If you’re in Ohio and hire Gillian Kresila to officiate your wedding, you’d better not disobey her no-alcohol rule or you’ll be sorry. Kresila discovered that the 23-year-old bride, Erin Kuhns, had toasted her magic day with a glass of wine, and she walked out on the wedding a few minutes before it was scheduled to start.
weddings
Creative Ways to Save Money on a Wedding
By 7.24.09
Depending on the source, the cost of an average wedding in the US is somewhere between a low of $20k and a high of almost $30k. No matter what number you use, that’s expensive. But Wise Bread offers us some extreme weddings savings tips than can make the day very affordable. But be warned, there will be lots of compromises. Here are their suggestions and our quick summaries of each idea:
Urban Expressions Craft Store Calls Customer A Whore
By 7.17.09
The only thing crazier than people involved with wedding planning are people in the scrapbooking supply industry, it seems. Weddingbee reports that an online craft supply store called Urban Expressions (not to be confused with the handbag company) completely lost it when an angry customer wrote in asking why they had neither shipped the item she’d bought nor specified otherwise as promised. Their response makes us understand why they chose the name “Urban Expressions” for their store.
How To Save On Those Wallet-Defiling Horrors Known As 'Weddings'
By 7.8.09
In our debt-plagued society it’s somehow appropriate that couples demonstrate their love for one another by staging elaborate ceremonies that plunge them into financial setbacks from which no dollar dance will reprieve them.
Steve Madden Backorders Wrong Shoes, Throws Them In A Bag
By 6.11.09
Cora just wanted to order eight pair of identical shoes from Steve Madden for her wedding. Unfortunately, she made the mistake of ordering those shoes directly from the company. Half of the shoes were on backorder. Upon receiving the shoes and discovering that they wouldn’t fit the respective bridesmaids they were ordered for, Cora learned that Steve Madden would charge a $7 restocking fee per pair.
Isis Bridal Tells Woman With MS To Get Out
By 5.19.09
Ooo, you nasty! With your service animal! Get out of here! That’s the new informal slogan of Isis Bridal & Formal in Dallas after news broke that they kicked out a 62-year-old grandmother with multiple sclerosis, because they were worried her service dog would get service dog cooties all over the dresses.
Bridal Gown Vanishes From US Airways During Flight To Wedding
By 5.19.09
Jenn is from the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and lives in Pennsylvania. She held her wedding in her hometown, and eight days before the wedding, she flew down to prepare. Her wedding gown didn’t make it. Someone stole the gown out of her checked baggage.
FiOS Installer Drills Through Wife's Wedding Dress
By 4.17.09
A Verizon FiOS installer showed up yesterday to install the service in Sam’s house, but misjudged the location of the laundry room by 4 feet and drilled directly into the closet where his wife kept her wedding dress.
5 Big Retail Mark-Ups To Watch Out For
By 4.7.09
The Lansing State Journal has put together a list of 5 marked-up retail categories to be aware of when you’re making purchasing decisions, most of which you hopefully already know. If you can’t find wholesale sources or DIY replacements, then at least make sure you do a lot of comparison shopping to get the best deal.
Filene's Basement Closing 11 Stores
By 1.21.09
Unless Filene’s Basement can renegotiate its rents, they’re set to close 11 of their 36 stores by February’s end. 3 of their stores in MD, one in NJ, NY, and VA, 2 in IL and PA, and one in MA, are on death row. If you’re a bride-to-be in one of the affected areas, guess you’ll have to travel out-of-state if you want to take advantage of one of their famous “Running of the Brides” sales, where hordes of women descend in teams to try on and buy wedding dresses marked down from the thousands of dollars to the hundreds.
Ann Taylor Changes Terms Of Sale After Purchase?
By 11.18.08
Update: Several readers have pointed out that Ann Taylor’s return policy says items with prices ending in .44 or .88 are automatically deemed “Final Sale” items. Colleen is stuck with four extra dresses because Ann Taylor marked the items “Final Sale.” The problem is, they did this after she ordered and paid for them. As she notes in her email below, she has proof on her order confirmation that the dresses were not marked “Final Sale” when she bought them. She also has previous order confirmations where items have been clearly marked “Final Sale.” Now she wants to know how to get Ann Taylor to do the right thing.
Dressless Brides Picket Bankrupt Millburn NJ Bridal Shop
By 11.3.08
About 10 women who paid up to $4,000 for dresses they never received picketed the bankrupt Calvary Bridal House in Millburn, NJ this past weekend, screaming and holding hand-made signs that said things like “Fraud” “Scam” and “”Bride in stress, where’s my dress?”
Restaurant Chain's Prez Mails Handwritten Apology For Botched Wedding Dinner
By 9.25.08
Consumerist reader MunkyBoi had a terrible experience at Tahoe Joe’s, where he and his fiancee held their wedding dinner. He tried to follow up with the manager of the restaurant, both to explain what went wrong and to commend the one waitress who saved the day, but the manager kept brushing him off. Finally he wrote a letter to corporate, and was surprised to receive a very personal response—along with a $250 gift certificate—a few days later. We’d love to know if that $250 came out of the manager’s profits.
Help! David's Bridal Will Not Cancel My Order!
By 9.22.08
Reader Emily doesn’t want the dress she was pressured into getting at David’s Bridal, but when she tried to cancel the order, they won’t let her. It’s only been 72 hours and she hasn’t received the dress yet, but all David’s Bridal will give her is an in-store exchange.
Rent Your Next Wedding Cake!
By 9.18.08
We’ll admit, there’s a small part of us that’s impressed with the idea—save money on your wedding by renting a fake super fancy cake, and serve the guests a far cheaper sheet cake! But then we think about the bloated ecosphere of wedding planning, and how pointless it all is, and how nobody stays together anyway, and how “the perfect wedding” is all about vanity and wish fulfillment instead of expressing your love… and then we like this idea even more.
Help, Kay Jewelers Destroyed My Wedding Ring During A Routine Cleaning!
By 9.7.08
Kay Jewelers deformed Lisa’s wedding ring during a routine cleaning and refuses to provide a replacement ring. Lisa first noticed that a tiny diamond was missing, which Kay Jewelers found stuck in their cleaning equipment. In the process of reseating the diamond, Kay again deformed the ring, scratching out the ring’s beaded edges. Kay decided they couldn’t repair the destroyed ring, but rather than ordering a new one from the manufacturer, Kay decided to remake the ring using a low-resolution picture of the original as their guide. Shockingly, that ring didn’t work out either. It’s now been three months and Lisa wants her wedding ring back.
Save On Weddings By Finding Out Who Your Real Friends Are
By 8.6.08
Though the average cost of a wedding is up for debate — “experts” report different numbers, though most agree it’s between $25,000 to $30,000 — the fact is that an average wedding in America can be pretty darned expensive. And while you can take steps to save a bit here and there, there is one area that you’ll need to focus on if you want to save big bucks: the reception.
Thanks, Doubletree Hotel, For Not Even Apologizing After Messing Up My Wedding Reservations
By 7.24.08
Readers Brandon and Eleanor made reservations back in November for their wedding this June, but in May found out that the Doubletree Hotel had only reserved a small fraction of the rooms they requested. This started off a chain of bad service that included weddings guests not able to book their rooms at the quoted rate, unauthorized charges to Eleanor’s credit card, and unexpected fees for handing out gift bags. What a headache.
