 one but had better parts. I still have both of the desktops but neither works particularly well.

I debated a new computer for a long time. I don't use a computer a lot at home, at least one of the desktops worked for the most part, and new computers are expensive - especially considering I wanted a laptop.

Then my husband's laptop met an untimely death, and my desktop decided I wasn't allowed to have sound anymore (along with several other very annoying issues). So I gave in and ordered a new laptop when he did.

But what to do with the old desktops? Recycling was the obvious choice. I figured I'd take the old towers to a Goodwill or the recycling at work or something. But then my coworker told me about an NPR story she heard that revealed that many recycling companies ship old computers off to other countries where women and children go through the computers and recycle the various parts. This involves contact with toxic chemicals, not to mention the child labor.

Well, crap.

I found the NPR story and some nice person had posted a link to reputable recyclers. It just so happens that there are two in my area, so I'm all set. Many of these places take other electronics as well, so you can get rid of more than just computers.

Who knew you needed to be so careful about the recycling company you choose?