Archive for April, 2010

Apr 2010

Sponsored Post: Gabriel Harber Photography

I get to write about Gabriel Harber Photography again, which is always nice for me. I always say this, but I've known Gabriel and his work for a long time, pre-wedding photography, and way pre-wedding blogging. And I am very very fond of his work, by which I mean to say I love it. And we've been known to attend his slightly bohemian parties, which means I have a feeling you'd like him too. And now he's shooting weddings and you can hire him for that? What? Yeah, I think that would be a very good idea.

So! Gabriel Harber Photography operates out of Oakland, CA and serves the San Francisco Bay Area... and beyond. This post is about beyond. He's offering APW couples free travel for Los Angeles, San Diego, and anywhere within 2 hours drive of San Francisco. That opens up a great APW option for some of you couples outside of my current sponsor reach. Yay! Now go browse.

Picture is from Hannah & Jared's wedding, which I might be slightly obsessed with because (rather obviously) they are team practical members, and (rather obviously) they had the best wedding in the world... and they have not written us a wedding graduate post. Sigh.

Posted in: Uncategorized | 1 Comment »

Apr 2010

Dress, Given V

Remember Sarah, and the most recent iteration of APW's long tradition of passing dresses to each other? Well. Here we go. It's time to give another dress, which is one of my very favorite things. Sarah and I, unanimously (because the giver always picks, but I don't think I've ever had a situation where the giver and I didn't instinctively immediately agree) wanted the dress to go to Nini. To Nini, who said:

Yay for fireworks and bonfires! We’ve decided to go this route too – very excited to hear that it was a hit. As for the dress.. I would love to be considered for it. It should definitely fit and it was exactly what I was hoping to find when I went dress shopping – classic and comfortable . . . instead I ended up being told that I was “too petite” for a dress like that and was told to get a longer dress so I wouldn’t look so short. So I went home and cried (I’m a sensitive gal) and haven’t worked up the nerve to go dress shopping again. Continue reading Dress, Given V

Posted in: Uncategorized | 22 Comments »

Apr 2010

Wedding Graduates: Nancy & Sean

You know when you see a wedding on a blog, and it's just so beautiful and perfect and you think, well how can I live up? That's the fascinating thing about today. You've seen Nancy & Sean's wedding before, when I did a sponsored post for Leah and Mark Photography out of Atlanta (and just so you know, this post is in no way paid or edited. In fact, Leah and Mark don't know it's going up - Surprise!). And like me, you probably thought: perfect. Well. This is the power of reclaiming our own voices about our own weddings. Nancy sent me her wedding graduate post, and their wedding was so wildly imperfect... that it was exactly right. But not quite how you'd think. So! Tissues out, because you're going to need them:

We pretty much planned our wedding in two weeks, and it was great. Such a short time, but so much to tell!

Here's the short of it. We got engaged in August and I immediately bought into the WIC (how could Martha Stewart be so wrong?). I was crushed when our budget, and logic, caught up with me. Then disaster: my parents' house was wrecked by flooding in September. Then a bigger disaster: in November, I was diagnosed with breast cancer. So we put things on hold. My medical history became even more complicated and I spent six weeks out of work for various surgeries. After all that settled, they set a date for chemotherapy to start - in three weeks. So we decided to get married.

Continue reading Wedding Graduates: Nancy & Sean

Posted in: The Hard Stuff, Wedding Graduates | 50 Comments »

Apr 2010

On Name Changing And Weddings

Ok. I'm going to do this. After a huge number of increasingly frantic emails, I'm (we're) going to take on the topic of name changing. As long time readers know, this is a topic that has... not gone so well in the past. So, before we start, some ground rules: I'm really encouraging people to share their experiences and opinions on this, kindly. Please remember that just because I, or some other reader made different choices than you did, we're not telling you that you should do it our way. We're just saying, for better or for worse, that was our path. Also, no personal attacks. In one memorable comment last time we discussed this, someone accused me of hating my grandmother, since I didn't change my name, and she (rather obviously) did. So, let's steer clear of that, shall we? Thanks.

The specific question that I get asked over and over is this: how do you decide what choice to make when it comes to changing your name? An increasingly common corollary is this: my husband really really wants me to change my name, and it makes me cry when I think about changing it, and what should I do?

And for these questions, my response is simple and two fold: A) Talk about it with your partner. I mean really, really, really talk about it (especially if it's painful). And B) Don't. (I know! I just told you not to change your name! What the mother f*cking f*ck?) But this is what I really mean - you don't need to change your name now if you are not ready.

Within wedding circles, name changing is talked about as a very binary game: you either change your name or you don't, whether you change your name or not says something very specific about what kind of a woman you are, and you either change your name now or forever hold your peace.

This is all total nonsense.

Continue reading On Name Changing And Weddings

Posted in: Ask Meg, Gender & Feminism, Marriage, Meg's Thoughts, Reclaiming Wife | 625 Comments »

Apr 2010

New Site Bells N’ Whistles

Hello All,

I'm wrapping up a vacation and being ill (both at once, how fantastic is that?) so posting might be slightly spotty for a day or two, till I'm back up and running on all cylinders. But, I wanted to walk you through some small changes we've made to the site, in response to your requests:

As requested by women at the APW meetup, there is now a "sort oldest to newest" button on each page. This means you can go into the archives, hit any month, and then hit "sort oldest to newest" and read posts in the order they were written. Plus, you can actually go down to the bottom of the main page, and hit "sort oldest to newest" and the entire blog will re-sort from beginning to end. BWAH! Mind blowing!
You guys have been loving the threading comments. By popular request, you can now check off "Notify me of replies via email," and if people respond to your particular comment, you'll get the replies in your inbox. Continue reading New Site Bells N’ Whistles

Posted in: Uncategorized | 36 Comments »

Apr 2010

Sponsored Post: Turtle Love Co.’s Lovebird Jewelry

It's almost Mothers Day! Which means it's time for me to remind you of long-time-sponsor Turtle Love Co.'s handcrafted, eco-friendly, artist friendly, mama bird and baby bird necklaces.... perfect for the hip mothers in your life. Or, um, if you're not a mom, maybe someone needs to buy you the lovebird necklace?? (Achem, husband!)

Posted in: Sponsored Posts | 3 Comments »

Archive for April, 2010

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