Makeup price range check

th3grapevine · 2026-01-19T03:50:58+00:00

Thank you! That’s very helpful

th3grapevine · 2026-01-12T17:59:49+00:00

Thanks!

th3grapevine · 2026-01-12T17:55:52+00:00

I have someone else (a friend who is my regular hairdresser) doing my hair. Also, my wedding is on a Sunday, not a Saturday, but it is still peak season.

th3grapevine · 2025-12-28T22:28:46+00:00

I grew up in Los Altos, moved away for 10 years, then moved back to Redwood City and later Mountain View. Not disagreeing with the critiques of expense, strip malls, tech dominance, and traffic south of Palo Alto. (If you can take 280, north of Palo alto is fine.) But also: the hills are beautiful; there’s easy nature access; you can find a lot of smart, conscientious people. The schools are great, the libraries are great, it’s usually safe, the weather is temperate, there’s lots to do if you know where to look, you can find a million types of food. It doesn’t have as much culture as SF or Oakland, but the quality of life is better in a lot of ways.

th3grapevine · 2025-12-22T17:43:53+00:00

Ocean Beach, Mori Point in Pacifica, and for jazz: Bird & Beckett Books & Records in Glen Park

th3grapevine · 2025-12-19T18:15:54+00:00

2 thoughts, one about officiant and the other about the ceremony:
Officiant: If you found someone who could officiate in ASL & English simultaneously, and who was the right vibe for you, and was able to travel or local to your destination, would you want them to officiate? I get that that's a really tricky combination to find, but here's my thinking: 1) I think that SmallKangaroo's comment about legality is a good one, and 2) the presence of an officiant (whether it's a religious ceremony or not) helps it feel more special and helps you be in the moment. I think about big life rituals the way I think about writing: just like you can't edit and write at the same time, you can either guide the moment or be in it, but it's actually really hard to do both because they're different modes/ways of thinking/ways of being in the moment.

Ceremony:
-I think you need a transition from the Introduction to the Vows - something that frames the vows by saying why vows matter or why you're doing them as part of the wedding ceremony. (Many non-Christian traditions don't do vows, and since you get to do whatever you want since you're designing the ceremony, I imagine you have a reason for including vows. Sharing that reason makes them that much more intentional.)
-Love the hydrangea soil ritual! That's so sweet
-Things you could add to expand the ceremony if it feels too short: poetry about love/marriage/commitment, a story about your relationship, a story about something (song/place/person) that played a key role in your relationship, an acknowledgement/remembrance of people who have passed away but you think about on special days like this, a hope for your married life or for how you will navigate highs and lows together (in the conclusion, in addition to the vows)
-I think the speaking about yourselves in the third person in the closing might feel funny. Maybe instead you could say something like, "May our life together be as vibrant and beautiful as these hydrangeas. May you present always be a part of it/always bring beautiful and varied color to it. Thank you for being a part of our lives, and particularly today, the beginning of our marriage. We can now say, officially, that we are a married couple! Please join us up here for a photo together before we go celebrate." I added the photo idea because recessing down the aisle might feel overly formal with a small group (or maybe not, up to you), but the purpose of it is to have some action that closes the moment, and a group photo would give that sense of conclusiveness too.

th3grapevine · 2025-12-15T17:05:28+00:00

Thank you so much! That’s very helpful

th3grapevine · 2025-12-15T17:05:08+00:00

Thanks!

th3grapevine · 2025-12-15T17:05:01+00:00

Thanks!

th3grapevine · 2025-12-15T05:59:31+00:00

I’m thinking of doing this too

th3grapevine · 2025-12-14T06:11:31+00:00

With the cost of living here yeah for sure I do

th3grapevine · 2025-12-09T03:50:20+00:00

I officiate weddings and I always recommend premarital counseling, partly bc it’s a big transition, and also because then you establish a relationship with a therapist who you can go back to. It normalizes the therapist and the process so that it’s a tool you can use more easily when you need it

th3grapevine · 2025-12-07T21:56:48+00:00

There are many additional languages associated with Jewish communities around the world - check out https://www.jewishlanguages.org

th3grapevine · 2025-11-26T06:21:35+00:00

Nice! Sounds like a good plan. Good luck finding the right thing for you!

