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?

Stopping Unwanted Mail

I mentioned in my last post that my husband and I have recently purchased a house. We had been in our apartment for over 3 years before we moved into our new home, and we were still getting mail for the previous tenants. Now that we actually own a home, I am more determined than ever to stop all unwanted mail. Here's what I've been up to and/or plan to do soon:

• Catalog Choice - I signed up for this at the apartment and used it to stop a few catalogs. It seems to work, but I forgot about it after stopping some of the main nuisances. After the move, I started using it again, especially since they've expanded beyond catalogs to include junk from companies like Comcast, Geico, etc. Every time I get an unwanted catalog or other mail I set it aside until I have a moment to sit down and add it to Catalog Choice. Definitely a service worth exploring. Also, for an annual donation of $20, Catalog Choice offers the option to get yourself unlisted from those lists marketers use to find you and send you junk. I haven't done this yet, but will consider it if the offers become excessive.
  
• YellowPagesGoesGreen.org - This was mentioned in my one-a-day calendar (don't worry, I use the discarded pages as scrap paper before recycling them). I used it to find two local yellow page opt out options. I completed one but chose to avoid the other because it wasn't clear if I was also going to be signing up for some service at the same time. If we get any phone books, I will call and cancel them.
• OptOutPrescreen.com - I was hesitant to do this because it reminds me of the "Do Not Call" registry. I put myself on that a few apartments ago and immediately began getting tons of charity and political phone calls. I think I'm going to go ahead and give this a shot and see how it goes. OptOutPrescreen takes your name and contact info off the lists provided by Consumer Credit Report Agencies to companies offering credit and insurance offers. I will probably go through the effort of doing the permanent opt-out, which requires you to mail-in a form along with an electronic submission.
  
• DMAchoice.org - I learned about this one more recently and made a note to come back to it. I haven't completed it yet, since Catalog Choice seems to work for now, but I'll consider it for the future.
• USPS - The individual who lived in the house we recently purchased is now deceased. I've read on various random websites that I can go to the post office and set up something so that that his mail will no longer be delivered to us. I need to look into this in greater depth though. I don't want the post office to just toss the mail, I want the companies to stop sending it altogether. Until I know more, I will just be using Catalog Choice to stop this mail.
• Discover Card - Discover Card is on my evil list. It's my favorite credit card, but they have been sending more and more unnecessary offers, including reminders about some things I have already signed up for! I have searched their website for the option to stop them from sending this stuff, but no luck. I will have to give them a call.
  

I suspect that because we have different last names, my husband may have to sign up for some of these things as well. Catalog Choice allows you to add the name of any addressee, which is nice, but the others probably do not.

Anyone know of any other useful options for stopping mail? Or any more information about stopping mail through USPS for previous tenants?

A Few Reasons for My Lack of Posts

I started this blog and really have not been keeping up with it. One of the main reasons for this is that I've been busy. During 2010, I have:

• Started house hunting in January
• Taken a class during the spring semester
  
• Planned a wedding
  
• Gotten married in June
• Researched cars (endlessly... there truly is such a thing as too much information)
  
• Bought a car
• Started taking a class in the fall semester, but dropped it a few weeks in once I knew I would soon have:
  
• Bought a house
• Moved from a 3 bedroom apartment to a 3 bedroom house (i.e., lots of stuff to move)
• Attended several weddings, wedding showers, baby showers, a 60th birthday party, and more

All of that added to the fact that I really prefer not to be on the computer once I arrive home means I just haven't been so great at blogging. I hope to get back into it, but we shall see.

The Story of Stuff

Wow, it's been a really long time since I posted on this blog. Perhaps starting it wasn't the best idea....

Anyway, I just finished watching The Story of Stuff, and I think I'm going to set myself a reminder to watch it at least every few months. I already know many of the topics covered, in at least some way, but it's helpful to see it all together and to be reminded that the US's reliance on stuff cannot keep up at the rate it's going.

There are so very many ways to reduce reliance on and consuming of stuff. Here's a few of the things that I am doing:

1. I am determined never to become a collector of anything again. In high school and college, I was a fan of dolphins (still am, but not as openly so). Apparently, choosing something you like means that you will suddenly be bombarded with a plethora of stuff pertaining to that thing. I have dolphin doodads out the wazoo. I am going to donate them to Goodwill and will not collect this type of thing again.
2. My husband and I are in the process of purchasing a house. The one we have selected is pretty much the same size as our apartment (which, granted, is pretty large for an apartment - 3 bedrooms). Which means that we will not need to acquire more stuff once we move. In fact, we are trying to purge (responsibly - Goodwill, veterans, recycling) the stuff we do not currently use.
3. We use canvas bags instead of plastic ones 95% of the time (we still forget, but have gotten much better).
4. We do not drink bottled water, but instead have nice water bottles. I use mine every day at work.
5. I intend to ask for a few small things that I want for Christmas and then ask that any other gifts to me be either donations to charity or homemade gift certificates for time spent together. And perhaps gift certificates to Lowe's for home repair. But I also hope that my husband and I are able to get a lot of stuff from Pittsburgh's Construction Junction, which offers used building materials for cheap resale.
   