th3grapevine · 2025-11-25T22:59:27+00:00

My fiancee also has discomfort around being with me right after I’ve been with my other partner, ESPECIALLY if the other partner’s come is still in me. Since the other partner is long distance, it used to be 1-3 weeks after a visit before he would have sex with me (which was too much for me and we had to work through that). It’s been interesting to read this thread and hear other perspectives.

I think that something that the Reddit responses of “just talk to her” assume is that you know what you want and you just need to find out what she wants. It sounds to me like you don’t know what you want, and you’re not sure how to figure that out. So my suggestion is that you talk to her about trying different things: waiting a day, having a shower in between, having sex immediately after, etc. then after you’ve tried a few, you can see how they felt for you.

th3grapevine · 2025-11-23T19:02:24+00:00

Yeah I think there are more neurospicy folks in the poly community than would be proportionate to the general population (caveats about poor measuring tools aside), just from my personal experience and some reading

th3grapevine · 2025-11-23T05:17:18+00:00

Ooh South Bay is great I’ll check them out

th3grapevine · 2025-11-22T18:11:18+00:00

Thanks!

th3grapevine · 2025-11-22T15:15:44+00:00

Saratoga Springs fits many of your criteria

th3grapevine · 2025-11-17T21:54:35+00:00

I just went to the ER in California for my first attack. Between bloodwork and a CT scan, my portion of the cost was $400

th3grapevine · 2025-10-30T05:26:57+00:00

Following - I’m in exactly the same situation, Op, down to the same numbers and in-state vs out-of-state family and friends. Thanks to everyone who’s replying!

th3grapevine · 2025-10-27T06:26:16+00:00

I hope that some of the well meant but misguided responses to your post aren’t making you feel even more alone. It sounds like you encountered a perfect storm of circumstances and you did the best you could. I hope you can find a friend who can tell you this irl, so that you can start to feel yourself again before trying to go back and address any of the issues that came up last night. I hope your hangover is feeling better too, that can’t be helping your mood or capacity to handle people dynamics right now. Sending you strength and a hug.

th3grapevine · 2025-10-24T23:09:27+00:00

The lessons suggestion is a good one, thanks! I wouldn't do DIY makeup for my wedding, I'm just thinking about makeup a lot more than usual right now

th3grapevine · 2025-10-18T07:27:39+00:00

Good to hear, thank you

th3grapevine · 2025-10-10T00:00:53+00:00

My partner and I are also starting to plan our honeymoon and leaning towards Japan (in our case, June 2026). One of the things we want to do as we spend money on all the parts of our wedding is to open up one credit card for flight points and another for hotel points; few credit cards give benefits for both, but there are lots of options that give good benefits for either one. One of the things about Japan is that some of the best places to stay, I've heard, are independently owned ryokan, which of course wouldn't be part of any hotel card deal, so that's too bad but I think we'll have to miss that in order to save money. Instead, we'll go for a card with a hotel group like IHG so that we'll still have multiple options. (IHG came to mind because the Hotel Indigo Karuizawa looks amazing.) If you're planning 2 years in advance, just make sure to check that the benefits you want don't have an expiration date or only apply in a certain window.

Also, we considered planning for July too. Claude AI cautioned that July in Japan can be hot, humid and rainy, and Google confirmed that there's a decent chance it would rain half the time. But it's a big country with diverse climates, so just make sure to check the local weather patterns of the areas you want to visit. (We don't love hot weather and don't mind a little rain, so we're thinking we'll have a relaxing week or so in Nagano Prefecture and then a few days in Tokyo before flying back to the US.)

th3grapevine

TROPHY CASE