6. We do not buy DVDs. This was actually my husband's idea. So much is now available through Netflix that if I get a craving for a certain movie, I can either find it immediately through streaming or I can wait a few days to get it through the mail. In the past I have still asked for DVDs as gifts, but I will not be doing that any more.
7. My husband and I share one car. And a fairly efficient car at that. We now drive a new Honda Fit, but previously we shared a 1997 Honda Civic (until August 2010). We walk and bike to work as much of the year as we can tolerate, and we hunted for 10 months to find a house in our price range that kept us close to both our works as well as stores, restaurants, and a park.
8. We recycle extensively.
9. We make it a goal never to have more than one bag of trash a week, and usually are closer to a half bag.
10. I kept my previous cell phone for, I think, 4 and 1/2 years. Planned obsolescence lead to it recently being unable to find service like it should, so I upgraded. I donated the old phone, as well as my husband's old phone, to a campus fundraiser in the hopes that they would be reused or recycled.

Ideas I have for the future:

1. I have a lot of friends who garden, and it seems like many of them end up producing an abundance of a certain type of crop. I think it would be great to organize a group of these friends who get together to share the abundance, so that everyone ends up with a variety. Our new home has apple trees that definitely produce a lot, and I would much rather share apples than see them go to waste.
2. Even though we have a front and backyard (shared with the upstairs neighbors), I haven't composted much yet. I intend to change this with our new house. I love houseplants and gardening so this would save me from buying soil.
3. Our new house will have a rain barrel.

There is so much we can do to reduce our consumption of stuff (and non-local foodstuffs). If you have any other ideas, let me know!

Amazon PriceDrop

I was looking up the cost of some children's books and noticed Amazon's PriceDrop feature. I have not used this before because most of the time when I'm buying something from Amazon, I need it immediately. However, there seem to be a lot of new babies these days, and I tend to give the same books as gifts. Thus, I have plenty of time to watch for good prices.

So I'm curious to see how this plays out. I am half wondering if the prices are going to be better right now - shortly after Christmas - and will go back up in the future. But I love anything that will save me money, and I love Amazon's fast shipping (I ordered textbooks from other vendors recently and my goodness, they are taking forever! I even paid extra to have one arrive by yesterday, but did it arrive? No.)

I'll have to remember to write about the Amazon PriceDrop feature again in the future, once prices have dropped (hopefully!).

Wedding Nonsense, Part III

So I got my mom to agree to a potluck....

And it didn't actually take too terribly much convincing. I've been telling her I planned to elope when I got married for years now, though, so I think now that I've decided to actually have a wedding and reception, she's willing to go along with most things. Plus, once I explained it to her in more detail, she thought it made sense.

Now, I know what you're thinking. A potluck reception?! Who does that?! But hear me out.

I've grown up on potlucks. I always loved them at church as a kid - you get to eat everyone's best dishes. What could be better than that? Plus, you get to sample a wide variety of food, and if there's something you don't like, well, there's always plenty of other options. Sounds like a good thing for a reception, especially with so many dietary needs - vegetarian, food allergies, etc.

Of course, I'm not so cracked that I'm also going to expect gifts. Part of the appeal of a potluck is that we don't want gifts. We don't need any more kitchenware, we don't need a bunch of random knickknacks. I don't like clutter, and we have pretty much everything we need. Oh, and we definitely have NO use for china. Thus, asking for a dish to share instead of a gift sounds good to us.

So, the out-of-towners. I don't expect them to make food. They are more than welcome to grab a bag of chips at the grocery store. You normally have to buy a gift anyway, so instead, buy some packaged food. I also fully intend to encourage my out-of-town uncle and his fam to order pizza from the local pizza place they love so much. They try to get it every time they come into town anyway.

I don't think I'll be calling it a reception. Even I hesitate at that. The traditional reception is so ingrained in most people's minds that a potluck reception is very nearly an oxymoron. Currently, the plan is to call it a Potluck Celebration in Honor of the Marriage of blah blah blah.

Plus, it's going to be very very casual, but more on that later.

And think of all the money saved on caterers. And not having to worry that the mass produced food will taste like... mass produced food. And all the money saved on gifts. Bringing food should be far cheaper for the guests, too.

I'm sure some people will still think I'm nuts. But I'm okay with that.